new battery break in questions

[baydoe]

Ok, Just got new batteries...I read the sticky on the battery break in. its says after they are fully charged to take them down to 50% the 1st 10 times or so then let it charge full again.... I have attached a pic of the battery meter i have in my car. I have tried to find info on it, but have had no luck. does anyone know if when the little gauge reaches empty, am i at 50% charge then (because ideally your not suppose to go below 50%) ? or would it be just half way down the gauge?


-Also i have an E.R.I.C charger, where do i go to see if i need to update my charger? do i need to have a usb to usb to connect my charger to my computer or can i put updates on a flash drive and plug them into the charger that way? i can't find any real good info on that either... thanks for all your help!

[baydoe]

Originally Posted by baydoe

-Also i have an E.R.I.C charger, where do i go to see if i need to update my charger? do i need to have a usb to usb to connect my charger to my computer or can i put updates on a flash drive and plug them into the charger that way? i can't find any real good info on that either... thanks for all your help!

Thanks to this awesome site.. i did finally find this info.. i needed algorithm 71 for my batteries... seems easy enough to just put the file on a usb and plug it into the charger and it auto downloads.

[scottyb]

Find a digital battery meter so you see what 50% really is. That bar graph meter will lie to you.

[baydoe]

Originally Posted by scottyb

Find a digital battery meter so you see what 50% really is. That bar graph meter will lie to you.

any recommendations?

[Hunter450]

Originally Posted by scottyb

Find a digital battery meter so you see what 50% really is. That bar graph meter will lie to you.

Do what Scotty B said.

[bobwalter]

Carts Unlimited.com for a real meter.

[baydoe]

Originally Posted by baydoe

Thanks to this awesome site.. i did finally find this info.. i needed algorithm 71 for my batteries... seems easy enough to just put the file on a usb and plug it into the charger and it auto downloads.

Ok, this is my 1st electric cart. 1st time buying new batteries.. Its a significant expense as we all know. so I wan't to make sure im doing everything right.

I loaded algorithm 71 into my E.R.I.C charger. It was what they recommended for my batteries. I used my cart yesterday (took the batteries down to almost 50%) pluged it in at 10:30 last night. When i got up this morning. The E.R.I.C charger showed me that it was over 90% charged but still charging. its been plugged in for 9 hours at this time.

The part the i wasn't sure about or gave me slight concern is I could hear them all bubbling and when i checked the voltage it was charging each battery right around 10 volts and i had 60.4 going across the pack. does that seem ok for batteries that are within 10% of a completed charge? will that strong of voltage hurt my batteries? the default setting was in my charger when i used it for when i first installed my new batteries and did the initial charge and it was like 9.1, 9.2 volts per battery. Thanks for any help!

[Fairtax4me]

All normal. That's part of how deep cycle batteries need to be charged. Depending on which batteries you have and which profile, the ERIC charger can run up to 72V on a 48v pack. Most packs will probably peak around 63-65V. The Rest voltage of the pack about 12 hours after charging should be somewhere around 50.9 to 51.9 or a bit higher, again depending on exactly which batteries you have.

The first few charges you will probably get some significant bubbling from brand new batteries. After they break in the bubbling should be a lot less noticeable. But it is a normal part of the charge cycle for the batteries to bubble.

[alchemy]

Originally Posted by baydoe

Ok, Just got new batteries...I read the sticky on the battery break in. its says after they are fully charged to take them down to 50% the 1st 10 times or so then let it charge full again.... I have attached a pic of the battery meter i have in my car. I have tried to find info on it, but have had no luck. does anyone know if when the little gauge reaches empty, am i at 50% charge then (because ideally your not suppose to go below 50%) ? or would it be just half way down the gauge?


-Also i have an E.R.I.C charger, where do i go to see if i need to update my charger? do i need to have a usb to usb to connect my charger to my computer or can i put updates on a flash drive and plug them into the charger that way? i can't find any real good info on that either... thanks for all your help!

Take it to 50% 10 times? Is there a reason, history, or story behind this? I don't see any. I'm going on 7 years with my most recent batteries (NAPA) and I expect to get a lot more, regardless of the "4-6 year life" most proclaim. I have car batteries 20 years old that still work and 10-12 years is pretty typical for me.
I never thought to do that with new batteries. However, when I add water, usually every 4-6 months as it gets maybe 1/4-3/8" above the plates I 've had to take it down to maybe 36.3V once to make it take a good long auto charge and back to normal again. I cringe taking them that low. That's a Yamaha with Lester charger. I'm still stuck with everywhere I read up til recently to fill the batteries to the bottom of the cylindrical opening. Now lately I've been reading recommendation of 1/4" above the plates. Not sure what to think of that. Anyway, new batteries come filled near where I mentioned and when I fill mine from being 1/4" or less above the plates the pack drops maybe .5 to 1V with a full charge and stabilizing but I notice no difference in use time to 80% SOC where I charge it again and where the optimum point is for battery life according to experts. In other words the voltage goes up as the electrolyte gets low and concentrates and I can tell when my batteries are low when the voltage reaches a certain level even if I don't check. (stabilized reading after full charge and sitting a good while)

as for 10-12, 20 year old batteries there are some basic tricks that are necessary but nothing like adding additives. I've revived batteries with near 0 volts by just charging the hell out of them for long periods on a non auto charger. I recently found a video of an expert doing this with a fancy expensive charger where he can set volts and amps anywhere he wants. If you lost acid you may need to add some but this is too tricky to really talk about. If you add acid to just any battery to revive it you might more often ruin it because it severely inhibits sulfate removal from the plates or creates more because the sulfate is much less soluble with more sulfuric. There is a scientific journal on that and even chemists would not expect that phenomenon. However, if you've lost too much acid over time you'll never get it back up without adding acid. So, it's pretty tricky.

[Sergio]

baydoe, once the charge finishes, insert a clean USB drive in the charger so You can download the charging log information to be viewed using the iDat software provided by deltaQ.

That will also allow You to verify you indeed loaded algorithm #71 successfully as it shows which algorithm was used to charge.

Who recommended #71 instead of #3?

They have some differences on how they "sense" the termination charge and the more strict dV/dT termination of #71 could take longer when batteries are charged in series.

Both algorithms show max voltage at 2.70vpc which would be 64.8v max voltage for the pack and an overall charge timeout of 24hrs.