rxv .. chevy volt conversion..

[arch stanton]

howdy, i’m caught up in the lithium battery change over for golf carts .. have a 2009 ezgo rxv .. been giving me lots of trouble locking up , i think, due to battery issues .. so researched lithium and concluded, being retired and on a fixed income, i would spend money unnecessarily with a high probability of loosing a social security check or two on a whim .. well i whemmed, and bought 2 48 volt chevy volt batteries off of ebay ..2013 models.. bought 2 bms’s and a lithium voltage meter .. looked at all this stuff for about 4 months until yesterday when my cart died in the driveway at the golf course here in bellville texas .. today i took the 4 12 volt trojans out and installed the chevy things .. with great care and anticipation , having followed all instructions givent to me by the dude who sold me the battery management systems , with bloodied hands squashed fingers a busted foot and acid burns over half my lower extremities i turned the key to forward .. the volt meter went ballistic.. but no clicking of the solenoid or the sound of the motor break releasing..... nothing .... like my mother in laws iq....nothing .. what have i done except spend a grand on a 10 dollar golf cart ... can anyone out there give me a hand , and if you can spare it a left knee cap would be appreciated as well .. and oh by the way, i’m challenged by a light switch ..

[BobBoyce]

Originally Posted by arch stanton

howdy, i’m caught up in the lithium battery change over for golf carts .. have a 2009 ezgo rxv .. been giving me lots of trouble locking up , i think, due to battery issues .. so researched lithium and concluded, being retired and on a fixed income, i would spend money unnecessarily with a high probability of loosing a social security check or two on a whim .. well i whemmed, and bought 2 48 volt chevy volt batteries off of ebay ..2013 models.. bought 2 bms’s and a lithium voltage meter .. looked at all this stuff for about 4 months until yesterday when my cart died in the driveway at the golf course here in bellville texas .. today i took the 4 12 volt trojans out and installed the chevy things .. with great care and anticipation , having followed all instructions givent to me by the dude who sold me the battery management systems , with bloodied hands squashed fingers a busted foot and acid burns over half my lower extremities i turned the key to forward .. the volt meter went ballistic.. but no clicking of the solenoid or the sound of the motor break releasing..... nothing .... like my mother in laws iq....nothing .. what have i done except spend a grand on a 10 dollar golf cart ... can anyone out there give me a hand , and if you can spare it a left knee cap would be appreciated as well .. and oh by the way, i’m challenged by a light switch ..

I wish I could help you, but...

With a 2009, you should have the Danaher controller. I could not even begin where to tell you to go in and adjust the voltage settings to be compatible with the lithium pack voltages on the high and low ends. The lithium pack high at full charge is well above that for a lead/acid pack, and the lithium pack low at minimum acceptable charge is well below the low voltage cutoff for a lead/acid pack. The Curtis controller has these setpoints in the advanced parameters, not so sure about the Danaher controller. I'm using a Curtis controller.

I spent $5400 on lithium cells and $645 on the BMS. I'm building my LiFeMnPO4 pack for 200 Amp/Hrs.

Bob

[bronsonj]

What voltage do you have on the battery side of the solenoid?

I am looking to do something similar. I'm looking for the 48v Chevy battery and a 24V Chevy Volt Battery from the same pack. I'll be using only some of the 24v pack, but the two together will get me to 58.8v.

[cgtech]

I have built lithium RXVs with Danaher controllers. I used LiFePo4 cells. Nominal voltage was 52.8v, "fresh off the charger" voltage was 56v. Never had any problems. The factory "fuel gauge" will never read correctly tho (I used a new gauge in that spot, reading from the BMS). Never had a controller failure on those. They have been very reliable ones, because acid never got to eat the wire harness. Problem is, the BMS I liked to use is no longer in production. If your voltages are below 60v you likely haven't fried anything. The rxv is designed to accommodate high voltages, because of it's brake system design (using the motor as a generator is all the "regular" brakes). It is designed to withstand voltages up to the area of 67v, then start "burning off" energy to protect itself. It has a whole circuit just to "burn off" excess power. What voltages are you seeing at the main battery terminals?

[BobBoyce]

I know that the LiFeMnPO4 cells I bought are recommended to be charged at a lower per cell voltage than the LiPo cells from Leaf and Volt packs. I'm not sure what the OPs cell pack voltage is. I usually see the ones offered for sale as having a range from 42V at time to charge to 58.8V charged. I think the default low battery cutoff point is around 45V or 46V on the RXV controller. I have a Danaher controller and a programmer for it now, but no RXV set up with a Danaher controller on it to test with.

[cgtech]

The ezgo Danaher programmer can't do diddly-squat. Acceleration setting = "Low, Med, Hi". Speed adjustable up to 19. That's it. Can also perform a controller software update, if the handheld has a newer version than the controller does (maybe you can exploit that).

[BobBoyce]

Originally Posted by cgtech

The ezgo Danaher programmer can't do diddly-squat. Acceleration setting = "Low, Med, Hi". Speed adjustable up to 19. That's it. Can also perform a controller software update, if the handheld has a newer version than the controller does (maybe you can exploit that).

I have the FSIP one. I understand that it has more capablities, but have not done anything more than test it on a Danaher RXV just to make sure it works. I noticed that it has buttons for Freedom modes 1 and 2.

Bob