Power Wise - textron Charger question on my DCS

[dcdon]

New to me cart . 96' DCS. Dropped a new controller in it last night and its zipping around.

Reads 36.5 volts at the battery pack. The charger came with the cart and the previous owner didn't mention if it ever worked or anything. When I plug it in to A/C outlet, no sounds or anything. When I plug it into the cart nothing changes.

I searched all through this site looking for answers, and I will try to test the battery pack voltage at plug to be sure its getting out there, and I will post that back. I really can't find where anyone has said how to tell if the charger is just dead though. Should it make any noise or lights or anything when its not plugged into the cart? I havn't opened it up yet, but will try and jump that relay and see what happens if nothing else.

Any thoughts?

[lithoman]

Sounds like your batteries are to low for he charger to kick on.
A fully charge is 38.2v

[lithoman]

If you have a 12 volt charger you will can charge two at a time to get them up high enough so the power wise will kick on.

[scottyb]

The charger only needs to see 2/3 of it's rated output to see the pack. You do not need a 12v charger. You need a digital meter installed so you can watch the pack voltage when you plug in..... Take a handheld meter and test the receptacle. See what the charger sees... and let us know.

[dcdon]

sorry guys if I wasn't clear. While using a volt meter, I see between 36.5 and 36.7 at the battery terminals and at the charge port. So I assuming that my charger is getting that as well.

I can't imagine that 36.5 wouldn't be high enough to start the charger form the other posts I have read.

I will open up the charger next and start looking at the voltage there.

[scottyb]

The charger has an internal fuse and relay on the program circuit board which tends to fail.

[dcdon]

gotcha... thanks boss.

[scottyb]

I have tried to change the relays, de-solder one out and solder in an exact replacement in but, the failure rate was near 100% within 6-8 months.
The relays don't fail the board destroys them... New boards are easy enough to replace if needed.

[yurtle]

I have a neighbor who changed the relay on his board for a fraction of the whole board price. I believe it was a Total Charge. Even the whole board is "just" $85 or so, if I recall. We determined the relay was bad, and just replaced that.

Over a year and still running strong, but YMMV.

[razor1]

Test the diodes and the fuse inside the charger. I've repaired "dead" chargers by simply replacing these.