PowerWise Charger into a 1996 EZGO cart

[MariusPerron]

Hello JohnnieB !

I am Marius Perron in Texas. I am out in the hill country helping my grandparents with a 1996 EZGO golf cart. After reading several posts on this forum, it seems that you know this unit well!

Question one:
They have a PowerWise 28115 G01 36-volt charger. I installed a new control board in the charger ( to replace the other two boards ).
I would like to test the charger before I plug it into the cart. If I take the “Auxiliary Contact” in the handle and short it to the negative radsok in the handle; and then plug the 110 AC into the charger; and can I connect a voltmeter across the handle output and check the output voltage?

Question two:
A year ago, I replace the reed switch in the cart with a fuse/pigtail assembly I purchased on eBay. My grandparents lost the fuse itself. Do you know what is the correct value of that fuse ( Amps and voltage )?

Thank you.

[MariusPerron]

About my “Question One”… After thinking about it a bit, I believe the charger will not come on until the relay in it senses that the battery pack in the cart is above 28 volts... So my idea will not work !

I basically want to make sure that the charger is ok before I plug it into the cart. Grandma was working on it by himself last week and he said when he hooked it up there was an enormous SPARK! So much so that the brass radsok connectors had to be cleaned up on the grinder! He blew out something in that cart, so he pulled the batteries out and put them in another cart. He charged the batteries in pairs with his 12-volt charger, and now this cart works! Again, I just want to make sure that the charger is ok before I plug it into the cart.

Does not HAVE to be "JohnnieB"... Anyone can offer help.

[mgray70]

Sounds like something is backwards somewhere. The white wire is positive and the black wire is negative. You most likely blew the fuse in the charger when you got the big spark.

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Originally Posted by MariusPerron

Grandma was working on it by himself last week and he said when he .

yes charger needs to "see" voltage to turn on
take handle apart and use jumpers (jumper cables can work)from the wires to the batteries ...
plug in charger
white to main pos
black to main pack neg
hook up the positive first
then touch the neg
if you get spark
stop you have something wired wrong

after grandPA got spark
check the 50amp fuse in the charger
also some have a 60 amp fuse is on the main battery pack posative

[JohnnieB]

1. Won't work. The battery pack in the cart energizes the relay in the charger initially, then it is held on by the voltage produced by the charger.

The only way to make the charger turn on without being connected to a ~30VDC power source is to bypass the relay on the control board.

2. Probably a 3A fuse, but most people just connect it directly to the positive radsok, or some other source of B+.

Attached is the service manual for the PW 28115 charger.

There is a 50A fuse between Ammeter and output cable. There also might be a 50A or 60A one at the battery end of the white wire in the cart. You can probably find them at an auto parts store. They're referred to as stud mount, bolt on or MIDI.

[MariusPerron]

Just got back from the Hill Country church… Thank you so much for your responses.
Here is more history of the situation. A month ago, Grandpa bought a new handle for the charger and may have wired it incorrectly.
I looked inside the charger… The flat metal surface with the diodes mounted on it.. is that ground or hot. Sure seems like it ought to be ground – a big metal surface exposed like that.
MGRAY7070: You’re right – seems like it would have blown the fuse in the charger – but it didn’t! And you said: “The white wire is positive and the black wire is negative.” Is this true of both the handle and the charger receptacle in the cart?
Grandpa has done a lot of home 110 volt wiring and probably chose WHITE to be negative BLACK to be hot!
JohnnieB – thanks for the PowerWise manual. Sure looks like the Diodes are connected to hot!

[MariusPerron]

I opened up the charger and noticed that the 50 AMP fuse is in series with BLACK wire and the two connected leads from the transformer...

The schematic for the charger hs the fuse in series with the white wire...

See attached photos.

I also noticed that this charger has TWO circuit boards. Five years ago I purchased one board to replace both boards... That replacement board must be in the EXTRA charge they have in the barn.

[mgray70]

House wiring will confuse you when you work on golf carts. The diagram you posted tells you what you need to know. The white wire in the charger cord is the positive and the black is negative and the little red wire is the negative return. Grandpa may have had house wiring on his mind when he put the new handle on.

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[JohnnieB]

In AC wiring White is the identified conductor (Neutral) and any other color except Green or Green with yellow stripe (Reserved for Earth ground) is hot.

There is no formal color code for DC wiring, but Black tends to be used for the Negative and any other color for positive. However, it is always best to verify, especially in golf carts and golf cart related devices.

---------------
The heat sink (flat piece of metal with the diodes mounted on it) is Positive.
The center tap (connection on the two transformer secondaries) is Negative.
The fuse in the negative (Black) wire is okay. There was originally a fuse between the white wire and the Ammeter stud, but it works in either wire since it is a series circuit.

[MariusPerron]

This forum and you guys have been a BIG HELP. We doubled checked the wiring in both the charger and cart and plugged it in. ( Said a little prayer, first… ) and it works fine !!!

Next step is to get the other golf cart and charger working… I’ll be back!

If you guys ever need any help with audio, music, and/or acoustics… I’m your man.