Battery charging question

[plivanec]

I have seen many battery questions answered on here, but have not found the answer I am looking for. I just completely rebuilt (every nut and bolt) a 1999 Club Car DS 48V powerdrive 2. I put an Alltrax 500amp with an executioner motor from PQ. Everything seems to be working just fine except the charging. I bought the charger from ScottyB...and everytime I plug it in, it just blinks yellow. I did see on the instructions that it may take a while for the charger to "recognize" the battery pack (I have all new 8V trojans), but when I am charging, i was wondering what the voltage meter on the cart should read? It keeps increasing to about 52-53V before I get scared and turn it off. I saw that a fully charged pack is about 50.9V. When I unplug the charger, the voltage does drop back down.

The questionis: how much voltage should the cart meter be reading when on the charger? Is this higher voltage normal? And will the charger eventually recognozie the pack and charge normally? The cart also has an OBC in which I have mostly by passed by getting rid of the regen solenoid with the controller I bought. Wasn't sure if there was anything else I needed to do or bypass on the old OBC?

[Speedchaser]

65 volts,

Make sure if you bypassed the OBC you did it correctly, maybe the Dawg can help you.

[jantrree]

Previous thread on how to bypass OBC:


http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...bc-please.html

[jantrree]

This diagram might help to if you have a DPI charger.

http://www.evdrives.com/v/images/Bat...ss_Diagram.pdf

[Speedchaser]

Read this:

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...e-fill-us.html

[plivanec]

Originally Posted by Speedchaser

Read this:

http://www.buggiesgonewild.com/elect...e-fill-us.html

So I followed the directions from above...only to later find out they are for an IQ cart...so now I have no clue what to do

The issue is that when I put the Alltrax controller in, it got rid of the regen solenoid. The controller is also one for an IQ cart but programmed for a powerdrive plus cart. So does this make my cart "an IQ cart"? I just want to make sure I do it right so that I don't burn something up!

[plivanec]

Originally Posted by Speedchaser

65 volts,

Make sure if you bypassed the OBC you did it correctly, maybe the Dawg can help you.

And so the voltage meter should read about 65 V when charged, then come back to about 51V after unplugged? Sorry for the naive questions...but I am still learning alot from all of you guys...so thanks a million for bearing with me

[Speedchaser]

Wow, I read the end of that other thread, looks like you started the conversion before getting confirmation from Tahoedawg. I still think he is your best resource for properly bypassing and possibly removing the OBC.

And yes the pack will go to about 65 volts at end of charge cycle and over several hours drop down to normal full charge voltage.

[rib33024]

50.93 is a 100% charged pack,, after the charger turns off by it's self, it takes around 12 hours before you will get a true reading from your battery pack, your battery pack can get to 67 volts before your charger turns off,.


Here's some more info



"when your cart is fully charged the battery pack will get up to 60 - 65 volts", is correct.
In fact, the charger may have to take a 48V battery pack up to 67V, or above, to fully charge it.
On the other hand, 59V may fully charge a 48V battery pack.
The voltage it takes to fully charge a 48V battery pack depends on who manufactured the batteries in the pack as well as their age and condition.

By definition, a lead-acid wet cell is fully charged when the specific gravity of the electrolyte ceases to increase while a charging current is passing through it. Since open-circuit voltage increases/decreases as the electrolyte's specific gravity increases/decreases, open-circuit voltage is an indirect or secondary means of monitoring the electrolyte's specific gravity and is often used to do so.

An ideal charger would monitor pack voltage and when it ceased to rise over a predetermined period of time, it would stop the regular charging mode and go into a float charge mode, however few, if any, chargers typically used by golf cart owners are ideal. Most of them simply shut off at a predetermined voltage that is high enough to almost fully charge most battery packs without being so high that repeated use would significantly harm battery packs that are fully charged at the lower end of the typical voltage spectrum needed to fully charge a battery as determined by empirical data.

Here is Trojan's recommended charge curve for a single (2V) deep cycle wet cell. There are 24 cells in a 48V battery pack, so do the math and you get 58.80V to 66.96V. However, Trojan uses an electrolyte that is 27.7% sulfuric acid by weight (SG = 1.277) and other battery manufacturers use different concentrations, so the on-charge voltage that is typically reached when their batteries are fully charged, will be higher or lower.
Quote: JonnieB