1999 EZGO - Unused for 2 years WONT CHARGE

[GotaCamaro]

Originally Posted by jdunmyer

GaC,
You need to measure each battery's voltage with a DVM. Without those measurements, we and you are literally shooting in the dark.

Turn the light on, please. :-)

Ok, started using the volt meter.

Battery 1: .55
Battery 2: .29
Battery 3: .40
Battery 4: .05
Battery 5: .05
Battery 6: .06

I am going to leave the charger on the 3 batteries that are not reading much, and see if they are able to be brought up. is it possible that a battery would not charge past .05?

[rlw]

Originally Posted by GotaCamaro

Ok, started using the volt meter.

Battery 1: .55
Battery 2: .29
Battery 3: .40
Battery 4: .05
Battery 5: .05
Battery 6: .06

I am going to leave the charger on the 3 batteries that are not reading much, and see if they are able to be brought up. is it possible that a battery would not charge past .05?

You either have very dead batteries, or your meter isn't on the correct range. Many inexpensive DVMs have a knob that lets you select what you're measuring AND the range. The ones I have measure AC, DC, Ohms, temperature, etc. The ranges are usually marked 20mV (milliVolts), 200mV, 2V, 20V, 200V, etc. You want a range that encompasses about 6 volts - on my meter I'd pick the 20V range. That gives me 3 digits of precision, and a fully charged battery is about 6.35V DC. Make sure that you're measuring DC volts, not AC volts...

I hope that helps.

For a take on someone who doesn't want to admit something (like your batteries) is dead, take a look at this link:

You Tube

You Tube

RLW

[cgtech]

If those measurements are correct (correct range on meter) after half to 1 hour of charging, those batteries are screwed beyond all help. I may be wrong, but i think you may be "beating a dead horse".

[jdunmyer]

I agree with the others about being sure your meter is set correctly.

If you have the charger connected to the terminals, set to charge a 6-volt battery, your meter should read something significantly higher than 6 volts while the charger is on. I'd think you'd see 8 volts or even more under these conditions. If you don't, your charger isn't working. Mind you, many newer automotive chargers won't wake up if they're connected to a completely dead battery, you may have to hunt down an older, simpler unit.

That said, if the charger is putting out voltage, but showing no current on its meter, I'd leave it go for a while. I've resurrected badly sulfated batteries, but it was quite some time before actual charging began.

The knowledgeable folks here might think you're wasting your time, but you should consider it an education.

[cgtech]

Originally Posted by jdunmyer

I agree with the others about being sure your meter is set correctly.

If you have the charger connected to the terminals, set to charge a 6-volt battery, your meter should read something significantly higher than 6 volts while the charger is on. I'd think you'd see 8 volts or even more under these conditions. If you don't, your charger isn't working. Mind you, many newer automotive chargers won't wake up if they're connected to a completely dead battery, you may have to hunt down an older, simpler unit.

That said, if the charger is putting out voltage, but showing no current on its meter, I'd leave it go for a while. I've resurrected badly sulfated batteries, but it was quite some time before actual charging began.

The knowledgeable folks here might think you're wasting your time, but you should consider it an education.

I agree with both of these Red things, but a dead battery should drop in voltage, and rise in amperage consumption as it begins to accept a charge. (this sounds counterintuitive, but this is what happens with "zero volts" batteries) The charger used to pick-up the batteries is also now in question. Does the voltage in the battery being "charged" change when the automotive type charger is connected? Not saying "just junk 'em"
, give it some time. All i'm saying is dont expect miracles from those batteries, they will never give very much range because of the abuse they were subjected to.

[jdunmyer]

CGT,
You're absolutely correct about the voltage/current rise and fall. The voltage reading will be near the open-circuit voltage of the charger, maybe for a long while. As the sulfate begins to dissolve/convert/whatever, the current will start to rise and the voltage will drop. If the battery is actually accepting a charge the voltage will begin to rise slowly and the current will drop off.

Many years ago, I built a charger with a Variac on the primary of a transformer that feeds a bridge rectifier. It has an industrial meter that reads up to 10 amps and is nicely marked. About 15 years ago, I scrounged a timer from a golf-cart type charger and added it. Although the maximum output is only about 5 amps, it is very versatile, with the Variac allowing adjustment down to "nothing", making it useful for charging small motorcycle batteries, gel cells, etc. It even allows running the output voltage way up, to about 20 volts.

If I'm working with something like our present subject, I'll connect a DVM across the terminals. Most of my DVMs have alligator clips on the leads instead of simple probes.

[cgtech]

Sounds like you have your own SCR type charger, sweet. No microcontrollers, just trimpots? I'm interested.

[jdunmyer]

CGT,
You're giving me more credit than I'm due: my charger is exactly as described, 120 VAC thru a switch to a Variac that feeds the primary of a transformer, I think it might be a 120 -> 24 volt unit, but am not sure. The secondary of the transformer feeds one of those 10-amp bridge rectifiers that were pretty new when I built this thing in about 1971. There's a fuse in the output lead, I think it's 6 amps. As I said, I added a 12-hour timer later on. The whole thing is built into a WWII military "battery cell tester" box that was given to me. (these were used to test individual cells in a battery back when all batteries had external cell connector straps)

No SCRs, no microcontrollers, BASIC Stamp, Arduino, no nothing. The meter came from an old Syntron vibratory feeder, it's a 10-0-10 outfit. It's not real well regulated, but the current will taper off as the charge increases. No big deal to me, I adjust it depending on conditions, and the timer backs me up.

[rlw]

Originally Posted by rlw

You either have very dead batteries, or your meter isn't on the correct range. Many inexpensive DVMs have a knob that lets you select what you're measuring AND the range. The ones I have measure AC, DC, Ohms, temperature, etc. The ranges are usually marked 20mV (milliVolts), 200mV, 2V, 20V, 200V, etc. You want a range that encompasses about 6 volts - on my meter I'd pick the 20V range. That gives me 3 digits of precision, and a fully charged battery is about 6.35V DC. Make sure that you're measuring DC volts, not AC volts...

I hope that helps.

For a take on someone who doesn't want to admit something (like your batteries) is dead, take a look at this link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=npjOSLCR2hE

RLW

What?!!??!?!?!!?

No comments on the ABSOLUTELY CLASSIC Monty Python "Dead Parrot" sketch?

I'm disappointed. I spent more than 9,000,000 MICROSECONDS searching YouTube for that video!

RLW

[cgtech]

Yep..... And i'm bummed that i totally missed/screwed up the whole "triac" thing. SCR, microblabla, i feel pretty stupid.