textron total charge iii not shutting off when unplugged

[scottperry08]

I have a total charge iii with a 1994 36volt ezgo medalist. I was initially having trouble with my charger not shutting off when fully charged causing it to boil the batteries. After checking all connections and batteries I determined that the circuit board in the charger needed replacing. Once I installed the new board the charger comes on when plugged into the cart. The problem I'm having is the charger will not shut off when I unplug it from the cart. The voltage on the meter drops from 20 amps to 0 but it is still humming. The old board worked fine with shutting off when I unplugged it. I couldn't find a thread on this so I hope I've posted this right.

[scottperry08]

I purchased the board from programmainc on eBay. Im thinking I’m going to have to request a refund because I can’t come up with anything else but the board causing this unless someone knows something I don’t. Where is the best place to buy a reliable board so I can get my charger back up and running?

[mgray70]

Golf Cart Kings is a site sponsor. I've ordered some from them before. Good quality.

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[scottperry08]

I’ll definitely look into them , thanks for the advice.

[scottperry08]

I ordered the board from Golf Cart Kings today so we'll see if the ebay one was the culprit.

[Dixie Chopper]

Definitely post back and let us know if it works. I have a total charge 3 that won’t shut off automatically.


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[scottperry08]

I've sent the ebay circuit board back and installed the one purchased from golfcartkings. The new board has fixed my problem of not cutting off when it is unplugged from the car. That aspect of the charger works great now. The problem I'm having now is the original issue which was why I was replacing the board. It's boiling my batteries and not shutting off when fully charged. I left it on for approx. 6 hours and heard the batteries boiling. I unplugged it and immediately checked my voltages. I had 10-10.3 volts on all 6 of my 6volt batteries. I left it unplugged over night and checked it again this morning. From left to right, the left 2 were reading 8.2 and 8.3, the middle 2 were reading 9.3 and 9.4, and the right 2 were reading 10.1 and 10.2. The pack voltage was 60.2 which seems abnormally high. Does anyone have any insight as to what I need to do because I'm new and very illiterate when it comes to golf carts.

[JohnnieB]

The batteries aren't "Boiling", they are gassing. The water in the electrolyte is decomposing into hydrogen and oxygen gasses (Electrolysis) and bubbling to the surface. It is normal for batteries to gas while being charged.

The control board is a semi-smart switch. All it does is turn the charger on when it is connected to a battery pack whose voltage is above about 28V and turn the charger off either when the output voltage reaches about 45V, or if the output voltage does not reach about 48V within about 16 hours.

Not turning off when the output voltage reaches 45V +/- 1V, indicates the control board is bad, or not sensing true battery pack voltage, however having the output voltage climbing into the 60V range is abnormal. Even if the relay on the control board was bypassed so the charger stayed on all the time, the output voltage shouldn't have climbed to more than 50V.

There may be more than one problem, but let's check the battery sensing first.

What is the voltage between the red and black wires attached to the control board while the batteries are being charged?
What is the voltage between the battery pack's main positive and negative terminals at that time?

They should be identical, or very close to it.

[scottperry08]

Ok so I found my weird voltage culprit. Apparently if the 9 volt battery gets weak in a craftsman volt meter it will give bogus and consistent readings. Replaced that battery and the numbers started making more sense. Each battery had 6.1-6.2 volts. The whole pack voltage was 36.6. When I plugged the charger in I’m getting 39 volts at the batteries and 39 volts at the red and black wires on the circuit board. I’ve left it plugged in overnight and will check it again in the morning.

[ThreeCW]

Find attached a State of Charge chart that will give you an indication of how fully charged a battery or a battery pack is.

A fully charged 6 volt battery should have a static voltage (~12 to 24 hours after charging) of 6.37 volts.

A fully charged 36 volt battery pack (6 x 6 volt batteries) should have a static voltage of 38.1 volts.

At 36.6 volts, your battery pack is at only a 58% State of Charge.

Try giving your battery pack a full charge, let the pack voltage stabilize for 12 to 24 hours and check the static voltage. The State of Charge chart will help you to determine the condition of your batteries.