Chasing down battery draw on a 2015 2Five

[Kingstir]

I have a new to me 2015 2five I bought 2 weeks ago. I put it on charger last weekend and there it stayed until last night. I noticed that it wasn't fully charged and started poking around today. There are 3 wires on the main negative post- The 4ga battery cable and two smaller wires. One of the smaller wires (left one in picture) sparked a pretty good arc when I removed it and again when reinstalled. I left it off and taped up and found that none of my lights or signals or brake lamps were working. It disappears into the harness and I guess feeds the voltage reducer. I have no idea what the reducer looks like or where it's located. Any thoughts on that and am I heading in the right direction? Thanks.

B

[basshawk84]

Probably wasn't fully charged since it had been a week since you charged it. Plug it back in and check the charge the morning after.

[Cobra,1]

Sounds like 12 volt reducer is always powered up reguardless if key is on or off.
If so you will get a spark when connecting it to batteries.
When connected do lights and other 12 volt accessories work with key off?
If so convertor is drawing smal amount from batteries at all times and needs to be connected so it only gets power when key switch is on position.

Need to wire convertor to only get batterypack voltage when key in on position.

[jneubig]

The reducer should be inside the charger on the 2Five provided it has not been changed from OEM setups. It's a combo unit. With regards to the voltage "meter" on the speedometer, some are marginally accurate and some are not. The controller tells it what to do and I've found that it's not always correct. I added an LED voltmeter wired to the switched + side of the solenoid and the pack negative to give me a better idea of exactly where my batteries are. One more thing. The built-in battery charger (yellow Delta) will not cycle again after charging until AC power is removed and restored. They aren't like a Lester or DPI that will sense voltage and turn back on by themselves.

[Kingstir]

Originally Posted by Cobra,1

Sounds like 12 volt reducer is always powered up reguardless if key is on or off.
If so you will get a spark when connecting it to batteries.
When connected do lights and other 12 volt accessories work with key off?
If so convertor is drawing smal amount from batteries at all times and needs to be connected so it only gets power when key switch is on position.

Need to wire convertor to only get batterypack voltage when key in on position.

All the lights go off when key is turned off.
The other thing I'm wondering about is the parking brake. Is it on drawing power all the time the cart is sitting?

[kernal]

The parking brake is fail safe to engaged and requires power to release it. So no the brake is not drawing power when parked.
HOWEVER, if you switch the run/tow switch to "tow" when parked for charging/storage as some people do the brake IS powered and will drain the batteries. This is the opposite of what has been recommended for other carts/brands.

Ref: 2five owners manual page 60. RXV owners manual page 26

[Sergio]

Also keep in mind that a "5 wire" dc converter is not OFF when the trigger wire is off, that only turns OFF the 12v output.

That spark you experienced is one of the reasons you normally don't turn a converter on/off by turning its power source off during normal use, but only for long term storage.

[Welsh619]

Hi sorry but newbie question about that last comment. Been doing a lot of searching/ reading on dc to dc reducers (transformers?) and I was under the impression that it was generally acceptable to wire one to the key switch so it’s only on when the key is on but that last comment, to me, sounds contradictory. I’ve seen other posts from Sergio and he seems incredibly knowledgeable so if anyone could expand my brain would certainly appreciate it. Thank you.

[DB Cooper]

Originally Posted by Welsh619

Hi sorry but newbie question about that last comment. Been doing a lot of searching/ reading on dc to dc reducers (transformers?) and I was under the impression that it was generally acceptable to wire one to the key switch so it’s only on when the key is on but that last comment, to me, sounds contradictory. I’ve seen other posts from Sergio and he seems incredibly knowledgeable so if anyone could expand my brain would certainly appreciate it. Thank you.

I've seen people with TXTs wire to the keyswitch, but RXV keyswitches are complicated and people trying to wire into them often cause expensive damage.

While the keyswitch for the reducer might be nice, I often find myself parking my cart with harzards on or neons on, and don't want the dependency of having my cart in a drive mode just to power accessories, lights, stereos.

As a result, I just put a simple toggle switch on the positive connection of my reducer. I flip that switch and the reducer goes on, off and it stays off. It's habit for me to flip prior to turning the cart on. It works great because I can fire accessories without the cart key. I somewhat hid the switch so random kids don't just flip it.

[JohnnieB]

Originally Posted by Sergio

Also keep in mind that a "5 wire" dc converter is not OFF when the trigger wire is off, that only turns OFF the 12v output.

That spark you experienced is one of the reasons you normally don't turn a converter on/off by turning its power source off during normal use, but only for long term storage.

Originally Posted by Welsh619

Hi sorry but newbie question about that last comment. Been doing a lot of searching/ reading on dc to dc reducers (transformers?) and I was under the impression that it was generally acceptable to wire one to the key switch so it’s only on when the key is on but that last comment, to me, sounds contradictory. I’ve seen other posts from Sergio and he seems incredibly knowledgeable so if anyone could expand my brain would certainly appreciate it. Thank you.

Transformers will not pass DC, they only pass AC or something that has AC like characteristics. A DC to DC converter modifies the DC voltage input by chopping it or switching it so the resulting waveshape that is applied to the transformer's primary is close enough to an AC waveshape that it will pass through a transformer.

There are three, or so, generic types of DC to DC converters used in golf carts, 4-Wire, 5-Wire and 6-wire.

1. 4-Wire connections:
B- Input
B+ Input
+12V Output
-12V output
Always on, so input voltage has to be removed to kill 12V output.
If a switch is used, total input amps pass through switch. 10A-15A Input for a 12V-30A output.
Relays are sometimes used to turn this type converter on and off.

2. 5-Wire connections:
B- Input
B+ Input
+12V Output
-12V output
Remote On/Off
Basically a 4-Wire with a built-in On/Off relay
The remote On/Off is low amps and can be connected to the keyswitch, but not on the RXV and similar carts. (AC drives)
The remote On/Off does not actually turn the converter OFF, it puts it in a standby mode. No 12V output, but with enough of the electronics working to wake up when told to by the Remote On/Off input.

3. 6-Wire connections:
B- Input
B+ Input
+12V Output
-12V output
Remote On/Off
+12V Constantly On
Basically a 5-Wire with low power 12V output that stays on all the time. Used to maintain the memory settings for some radio and audio systems that loose their memory when power is removed.

Note: Some converters connect the B- input and the -12V outputs, so their wire count is reduced by one.