Scottyb's Carts Digital Battery Meter

[IronOtter]

10-4... that was more of a guess on the draw. Throughout the day we ran it around and parked without charging so as the pack dropped the load voltage seemed down around 40-ish. I will try to re-check tonight.

What should it drop to typically under load on relatively level ground? We've had problems with the charger not cutting off after long charges... I've read that having items hooked directly to one battery terminal could cause that... any thoughts?

Thanks Scotty and Crash.

[scottyb]

Originally Posted by IronOtter

10-4... that was more of a guess on the draw. Throughout the day we ran it around and parked without charging so as the pack dropped the load voltage seemed down around 40-ish. I will try to re-check tonight.

What should it drop to typically under load on relatively level ground? We've had problems with the charger not cutting off after long charges... I've read that having items hooked directly to one battery terminal could cause that... any thoughts?

Thanks Scotty and Crash.

I think you may have a generally weak pack. perform a SG test on all battery cells asap. Mixing new batteries with old is always a costly endeavor. The new batteries turn old fast when charged with old batteries especially ones so tired they wont shut the charger off.

Yes using 2 batteries for 12v accessories can draw those 2 down lower than the rest and create an imbalance in the pack which hurts the good ones and never really fully charges the bad ones ...... this imbalance shortens the life of the pack.

I am willing to bet lunch $ right now you need 5 more new batteries. How about those SG tests?

[IronOtter]

Bah-humbug! After a long charge the pack showed around 56v and dropped down to 51.7 after an hour of rest. When I ran the cart around the draw lowered the numbers down to around 47 or 45 when running up hills. I'll have to invest in a gravity tester to see where I am.

I guess with all the accessories running off of that one battery, I'll have to look into a fuse panel or something to prevent overcharging.

I knew this we going to get expensive. Just didn't realize it was going to be so quick!

[teecro]

Originally Posted by IronOtter

Bah-humbug! I guess with all the accessories running off of that one battery, I'll have to look into a fuse panel or something to prevent overcharging.

A fuse panel or "something" will do absolutely nothing to prevent overcharging.... Running a lot of load off of one battery in a bank will put undue strain on that one battery and can cause charging issues. We deal with exactly that onboard the ship I work on; the one battery being used to provide 12VDC on the 24VDC bank always needs more frequent watering...

[scottyb]

Originally Posted by teecro

A fuse panel or "something" will do absolutely nothing to prevent overcharging.... Running a lot of load off of one battery in a bank will put undue strain on that one battery and can cause charging issues. We deal with exactly that onboard the ship I work on; the one battery being used to provide 12VDC on the 24VDC bank always needs more frequent watering...

The imbalance is most critical during recharging. Lets look at a 2 battery pack. One battery charges up faster than the other. Now the charged battery sits there and cooks (overvoltage) while the charger waits to see the cutoff voltage ..... which it eventually sees but what have you got? You got one overcharged battery and one undercharged battery, now they go back online and what happens ? Additional load is pulled off the lower battery until they get recharged now they are further apart and so on until both batteries die an early death ...... regardless of how many batteries are in the system this is the scenario when some are discharged deeper than others and all are charged in series.

[IronOtter]

So what is the solution then? Can't you run a fuse block off the entire pack and wire into that to avoid uneven charging?

Originally Posted by IronOtter

So what is the solution then?

a voltage reducer ..it pulls power from all batteries equally

wiring a fuse block to entire pack gets you pack voltage out of fuse block

[IronOtter]

10-4. Thanks guys. Any suggestions on a decent reducer?

[IronOtter]

Nevermind, just saw CU sold them.

Originally Posted by IronOtter

Nevermind, just saw CU sold them.