Summit II Charger Fault - Max-Amp Hrs

[joepiccaso]

I'm perplexed about the Charger Fault I get on my Lester Summit II 1050W On Board Charger.

The cart hadn't been charged in over a week but was driven for two short-distance trips. I topped off the water in the batteries and plugged the charger in. Later I checked it with the App on my phone and got a steady Red light and a slow blinking Yellow, and No Green. The Fault says "Max-Amp Hrs "MAX AMP-HOURS – Maximum amp-hours for the
phase or overall charge cycle was met." It showed 77% SOC. I've unplugged the charger and plugged it back in to reset the charging cycle, but get the same thing. My charge meter on the dash says the batteries are charged, but usually when I plug the charger back in it will do a quick charge and then give me a Green light. No Green light! I've been confused about this charger since I installed it and talking to the Lester Service people just confuses me more. Any thoughts, anyone?

[Fairtax4me]

This can happen with a pack that hasn't been charged in a while, but usually its like several months.
What brand and type of batteries do you have?
Which charge profile is active in the charger? If the profile is not correct for the batteries it can cause the charger to set a fault.

Also open the bluetooth app, connect to the charger, plug in the charge cord and make sure it shows that AC power is connected. On the Dashboard screen check to see If the Stop Charging button is illuminated. If it is Press it and wait for the charger to respond.
If the Start charging button is there press it and see if a new cycle starts, and then stay near the cart and monitor it for the next few minutes. If it continues charging then let it do its thing, and it should top off the pack.

[ojo]

Originally Posted by joepiccaso

I'm perplexed about the Charger Fault I get on my Lester Summit II 1050W On Board Charger.

The cart hadn't been charged in over a week but was driven for two short-distance trips. I topped off the water in the batteries and plugged the charger in.

Another important thing, always charge batteries first and top off the water AFTER the charging has finished ( plus some rest time ).

[joepiccaso]

FairTax, I have used this charger on these same batteries for a couple of years. I've seen this fault before, but I do not know what I did if anything, to clear it.
I have 6-Trojan 6V T105s. And added 2-Duracell 6V I added when I converted it to 48V from 36V.
Battery profile: 22001
System Profile: 29100
It shows the Batteries at 51V, but Not charging.
AC power has been on, and the Start Charging doesn't do anything, and I don't see a Stop Charging button. There is a Balance Charging, but It doesn't do anything.
It had been off the charger for about two weeks prior, but it still showed a good charge on the Dash Meter and had just recently been driven a couple of miles.
I did top the batteries off, but the water was already above the plates.
I do not get any Green light when I plug the charger in. Usually, it would charge briefly and then go to green when I'd plug the AC in, even when it was fully charged. The fault doesn't go away. That's what really concerns me. the SOC is 77%, though the Lester Rep says don't worry about that. I gather he means that 77% is the max it will charge now.

And, to Ojo's comment, I did top off the batteries before putting it back on the charger. I've never heard that before. It was giving me the same fault before topping it off.

I hope this helps. Thanks!

[ojo]

Joepiccaso, sorry for any confusion, my comment regards the maintenance of FLa batteries basically.

[Fairtax4me]

I have 6-Trojan 6V T105s. And added 2-Duracell 6V I added when I converted it to 48V from 36V

The mix of these two may be causing you some issues, but you'll have to check the voltage of each battery at some intervals to check. More on that in bit.


If the Start charging button is not doing anything, then you may have an issue with the connection between the app and the charger. Before digging too far into that I would disconnect the charger from the pack and let it reset. Disconnect the negative charge lead for 10-15 minutes and reconnect. Then plug in the charger and see if everything starts working again.
We also need to verify that the charger is getting 120v when the cord is plugged in, if it's not getting AC power it will not respond to the charge command from the App.
You should get a Blue light on the charger for AC present, and it should show on the Dashboard screen in the App.

Battery voltages:
You'll need to check each battery voltage individually. Check them all prior to starting any charging and write them all down. Compare the voltage of the Duracells to the Trojans.

While the charger is charging (assuming the reset gets it to work), check each battery during the first phase of charge, then check each one again during the final phase of charge. If you have any batteries that are showing higher voltage than the others, or lower voltage than the others, by more than 0.2v (doesn't seem like much but it makes a difference) those batteries are likely causing the charger to run longer than it needs to because they're failing.

After the charger finishes charging, wait at least 12 hours for the pack to rest and check each battery again. Then take the cart for a normal drive, Something of at least 15-20 minutes, but longer is better.
Check each battery again about immediately after the drive, and then again about 20 minutes after the drive.

Write them down every time so you can see any trends. Which battery is highest, which is lowest, which one(s) are dropping the furthest during operation. This will show if any are failing, by comparing voltage of each at different times.
Ideally, at rest all batteries should be within about 0.05v of each other. So the best battery is 6.38V, the worst should be 6.33v. Ideally.
In reality they may be slightly further apart, but they need to be consistent throughout all of the checks. So if your highest battery switches to being the lowest after driving, somethings wrong with that one.
If your overall range between batteries is more than 0.2v then you need to check water levels carefully, and do a balance charge with the charger and see if they will get closer to each other.
Having voltages that are significantly different (more than 0.2v apart) tends to give you a pack that will never charge properly because the batteries are either not peaking in voltage at the same time, or usually the lower batteries will never reach the full charge voltage and will just sit there and boil. If the voltage never hits the threshold required for the charger to get to the next phase, that will cause the abnormally long charge times, and can cause the charger to not turn off until it reaches the time-out limit. Quite often you end up with this problem when batteries are mixed brands, and different ages because the capacity of the batteries is different (new vs old) and they will not charge at the same rates.
This is usually the biggest indicator that the pack is failing and will need to be replaced.
Testing for this is done by checking voltage during charging, which can be time consuming since you need to hang around the cart for several hours and test each one near the end of each phase of charging.

[mgray70]

I've seen this several times, and I've always had to disconnect the charger from the pack to reset it. I have started a charge cycle asst bedtime, and had the overtime fault the next morning. In my opinion the Summit 2 some serious technology upgrades! With the technology out there, why wouldn't Lester make a charger with a float charge instead of one that will drain a battery pack to 0 volts! I started selling them a few years ago, and my selling point was the on board option. I've had to go back to probably 80% where the battery packs were pulled down to nothing. Some of them claimed they were plugged in the whole time.
I know people are suppose to keep them charged up, but most cart owners will not regularly charge their cart like they should. For that reason I've switched to the Modz style waterproof Chinese chargers. They have no current load, and will float if left plugged in.
Bluetooth is nice on the Summit, but it shouldn't take enough current to make significant arc when you collect the terminals!

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[joepiccaso]

Very good Guys. I've unplugged the charger from the AC a couple of times, but that didn't help. I have not tried disconnecting the charger from the batteries. That makes sense? I'm getting AC to the charger. All of the lights come on like they should. I haven't checked battery voltage yet bc I had just driven it recently and it ran great. it was off of the charger for about two weeks, but that wasn't unusual either. The battery mix has bee there for 2 years when i converted it to 48V. I bought it as a 36V cart, but it barely pulled the hills in the neighborhood. The 6 Trojan 6V batteries were about new when bought it. I thought I may change over to LiPo batteries, so I didn't want to drop a wad on 2 new Trojan batteries. The batteries did drain 100% one time, kinda out of the Blue. It didn't have enough voltage to trip the charging so I used a small charger to get some voltage in each battery and it worked. I'll try the things you recommended and report back. Thanks

[mgray70]

Originally Posted by joepiccaso

Very good Guys. I've unplugged the charger from the AC a couple of times, but that didn't help. I have not tried disconnecting the charger from the batteries. That makes sense? I'm getting AC to the charger. All of the lights come on like they should. I haven't checked battery voltage yet bc I had just driven it recently and it ran great. it was off of the charger for about two weeks, but that wasn't unusual either. The battery mix has bee there for 2 years when i converted it to 48V. I bought it as a 36V cart, but it barely pulled the hills in the neighborhood. The 6 Trojan 6V batteries were about new when bought it. I thought I may change over to LiPo batteries, so I didn't want to drop a wad on 2 new Trojan batteries. The batteries did drain 100% one time, kinda out of the Blue. It didn't have enough voltage to trip the charging so I used a small charger to get some voltage in each battery and it worked. I'll try the things you recommended and report back. Thanks

Unplugging AC won't do it, you must disconnect it from the battery pack for several minutes. That 100% discharge is what I was talking about. I guarantee that was because of the current draw from the charger. It will draw every bit of current overtime, if it's not left plugged in, and I've seen several drawn down even when plugged in.

Sent from my SM-S906U using Tapatalk

[Trenks]

I have also been getting fault codes on this charger. "Max Time". I called Lester and inquired about the code and if it could be the charger itself. We went over some of the details on the charging cycles and it was determined the batteries are starting to go. You may try a volt meter and check each battery to see what you have.