Charger question? Johnnieb?
 

Well I bought the '07 this morning with the PDS. I asked about getting a "big" charger for it. Also the young fellow in the back service area told me they also installed a new controller on it, so that's a bonus I guess. Just wondering if I got a good charger or not. I will try to attach a picture. Thanks.

Re: Charger question? Johnnieb?
 

That is a good make and model of charger, whether that specific one is good or not is yet to be seen.:mrgreen:

Here is how to check it out:
Plug into power. Nothing should happen.
If it comes on, the relay had been bypassed, so the control board is probably bad.
If it stays quiet, plug into cart.
After a short delay, 3-5 seconds or so, it should start humming and ammeter will jump up into the 15A to 20A range.
If it doesn't jump up that high initially, a diode or the capacitor may be defective.

Within a half hour or so, the ammeter should decrease down to the 5A to 10A range and then gradually decrease from there until the charger automatically shuts off.
How long it stays on depends on how deeply discharged the battery pack was.

Good news is that even if it isn't working, it is 100% repairable.
Here is a manual for it.

Re: Charger question? Johnnieb?
 

Thanks johnnieb, it does what you said it would do , so I'm good to go !! Thanks for all your help. Total noobie with electric ! I will have more questions. Thanks.

Re: Charger question? Johnnieb?
 

JohnnieB,
I had briefly discussed this with you on my charger before, but want to confirm a few things. I have a powerwise charger as well.
I plug in power. Charger hums.
Plug charger cable into cart receptical still hums no delay, goes to the 20A area.
Within the half hour or so, the ammeter does decrease down 5a to 10a area you speak of but...

I can leave this charger on for 24 hours 30 hours etc. and the ammeter with never get below 2 to 3A, which results in never shutting off

Is mine a control panel as well?

Re: Charger question? Johnnieb?
 

Sprocket's charger is working the way it is designed to work, yours isn't.
You've most likely got a bad control board.

It hums when it is plugged in AC power, but not plugged into cart, so it fails the first test I posted.
That means the relay inside the charger has been bypassed, which usually means the control board is bad, or the relay wouldn't have been bypassed.

Take a look at the attached schematic of a Powerwise charger.
Until the relay is activated, the relay's contacts are open and AC power is not connected to the transformer or anything else in the charger, so it just sits there and does nothing.

When you plug charger output cable into cart, the cart's battery pack activates the relay inside the charger.
If you plug charger into cart when it is not plugged into AC power, the cart's battery pack will still activate the relay inside the charger and if you listen closely, you will hear it click, after a few seconds delay.
If the charger is also plugged int AC power you'll hear the transformer start humming and see the ammeter climb up to some amperage reading.

How many amps flow initially is determined solely by the ferroresonant transformer and its associated capacitor in conjunction the voltage of the battery pack. Since the battery pack voltage will most likely be below 40V, the initial amps will be current limited by the ferroresonant transformer circuit design to about 18A +/- 2A or so.

As the on-charge voltage rises to about 42.5V, the transformer core starts saturating sooner and the current limiting occurs sooner, so the output current decreases as the on-charge voltage increases.

When the on-charge voltages climbs into the 44V to 46V range, the control board deactivates the relay, shutting off the charger.

If the on-charge voltage fails to reach the 44V to 46V cut-off voltage, a back-up timer on the control board will terminate the charge after about 16 hours.

If the relay is bypassed, the charger will never shut off and the on-charge voltage will continue to rise, which may eventually damage the batteries.

The upper limit on Trojans recommended charge curve (attached) is 2.7V per cell, or 50.22V for a 36V (18 cell) battery pack, so I'd be careful not to exceed that voltage.