Well, more information and some more confusion on my part. I checked the
continuity and it was still good so I opened the unit and looked inside.
There is no discoloration, melted cases on the relay or any appearance of a
cracked solder joint that I could see. It does appear that someone had been
in there before as the input fuseholder that is mounted by the power cord is
not connected into the circuit and there is a soldered in fuse in the line.
There is also a Belden cable (1 twisted pair, shielded) that comes out by
the DC output cord. It is taped and insulated on the exposed end and it
connects to the main circuit board close by the DC relay or possibly to the
control board down close to the main circuit board. There is also a sticker
on the mounting foot on the front (AC) side of the unit that states "slave
address 37".
In any case after having a look around, I re-assembled it and took it back
over to the car and connected it to the battery pack to see if there was any
change. It still came up with the "internal error" code so I tried it
without the battery connected and it showed a different code of 2 flashes
indicating that the voltage was low. So it isn't brain dead. I then cycled
through the profiles and went ahead and set it for #5 as I felt I didn't
have anything to lose at that point. At that point I tried connecting it
back to the battery pack and it powered up and started charging at the
second level on the ammeter LEDs. I checked the voltage on the output
connections and it was pushing 88 volts into the batteries. Their resting
voltage just before was 76.8 volts A short while later I noticed the green
LED flashing and shortly it went to steady on. Before I left tonight I
un-plugged it and then plugged it back in 30 seconds later and it showed it
was charging again. I'll check it tomorrow to see if it is back at full
charge again.
Doea anyone have a suggestion for a suitable charger for this battery pack
that I can pass on to the owner? Preferably one that can use either 120V or
230V input.
respectfully,
John
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Stockton" <[email protected]>
To: "Electric Vehicle Discussion List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2013 1:46 PM
Subject: Re: [EVDL] Another Delta-Q question
John Neiswanger wrote:
The green wire is insulated now and has
been since I recieved the car, but I have no idea what may have happened
before the car was delivered to me. I will check the continuity as you
suggest and I have experience in this area so I will look inside if
needed.
If the green wire is insulated, then another possibility is that the
output fuse may simply have opened after many years of operation. The
serial number suggests this unit is almost 10 years old!
If you find the fuse open, replace it with at least a 20A rated part to
minimise the risk of it opening again due to operating in a high ambient
at a current too near to its rating.
So do I understand that even if I set this unit up to charge from a 230V
line it still would not be adequate for these batteries?
This charger is rated at 1kW nominal regardless of the input voltage, so
powering it from 230V will not provide you any increase in output current.
Is there another profile that could be better suited than even #5, or
enough better to be worth sending it off for re-programming?
At this time, not really. The issue with not providing the batteries with
the required charge current is that Enersys/Odyssey believes they will not
end up fully charged. Anecdotal reports on this list in the past suggest
that those who have ignored the recommendation have indeed experienced
shorter battery life than expected, and I believe, warranty denial. It
isn't completely cut and dried, since at least some of these instances
have involved parallel strings, which causes additional challenges for
charging.
I would start with #5 and see how the battery behaves. If there is
suspicion that the battery may not be getting quite full, you could try
#1. #5 and #1 both target about 110% return, but #1 finishes at 4.5A
while #5 finishes at 2A. 4.5A may be a bit higher than these batteries
would like, which is why I suggest starting with #5. If the battery
appears tolerant of the 4.5A finish rate, then a third option is #2, which
has the same charge behaviour as #1 other than targeting about 120%
return. 120% return would normally be higher than one would strive for,
but given the expectation that these batteries may need additional charge
as a result of the lower than recommended charge current, it might be just
the ticket.
One caution: the charger was previously set to algorithm #11, which is a
non-temperature-compensated dV/dt type; all of the algorithms I recommend
even trying with the AGMs are temperature-compensated and require that the
charger is equipped with a battery temperature sensor. The sensor is
standard equipment, and is a black rectangular "blob" that has the black
and white wires going in one end and the negative battery connection ring
terminal on the other. You should ensure that the sensor is present, just
in case it may have been removed previously.
This is not my car, I am just installing the batteries
supplied by the owner along with some other work on it to try to pay him
back for the loan of the car to make body molds to be able to make a body
for my Tropica chassis. I want to get it in the best condition I can for
the kindness he has shown me before I send it back.
My suggestion is that if you find that the fuse has opened and are
comfortable replacing it, then you've done the owner a significant favour.
My opinion is that if you find signs of anything other than or in addition
to the output fuse has failed, then it is a better use of the owner's
money to replace the charger with a larger model than to pay to attempt to
have this unit repaired.
I had looked at the Delta-Q site but the support page appeared to
indicate
that it is for OEMs only. If the check of the fuse and relay don't turn
up anything, I'll try submitting a service request through that page.
If you contact the support department, they will respond.
The page is intended to discourage end users from contacting our support
department directly as a first resort, rather than first contacting the
support department of the OEM who provided the equipment to them that
included a Delta-Q product. ;^>
Cheers,
Roger.
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