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Electric Circus Car vol 2

We are getting close to completing this project.  


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 Okay that sounds good. How long would you like for the wires to be between the back of the indicator light and charge indicator?

Six inches would be good.

Okay we will make them 6 inches then. The 36 volt indicator lights were ordered on Saturday. I will let you know when they get here.

All of the electric work is done and everything works great.  The twelve volt battery is hooked up to the bus bar along with the  various lights and horns and their switches.  I have the 12 volt charging port connected to the bus bar just like the other components.  Is that OK?  When I plug the 12 volt charger into the port, the green light comes on even though the charger's power cord is not plugged in to the wall.  When I do plug it in, the light turns red and then after a time green, which I presume means the battery is charged.  

When the 36 volt charger is plugged into it's port, the light does not come on until I plug it's power cord into the wall.  The 36 volt charger makes a slight humming noise until the light turns green.  I do not hear any noise from the 12 volt charger.  Why do  you suppose they behave differently?


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I'm also wondering why the 12 volt charging port has a fitting that will screw the male and female together.  When I push them together, they make a solid connection.  Whey the screw feature?

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Great to see that everything is installed and working.

Yes having the charger port wired into the bus bar is fine.

The behavior that you described of the 12 Volt battery charger is normal. You are correct about the colors of the lights. When the charger is plugged into the battery and the wall the red light means charging and green light means charged.


Some battery chargers green lights will illuminate when they are plugged into the battery and not plugged into the wall. And other will not. It just depends on the make and model of the battery charger whether they will do this or not.


The noise that a battery charger makes also depends on its make and model. Some models hum a little while others are completely silent.


The charging plug and port that can be threaded together can be plugged together without being threaded. The threads are there because the plug and port are common electronic connectors that are used for other purposes such as microphones which require threading them together so they do not fall apart. When these connectors are used on battery chargers threading them together is not required though. I recommend not threading them together this way if the cord is accidentally pulled it will unplug the connectors instead of pulling the wire out of the back of plug.

OK

Thanks!


I'm ready to wire in my 36 volt golf cart charge meter, but it will be complicated to put it to the cold side of the on/off switch.  I have another place to put it and can give it it's own switch.  Can it get it's 36 volts from one of the unused connectors coming out of my controller?  I have one labeled 'brake lights' and one labeled 'indicator'.   Each has a black and a red wire.  Can I run the black wire to one side of the charge indicator and have the red one go through a switch to the other side?


The charge meter should get its power from the controller's 'indicator' connector. This way it will automatically turn on and off with the vehicle.

However you might want to hold off on wiring the charge meter for now because the 36 volt indicator lights just arrived last week and this week we are going to attach wires and connectors to one of them and send it to you. So the charge meter will not need any additional wiring after it arrives.

Here is a wiring diagram that I drew for our technician to make the indicator light with wiring harness. Please have a look at the wire lengths and ring terminal ID and let me know if they are okay or need to be changed?

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That will be great.

Thanks!

Okay thanks for the wire length confirmation. I will have our tech start building this tomorrow and then we will go ahead and send it to you.

Everything is working great and the batteries hold enough charge for several days of use and I have more than enough speed and hill climbing torque.  I'm just finishing up on some graphics and then I'll post pix of the finished project.  I bought a multi meter and read up on how to use it, but the only place I get a reading is across the 36 volt battery pack. Fully charged it reads 39.1.   Why don't I get a reading across the terminals of the reverse relay?  I have the power switch on and forward/reverse switch in forward, but no reading across the terminals of the relay.


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When I read that the batteries hold enough charge for several days of use I got a little worried. Just want to make sure that you are recharging the batteries after every ride, even very short rides, so the batteries are not left in a partially discharged state when they are not being used. Keeping the batteries fully charged between uses will keep them in top shape for the longest possible battery life.

Great to hear that you got a multimeter. They have got to be the most useful and cost effective tool for electrical installations and troubleshooting. 39.1 Volts is a perfect fully charged Voltage for the 36 Volt battery pack. Immediately after the batteries have been recharged the Voltage may be even a little higher, but then after the batteries have been sitting for a little while it will go back down again.

The reverse relay gets the input power for its contacts (thick red and black wires) from the controller's motor output connector, so the motor would have to be running in order to read Voltage from those terminals. The thin switch wires going to the reverse relay coils will have Voltage present at them when the direction switch is in the forward or reverse position though. The direction switch wires on one side of the relay controls the relay's forward contacts, and the direction switch wires on the other side of the relay controls the reverse contacts.

Don't worry.

I ran the car around my neighborhood for 45 minutes or so and then did put it on the charger.  It charged up in under an hour and that made me think that it had enough juice for a few days at a fair or circus.  My plan is to keep it charged up and it's easy enough to plug in the charger.  


The multi meter read 38.1 volts on the relay spade connectors.  If I wasn't going to connect my new  indicator light and charge meter to the 'indicator' connector, would it also be OK to connect to the spade lugs on the forward side of the relay?  I plan to use the indicator connector coming out of the controller box, but I want to understand as much as I can about this set up.

The spade terminals on the left and right sides of the reverse relay would not be a good place to connect a power indicator light or charge meter because they are only energized when the direction switch is in the forward or reverse position.

However they would be the perfect place to connect forward and reverse lights to. For instance forward and reverse indicator lights could be connected to them and installed in the dash. And/or a reverse light (the kind used to see behind the vehicle when backing up) could be connected to the reverse relay's spade terminals that are energized when the vehicle is in reverse.

OK.

Thanks!

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