[Joker1]

I thought I had finished my EV truck only to find out that I have several problems. So I think I want to solve the problem with ELCON PFC 3000 charger first . When I plug in the charger which I installed as an on board charger the LED blinks a few times and then I get a steady red light indicating a full charge. When I check the battery pack with the volt meter it reads 135v a full charge should be 144v+. My battery pack consist of 45 lithium Life Pro4 batteries with a BMS attached to each battery. I drew a diagram and scanned it to my computer but I can't seem to upload it to the site to show you how I wired the charger. So I will try to explain how I did the wiring and hopefully you can see where I went wrong. I will start with the Soliton Jr. controller on the Signal +12v terminal I ran a Brown wire to the L-COM terminal on the MiniBMS control board V3. Then on the Soliton Jr. Inputs 1-2-3 I ran a Blue wire to the L-NC terminal on the MiniBMS control board V3. This is where I think I screwed up on the Soliton Jr.Signal GND terminal I ran a Green wire and at the MiniBMS control board V3 I spliced into the blue with a 5k resistor as the diagram shows that came with the MiniBMS controller. I have never charged the entire battery pack with the ELCON charger always with a smaller charger to level off the battery pack.

 

[Joker1]

I thought solid red on an elcon was <80% charge.

On the ELCON charger the exact text is "Sold Red=Full Power<85%" I don't quite understand that because the symbol < means less than you would think it would be the > symbol? That not withstanding shouldn't the ELCON charger charge to the full voltage of 144v + even if it is at 85%?

 

[Joker1]

If the solid red is on pack voltage is less than 122 and you are at max current the charger will output. Also known as constant current stage or bulk charge. Blinking red is the next taper step where pack voltage increases up to the programmed turn off point, which should your maximum pack potential. This is constant voltage stage where current is a couple of amps only but the voltage is increasing. The pack is only at charger set voltage when the light goes green. My truck takes 8 hours to go from mostly empty to full

OLD USAF saying from Vietnam era electronics tech school: RTFI

, Your explanation of how the charger works is the best anyone has ever given me and I will plug in the charger and see if the battery pack will charge. One question from the way I described my wiring sound right? Thank you so much for your input it was clean and concise and I appreciate your help.

 

[Joker1]

These chargers have lots of options. First we need to know how it is programmed. Can you take a picture of the lable on the side with the charge curves. They can be set for different number of cells and thus change the output voltage. The LED will flash red several times when AC is first connected, then the LED will flash green once. The number of red flashes denotes the present curve. e.g. If the red flashes three times, it means the present curve is curve 3, and so on. 10 charge curves are only available for volume order instead of sample order. To choose another curve, please cut off the power supply first, then uncover the label, pressing the button while connecting the power. If you want to choose curve 3, release the button after the 3rd LED Flash.

I watched the LED when I plugged in the charger the red LED blinked 8 times. When I bought the charger I asked the if the charger was programed right for my project and he said it was programed perfectly for my battery pack. So I decided to try and charge the pack after a few hours four batteries BMS boards had a RED LED on them and the alarm was going off on the charger or BMS system is that normal? I have always charged the pack with a balancing charger one at a time and had the same results.

 

[Joker1]

So..... is there a label on the side that describes the curves and what does it say if it's there? It looks like this.... The voltage output is determined by the number of cells specified in the curve you selected.

There is a label on the side of my charger but I installed the charger in the back of the cab of my Ford Ranger and the label is facing the back wall of the cab. It would be a great deal of work to remove the charger to take a picture of the label so I got a dental mirror and a flash light and recorded the information for my charger. This is what I found 8 (which I think is the blinks) then 45 not sure if that is batteries or what 157.2 I guessing is the pack voltage and 191.3 no idea what that is. I did decide to try and charge the pack and it seems the charger did work the pack voltage was 146.6v after charging but on five batteries the red LED light did came on.

 

[Joker1]

It means 45 cells charged to 3.5 volts per cell for 157.2 volts max so it looks like the charger is working and the problems in your BMS

Well that kind of falls under the category of good news bad news. So what do I do about that the company I bought them from went out of business. Do you think that would cause my performance problems and when the battery pack is around is 134v the BMS alarm go off and the truck act like it is off of juice?

 

[Joker1]

Sorry, I don't have a BMS and never used one. Didn't it come with instructions. I would start by reading the manual.

Yeah it did cone with a manual and read it over and over again. I have tested BMS boards and they seem to be work fine, but you knows for sure.