berlingo wont go

[harry morris]

Well here we go again, I have changed the batteries in a 2001 van for lead acid and everything went quite well until I came to test the installation am reading 175 volts and 150 amps at the controller terminals with 14 lead acids on board that's a reasonable voltage I think! now when I come to test the the van I get that reassuring clunk when I switch on ( the vehicle is jacked up by the way with front wheels clear of the ground) I put it in D and squeeze the accelerator the motor spins up to 10 mph, THEN CLUNK !!! the motor cuts out and the eco warning light comes on along with the water light and the red STOP light on the dash, I thought this was a controller fault so I changed it for the one off my other van which is working just fine, but this one does exactly the same!!! the other thing I notice is the charging, I connect the charger in the usual way, it connects o k runs for a few seconds and then switches off at 80% charge!!! I am completely baffled by this, I know the battery charger is unsuitable for lead acids and this problem can be solved, but I can't understand why it won't go, the controller doesn't KNOW you've changed batteries or does it!!! This van is unknown to me when I got it it was in bits with NO batteries the previous owner say's it was like that when he got it!!! The motor brushes are in first class condition as is the armature, so i'me stumped any help would be most appreciated, cheers everyone HARRY

[timpootle]

What did you do with the battery cooling water circuit? Is the controller seeing a water pump failure?

[harry morris]

What did you do with the battery cooling water circuit? Is the controller seeing a water pump failure?

No TIM , I thought of things like that so left the battery watering pump in circuit and it runs with the controller pump, cheers HARRY

[ChrisB]

Very weird, odd that its throwing so many warning lights on have you actually tried to drive it rather than run it on jacks, I was going to mention the coolent pumps like tim but you've though of that.
Are you sure its the battery water light thats coming on and not the charge light thats coming on ?

How good are the 12volts, if you have one or two that are slightly dead or under par then it could be that the voltage is dropping below the limiter, just another thought ?? even 150ah 12v wont have anywhere near the same voltage under load as the Nicads will have.


I can understand that the charger will throw a wobbly trying to charge the batteries as I suspect the voltage will very quickly rise to 15+ volts or more on the batteries and thus the charger will shut down, it might be happier once you've discharged them a bit but I suspect you will find the charger wont fully charge the batteries correctly and certainly the energy meter will be all over the place as that measures Ah in and out from the calculater board, along with actual terminal voltage.

ChrisB

[harry morris]

Cheers CHRIS, yes I must admit I thought of giving the motor a load ie driving the thing but several other things need attention before I can drive it, the batteries are all virtually new and showing 13/14 volts so no probs there, have got a total of 14, 12 volt cells giving very near 180 volts plenty to drive an ev. The original NiCads gave a nominal 162 voltage so I thought I was within limits as it were, as far as the charger is concerned I will get this sorted once the vehicle is running properly. I just don't know what to do next have been over every connection and double checked everything and drawn a blank!!! thanks again HARRY

[ChrisB]

Check to see what voltage sag your getting when the motors running just because you have 180v off load may not be anything like that once you load it up.

Also I wonder where the speed sensor is, I wonder if only one wheel is turning and its the one without the speed sensor and thus the van thinks its not going anywhere yet the motors running and thus the controller has a wobbley and shuts down ??

I'd get it on the deck and try taking it for a drive before getting too worried.

ChrisB

[harry morris]

Well CHRIS, I got the vehicle off the jacks and ramps and boy was it heavy!!! thought id'e try the motor with a load ie drive it! but it does the same thing, try to accelerate and CLUNK motor cuts out eco light and charge light come on and electrical fault light also appears, your theory about the terminal voltage under load was interesting, with the motor running the voltage dropped to 148 so what we are saying here is when I want more voltage to accelerate the battery can't supply volts so the controller shuts off eco light on charge battery light on, all makes sense!!! looks like a complete waste of time and effort trying to convert a blingo to lead acids, well that'le teach me won't it, cheers HARRY

[timpootle]

Sounds like yes it's the voltage sag upsetting the controller. So you (and we) have learned what not to do. Thanks for posting all this.

Don't give up yet, though. There are some clever bods on here, with more Lead Acid knowledge than me, who might be able to see what your mistake was and find an answer. Different cell type? Supercapacitors as well? I don't know, but we will all need an answer if these NiCads are slowly giving up and becoming irreplacable.

My own fortunes worth of Lithium may be in vain yet. I just need to get it rolling to find out.

[Grumpy-b]

without the battery temp the controller will be getting an error. SO the minimum you need to do is to stick a 20k resitor across the terminals of the wire.When the system reads a temp over 35c it brings on the eco light and cuts off the power. It also resets each time and re trips as you turn it on.
Grumpy-b

[harry morris]

Well thank you gentlemen, CHRIS, TIM, and GRUMPS, so you think I should carry on and find an answer for all of us so we can convert at reasonable cost to lead!!! thanks GRUMPS is that a 20 microfarad resistor for the battery sensor? and TIM you must not give up that long range thingy your doing perhaps just get the van running NORMALLY first!!! thanks again everyone, cheers HARRY