100 amps at 42 volts is 4.2 kW. Allowing for conversion losses and AC
80% of circuit rating practice (NEC 220-2), you're looking at over 5
kW supply for that charger. That's getting into the range of a Level
2 EVSE.
So, not for a regular wall plug, but more like a range or electric
clothes dryer or central air conditioner circuit.
The OEM Elec-Trak battery boiler charger isn't my favourite for a
bunch of reasons, and keeping them operational is well down the list.
Are you charging lead-acid or NiCd in that tractor?
Darryl
On 2023-10-29 5:12 p.m., Chris Zach via Elec-trak wrote:
Well, after a fair amount of work, removing the clunker contactor
(which would not close), bypassing 2A to 1a to get me into speed3,
and a final push to fix the junk charger the E15 is operational-ish
again.
Biggest challenge is the charger: It's just too much of a pain to try
and charge the 36 volt pack with a 12 volt smart charger (30a). It
takes all day, and is a real pain to hook up. So I needed a 36 volt
charger. Which really doesn't exist in the 30a range that the
Elec-trak's charger runs. Guess it's the way the world works, but
even the Lester chargers are only 20a. To be honest I need 100a or so
to properly charge the E20, might just have to build my own charger
for this.
But in the meantime I still had that wrecked one I pulled out of the
E20: One of the diodes was bad and the whole thing is just an ugly
mess. So it sat by the woodpile all summer, I dragged it out of the
weeds, cleaned it up, and installed a really nice 4 diode plate from
a 12 volt 150 amp manual Sears charger that died. They had wired 4
diodes into the transformer, I'm guessing they were doing a parallel
pair of 12 volt center tapped windings to save wire or something.
Regardless I put them in parallel pairs of two and hooked them up to
the charger core. The center tap is negative, the lug on the diode
heat sink is positive.
Wired it into the timer circuit, plugged it in (from a distance) and
got the 42 volt DC open circuit voltage. Put it in the E15, and now I
have a nice solid little charger. Will check the timer in an hour to
make sure it's moving/turns off the charge.
So. The E15 runs. Not well but it does run. Speaking of which if your
tractor is ever stuck you *can* make it go by jumpering the left side
control lug of the top left contactor (L) to +36 volts. Note that's
the little bolts on the front, not the big one on the side. That
should get the tractor moving, put it in speed 1 so you have field
current, jumper and drive it back to your work shed.
C
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