Golf trolley controller

[flagooner]

Hi can anyone help me please I want to replace my Powakaddy Freeway controller which has two cables coming from the speed control ( black & red ) with a controller which has a four pin cable set up.I have opened the new controller and the four wires are connected thus Yellow to K1
Green to TS
Red to DJ
Black to Gnd.

I assume I connect my old black cable to the GND but where do I connect my red + cable?

Thank you for any help you can give me.

 

[(*steve*)]

I would tend to read the instructions at this point.

 

[flagooner]

golf trolley

problem is I don't have any instructions

 

[(*steve*)]

In that case, give us more information.

What sort of controller is the old one (preferably part number and model)? What sort of motor does it drive? What is the part number for the new one? Where did you get the new one from? If the "new" one came from some other device, what what it controlling?

 

[flagooner]

Hi thank you for your help.The old controller is made by Inovatec Design and is a 12v DC controller model D2014-6 Iss 1 It drives a 12volt golf cart motor via battery.I bought the new controller from a golf store on E bay.I cannot see the part number of the new one as it is sealed.I have taken one end off to look at the connections involved and there are 8 solder points on the board with a yellow wire to K1 a green wire to TS a red wire to DJ with a black wire to gnd. I only have two wires on my old controller .Red to sig 12v+ and blue to-v. thank you again

 

[(*steve*)]

Are you saying your old controller only has 2 wires connected to it? Googling "Inovatec Design" doesn't bring up any useful hits

Does it connect between the battery and the motor with no connections to anything else? Perhaps you can draw a picture of how it connects up

The abbreviations mean nothing to me. Have you contacted the seller on ebay to ask for wiring instructions?

 

[flagooner]

No both controllers have battery and motor connections which I can sort out.The cable I am talking about comes from the variable speed switch on the handle of the golf trolley.The old controller had two connections Blue & red to the circuit board of the controller.The new circuit board has four connections. Yellow,Green,red and black.I am thinking of connecting the blue negative from the potentimeter to the black ground and the red + from the potentimeter to the red marked DJ on the new cicuit board.

 

[(*steve*)]

I would really beware of connecting things up willy-nilly. You could end up making smoke.

 

[flagooner]

golf trolley

Hi thank you for good advice.I have now had a response from the guy who I bought the controller from.He says the wiring is as follows:

The black lead to the first pin on the potentiometer, back to the on off switch and on to the EDC button. ( EDC is electronic distance control which my trolley does not have )

2nd wire is yellow and leads to the other terminal on the on off switch.

3rd wire is green and leads to the 2nd pin on the poteniometer

4th wire is red and leads to the other pin on the EDC button.

My wiring is as follows: Blue cable from potentimeter to plug.Red cable from on/off switch to plug.

Can I therefore feel safe to connect my Blue cable to Green and Red cable to Yellow?

thank you

 

[(*steve*)]

Lets get a naming scheme so it sounds less like "colour by numbers"

The motor controller (MC) has 4 wires:

MCbk (black) which sounds like the ground connection
MCy (Yellow) which sounds like start/stop
MCr (Red) which sounds like a speed control
MCbe (Blue) which id EDC and I'm not sure what that is (does it measure distance, or perhaps cause it to stop after a certain distance?)

Then on your Golf cart controls (GC) you have

GCr (red) to the on/off switch
GCb (blue) to the potentometer

Whilst it seems that MCy should connect to GCr, and MCr should connect to GCb, a connection to MCbk seems to be required.

Is the metal of the golf cart itself the common connection between the GC controls?

If you connect a multimeter (on an ohms range) between GCr and the cart, do you see a connection formed when you press the start button?

Similarly, do you see a variable resistance between the cart and GCb when you do whatever is required to change the speed setting?

Thirdly (and this may be independent of the others above) If you take a reading between the CGr and CGb cables, do you see a connection of any sort which only exists when the start button is on, and which changes resistance as you move the speed control?

If the first two are as I expect (so should the last one, but it's not significant) then you probably need to connect MCbk to the metal of the cart -- but be careful in case another part of the controller is grounded (although this seems unlikely since this point is labelled gnd according to your description).

As long as MCbe can be left disconnected, the cart should now do *something*.

However there is another potential problem. The potentiometer controlling the speed on your golf cart may not have the value that is required for the new controller. It is possible that all of the speed control will happen over a very short range of the speed controllers movement, or that it goes flat out with little control over speed. If either of these occur, then the pot may need to be changed to a value which suits the motor controller.

I presume your golf cart is powered from a small lead acid battery. These can deliver an amazing amount of current, and the risk is that if the controller is wired incorrectly, that current may be allowed to flow somewhere it should not, and damage may result.

Be very sure that you're happy that the connections are correct before you attach the battery. If the golf cart has a fuse for the battery, it may be a good idea to replace that with a much smaller one for your "smoke test" (when you first attach the battery) so that (hopefully a incorrect wiring will low the fuse before it destroys anything else).

 

[flagooner]

golf trolley

Hi thank you very much for your help.Here is where I am at:

Finally connected MCbk( black ) and MCr( red ) together and connected these to GCb(blue)

Then MCy(yellow) to GCr(red)

Trolley motor runs but no control over speed as you said may happen.

I now have the green cable not connected ( blue) in you last reply.

Could I connect this green in any way to give me variable speed?

thank you

 

[(*steve*)]

Go back and look at how I recommended you test the controls on the golf cart. What you discover there will be crucial in determining how to connect this up.

Connecting MCbk and MCr together will mean the speed cannot be adjusted. Does the motor run at full speed, at a dead slow speed, or somewhere in-between?

 

[flagooner]

golf trolley

Thanks Steve I am now buying the correct potentimeter and distance control button so all shoule be ok thank you for your help

 

[(*steve*)]

That sounds like the most reliable option. Good luck