Charging a 13s pack

[justaperson76]

It's highly unlikely that the controller is only literally 48v, and almost certainly works perfectly fine with 14s (52v nominal, 58v full). If you're uncertain, and are willing to open the controller up, you can check the capacitors on the FET side of it and the largest ones on the battery end, and the FETs themselves, for their max voltages. (post pics that show the numbers on the parts and we can help you find the ratings.)

Ok I have opened up the controller and checked the FETs and capacitors. I will post pics. Is this something that could handle 14p?

 

[amberwolf]

Ok I have opened up the controller and checked the FETs and capacitors. I will post pics. Is this something that could handle 14p?

The FETs G055N08N
http://www.szhxmos.com/uploads/soft/2101/HYG055N08NS1C2.pdf
are listed as 80v, so tehy should easily handle the 58v full of a 14s pack with at least 20v of margin.

I can't see the voltage markings on any of the capacitors (cans wrapped in heatshrink), so dont' know if those are high enough voltage. The main ones to check are the largest ones at the left end, and the various-sized ones along the FETs. If they are 63v or higher, they'll work; better if they are 100v or higher.

The smaller ones on the areas of the board opposite the FETs are usually not exposed to direct battery voltage, so don't need to be rated as high.

 

[justaperson76]

Thanks amberwolf.

I took some more pictures and had a look. It's still a bit hard to see. The black caps along near the fets it says 50v. There's a little red one near the battery that is 100v. There's also a 25v and 16v one but they're obviously irrelevant. I'll probably just try it and see, I think other people with similar controllers have had success.

 

[amberwolf]

The 50v ones near the FETs must not be on the main battery rail; they couldn't handle the regular 13s voltage much less anything higher (they would work for a 10s 36v battery).

The biggest caps are 63v, and those are the main battery input caps, plus the one that's on it's side by the FETs; so they will handle up to a 14s "52v" (58v full) pack, though I personally prefer higher margin than that.

I'm not sure but those small black rectangular surface mount devices that seem to be in parallel with several of the can style capacitors may also be capacitors. They will have voltage ratings on them, too; the capacitance value numbers on them may be marked like the red "chiclet" style one rather than straightforward "uF", where 104 is 0.1uF (rated in picofarads pF; 104 is 10 with 4 zeros, so 10000pf, 105 is 1uF, etc) .

None of them seem to be in high-voltage areas, so probably don't matter for your question.

 

[justaperson76]

Thanks again. That gives me confidence. It's not the end of the world if it blows but will see how it goes anyway.