2007 GEM - Cant get it to charge!

GEM Forum
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Got it - thanks. For the record - I let 126 run until I got the 4 blinks again. Interestingly, the voltage of each battery went up from 12.3 to about 12.6… and my voltage at the main contactor is now 76.1, so your theory of the charger working, but not finishing makes sense.

These are maintenance free sealed wet cells, so no water to check, and I am not hearing any bubbles. I suspect the charger is never getting out of its initial trickle charge stage, and it shuts off after 4 hours of not seeing what it thinks it should see from an AGM.

I am in Phoenix, so hopefully there is someone in the area who can help with the profiles. I will go through the manual charging process and report back.

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Sounds like starting batteries to me.

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Wow- that is also a weird profile. What is V doing when charging?

Do you have a relationship with the dealer that serviced it last?
If they are reasonably local see what they would charge. Hopefully they would do it right this time.

Also note that charging with an external batt charger will mess with the bar graph SOC display on your dash pod. Don’t worry about that for now. That can be recalibrated when the charger gets all sorted out.

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@Inwo - seems like it, right? But they are stamped DC-31 on the top, and they are described by the manufacturer as a deep cycle golf cart battery. DC31 | Base Site. Not sure why I can only find them in Austrailia… They appear to be a Korean battery.

@AssyRequired - Yep - I have spoken to the dealer - they are about 45 minutes away, so if I cannot get it figured out, I will haul it over there. Just trying to avoid the expense.

Sorry - those voltages were while the charger was about 3 hours into its charge, still on. It seems to have dropped to about 12.45-ish after I got the 4 blink code again.

Interesting statement about the bar graph… when it died on me it went from 100% full, instantly to 2 red bars, and quickly went to one bar. I wonder if it is already way out of calibration? Any chance there is a feedback that is telling the charger not to charge?

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I am not the expert but it was explained to me as just a counter that keeps track of the amps flowing out and going back in and displays battery State of Charge. It might have some sort of correction factor related to monitored volts to get it to drop like you noted.

Any chance there is a feedback that is telling the charger not to charge?

No- The SOC is independent and separated from the Charger.

Late night thought…
The only feedback that would influence the charger is a battery temp sender usually found nutted to one of the battery terminals. It will have two wires going to a tab or lug like object. Do you have one of those? Or do you have a couple stray wires in the battery compartment not going to anything? Look for Or/BL and Or/Bk floating around.

I think the charger would get really upset without it.

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Good idea. 126 may not need the sensor.
It’s recommended that non-controlled profiles have sensor bypassed. As I recall.

Is that considered an sla battery? @Old_Houseboater

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Ok, 100%. But previously you said you have not been able to get car to charge. Check all the connections.

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Not a Deka DC31 DT? Which is a US made flooded marine deep cycle battery (The caps that look sesled actually unscrew). But an actual korean Delkor battery, that is typically only sold in Australia and New Zealand and doesn’t appear to be distributed in the US?

I mean stranger things have happened, but seems odd to have a battery from the opposite side of the planet.

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Yep - the battery temp sensor is attached to a B- terminal, and I re-seated the connections just to make sure. 126 has a little * next to it, which indicates that it is a temperature compensated algorithm based on the info I found on it…https://support.delta-q.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/360014847892/Battery_Charge_Algorithms.pdf

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OK - sorry about the delay… It looks like since I am a noob to the forum, I am limited to 11 posts in a 24 hour period?

@inwo - Correct - the battery status indicator shows 100% charged when the batteries are at 12.3-ish volts each. I plug it in, and it looks like it is charging for 4 hours, then I get 4 red flashes. While it is attempting to charge, the measured voltage increases to about 12.6-ish each, and then after I get the 4 red flashes they settle back down to about 12.45. But the entire time I see 100% charged on the display.

@JarJarJava - Seems odd - right? The seller told me they were Deka, but they do not quite match the look of Deka batteries (they have an integrated flip-up handle and an integrated LED status indicator), they are stamped with “made in korea” and they look identical to the Delkor batteries. But there are no labels on them, so it is a little tough to tell.

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@traviswright when you are stating battery voltages, please indicate if you have measured ALL batteries and you are averaging or if you only measured across one or two batteries(not recommended). One bad battery can throw the whole system off and the rest of the batteries don’t get fully charged.

And if there is liquid acid you need to mention to validated all batteries are properly topped off with distilled water.

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@dougl - Thanks for the response. To be clear, these are sealed, maintence free flooded batteries. No opportunity to top off.DC31 | Base Site

Good point about checking all of the batteries. I have taken readings on all of the batteries, but lately as I have been talking in this forum I have generally been accessing the four that are under the seat. At the moment I am charging all six with a 12v automotive charger, one at a time, and taking readings on each as I finish. I also picked up a small handheld battery analyzer https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M0ARG3X/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and I am getting “good battery” readings on the 5 of 6 that I have tested so far. I will test #6 as soon as I finish with the 12v charge.

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I hope you are seeing more like ~14V on each battery when you are charging that battery with the external single-battery charger. You should not be seeing 15V or more on a battery and once fully charged, if you let it sit for ~1-2 hours and then make a voltage measurement on it you will then get a bit of status on its state. Not sure about sealed batteries but flooded batteries should be in the 12.7V range when 100% charged and in good condition. 12.2V and 12.3V with no load is a pretty depleted battery and you’d not want to run it at that voltage unless you really need to because you’re on the edge of harming the chemical composition.

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When all are known full is a good opportunity to set soc to 100%

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I think the problem is the dealer added the profiles to an original gem charger. The gem profiles are proprietary to Gem. My guess is that the added non gem profiles are not compatible with the gem software.

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If this is the case, a software upgrade and new profiles loaded would solve the problem. Or you have a bad charger.

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@lithiumgods - That makes a lot of sense. Do you know how I get a software upgrade and new profiles loaded? I was thinking of picking up a QuiQ programming kit and doing it myself… Can I do that on a GEM charger?

Well, good news - After manually charging each battery for a couple of hours each, I was able to start a charge, and I got the 80% light after about 3 hours. Then left it charging overnight and I got a green light this morning! Battery voltages are: 13.27, 13.14, 13.21, 13.20, 12.89, 12.88, and the main contactor has 79.0. I actually unplugged and re-plugged in the charger, and got another green light after about an hour. So that all feels good.

The odd thing is that when I start a charging, it will go through the LED cycle, turn on the AC light, and then I get a flashing light on #1. It will eventually go to a solid #1 after a couple hours, and then shift back to a flashing #1, but I have never seen it go to #2, 3,4,5,6. Is that normal?

I am considering shifting back to profile 13 to see if I get different results - what do you all think?

Thanks a ton for all of your help - this group is awesome!

Update1 - Recalibrated the SOC - thanks for the suggestion @Inwo. Went for a nice 10 mile drive… all was going well, the battery LED had dropped to about 60%, and then it suddenly went to one red bar, and turtle mode. Got it back home and plugged in again… we will see if it picks up the charge again, or if I get 4 blinkng lights again!

Update2 - Back to square 1 - I have the 4 blinking lights again. I am inclined to think @LithiumGods is correct…

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Maybe battery is full.

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@Inwo - I am not sure I understand… do these lights indicate amperage output of the charger? so 1 is the lowest amperage, and 6 is the highest?

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Travis- Yes. After a quick run around the block the charger should ramp up for at least a little bit and come back down.

It might be that 126 is programmed to intentionally hold it back or it also is wonky.
That’s why I was sniffing out the temp sender. Maybe we should put a meter on it and see if it is within spec?

But we really should get that charger loaded with the correct profile.
Where are you located?