Battery charger for disabled person buggy thing, failed

[dave]

My father in law has one of those (deadly) electric buggy things for getting about. He was stranded in the High St the other days - flat battery. I took a look at the charger of course and it has a red led that's flashing and sticker that says "If this light flashes, charger is faulty". Inside is a control board (several transistors inc two power devices on a heat sink and a 20A fuse (intact). Nothing obviously broken or disconnected so without a circuit diagram there is little I can do to fix it.

The charger is 24v @ 3 amps so I was wondering if there is anything special about these chargers - I mean it terms of safety of use? Do they revert to trickle charge if battery left on charge most of the time? Do they have to be well regulated to satisy any electronics in the buggy itself? Do they have to be short circuit output proof or anything like that?

Anyone know where I can get a replacement? (The shop want £££ for a new one apparently).

Of course it could be there is a fault on the buggy that has zapped the charger...

Thanks for any advice.

ps the power output lead terminates in what I think is more usually used for audio leads - an XLR plug.

[dave]

you can find the on ebay, normally looking in mobility scooters section. around £30 +p&p. not had to buy one as my scooter is working okay but that is the first place I would look after seeing prices shops charge. Dave

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Are you sure of that figure? These buggies usually have lead acid batteries which can be charged at a much higher rate than that - 3 amps is almost a trickle charge, and wouldn't surely do an overnight charge from flat? And I'm not sure why it would have a 20 amp fuse if the rate is so low. Sure it's not 240v @ 3 amps mains rating?

It can almost certainly be repaired. Has it a large transformer or is it a switch mode device? If a large and heavy transformer the first thing to check is an AC output from that. SMPS are more complicated but in a low volume device like this still likely to be repairable at a lower than new cost.

A poor choice IMHO - any connector for this purpose should pull out, not latch.