# Curtis 1204 doesn't work - intermittent problem



## BigAlum (Jun 12, 2008)

Took the controller out of Dad's farm EV, a modified EZ-GO golf cart. Opened it up, and couldn't find any burns or blown-up components, but the lower end cap had cracked and sagged open and let dirt in. Not real bad, since it was at the bottom end and somewhat self-cleaning. I have blown out the dust and am ready to put it all back together. Now, I am thinking the problem lies in the high-pedal disable feature of this controller. Before removal, I had checked voltage at the input and output terminals, and determined that as the pedal was depressed, input voltage at the controller dropped as if there were a load applied, but there was no output voltage except for a very small surge, then nothing. Occasionally, the surge was just enough that the vehicle could be felt to "try" to move, then stop - all proportional to the readings at the output terminals. Voltage at the inputs dropped to about 12v (this is a 36v system) and stabilized until the pedal was released. Is this normal behavior if the high-pedal disable switch is stuck? Any other ideas? Controller bad? Curtis manual had troubleshooting guide, but doesn't cover HPD feature well at all. Thanks!


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## rwaudio (May 22, 2008)

BigAlum said:


> Took the controller out of Dad's farm EV, a modified EZ-GO golf cart. Opened it up, and couldn't find any burns or blown-up components, but the lower end cap had cracked and sagged open and let dirt in. Not real bad, since it was at the bottom end and somewhat self-cleaning. I have blown out the dust and am ready to put it all back together. Now, I am thinking the problem lies in the high-pedal disable feature of this controller. Before removal, I had checked voltage at the input and output terminals, and determined that as the pedal was depressed, input voltage at the controller dropped as if there were a load applied, but there was no output voltage except for a very small surge, then nothing. Occasionally, the surge was just enough that the vehicle could be felt to "try" to move, then stop - all proportional to the readings at the output terminals. Voltage at the inputs dropped to about 12v (this is a 36v system) and stabilized until the pedal was released. Is this normal behavior if the high-pedal disable switch is stuck? Any other ideas? Controller bad? Curtis manual had troubleshooting guide, but doesn't cover HPD feature well at all. Thanks!


It actually sounds more like a bad connection on the battery side, or bad batteries. If you have a bad connection in the battery system, you may still get the full ~36v reading until you try and draw current through the bad connection, then it will drop drastically due to the high resistance connection. It would also match your symptoms of it trying to move but nothing happens, as there wouldn't be enough current from the batteries to do more than just try to make it move. Clean/tighten/check all terminals/cables, and if possible load test the individual batteries.


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## BigAlum (Jun 12, 2008)

Thanks rwaudio! I'll give it a shot as soon as I can. We've been running it with resistor speed control and this seems to be much less efficient than the digital control. Maybe getting only about half the range...


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