Problem with PP256

[Ron66]

I was repairing my neighbors aluminum mailbox post. I was having a lot of trouble keeping the torch in the right position and I think I overheated the HF points. I say this because after a while I couldn't start an arc, just the high frequency start voltage. I gave up. Then today I pulled the front cover and re-gapped the points and now I can get the arc started. Now I have a new problem. The pedal had no control over the current. I looked at the display and the display was going up and down in current with the machine just Idle. I disconnected the foot pedal and plugged in the torch and nothing changed. Any Ideas what to look at?

[Rambozo]

If you were getting HF only, the points were working properly as they only are used to provide HF. Letting it cool probably corrected something else. Give tech support a call on Monday. I don't see any other posts like this. Maybe give it a quick once over to check for loose plugs and such.

[Ron66]

So I was told that the behavior I was seeing in the video was the pulse unit being enabled so I took off the covers and here is what I found>
This wire, the ground (common pin of the pulse switch) had pulled out. I assume it goes into the right most position of the 4 position terminal connector. I didn't reconnect it because I am going to make it an inch longer but I need to grab some heat shrink at work.

Here is where that wire goes. The black wire in the center pin of the switch.
While in the machine I also found this>

Again it was too short to dress properly. I'm going to extend it too. I'm not sure it was grounding to the chassis because I still had control of the current but I think I just lucked out. I'm going to bring home plenty of wire and heat shrink and do a little better job of lengthening and dressing the cables so this doesn't happen again if I ever have to get in there to adjust the points. It would be nice if they were accessible from an access panel on the side of the machine but that would probably require an interlock switch to avoid lawsuits. Being an engineer myself I can appreciate the balance between cost and practicality. I can also appreciate how hard it is to get Chinese contract manufacturers to dress cable harnesses the same each time!

[Ron66]

All fixed up again.

[Rectified]

All fixed up again.

My unit does that too but eventually stops...so your repair worked?

[Ron66]

Works like new again.