Foot Pedal issue. PowerTig 200DX analog

[Challenger]

I have a 200 DX I believe it is the model that was around just before the digitals came around. Well anyways I recently fired it up and the foot pedal doesnt seem to be working. Its just acting like a switch basically with no amperage control. The work piece is grounded I know because I can strike an arc without the pedal hooked up(amperage control on the machine works when not using the pedal.) I've fiddled with amps on the machine, and the pedal control knob. Ive also tried turning all the other various knobs from 0 to full(AC Freq, and bal.) Also If I turn the pulse on the machine will weld to whatever I set the high, low, and frequency to(but the foot pedal still wont have control; just acts like a switch like say on the torch that came with the machine.)
Ive tried it with both the stock torch and a CK torch.

I looked around a bit and couldnt find any threads with issues like this.

Any ideas? Thank you

-Jim

[Rambozo]

You might want to open up the pedal. There is a belt that does the amperage adjustment, and maybe yours broke or slipped off the pulley. There are a few threads around here about testing the pedals and the pinouts for them.

[Challenger]

You might want to open up the pedal. There is a belt that does the amperage adjustment, and maybe yours broke or slipped off the pulley. There are a few threads around here about testing the pedals and the pinouts for them.

Well I can see through the port where the rubber track comes out of that it is still on the "gear". I dont really feel like opening it up until i get some kind of an approval that it wont void the warranty.

[Blaster]

Opening the pedal isn't ever going to void anything,,,, In Fact, it's such a poor device you'll be needing to "go in" often

They ended-up using a mis-match gear & belt (one is like 6T/in the other 5). It works, but only barely... Added to that the belt material belongs on a vacuum cleaner drive roller so it's WAY Too thick when it doesn't have to be for the load of a potentiometer. This means it' isn't as flexible as is should be.

I've drawn lines on the gear & belt to quickly determine when it's jumper again (I'm seriously considering putting a plastic window in the bottom of the pedal so I can check it each time I start welding).

There are posts about rounding the teeth on both the drive & belt, I done this and it's an improvement but no fix.

We should ALL be sent the proper belt and put an end to all this bother. It's Not our mistake!

[performance]

Foot pedals have a 6 month warranty. We have a new style out and also have the US built SSC controls pedal available. You might want to consider one of those.

[Blaster]

Nice attitude....

To save the cost of a supplying the proper $3.00 belt, Everlasts official position is "You've had your 6 months, you should consider buying a new one" - really????

Somewhere I know there exists the proper belt for the pedal. Maybe, with their vast resources, Everlast could point us in the right direction at least...

[performance]

The foot pedal was designed to be replaced as a whole unit, just like other brands. It doesn't have anything to do with attitude. We have no other alternative or individual parts available for that pedal. This pedal is made by the factory, and the parts are the parts they put together for it. Most users had no issues with this unit. If the unit was defective, it was replaced in its entirety. If it was out of warranty, then we'd offer an economical replacement.

You have your opinion of course, but the "package" that comes with the welder is a courtesy package, and is provided as a easy way to get started. It is expected that most customers will build and improve upon the package as they get more into it. These are basic, inexpensive items that are included for "free" to the unit.

[Blaster]

Mark, your forte is not Customer Service. You should really stick to what you're good at ~ the Technical aspects of welding/welders.

You're just making things worse, as you often do in these matters, by implying that Everlast is doing us a Favor by supplying a "courtesy package" of junk accessories and we have no real right to expect them to work properly

Let Oleg handle replies that require people skills....

[performance]

Blaster,
I've helped many, many people. You come and go here on this site, with infrequent comments so you have not stuck around to see how I/we have worked with customers behind the scenes and on the forum as well. Customer service is what I do everyday and have done since Oleg was in middle school. You don't get to see the mayday emails and pm's I get that get expediently handled when things are bungled. You have no idea what I do in the company and where I am at work. However, I've done it long enough to recognize that some customers, though we try to satisfy them, are never satisfied with the facts or the answers. I get passed customers all the time by Oleg. But You want me to sugar coat it for you? What does that do? I've laid out the truth and given the facts about it. That is the primary part of customer service....telling customers the truth, and then giving them the options. I am not going to promise to get the belt you think fits, because it is not available to our factory. You mention "vast resources"...but our resources are more limited compared to other companies. We operate on a different model and economy of scale. We are growing quickly, but the competition has a hundred years on us. China hasn't done an overall good job with foot pedals. Very few factories even offer them. Even Thermal ARC can't get a satisfactory one with MUCH More vast resources. The new one we have was a work that took two years.

This pedal in question is designed to be an economy pedal. It's design is cheaper, and not as reliable as our newer pedals. We've always offered a 6 month warranty on it. IF it is defective, we will replace it IF it is within that time frame...that is as good as you can get. You get a whole NEW pedal rather than suffering through sending in the unit for repair and then sending it back. It's more economical to you and to us. You'll find our accessory package warranty is not out of line with the industry, so a pedal after 6 months can be economically replaced...cheaper than a single part for a Miller pedal, if its available.

We do offer these as a courtesy to the customers, just as we offer a starter kit of consumables. We do not put top grade accessories with them...another fact. We have nicer and better stuff available. These days most of my customers choose upgraded or additional items at the time of purchase and its well known, and I inform them of the products available and the differences. I regularly supply/sell units with CK equipment and an SSC pedal, if not the deluxe Chinese version. Compare what you get from Miller with a more expensive welder like a Dynasty: NOTHING, ZILCH, NADA. You get the bare unit. We provide a start up package that we include in the box. Miller on their TIG packages do not. You pay for every item, or if you are lucky they offer several increasingly expensive packages at a price that is making them a healthy additional profit. From our perspective, we offer this package as a bonus and to get the customer started out of the box without extra expense. We also offer better and higher packages. We offer the economy pedal (the one you are talking about), the new deluxe Chinese pedal as an upgrade option, and the SSC pedal as an additional option. We've offered the newer deluxe pedal for about a year now, the SSC pedal for about 2+ years I believe.

[Blaster]

Mark - First let me say that I have tremendous respect for your welding knowledge & ability. I take your technical advice as the "word" all the time. I do understand the value of your customer service on those, technical, advice & instruction an am sure you're doing a great job with it.


BUT, "Sugar Coat"? OF COURSE sugar coating is a big part of the Human (non-technical) side of customer support. You response should be more like "We're sorry you're having trouble with our product, and although we strive for them to be perfect in every way, sometimes our Chinese subcontractors spec parts that are not". And a Really Good CS guy puts, at least, some effort into trying to find you the proper replacement part (if you say most people don't have the the problem, it's because not everybody got the wrong belt/gear in their pedal and wouldn't that make finding the right one even easier?)

What you're Not supposed to do it to say is something like;

We have a new style out and also have the US built SSC controls pedal available. You might want to consider one of those.

And blow-off a customers problem with a product you sold them.

The Whole POINT of "sugar coating" is to Not leave a Bad Taste in somebody's mouth and you're really not doing a good job at that with your responses.

You've heard the phrase about telling someone to "go to hell and leave them happy to be on-their-way....

[performance]

Blaster, the fact is that you don't understand how the factory works. We've looked at this before and discussed things ad nauseum...made various improvements that we are able to with it. A good CS guy knows what is possible and what "ain't". He doesn't have to "see"...he already has done the work and knows what can and can't be done, and doesn't blow smoke. Explaining all this over and over does no good...You have to forget everything you know when dealing with the Chinese distribution and manufacturing system. It is NOTHING like the US. The same belt has been used. It's an issue with manufacturing tolerances. Several people have "blue printed" their pedals and have had 0 issues after. That pedal is largely hand manufactured and without a automated system to do this, unlike our welders, can have differences, including the gear. The issue is more with the gear than the belt...

Let me put this further in perspective. I have a Ford Taurus. It has 165, 00 miles. Most of them have been one trouble or the other right after the 36,000 mile warranty ran out. Just put 400 dollars into a cracked fuel pump last week to add to the long list of things that have been wrong. The rear windows quit working about the 38,000 mark. I've had to replace the timing cover that was leaking (pouring) water, the cam shaft position sensor, the idle solenoid, the egr system, 4 batteries, 1 alternator, 1 water pump, 1 ac clutch, 1 ac fan, 1 ac resistor in the controls, 1 coil, 4 sets of spark plugs, 3 sets of wires, had intermittent cruise control issues, 1 broken intake spring, 1 PVC line,1 power steering pump, 1 idler tensioner pulley, 5 sets of tires which keep breaking the belts regardless of brand, replace brakes early, turn rotors and replace early as well, had rear windows worked on twice, had plastic interior deteriorate starting around 30k miles, chased mysterious oil and water leaks....all happened when the car was serviced better than the book called for.

Most/Many of the issues happened or started to happen right after the warranty went out. People say cars are good for 250-300k miles these days. I know they are as I have run many a car and truck well into the 200k range.

BUT...did Ford try to make me feel better? No. Did I want them to? Not really, even though I expected not to even start dealing with some of these issues until closer to the 200k mark. The car was out of warranty. Did they apologize when I walked many a time down to the very nice people at the dealership (and I do mean nice) that I was buying a new part (dealer only) from them? No...not on your life, nor did I expect them to. The warranty was out on the power train, and the 12k mile bumper to bumper was out in less than a year after it was bought new in 2003. The falling off pieces of plastic that should have lasted for the majority of people and the blown out courtesy lights didn't for us. But we managed, and knew it happens. No whining, no wishing the customer service guy would go out of his way to include some free fixes or write letters to the factory to find out why our car has had so many out of the ordinary issues. No telling them they weren't doing a good job etc. A warranty is a warranty is a warranty. If it fails within the warranty, I DO expect them to do better....but if it is out of warranty, I expect no apologies. An explanation or information about my options to correct the issue is nice. I know what it is going into it, and expect sympathy and apologies only until the car turned 35999 miles. After that, I took care of things on my own.

Of course, no one likes to see an issue. But that is not reality. And of course we don't WANT a product to fail or not perform satisfactorily for a customer. But an apology knowing there isn't a way to correct the situation or offer a better remedy is insincere at best. That is telling people to go to hell and leave them happy on their way. We've explored this issue. The facts are the facts. There is NO other rememdy for this economy pedal...except replacing it with a better one when it gives an issue IF the warranty is out. Most people would appreciate that from my considerable personal experience and opinion. MOST people don't want insincere apologies and promises that can't be delivered upon by the person knowing full well what the situation is and that nothing further can be done with it. I don't. I just want them to give me the best available options.

[Blaster]

Mark, I Love your car analogy (I''m a gearhead) but it doesn't seem to me that this is about parts that have worn after the warranty has run out.

From My perspective,,,, this pedal issue has cause me much frustration, time & effort. When examining what's going wrong (and here I'm sure you're better informed that I) it is clear that this is a manufacturing defect. A defect ANY car company wouldn't tell you there's no solution for and that you just have to "live with it" or "replace it".

The First 3 teeth are engaged. By the 4th things are going wrong. The 5th is rising up and the 6th is clearly out of engagement. They simply do not match one another and either another gear or belt would make it right. I've followed the "blueprinting" instructions I've found here and, as I said, it's only been an improvement not a real fix.

Somewhere there exists a thinner, more flexible, belt with the same Teeth Per Inch (mm) as the gear and I have no idea how to find that. I'm sure it would be a cheap thing to buy, especially in a quantity roll for someone in the business.

You're absolutely right, I have No Idea of the intricacies of having things manufactured in China. But, in my head, I see some middle management guy who's found that their supply of belt material in running low and has to make a substitute to keep production going. His careless choice of a "good enough" replacement has has caused this trouble for some time now

Are you saying there has Never Been a proper, matched, Gear & Belt in your pedal?

[Beginner]

6 months ago I bought a 200DX based solely on price. I knew where it was made and I have read all of the garbage about it on the internet. It turns out the Everlast unit is a good product and a good value. Some of the accessories could be improved upon such as the torch which has a really heavy cable and hose, but for the most part everything works pretty good. Even my pedal works good (I'm not sure which one I have-it was an upgraded unit to begin with based on a recommendation from Oleg) Personally, I think accessories should be seen as a bonus when purchasing a welder, and anyone who buys into a package should understand that premium accessories would need to be purchased after the fact.

Everyone always seems to have the answer to engineering problems with products, I say to those folks go out and build/market and sell your own product if it is that easy. I say kudos to Everlast for allowing me to afford a fully loaded TIG machine. The folks at Miller put their product so high up on a pedestal that ordinary hobby welders can't catch a break.

And no I am not affiliated with Everlast nor did I receive anything for this post. Have a great day.

[performance]

Exactly. You understand. Thanks. I believe you have the deluxe imported pedal. We have the SSC pedal available as well.

[Blaster]

The Very First thing I did was to purchase a new torch (two actually ~ a WC 250, and eventually an AC 130 - CK SuperFlex)

The torch that came with my PP256 is really pretty "clunky". But, it worked as a torch at least

[Challenger]

Foot pedals have a 6 month warranty. We have a new style out and also have the US built SSC controls pedal available. You might want to consider one of those.

So Im given no advice from Everlast besides buying another product from ya'll. This thread was completely derailed from my original point which was simply asking for advice on trouble shooting it(btw no I couldnt fix it with any of the suggestions.)

The only advice I received was from a member not everlast staff or moderators. And then in the back ground there is discussion of the quality of customer service...haha

[performance]

There's no parts sold for that pedal through Everlast and most are unique and specific to that pedal so in depth troubleshooting becomes sort of a moot point. From what you described it sounds as a completely bad pot. Now you may be able to source one elsewhere, but shaft length, and turns become critical. We have multiple threads on troubleshooting these pedals and did not originally see that you had mentioned that you had "looked" for one and I thought that you had probably done some research, which is why I did not go into detail. The only thing that could be wrong outside of that is that the cog has come completely loose with either a stripped thread in the set screw on the plastic cog or backed out someway allowing the cog to spin freely on the pedal. It would be unlikely that some change would not occur as friction should offer some rotation. You can check continuity between pins 1 and 2. Cycling the pedal up and down should activate the switch between these two pins giving continuity, then breaking it as it is switched off. Then pressing down on the pedal, check between pins 3 and 4 and then between 4 and 5 and watch the ohms as they go up and down from 0 to 47k on one side and 47 to 0k from the other (or 22k if the unit has the knob on it). (Needle meter is best) One side should go up and the other side should go down...both should do so smoothly without jerks or hesitation. If they do not, it is either a loose pot cog/frozen pot, broken belt, stripped belt, or a pot with dead spots on it.

[bmeyer6472]

As to the original thread: I just got a new 200DX yesterday, and I'm having a similar problem. The first few beads I ran were on steel, and the pedal worked as it should. When I switched over to AC, the pedal acted like an on/off switch. I dunno what would cause that, and I have not tried welding on DC since so I don't know if the pedal still works on DC. But bottom line is that on AC the pedal does not control the amperage. I have an email in to technical support about the issue, and will report on what I hear back, probably next week, as I don't think they answer emails on weekends. BTW the pedal came with the machine, but I don't know if it's a deluxe pedal or not - for sure it's not the one made in USA.

Stay tuned - I'll try to remember to post what I hear.

Bob

I just read what Mark said about testing the pedal between pins 3 and 4 and then 4 and 5. My pedal goes from 0-47K ohms between 3 and 4, but stays at zero between 4 and 5, so I guess the pedal is bad. I'll see what tech support has to say. I'm beginning to think that buying a quality pedal might be a good idea. :-)

[Datsun1973]

Get the SSC pedal. Well worth the money. I have tried mine on AC and DC and it's just as good as Miller or lincoln units

[bmeyer6472]

Get the SSC pedal. Well worth the money. I have tried mine on AC and DC and it's just as good as Miller or lincoln units

The latest from tech support is that I definitely have a bad pedal - :-( BTW, customer support on this has been excellent. Very quick response and helpful attitude. FWIW, this experience is a huge contrast to the customer support I received from Longevity, which was basically zero. Just in case anyone is interested.

Mark tells me that the latest Chinese pedal is similar in design and function to the SSC pedal and while there are differences, they've had very good luck with the new design. So I'm wondering if spending the extra money for the SSC is worth it for a hobby welder like me. I like good tools, but I'm not made of money - anyone out there that has used both pedals and can tell me the advantage if any, of the SSC pedal over the latest Chinese design?