PowerUltra205 help needed. Won't power on, disconnected wire mystery location.

[dsptech]

I have a PowerUltra205 that is unable to power on.
This it the 2010 model I think.
A friend was Tig welding with it one day and forgot to put on the ground clamp on the stainless piece I was working on.
Told me when he touched the electrode to the piece he heard a pop from the box and the unit powered off and I haven't been able to get it to power on again.

I pulled the cover and on the right bottom rear I found a wire from the secondary side of the transformer just disconnected.
This is the transformer closet to the rear of the box.
I could solder it back to the board but I'm not sure where it is supposed to go.

[dsptech]

Here is a wider view and pic of the unit.
That wire has to connect someplace on that board near by as it's only so long and can't reach any other boards.
Also, that wire has continuity with the torch port.
The square pad at the bottom of the board with a hole in it has continuity with the work piece/ clamp port.

Can anybody with this version of the 205 pop their cover off and post a pic please?

[christian]

Yeah,

Your first instinct seems right, about the wire going to that spot, as it looks like it was soldered there, on that point, near the hole, shown in the second photo, close up. (I tried to post a a cropped portion of the image with an arrow, but the forum was finicky about do as much, somehow.)

Of course, wait for someone with that unit to confirm as much, if possible. But it seems like obvious to me.

If I were to re-solder it there, I'd bend the tip of the wire to give it some mechanical hooking action as a way to hold better in the solder.

And please do let us all know if re-soldering it back to that spot was the simple solution.

[performance]

Call our guys at ext 207

[dsptech]

christian,
I had to upload the pics to my own hosting and have them load remotely from there.
This forum limits images at a few hundred kilobytes and after resizing I still had problems.

Call our guys at ext 207

Mark,
I have multiple times but no one answers, just get through to voicemail.
No one has returned my call after leaving a message at that extension.
I had a couple of emails responded to but no help yet.

[christian]

Gee,

Now I'm thinking that it would more likely go right above that portion of the board with the hole.

You see that area with the fine, white line going to it. It looks like that had the wire tip soldered to it in a lateral way.

And it seems like the more natural spot that it reaches toward.

[dsptech]

That's my though as well.
It either goes to the pad with the hole or that clump of solder with the two yellow wires.
I have move that wire around though to make it stand out in the pics.
It was hanging lower when I originally found it.

[conway]

Mark,
I have multiple times but no one answers, just get through to voicemail.
No one has returned my call after leaving a message at that extension.
I had a couple of emails responded to but no help yet.

Unfortunately I had to try many times to finally get someone helpful but don't give up there are some good guys there to help. I went through a power on issue with my welder (211 si) and finally got it to turn on but now chasing other issues.

[dsptech]

I did receive an email from one of the guys.
It turns out that that one wire that was holding me up isn't needed at all.
The support rep said the tech he talked with said to just cut the wire, it's not needed.
So I double layers some heat shrink, coiled it up and zip tied it out of the way.
Went out to the garage and plugged it in to 120V (just to be on the safe side) and flipped the switch and it came to life.
I could have been using it a week sooner had I known.

Did do a test with stick and dialed it up to about 90 amps slowly to get some 6013 to start flowing but eventually I through a breaker.
Turned down the amps and reset the breaker and it came back to life again.
Really thrilled that I was able to repair it.
I'll get some pics up showing what I did to fix it and to protect it from potential issues with this model later.

[christian]

Nice, simple solution.

I had an inexpensive, dual-voltage CAT520 DC TIG-Plasma unit that I enjoyed for years (always used on 220v), and it was only a Mofset one. A friend has it now. So, I think "Combo" units can be good.

Of course, I did upgrade to an Everlast AC/DC TIG unit, which I like well. Interestingly, I've recently moved to a place that only has 110v power available at an unattached garage, where I do my welding, and which can be done at up to at least 125 amps, so far, without tripping a breaker. It may go higher without doing so, but that's all the amperage I've needed lately.

So, I'm finally utilizing the dual-voltage feature on a welder. I didn't think I would ever use that feature. But now I think I'll always want it in a unit, especially because some of the Everlast units seem to give a fair amount of amperage output on 110v power, and because it makes for outstanding portability in welding.

[dsptech]

I was using stick on a DC only machine and this was only the second time in my life trying to weld with stick.
I did manage to get a short bead going before she blew the breaker.
I was happy with that result considering this once dead unit was alive again.
After this test I brought it back in the house and checked the gap on the points and they were a bit too wide apart.
So I closed that gap some to 30 thousands and put the cover back on.
Next chance I get I'll try it again on 110 and 220V.