Hi all,
I picked up an ESAB C200i welder a few months ago, i was told it wasnt operational and he was quoted £700 to fix it. So, took it home, opened it up and low and behind, the LCD panel was disconnected on the front. Reconnected it, it booted straight back up and welded perfectly on gasless wire (As perfectly as a gasless wire weld can be).
I then swapped it out for some proper Esab 12.51 Autrod wire in, reversed the polarity in the machine (Then reversed it back as the previous user apparently hadn't bothered), connected up some pure C02 and low and behold, it welded like it was set to about 50 amps. I can just get away with a weld on some 0.8-1mm plate when cranked up to 19v. It states its welding at 190a on the screen (Photo attached of the display whilst welding).
So i took some readings, and it turns out open circuit voltage is 44.4v (Service manual states it should be 58v), and DC bus voltage is around 310-320v from memory, again manual states it should be 390-400V. Im assuming this is my problem.
My next question is, how do i fault find this further. The control PCB controls the buck boost controller on the power pcb to regulate the DC bus voltage, but without knowing what the control specs are supposed to be, how do i diagnose between a faulty control pcb and a faulty power pcb?
All components seem to be intact, caps all look good. Machine generally doesnt look like its had much use.
The two photos show LCD display whilst welding, and an example of a gasless weld on the left, VS the same settings with the gas wire on the right.
Thanks in advance
Rich
I picked up an ESAB C200i welder a few months ago, i was told it wasnt operational and he was quoted £700 to fix it. So, took it home, opened it up and low and behind, the LCD panel was disconnected on the front. Reconnected it, it booted straight back up and welded perfectly on gasless wire (As perfectly as a gasless wire weld can be).
I then swapped it out for some proper Esab 12.51 Autrod wire in, reversed the polarity in the machine (Then reversed it back as the previous user apparently hadn't bothered), connected up some pure C02 and low and behold, it welded like it was set to about 50 amps. I can just get away with a weld on some 0.8-1mm plate when cranked up to 19v. It states its welding at 190a on the screen (Photo attached of the display whilst welding).
So i took some readings, and it turns out open circuit voltage is 44.4v (Service manual states it should be 58v), and DC bus voltage is around 310-320v from memory, again manual states it should be 390-400V. Im assuming this is my problem.
My next question is, how do i fault find this further. The control PCB controls the buck boost controller on the power pcb to regulate the DC bus voltage, but without knowing what the control specs are supposed to be, how do i diagnose between a faulty control pcb and a faulty power pcb?
All components seem to be intact, caps all look good. Machine generally doesnt look like its had much use.
The two photos show LCD display whilst welding, and an example of a gasless weld on the left, VS the same settings with the gas wire on the right.
Thanks in advance
Rich