Clarke 130EN not feeding

[Adamvass]

Please help, I feel like I have tried everything and close to giving up.

I borrowed a Clarke 130EN from someone locally and after a few weeks of working perfectly, it suddenly stopped working.

The machine powers on and the fan (turbo) engages but when pulling the trigger, nothing...not even the relay clicks.
I have power to the PCB, and replaced the transformer as I couldn't get continuity across the primary.
If it remove the cover from the relay and hold down the switch, everything works.
If i put an external 12v to the relay, it switches.
It seems like I am not getting the 12v to the relay that I need, but I can't seem to understand what provides 12v to the relay

 

[OJCar]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Paging @eddie49 ( the man to ask on this sort of thing).

 

[Hutcho]

Have you got voltage at he transformer ? Does the relay click ? If you got 240v going you should see something coming out off the transformer

 

[Adamvass]

Yes, 250v to the transformer.
Should I have 12v to pin 1 and 5 (torch inputs) on the ocb?

 

[Hutcho]

Test here - should see I think it’s 15v ac out if I remember right

 

[eddie49]

Post #3 of this thread has a wiring layout for the E1292 PCB:

151en wire feed drive motor

Does anyone know what voltage the wire feed motor for a 151en is? Clarke service are saying its 24v and when i take a reading on lowest wire speed to hight wire speed it ranges from 6v-26v. Which also leads me to believe its a 24v motor. But on the pcb to transformer is 12v and the relay is also...

www.mig-welding.co.uk

and yes, the contacts of the torch trigger switch do bridge across Pins 1 and 5 of the white plug.
With mains power on and the trigger not pulled, you should see about 12v across those two pins. When you press the trigger those pins will be shorted together, the volts there will drop to zero, and the relay will pull in ( theoretically ! ). However, the relay is marked DC, so there must be a diode somewhere in the circuit... ?
As Hutcho said, after you replaced the small transformer due to the primary being burned out, did you confirm there is output from the secondary?

 

[Adamvass]

I'll go check now. So checking AC voltage across both secondary pins?

 

[eddie49]

There should be about 12 or 15 v AC across the secondary.
[ Some of the replacement plastic-potted transformers have two secondaries, both 0 - 12v, in whch case they are usually wired in parallel.]

 

[Adamvass]

Across the primary terminals 0v
Across the secondary terminals 0v

But..

+to primary terminals, - to neutral and I get ~250v
+to secondary terminals, - to neutral and I get ~50v

 

[Adamvass]

The transformer i installed was a block vb 1,0/1/1
230vac primary
12v 1va secondary

 

[eddie49]

According to the diagram I linked in Post #6, the AC mains input to the PCB is on push-on tags J3 and J4.
With the meter leads on those tags ( brown - Live, blue - Neutral ), you should see 230 v AC.

With the meter set to AC, the "+" and "-" are not relevant.
On the primary of the small transformer, you should see 230v AC across the two pins on the printed tracks, and they are fed from the J3 and J4 tags.
On the secondary, there is complete isolation, so the 12v is measured across both output pins. There is no reference to the Neutral of the AC mains.

 

[Adamvass]

Correct. I have 230v there from the main on/off switch

 

[Adamvass]

So maybe the new transformer does not have a good connection on the soldering? I did have to drill new holes (red circles) on the pcb as the pins were in different locations

is there anything that triggers the transformer to work or will the secondary always have 12v when primary has 230v?

 

[eddie49]

Yes, it might be poor or no connection to the original tracks.
If you power off and unplug the machine, you can check the resistance of the primary coil across J3 and J4. It may be quite high, perhaps two or three thousand Ohms, so start on the 20K range.

 

[Adamvass]

Primary left side - 3.7kohms to J3, 4.2kohms to J4
Primary right side - 0.2ohms to J3, 565ohms to J4
I have a fluke 115 so auto range

 

[Adamvass]

Ah man, I feel dumb right now. I just noticed the left primary terminals is also in a different hole which isn't even connected to the track.

I will resolder both primaries tomorrow and see if i get power to secondary

 

[Hutcho]

Pmsl - should off used that pic first lol - I thought in the first pic it didn’t look like the solder joints had been touched - link wire will sort either side or both will do the job .

 

[Adamvass]

To give an update. I resoldered the connection for the primary to connect it to the track, plugged everything back in and IT WORKS!

Thank you everyone for your help, I was close to giving up and you helped me through it so I can get back to welding my car again.

In summary...for anyone searching the forums for this issue in the future:
Fault: No wire feed or arc, no click from the PCB relay.
Diagnosis: Encapsulated transformer on the PCB was replaced and problem solved.

 

[OJCar]

Thank you everyone for your help, I was close to giving up and you helped me through it so I can get back to welding my car again.

Now you can start a thread about your car project.

 

[Adamvass]

Now you can start a thread about your car project.

Ooo good idea. I have taken 100GB of videos so far and do plan to post it on YouTube once I've actually finished the car.
Replaced both sills and rear quarter panels with some fabricated parts along the way.