DIY tig pedal

[loply]

Pedal wired in series?

You would need a switch to swap the 2 wiper wires, the other 2 wires could be connected to both pots.

The main issue, is the board was probably not designed for a remote input. Running the signals out will pick up the HF signal, induced welding currents and noise the board probably has no protection from.

Not exactly sure what you mean about swapping the wiper wires?

Just to explain... The 'power' is controlled by a simple potentiometer which outputs a voltage into a digital circuit, which simply uses the voltage as a signal. It's probably something like 0-10v and virtually no current.

I was thinking about taking the output from this, and rather than letting it go directly into the PCB like it does at the moment, rerouting it via the foot pedal which does the same thing to it again, ie pipes it through a three-pin potentiometer which will vary it between 0v and it's maximum (which would be set by the first pot).

Hence my description 'adding a second potentiometer in series'.

My only unknown aspect is whether, as a welder not designed for variable power welding, there is something it will be lacking in terms of circuitry or power delivery which will prohibit this from working.

Perhaps there is only one way to find out

 

[Wedg1e]

My only unknown aspect is whether, as a welder not designed for variable power welding, there is something it will be lacking in terms of circuitry or power delivery which will prohibit this from working.

Perhaps there is only one way to find out

Indeed, though as Shenion says, you may find that radiated EMF from the trailing wires gets picked up and added to that 'very low current' you mentioned, to become a signal that you didn't want to input

My TIG works in the way you've described, incidentally: set the max. power required on the front panel and the pedal then varies it from zero (well about 10A) to that maximum. However... I have found that, for some reason, the TIG loses a few Amps off its top-end that way - it'll go a bit higher if you unplug the pedal.

 

[pedrobedro]

I saw somewhere on the internet, might even have been on here, where someone had made a foot pedal for a basic inverter arc welder which worked like a car accelerator with a cable in it and actually turned the knob on the front of the machine. It was basic but seemed to work for him.

 

[t0m]

I've been messing around with a wireless Playstation Whammy Bar pedal and managed to hook it up to a microcontroller. I am planning to use it for phase angle power control of the primary on my Econo Tig HF. There is a second pedal which I can use to turn the HF on and off, if the HF doesn't blast the electronics It's only a $10 plastic toy, I don't think it's good for the long haul, but I might be able to get it to work as a prototype.