Migatronic mig 160 circuit board

[GarRobz]

Hello, im new to this fourm.
I have a migatronic mig 160, allthough it goes on, the reel will not come out as it is apparently a common problem on these.
Ive been told its a safety feature or something on the circuit board and there is a way to by pass this by cutting and soldering a piece of the circuit board but i am not sure what part it is.
Any ideas?
Or even a cuircit diagram would help
Any advice will be truly apprieciated
Thankyou

 

[the snooper]

do you by any chance mean it wont feed the mig wire ?

 

[GarRobz]

Yeh thats the one mate

 

[the snooper]

thats not any safety feature its usually a part gone on the board post a good pic of the board if you can most parts are available

 

[GarRobz]

Ok ill try and get a pic up asap

One of the people i work with had the same problem and they sent him a circuit board with it by passed or something he said thats why i was wondering about it

 

[GarRobz]

I cant get a picture on here sorry.

Does anyone know where i could get a diagram of the circuit board please?

 

[the snooper]

if yours is the migatronic rally 160 then here is the pcb schematic

 

[GarRobz]

Thankyou, i have look on that website and cant find a circuit board for it, ill look around

 

[the snooper]

Thankyou, i have look on that website and cant find a circuit board for it, ill look around

you will only find a circuit board from migatronic or a welding supplier, the web site i sent you was for parts only

 

[GarRobz]

Ahh ok, cheers mate, i couldnt message you back, only 6 an hour or something, i will email migatronic and ask them. Thankyou

 

[the snooper]

Ahh ok, cheers mate, i couldnt message you back, only 6 an hour or something, i will email migatronic and ask them. Thankyou

stay sat down when they give you the price, just pick the welder up and replace the components it will be far cheaper then a new pcb

 

[armalites]

I have had my 160 for probably 14 years and I find myself in the same position as you today.

I did have problem a few years back and techie at Migatronic explained how to remove a feature that was added for some European law but was removed on later models. It was a circuit board that was wired to the main relay.He knew it so well he told me which wires to move to reconfigure and it worked perfectly after that.

And so to today, yesterday I was using it flat out for a while on some small RSJ when it stopped feeding/arcing.

Was powering on fan running, relay was clicking. Checked the relay and it looked like there had been some arcing on the connectors. Cleaned it up no joy. Had a look at the PCB and some of the joints didn't appear 100% so I resoldered the whole board, would like to say that fixed it but it didn't. In fact things got worse , the relay was clicking as soon as the machine was turned on as if the trigger was activated.

I have metered out the trigger and it is fine.

Spoke to Migatronic and they sent me a circuit diagram, there is a gotcha, the PCB has numbers on it and they don't tie up with the diagram, in fact they are reversed.

Anyway they can still get the PCB so I've ordered one £125 and plan to fix the old one.

They also advised the relay is just a standard 8 pin(may vary on model) and these can be had from RS/CPC for £8-9

Looking at the PCB the Mosfets look the likely candidates but I haven't dug any deeper yet.

It's been such a great machine(I have the tall thin green one) and has a great duty cycle, I don't mind spending the money to get it running again.

One sold on ebay recently for £400+, I only paid £375 for mine new all those years a go.

I will let you know how I get on with fixing the old PCB, it's likely that may happen before the new one arrives as there is a lead time.

regards
Carl

 

[mike 109444]

Carl maybe you can snap and postup some pics of pcb befor you set to stripping it!
Ta

 

[armalites]

No problem, it's not an overly complicated board.

I managed to get RS Components in Bristol today as I was down that way. They had none of the bits I needed other than the relay!

Had an update on the new PCB today, Migatronic have managed to get it sent direct from the manufacturer so I should see it before the new year.

It's a catch 22 situation, guaranteed £15 worth if bits will fix it now I've got a new PCB on the way. I had to cover all the bases though and the new PCB still works out less than £10 a year since I've owned it

 

[Cobs]

A cheaper alternative might be something like this:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNIVERSAL-REPLACEMENT-MIG-PCB-SUIT-MOST-D-I-Y-MIGS-/110982155848?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item19d70d4e48

as used in the Portamigs - talk to Les at Technical Arc - he'd be able to advise you

 

[armalites]

Looks like they do repairs also.

 

[armalites]

Update,

My MIG 160 back up and running.

New PCB turned up from Hungary already, only 24hrs after it was ordered which is a great service.

Unfortunately that didn't fix the problem.

Problem turned out to be the socket that the relay plugged into.

All a bit strange as the PCB was get 240V and was providing the 24Vdc to activate the relay but wasn't providing voltage to the motor.



Replaced the relay and socket and it all worked fine so I then tried the old relay and PCB and it still worked.

The new PCB came direct from Weld Impex in Hungary, looking at their website they are still making the Mig160 that they used to supply to Migatronic. Only difference is it's blue and not green.

http://www.weldimpex.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=103

 

[Robotstar5]

Result, albeit a slightly expensive one at least you have some known good spares for future fault finding or you may be able to recoup some costs by offering in the "for sale" section?.

 

[a_q]

Useful thread. I too suffered wire feed problem on my 160. Thanks for the circuit diagram, it probably needs a few extra annotations though.

I have some electronics background so I started to troubleshoot the drive circuits just now to determine if I needed new MOSFETs.
So I unplugged and replugged the circuit board edge connector and small connector (the white one on top of the pcb).
And it started working again! Cheapest fix of all.

Nevertheless I'll order some spare MOSFETS as they are only 70p each.