[Keith Gajeski]

Hello All,

I know this isn't what many would consider a "real" welder, however I've been wanting to learn since I was a teenager, and finally came along a find that wasn't that expensive... however...
I bought it knowing that the wire feed motor didn't work. Upon further troubleshooting, I've seen that one of the coils on the transformer produce slightly more than 1 volt. I'm not ruling out the board, but seems to be the first issue to resolve. I've called Eastwood, and since I'm not the original owner, I was pretty much told to go pound sand. They also would not provide any schematics, so I'm on my own.

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts where to start looking, or if anyone had one of this units, that would be able to tell me what the voltage SHOULD be coming from the transformer.

Thanks!
Keith

 

[Keith Gajeski]

Sorry, I meant Mig 175. Too much research the past few days. It's actually, from what I can tell, the same thing as a LOTOS 175. Seems like they keep a tight wrap on things. The only thing I found that came close to assisting me was a guy on YouTube going through the board, however, that was also in Spanish. For grins, I wired mains directly to the transformed, and I was able to get an arc, so that tells me the transformer / rectifier / capacitor are hopefully good. There do appear to be two SCRs on the board, not sure how prone they are to failing, for got about $5 each, I may give it a try.

 

[Keith Gajeski]

For the heck of it, here's two pictures of the board in question.

 

[Keith Gajeski]

So, I removed the SCR's (attached to the heat sinks) and they both tested bad. I'm investing the $15 to replace them with quality versions. Will update once they show up.

 

[Keith Gajeski]

This will probably be my last update on this. After speaking to another CSR, I WAS able to purchase another controller board for his unit. $52.00 shipped. I just had to sign a waiver stating that there are high voltages involved, and if I did anything stupid, they are not responsible.