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Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / ---> TIG button trigger convert 2 foot pedal how 2 make work
- - By motorxer199 (*) Date 05-30-2009 22:41
Ok first off im working with a chicago 165amp dc tig. Everyone who is going to tell me its crap i know. Heres that catch im 20years old and working on motorcycles and need a small tig welder. And the thing is its perfact for what im doing. Here the website http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=98233 and heres what im after im trying to custom set up a foot pedal that can control the amperage. Im willing to spend a couple hundered bucks i just would like to have a foot pedal. Central welding told me they can custom make me plugs to get it to work. My question is can someone explain to me what i need? where to get it, and how it works so i can get this set up with a foot pedaL. Also central welding is not cheap if i cant make is work myself i would be awesome my last resort is just having them do it. If your reading this and know someone with any words of wisdom how to do this it would be much appreciated!

Thanks alot for your time!
Parent - By FieldHand80 (*) Date 06-01-2009 00:15
Your wanting to set it up like my syncrowave. Its the only way to tig with an electric machine.... first, after you get your foot pedal with plug end for the machine. cut the foot pedal off with at least 2 foot of cord left (you may want the foot pedal later for a pinwheel. go to an electronics store and by the highest voltage push button toggle switch. with at least 3 places to soder wires, and a soder gun. you will use the green wire, one black or white and one blue or red (most of the time), dont soder your wires until after you have lined out where they go. when your set up, try it out and go to town.
Parent - - By DaveBoyer (*****) Date 06-01-2009 03:38
Contact this company, If anybody could build You one this is the most likely place.

http://www.ssccontrols.com/homepage-TIGweldingcontrols.htm

To build Your own, You need to determine the ohms of the amperage control pot and find a foot pedal to match. If You can't find one, You need to buy the proper pot and build/modify a pedal to fit. The pedal also contains a micro switch that replaces the button on the torch.
Parent - - By motorxer199 (*) Date 06-03-2009 03:22
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Parent - - By motorxer199 (*) Date 06-03-2009 03:52 Edited 06-03-2009 03:58
Here is some pictures and some more info about the Abicor benzel torch and welder

first picture is the face of the welder there is three plugs that the torch connects too. I know the center is the gas line and thats it.

second picture is a 2 pin plug that has small wires dont know what is does???

third pic is the far right hand plug in the first picture where is plugs into.

Let me know guys what is what and what i need to do with my set up to get it to work.

Thanks.
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Parent - - By DaveBoyer (*****) Date 06-04-2009 03:44
The 2 wire plug is the contactor control. When You push the button on the tig torch it connects between the 2 wires in the socket and provides power to the output terminal.

If You were to add a foot amperage control, the micro switch in the pedal would plug in where the 2 pin plug goes, and You would have to go inside the machine and bring the amperage pot [potentiometer, the thing behind the amperage knob] leads out to hook to the pot in the pedal.]

The important thing is that the pot in the pedal MUST match the one in the machine for resistance and wattage.
Parent - - By motorxer199 (*) Date 06-07-2009 22:21 Edited 06-08-2009 03:20
Here is a few pictures of the internals. I think its the potentiometer but im not sure. And also not sure what each of the wires are for coming off of it. I also drew a picture of it with wires, the letters, and number on it. what would i do from the pictures provided to get the pedal to work?

Thanks again this is great stuff really helping me
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Parent - - By DaveBoyer (*****) Date 06-08-2009 03:42
You will need a pedal with a 5K ohm [5,000 ohm] 2 watt or greater pot in it. The 3 wires on the pot are (1) at each end of the resistance element and the other is the wiper that rides on the resistance element. The foot pedal will have 3 wires coming from it's pot, just like this one has, and 2 wires from a micro switch that will hook to the 2 prong recepticle on the front of the machine.

There are 2 ways to wire the foot pedal. One is to just remove the wires from the pot on the front of the machine and wire them to the appropriate wires from the foot pedal's pot. This gives the foot pedal controll over the full range of output. The other way is to wire the two pots in series. This gives You the advantage of being able to limit the output with the knob on the front of the machine so that full pedal only gives the amperage You set on the front of the machine.

You need to use an ohm meter to determine which wires on the (2) pots corespond to each other. The micro switch is just closing the circut between the terminals on the socket on the front of the machine.   
Parent - - By motorxer199 (*) Date 06-09-2009 06:36
Ok so i am wanting to wire it in "series" that way i can limit the amperage to what i set the max to be. If possible a quick diagram would be awesome just to make sure im 100% correct. Also when your talking about using an ohm meter are your refering to the 3 wires on the potentionmeter? And im going to go purchase an ohm meter tomarrow to do this. Could using it be explained and what im looking for so it can be matched up to the wires on the pedal i order from sscontrols.

Thanks
Parent - - By DaveBoyer (*****) Date 06-10-2009 02:07
I don't have a way to post a drawing. The ohm meter measures resistance. The pot is like the ballance control on a sterio, when You turn it one way You increase the resistance from the center terminal to one side terminal and decrease the resistance to the other one. Turning the other direction reverses the changes. You need to get both pots in the same phase, so that pressing the pedal does the same thing as turning up the amperage pot.

Perhaps You could get the schematic & instructions for installing the K892-1 remote control recepticle kit on a Ranger 8 from a Lincoln dealer, or from K Sellon at Bills Welder Repair. You are doing essentially the same thing to Your machine that this kit does to a Lincoln Ranger 8, only they are bringing the 5 needed wires out to a 6 pin plug.
Parent - - By motorxer199 (*) Date 06-10-2009 23:47
OK so if order the pedal from sscontrols it will come with a plug on it, do you know any link or anyone that sell these kind of plugs that are on the welder face. What im wanting to do is add a plug to the face in which the pedal can plug directly into. And by wiring it in series that you stated if i take the 3 wires on the pot cut them in the middle between pot dial on face and pot plug on circuit board and add a lead off of each wire going to the new plug, and do the same on the 2 pin plug that is the on/off trigger wires, and take the 5 new leads and mate them up with the correct position on the pedal plug, that will be the sufficiant wiring or am i wrong?
Parent - - By DaveBoyer (*****) Date 06-11-2009 05:08
Perhaps You could get a recepticle shipped with the pedal. This outfit: http://www.galco.com/ sells plugs, but I don't know what Your pedal will have.

The actual wiring is hard for Me to describe in print. There is a reference voltage across the amperage pot, based on the position of the wiper resistance is increased or decreased changing the voltage sent to the output control circut. On My Miller 351 it is a 0 to 10 VDC signal, I don't know what Yours will be. This signal voltage from the pot on the machine then must go through the pot in the pedal, giving You control from minimum to whatever You have the machine pot set at. The voltage from the machine pot wiper goes to the High side of the pot in the pedal, and the wiper in the pedal goes to the board where the machines pot wiper output USED to go. The low side on BOTH pots is common. With this setup, for stick welding You will have to hold the pedal down, otherwise You need to put in a switch to select from pannel to remote amperage control.

I hope I have described this accurately & adequatly, but in the end, You are on Your own to figure out if this makes sense & do it properly.
Parent - By motorxer199 (*) Date 06-11-2009 17:30
It helped alot so we'll see how it goes.

Thanks again
Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / ---> TIG button trigger convert 2 foot pedal how 2 make work

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