Smoking Syncrowave 180!!

[Purgemonkey]

I understand what you're saying.

I spoke to the electrician at my workplace. He says the outlet should be OK the way it is.

As far as the HF ground is concerned, I wan't to be safe vs. sorry. I do have some halfway decent electronic stuff to consider, like this computer.

Either way I'm having the whole setup checked over before I get any projects started.

I wouldn't want to start a new thread titled... "Smoking HP Pavilion!!"

[jisco]

Hey

Maybe I can help explain the grounding. I am retired from the local power company and I've hooked up electric service to 100s of homes and businesses.
In your average 230 V service, the ground bar is used to stabilize the electrical load, and the wires going to it are called your neutral (usually bare wires.
You should still drive a copperclad ground rod and attach #6 copper wire from it to your ground/neutral lugs in your electric panel or meterbase for safety.
If for some reason you should lose your neutral out on the line, the earthground in a lot of cases will save your TV and appliances.
I hope I made my thoughts understandable. Not too good explaining what I'm thinking.
I hope this helps though,

Jisco
S.E. Ohio

[Sberry]

Just out of curiosity how would a earth ground save appliances in the event of an open neutral?

[jisco]

Tied together

If your earthground is installed right it more or less acts as a backup because
your neutral and earthground should be tied together in the grounding grid.
This is not a guarantee but I have seen people's triplex service line feeding the house lose the neutral because of a tree limb or break due to stress between the pole and the house and not lose any appliances because the earth ground stabilized the load that the neutral normally does.
The neutral in a house carries the amperage of whatever is on that circuit.
The earthground can also take a lightening strike to ground like a lightening rod.
Like I said, it's not a guarantee but you stand a better chance of limiting damage to your circuits if you have an earthground.

[Too_Many_Tools]

I powered up my brand new machine and after sitting idle for about 3 minutes I could see a light cloud of smoke rising from the back. Everything looks normal except for the smoke. Suggestions??

Hi,

Does the resistor still smoke?

If so, you have a problem since resistors aren't supposed to smoke.

Even if the smoke was dust on the resistor burning, a resistor is not supposed to get that hot.

And with your dealer telling you not to worry, well he would rather you not bring the welder in for warranty work. Reimbursement for warranty work is not the greatest.

If that was my welder, it would be taking a trip to the dealer before the warranty expired.

Good luck with your welder,

TMT

[Purgemonkey]

Hello TMT,

No more smoke so far.

Without it smoking or malfunctioning, the dealer says that he can't fix what isn't broken.

They're decent people, the guy I talked to didn't tell me not to bring it in.
He more or less said that run it and see what happens. If it starts to smoke again, by all means bring it in.

No sign of trouble yet.

I'm building S.S. running gear this week. Maybe I'll post pics of it when its done.

[richie]

Its good to here that everything is alright with your syncrowave180sd.

[Mike W]

It is possible the resistor got a protective varnish type coating on it that just burned off. A resistor that size will get hot.

[Too_Many_Tools]

It is possible the resistor got a protective varnish type coating on it that just burned off. A resistor that size will get hot.

That is what I thought also but according to his earlier description this was not the first time he had used the welder.

I would also note that a resistor designed properly into a circuit should not get hot enough to smoke unless it is a power resistor meant to.

My thoughts is a good dealer would want to take a look at the welder to be proactive in catching any problems before they cause downtime for the user. We pay money for a warranty and the buyer has a right to service even if the welder "works" but suspects a serious problem is developing. Seeing the "magic smoke" escape from your new welder is one in my book.

TMT

[ASKANDY]

There is a high watt resistor in the machine called a burden resistor. It keeps the SCRs loaded so they stay on while the machine is in an open circuit mode. If there was no load at all on the scr bank, it would turn off right after being gated on. This would cause a choppy output with no load applied to the machine. With the burden resistor on the circuit to keep the SCRs on, the open circuit voltage is steady. The varnish or coating of the resistor is what you saw. This is common in the stick mode cause you are at open circuit voltage whenever youare not welding. The resistor doesn't work much at all in the tig mode cause you are using the contactor to turn off the output when not welding.

Nothing to worry about.

Hope this helps

Andy