Dynasty 280DX troubleshooting

[Aaron89]

Has anyone had to replace circuit boards in their Dynasty 280DX? I have 35 hrs on mine and it is out of warranty. I took it to get repaired and they want $3,000 to “attempt” to fix it with no guarantees. It will turn on and weld for about 30 seconds but it keeps saying “cool pwr, see OM” I can disconnect the water cooler and put it in the stick setting and it still goes to fault mode and turns itself off. Is there a way to eliminate it going into the cool pwr fault? Any help appreciated!

[jjohn76]

Did you try running your cooler off a wall outlet or put it cooler off mode? Sorry I can't be much more help yet.

Also, do you have power at the cooler power output on your Dynasty?

What did Miller Tech support say the Error Codes meant? They're not listed in the operator manual.

[Aaron89]

1.4.1 is pc1 issue and 1.5.1 is cooler power supply failure.

The cooler works like it should. No issues. I’ve unplugged the cooler from the welder and put it in stick mode and tried it. Still comes up cool pwr and shuts the welder down. I’ve even turned the cooler off in the settings. It’s like it’s getting a fake fault.

[jjohn76]

Have you had it open?

[Aaron89]

Yes I have but I don’t know what I’m looking at. The Miller Tech had me unplug the board for the water cooler but it didn’t change anything. Still had the same fault pop up.

[jjohn76]

I was going to recommend that and probably plug/check/unplug connectors RC30 and RC40 on PC7 (the water cooled board plugs into that). I am pretty sure board PC2 is the one that interprets faults from the cooler power, but the fault signals have to go through PC7. I am referencing page 68 in the operator's manual.

[Aaron89]

They had me unplug RC200 and RC210. They come off the black plastic box in the back lower right side. (Water cooler control board) That did not make any difference.

[Aaron89]

[MasterKwan]

Looks like highway robbery to me...

[jjohn76]

I don't know if innovative Corp or another company can check/rebuild those particular boards, but it may be worth a shot - much cheaper than shelling out for complete boards. I am surprised they didn't have you look at the connections on PC7 or PC2. I haven't looked beyond the diagrams in the manual, but it seems like the components in common between your two error codes are those two boards. Maybe PC-9, but I wouldn't think so. Just based on the number of cables in groupings.on connectors, I would guess it's all digital communication, so it could be the connectors like the ribbon cable between PC2 and PC10 or RC40 between PC7 and PC2. Maybe check connections on both sides? Is this used for business or hobby?

[Aaron89]

I did look over the other connection while I was in there. Didn’t see any problems. I only use the welder for hobby so it’s a big loss with only 35 hrs of weld time on it. I was hoping maybe someone had this problem before and could pin point which board to replace. This is one of the original versions of the dynasty 280 DX so I’m sure they made some changes since but I don’t know if I can trust to buy another Miller dynasty and have problems again later. I can’t gamble with thousands of dollars experimenting replacing boards either.

[MasterKwan]

I was eyeballing some Everlast Tig welders. You can pick up a nice one with cooler that costs less than that $1900 board and comes with another 3 year warranty. Like you, I'm a hobby welder, A failed $800 welder every couple years is more palatable than a failed $6000 welder.

[jjohn76]

You could also probably get most of that from selling the 280DX non-working.

[ryanjones2150]

You could just loan it to John and let him have a ball fixing it. He might even pay YOU for the joy you’ve shared!

[jjohn76]

I would enjoy that, but the wife draws the line somewhere just short of there...