Synchrowave 200 ..HELP-12

[FABMAN]

Guys, I have a synchrowave 200 that 14 years old, and up until today, all was fine.

Today I tried tig welding, press the pedal and I get argon preflow but no arc/high frequency. I'm getting a HELP-12 error, I looked in my manual and it says "Indicates a non-allowable set-up on the front panel"
tried everything but still not working...

unit is only used at home for hobbies. Sets in shed in South Florida, hot and humid. Never cleaned or gapped my points so next week I'm gonna try that..
Just curious if any of you have had this same problem ?

Thanks in advance for any help provided..

[jjohn76]

Can you take a picture of the panel showing your settings?

[FABMAN]

[FABMAN]

The 2nd photo is when foot pedal is depressed

[ryanjones2150]

I had a help message on mine once, similar model, can’t recall the number though. I did not that the polarity selector levee fully seated. I gave a twist one way and back again and that solved it.

[1997CST]

Ryan is correct. It could be one of the microswitches on the selector not satisfied. Have you tried it in stick mode?

[ryanjones2150]

How did spell checker think I was talking about a levee? This spell checker thing changes stuff and makes me sound like I’ve had a coffee cup of Jamison with a splash of coffee.

[FABMAN]

Thanks guys, yes I tried moving the switch back and forth but still nothing, I have not tried stick welding with it yet, but will try sometime next week after work..first gonna try blowing everything out and check the points, then stick weld if needed...thanks for the suggestions. I'll keep you updated.

[ccawgc]

help 11 is when polarity switch is not set right.
If the welder is in DC TIG and you are pressing the dig button it will display a help 12. Dig and Balance are not used in DC tig.
Dig is stick and Balance is AC TIG. Also if you are in stick with output on and try to switch to TIG with out turning output off. It will display a help 12.
Just telling you you made an incorrect button choice for the process the welder is set for.

[ryanjones2150]

I tried to make my syncrowave 200 give me that error message and it did precisely what ccawgc said. It amused me so much that I didn’t it repeatedly, then I got back to work.

[FABMAN]

FIXED !! Ok guys I had a chance to look at it today and first thing I looked at was the foot pedal controller. It had a lot of lizard eggs and roach poop inside, I cleaned it out and sprayed some WD40 on the rheostat controller and it works like a charm..while I was at I I took all the covers off and inspected the inside, and it looked like new thankfully,...I was afraid I was going to find the same thing inside...also cleaned the points for the first time in 14 years...gonna look for a foot pedal just to be safe....
Thanks for all of your input, I appreciate it

[Metjunkie]

Wow! You shoulda hit those critters up for rent money. That would more than pay for a new pedal. Don't feel bad. When I picked up my austin healey project, I found a similar scenario behind the fenders.

[FABMAN]

Wow! You shoulda hit those critters up for rent money. That would more than pay for a new pedal. Don't feel bad. When I picked up my austin healey project, I found a similar scenario behind the fenders.

Lol..yea I was surprised at how much was inside my pedal..you has some also I see..