Big Blue problems...question for the CST folks out there.

[faultline1]

The pot doesn’t seem to move in the housing or the knob move. There’s no vibration of the remote as I always have it by me when I’m working, it’s not just sitting on the truck where it could be vibrating. I have never heard any noise come from any remote so I don’t have any experience with that. I am going to see if I can order another pot and see if it makes a difference.

[jjohn76]

The multi-turn pots are less sensitive to minor knob movements. Cheaper pots are more noisy too. The pot should be keyed, tabbed, or have a tabbed washer so it doesn't move in the housing once tightened. The felt furniture pad sandwiches between the knob and panel to take movement/vibration out of it. The Lincoln Powerwave feeders uses similar felt washers under the encoder knobs.
The "bleeding amperage" issue seems very odd unless the knob move when this happens.

[faultline1]

I did change pots originally when I first got it and it wasn’t working correctly but it was just a replacement one of the same thing. You are getting technical out of my knowledge on pots. Should I try a different one like the ones you’re using? As far as using the furniture pad, are you saying the knob will rotate or the pot is rotating in the housing? I don’t recall any movement and I would turn the knob all the way each direction to confirm the stops so I could make sure when I set it to a specific adjustment it is accurate.

[cruizer]

Thats strange, as the pots are 2 Watt 1 K ohm. now I do use a 10Kohm 3 turn BI Technologies 3 watt 3 turn and linear numbered knob, on both the Miller and Lincoln machines. works really well. Pot in the one your having a issue with likely isn't a 2 watt. on the single turn remotes, i punch a round chair leg slider and stick it under the knob to keep it from moving.

[faultline1]

It is a Badass remote and it does have a receptacle on it. I had quite a few problems with it when I first got it and they worked with me from a technical and replacement parts stand point and it seemed to be straightened out and working correctly for a few months. I never had any problems with my Miller factory remotes. The one thing with the aftermarket remote was it never held a rock steady amperage. If I set it at say 150 it constantly bounces around from like 148-152 and the Miller remotes never did that they would stay steady just like not having a remote hooked up. When I first got this remote the main problem I had was it would “bleed” amperage. Again, if I set it at 150, within 10-15 min it would be down to 85.

[cruizer]

Who's remote, and does it have grinder receptacles.

[faultline1]

Cruizer, I am not having voltage spikes. Even when the machine would bog down whether welding or not. When it would do it while welding I could continue with the weld with minimal effect. Yes, the puddle would change some but not enough that I would have to stop, I could still work through it for the second or 2 until the engine speed would come back. When I was talking about temp, I was referring to the amps. The amps would constantly change between 200-300 during a weld pass. When running correctly with the current settings it is usually between 270-290.

As of right now, still not using the remote and machine has not acted up once. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

[Mickey(not so fine)]

faultline1,
Sounds like you might've made some progress! I hope this gets you sorted out on your machine with the quickness!

Cruizer,
Glad you're back! I've read your posts for a long time and received a huge amount of assistance from them! I can't count the number of times that your posts have helped me out where the fellas in cubicles were suggesting more costly and ultimately ineffective repairs. Thankya for all that you've done and continue to do helping out poor schmucks like myself! I do agree that its almost never the board...that line of thinking seems to be along the lines of throwing parts at the machine until it works. Even if it is the board, I'd like a bit more conclusive evidence. Its become such a problem that its a joke with my guys in the shop. Anything that comes in and has a squirrelly issue, somebody immediately pipes up that "it must be a board" because we've been told that by so many manufacturers. The other day I had one of my neighbors push mowers in for something and one of my guys asked if I'd ordered PC1 for it yet.

[cruizer]

Ya, that's been my experience with Miller on the Big Blue's...its always the board. Once I get the board installed, still have the same issue and then its the power modules, hall device, etc. I can imagine how irritating it is...I hate having tools that just sit and don't make any money. Its even worse when they cost you money on top of not making any.

Unfortunately, I really don't have a better suggestion than replacing the board and see if that changes anything. I can see how one part can go bad and take others out when it goes, but it would be nice to be able to troubleshoot them a good bit better before chucking money at the problem.

I am still hopeful that someone else with more experience with them will chime in soon...for your sake and my own!

Mickey

Been my experience on most machines that its NEVER the board!

[cruizer]

Voltage spikes are not caused by the welder, they are caused by the weld cable on a reel or wrapped. You've made a transformer winding cables around a Aluminum or steel shunt. Induced power has to go somewhere so out to the weld it goes.. All you can really do is figure 8 the cable on the ground.

Spikes will happen more frequently on the newer 20Khz machines. Some of this can be eliminated by tye wrapping the pos and neg leads tight together after leaving the machine and 4" after the first.

[faultline1]

So, there is a little story to explain the situation. The problem has been getting to the point where it has been happening at some point everyday. On Monday it was real bad and I wasn't sure I would even make it through the day. Tuesday, I was waiting around for the GC on this job and by the time I got started late in the morning I decided to not make any welds but just use the rest of that day to prep stuff so I was set up nicely for the rest of the week. When getting set up, since I wasn't going to weld, I forgot to hook my remote to the machine and throughout the rest of that day I realized the machine had been running smooth. I have had problems with this remote in the past and it not holding setting and "bleeding" off amperage. So I left the remote off the machine for the next few days and it ran great that entire time. On Friday I hooked the remote up mid day and right away I could tell the inconsistency in the weld and the remote not holding a steady temp. I left it on for about 2 hours and the machine did run ok ,BUT, every time I have had a problem with the remote and did something to it or replaced a part its problems wouldn't come back for a day or 2. I unhooked it and the heat steadied out again and I have now ran 5 days with no issues. I really don't want to run the remote long enough to try and see if it will cause the machine to run bad again because of the inconsistency in the weld and I really don't want to catch a repair. My remote is an aftermarket remote and if I run for another week or 2 without it and dont have any problems then I will have to pick up another Miller factory remote. I used to have a factory remote but it got broken on a jobsite and I like some of the features of the aftermarket one so I gave it a try and since the beginning it seems like that was a bad decision. Now it is just a waiting game but I can't remember the last time it went from a bad day to running for several days without issue. I will let you know how this next week goes or if something happens.

[Mickey(not so fine)]

Please do keep me posted! I understand the time sink involved with diagnosing intermittent problems...drives me nuts!

Mickey

[faultline1]

I am working on a theory right now but it will take a few days to test. I should know more on whether it not it is playing a part in the next few days. It just takes time every time I test something different since it is intermittent. I will keep you updated on what happens in a few days.

[Mickey(not so fine)]

Well ****, I'm quickly running out of ideas! I had really hoped someone else with more experience on these machines would have chimed in by now...for yourself and my own peace of mind! I'll keep looking and at this point, I'll throw anything out there and hopefully something will stick!

Mickey

[faultline1]

I have checked that in the past and reverified the reading. It is within the spec Miller gave me. They said 0.6 vac or above and mine is 0.8 vac. I went ahead and ordered a fuel pump from a tractor supply because they are only $21 that way vs the $475 Miller wants for the same part number.