TIG 200DX Alternative Pedal Option

I recently purchased a 200DX for home/hobby use. Immediately upon opening it, I took one look at the foot pedal and knew it was the weakest link. Oleg assured me they had upgraded pedal available for the 200dx, made by a company called SSC Controls. After about 2 hours on the machine, the pedal malfunctioned, so I had to take it apart and found the rubber belt was off track and this made the action very stiff and imprecise. Overall, the pedal was just not going to cut it.
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/996...0325174002.jpg

I contacted Everlast for a new upgraded pedal and they said they had made a mistake and there was no upgrade available for the 200dx.
Since I am not a quitter, I contacted SSC Controls and told them my situation. They are a great company and helped me out. They had me measure the potentiometer value (0 to 50k Ohm linear)and they matched it to a pedal they have in stock. The only problem being that they did not equip any pedals with the 7-pin connector that the 200dx has.
So they sent me a pedal with flying leads and I cut off the connector from the old pedal and soldered it to the new pedal. Very easy!
The SSC Controls pedal is a professional grade piece of equipment and works much much better than the original 200dx pedal. I highly recommend it!!!
Here are the details:
http://www.ssccontrols.com/homepage-...ngcontrols.htm
Part Number for the pedal I ordered: L50,000-S-25FT ($125USD)
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4268/captureli.png

Wiring Connections:
SSC Pedal Flying Lead......................Everlast 7-pin Plug
Black............................................. Black
White............................................B lue
Brown............................................B rown
Red............................................... Green/Yellow
Blue.............................................. Gray

Solder carefully and fully insulate all connections.
With nice pedal and a nice upgraded torch, my machine is perfect!
Good luck.

http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/5...0325173701.jpg

Looks good, I may be in the market to upgrade my pedal. Thank you for the R&D.

I actually like my standard foot control, I added four round rubber pads on the bottom and some anti skid tape on top. If the potentiometer in the standard control is good, you can set the panel to full amperage and still maintain a steady arc at 10 amps easily. I did adjust it when it was new, it was two cogs off from returning back to 0. That caused it to have 40 amps just as soon as you pressed the pedal. Mine has never jumped time and I use it at least 3 hours a day.

I did get one that had a potentiometer that was erratic, I bought a Clarostat potentiometer for it and machined a billet pulley that was two cogs smaller because all available potentiometers have more turning rotation than the ones from Everlast. However it does not weld any better than the original foot control.

I had looked at those controls before I repaired the one, I wondered since it has such short travel, would it to be touchy.

I have used Miller foot controls for so long, maybe in my mind I think they have to be big like that. LOL

But now you don't have max current adjustment correct? Or did you add in a separate box with the other Pot / Rheostat to control it?

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Originally Posted by sportbike

But now you don't have max current adjustment correct? Or did you add in a separate box with the other Pot / Rheostat to control it?

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I am assuming this is one of the newer 200DX machines with the upgraded panel controlled amperage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Injected65

I am assuming this is one of the newer 200DX machines with the upgraded panel controlled amperage.

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I was stating, that foot control works good on my welder which is a 250EX. The pics show it to be exactly the same.

As Compression stated, it is the weakest link. But if you get a good one, they work just fine, being the newer pedals. I was not aware of the 200Dx having any internal issues and thought is was the foot control question, sorry if I confused anyone.

Sorry I forgot to hit the quote button when I posted. I have edited it to be more clear. Compression had posted that he was changing pedals on his 200DX. Up until recently the 200DX didn't have a pedal like that. The older 200DX's had a pedal with a rheostat that controlled the max amperage and it wasn't as easy to swap out pedals. The 225 and 250 welders though did have that style of pedal and could swap to the SSC pedal without much trouble at all.

I will agree with you though, I don't mind my pedal. Other than a weird one time issue that I posted about a few months ago it has worked just fine. I do think that I will take your suggestion and add the non slip feet and anti skid tape. That would definitely help with the pedal wanting to slip on the smooth concrete floor.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Injected65

Sorry I forgot to hit the quote button when I posted. I have edited it to be more clear. Compression had posted that he was changing pedals on his 200DX. Up until recently the 200DX didn't have a pedal like that. The older 200DX's had a pedal with a rheostat that controlled the max amperage and it wasn't as easy to swap out pedals. The 225 and 250 welders though did have that style of pedal and could swap to the SSC pedal without much trouble at all.

I will agree with you though, I don't mind my pedal. Other than a weird one time issue that I posted about a few months ago it has worked just fine. I do think that I will take your suggestion and add the non slip feet and anti skid tape. That would definitely help with the pedal wanting to slip on the smooth concrete floor.

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I know what you are talking about, it was a lot like the Longevity 200DX, good to see Everlast is making progress and upgrading their newer models. I bought the rubber pads and some material for the top that looks like toolbox liner from Lowe's. I glued the top material on with contact cement and rolled a piece over the lip as well, it did make a huge difference. It cost about 10 bucks.

http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...astcontol1.jpg
http://i854.photobucket.com/albums/a...astcontrol.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by srp

I actually like my standard foot control, I added four round rubber pads on the bottom and some anti skid tape on top. If the potentiometer in the standard control is good, you can set the panel to full amperage and still maintain a steady arc at 10 amps easily. I did adjust it when it was new, it was two cogs off from returning back to 0. That caused it to have 40 amps just as soon as you pressed the pedal. Mine has never jumped time and I use it at least 3 hours a day.

I did get one that had a potentiometer that was erratic, I bought a Clarostat potentiometer for it and machined a billet pulley that was two cogs smaller because all available potentiometers have more turning rotation than the ones from Everlast. However it does not weld any better than the original foot control.

I had looked at those controls before I repaired the one, I wondered since it has such short travel, would it to be touchy.

I have used Miller foot controls for so long, maybe in my mind I think they have to be big like that. LOL

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Do you know the resistance specs on the pedal from an 250EX on the low (after switch changes state) end and what is expected when fully depressed? I just got my 250EX and just want to make sure my pedal is setup before I fire it up for the first time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 5440

Do you know the resistance specs on the pedal from an 250EX on the low (after switch changes state) end and what is expected when fully depressed? I just got my 250EX and just want to make sure my pedal is setup before I fire it up for the first time.

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All three foot controls I got had the pulley 1 to 2 cogs rotated from the factory, that makes them start at about 30 amps. That's fine unless you want to weld pop cans. When the potentiometer is adjusted to have full range, sometimes the start amps have to be adjusted, the start amps have to be even to or higher than the weld amps on mine. Its best to adjust it until it gets a good positive start on both AC and DC, then when you weld something super thin, back it off until it don't burn through on the start.

Measure between pins 3 and 5 to get your total resistance (around 45K to 52k), when hooked up to the welder pin 4 has 3.5 volts. During testing with a multimeter treat pin 4 as the common, when the pedal is all the way up pin 3 should be 0 and pin 5 should be max resistance, when the pedal all the way down pin 3 should be max resistance and pin 5 should be 0. I always watch the multimeter and sweep from max amperage to 0 and 0 to max amperage looking for spikes in the readings that would indicate a bad potentiometer too. The pedal stop will need to be adjusted and tightened as well.

Well I was searching around since I emailed everlast and haven't got a response from them on this. Does this pedal upgrade work with a 200dx with the rheostat built in to the factory pedal? I am not a fan of my pedal and would like to upgrade, but wondering if this would even work. Does anyone know how to upgrade the pedal on a 20dx? I just ordered it and got it last week but I am not finding a good answer for this question. Any help would be much appreciated!

I think I have the same pedal on my 200DX I bought like two years ago, can't actually remember when. Only just played with it last week and it does not seem to be the best.