325EXT took a dump

Well, my luck has struck again. Welding along today at 75 amps, DC, no pulse when all of the sudden I couldn't strike an arc. I tried grounding the tungsten to the work repeatedly and nothing, looked over at the machine and the panel is dark with the fan running, WTF!?! Of course this happens when I'm seriously under the gun with work. Called tech support, he said cycle the breaker on the wall, maybe a leg isnt making good contact... well of course that didn't work. No other ideas from tech. Gave me an RA number and said I may could get a board sent to me to try. Two calls in so far, no response. Really really anxious as I've read some horror stories on warranty or service work. The machine is 6 months old, 2015 model, single phase, NOT worked hard at all. Is there any diagnosing I can do myself? I can verify with my meter that theres 240V going to the board at one point, but have no display lights at all and nothing from the gas solenoid when hitting the pedal or switch. Does this seems like a board failure?

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Originally Posted by WhitsonMetal

Well, my luck has struck again. Welding along today at 75 amps, DC, no pulse when all of the sudden I couldn't strike an arc. I tried grounding the tungsten to the work repeatedly and nothing, looked over at the machine and the panel is dark with the fan running, WTF!?! Of course this happens when I'm seriously under the gun with work. Called tech support, he said cycle the breaker on the wall, maybe a leg isnt making good contact... well of course that didn't work. No other ideas from tech. Gave me an RA number and said I may could get a board sent to me to try. Two calls in so far, no response. Really really anxious as I've read some horror stories on warranty or service work. The machine is 6 months old, 2015 model, single phase, NOT worked hard at all. Is there any diagnosing I can do myself? I can verify with my meter that there's 240V going to the board at one point, but have no display lights at all and nothing from the gas solenoid when hitting the pedal or switch. Does this seems like a board failure?

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I had one leg burned under a breaker once on my AC... it read 240v every time but when I put a load on it one leg would go away. It's a long shot but I would test the circuit with a different load or pull the breaker to check. You could also check the connections in the plug and at the breaker/power switch in the machine to be sure they have good contact. Hope it's something simple.

Nah, it's not something simple like that. All the shop wiring is new, tried it on 3 different outlets/breakers just wishing, but no. Theres ONE welder in town I can buy, a Miller Diversion 180, nothing else around. I'd hate to have to buy it but I have a pile of work to do.

Well, no calls back today. Does anyone have any sort of diagnostic ideas I can try? I'd love it if it was a simple bad solder or something, can't find any troubleshooting info.

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Originally Posted by WhitsonMetal

Well, no calls back today. Does anyone have any sort of diagnostic ideas I can try? I'd love it if it was a simple bad solder or something, can't find any troubleshooting info.

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As this machine is pretty new, you will most likely have to be the troubleshooting trailblazer. First thing I would do is a through visual inspection of the insides, specifically all board to board interconnects. Then go over the boards to check for obvious physical or thermal damage. If you have electronics knowledge you can trace the low voltage power supply that powers the control boards. Check voltages at the primary filter caps and before and after the voltage regulators. You should be able to look up the data sheets to see if things are in spec. Probably a 5 volt rail for most of it, but it could be 3.3, as a lot of new micros are going that way. Since the display is dark, that's where I would start.

However, be sure to talk to support to get the OK to proceed. I'm not sure how many of these have been repaired, so they may not have much in the way of statistics on what goes wrong with them, apart from the common shipping damage from being dropped and such. If you are under the gun to finish a bunch of work, it's probably not the right time to try and troubleshoot an unknown machine. Rent or buy a replacement machine. You can always sell it later.

Well, you're right that I shouldn't poke at this thing too much as I don't have an in-depth electrical skill set. This just couldn't have happened at a worse time and while I really need a machine right now, the closest thing is a Dynasty or a Lincoln Aspect. Buying one of those means green is gone as they're both a HUGE investment. Never had a machine go down and man is it throwing me for a loop now.

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Originally Posted by WhitsonMetal

Well, you're right that I shouldn't poke at this thing too much as I don't have an in-depth electrical skill set. This just couldn't have happened at a worse time and while I really need a machine right now, the closest thing is a Dynasty or a Lincoln Aspect. Buying one of those means green is gone as they're both a HUGE investment. Never had a machine go down and man is it throwing me for a loop now.

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Another option, depending on how big a pile of work you have backed up, is to rent a machine. I see one of the nationwide places rents what looks like a Dynasty 200 for $115 a week. Then you could get right to work, and figure out what you want to do when you have more time. I'm sure you will get your machine sorted out, but it will probably not happen quickly enough for your current situation.

Actually the fact that the wiring is new could be a strong reason to check it out. It shouldn't take an extensive electrical skill set to check it out thoroughly as far as connections go (inside and out). It is worth trying first. You can give me a call later today or pm me your number and I will go over the basics with you.

Any updates on your machine? Resolution? Watching threads like this as I consider whether to go with Everlast or a different brand.

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Originally Posted by Dedvetpath

Any updates on your machine? Resolution? Watching threads like this as I consider whether to go with Everlast or a different brand.

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Customer is taken care of !

I think auto correct messed up the message Oleg was sending. I think somewhere it should have said "customer has been taken care of." Which in long speak I believe means that the customer's unit should have been shipped out.

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Originally Posted by Oleg

Customer is taken care of !

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Whacked? :O

so what was wrong with the unit?

Actually, customer is awaiting a board. Was expected Friday or Today, didn't show. I asked if I could pay for expedited shipping, I seriously would have paid 100 bucks or more to get this thing next or second day'd, I gotta get this thing going. Oleg said theyd take care of the shipping, which i appreciate very much, i just dont know when its getting here. Called my LWS and have my finger on the trigger for a blue machine as I can't be down this week.

And I need to add, I am very appreciative of Everlast sending me the part, instead of me sending my unit to them. I have been in contact with Oleg and Mark and know that they don't have the parts sitting in front of them to send to me, so there's more going on behind the scenes I'm sure. As with most break downs, it's extremely inopportune and is very close to forcing me to buy another machine just to do work. Not that I don't love the machine, I just have to keep on trucking.

Board is here! Going to take the solder gun to the shop and get this thing in asap.

Got the board in, fired up the machine and all seems well! Bummed that I lost all my memory settings but at least I can get back to work. I still don't see a thing wrong on the old board so I have no idea what exactly went wrong. I may look into having it rebuilt to keep on hand as a spare. Thanks very much for getting me the part, I was literally going to buy a machine today!

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Originally Posted by WhitsonMetal

Got the board in, fired up the machine and all seems well! Bummed that I lost all my memory settings but at least I can get back to work. I still don't see a thing wrong on the old board so I have no idea what exactly went wrong. I may look into having it rebuilt to keep on hand as a spare. Thanks very much for getting me the part, I was literally going to buy a machine today!

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WhitsonMetal

Board is actually fine, the software was corrupted somehow. All that board needed was to be flashed with new software :)

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Originally Posted by WhitsonMetal

Actually, customer is awaiting a board. Was expected Friday or Today, didn't show. I asked if I could pay for expedited shipping, I seriously would have paid 100 bucks or more to get this thing next or second day'd, I gotta get this thing going. Oleg said theyd take care of the shipping, which i appreciate very much, i just dont know when its getting here. Called my LWS and have my finger on the trigger for a blue machine as I can't be down this week.

And I need to add, I am very appreciative of Everlast sending me the part, instead of me sending my unit to them. I have been in contact with Oleg and Mark and know that they don't have the parts sitting in front of them to send to me, so there's more going on behind the scenes I'm sure. As with most break downs, it's extremely inopportune and is very close to forcing me to buy another machine just to do work. Not that I don't love the machine, I just have to keep on trucking.

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WhitsonMetal

jsut want to clear something .. we do stock parts and we do fix units. the part you need had to be programmed and we not yet set up for programming . programming unit should be set up in next month or so then we can do all programing locally and dont need to ask factory to do it

good info Oleg, Can I then touch base with you at some point in regards to freshening up the board I have here? Who knows if i'll ever have the same issue again but if i do a spare would be awesome.

We do stock parts and repair units like Oleg said. Just not in the sales office in California (Oleg) or Georgia (Mark).

Everlast Service and Tech Center1474 Hwy 95Weiser ID, 83672
The good news if you know we have a spare board for sure now :)

Does the board have a JTAG for programming, or do you need to pull the chip to use an external programmer? Also what micro is used?

Rambozo, here is a shot of the old one. I took it to make sure I got everything plugged back in ;)Attachment 13061

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Originally Posted by WhitsonMetal

Rambozo, here is a shot of the old one. I took it to make sure I got everything plugged back in ;)Attachment 13061

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Well it sure looks like there is some type of programming port right next to the processor. Can't make out any chip numbers from that pic, though.
My curiosity is piqued by the unpopulated sections, where two transformers go. Is this the 240/480 model or the 240 only model? Overall it looks like a nice board layout.

Mine is run on single phase 240. If you'll pm me an email address I'll send you the full sized picture.

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Originally Posted by WhitsonMetal

Mine is run on single phase 240. If you'll pm me an email address I'll send you the full sized picture.

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Both models will run on single phase 240. If you look on the back it should say if the second option is 240 3 phase or 480 3 phase.