Chinese TIG - Translate control board notes

[mattd2]

Just bought myself a Chinese TIG welder - just a 150A DC with HF, but should be perfect for my needs for brewing equipment.
One thing I have noticed though is there are a number of similar units that look to use the same PCB but with different features.
For example my unit has control for amps and post flow duration, but no digital amp setting display, switch for MMAW/TIG, or option to use a foot pedal.
I found a notated picture of the PCB online, problem is it is in Chinese!
Can anyone translate the attached picture? I have numbered them 1-8 to avoid confusion.
Cheers

 

[Saboral]

So what's the goal of your research here? Not to be negative nancy but you're going to have a hard time doing quality sanitary welding with a HF special. You need high duty cycle to do a continuous bead, good electrical stability to keep a very consistent bead, you'll need a dual flow regulator to back purge while still gassing the welder, and you don't have foot pedal to control the machine. I've been planning on a TIG welder for years and realized anything short of a quality Miller level welder like a Syncrowave 200 or Dyanasty is not going to cut it for sanitary stainless welding.

This isn't to say you can't play around with it at the Homebrew level with this setup, but be wary of porosity, overlap, and undercut on your welds, they'll harbor bacteria. Also if you don't back gas properly on the stainless you'll sugar the welds and they'll rust.

 

[mattd2]

Main goal of the research is to add the pedal, being if the function is there just not connected it would be easier/cleaner than having to modify it with a manual switch, etc. to switch between the panel / pedal.
Why do you say minimum is a Syncrowave 200, etc? Yes the welder I have is only 40% duty cycle at 150A but I will not be welding anything at 150A (or at least very little), it has 100% duty cycle under 85A. No need for AC and realistically foot pedal is not a necessity to weld stainless, and the rest of your points is nothing to do with the welder itself just knowledge of welding SS.
And just so we are not confused - when I said HF in my original post I meant High Freq start, not Harbour Freight.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

The hf was not a reference to harbor freight but to high frequency arc starting.

Miller welders are great, that's all I have in my shop, but there are options outside of a $3500 dynasty for hobby work. The maxstar line is fantastic for DC work.

When I weld stainless I want a welder with a pedal and hf start. I can't help you with translating Chinese but I sign you well. You might be able to find a Google translate tool that can interpret those words for you.

 

[nobadays]

Not sure this will help you but... http://ce.linedict.com/dict.html#/cnen/home
You can draw the characters on a little pad with your mouse and it translates them (as a group of characters). I had an optical reader app on my phone when I lived in China but I see now with subsequent updates "improvements" that function has to be purchased...nice...

I translated #2-3 - #2: Give Feedback; #3: Potential Device.

Like I said it may not help you a lot.

Don
Primary #1 - Nothing
Primary #2 - Black Butte Porter clone
Kegged - APA, Joe IPA Clone
Bottled - Oatmeal Stout, APA, Rye IPA

 

[GreenMonti]

Just bought myself a Chinese TIG welder - just a 150A DC with HF, but should be perfect for my needs for brewing equipment.
One thing I have noticed though is there are a number of similar units that look to use the same PCB but with different features.
For example my unit has control for amps and post flow duration, but no digital amp setting display, switch for MMAW/TIG, or option to use a foot pedal.
I found a notated picture of the PCB online, problem is it is in Chinese!
Can anyone translate the attached picture? I have numbered them 1-8 to avoid confusion.
Cheers

I don't read Chinese. I'm not going to try and translate it either.

What I might be able to help you with, is the ability to use the machine.
There is zero need for a high frequency start to do sanitary welds. There is zero need for a foot pedal for sanitary welds.

What is your goal here exactly?

 

[GreenMonti]

So what's the goal of your research here? Not to be negative nancy but you're going to have a hard time doing quality sanitary welding with a HF special. You need high duty cycle to do a continuous bead, good electrical stability to keep a very consistent bead, you'll need a dual flow regulator to back purge while still gassing the welder, and you don't have foot pedal to control the machine. I've been planning on a TIG welder for years and realized anything short of a quality Miller level welder like a Syncrowave 200 or Dyanasty is not going to cut it for sanitary stainless welding.

This isn't to say you can't play around with it at the Homebrew level with this setup, but be wary of porosity, overlap, and undercut on your welds, they'll harbor bacteria. Also if you don't back gas properly on the stainless you'll sugar the welds and they'll rust.

What grounds do you base your facts on?

I happen to know of a very large company that uses the simple maxstar units in the field to install breweries as well as dairy plants. Dairy would be my concern, considering it's a bit more strict than brewing beer.....
Not to mention the fact that the installers don't care much for foot pedals as they're a pain in the a$$ to use on a ladder or on your back. Trust me...I've been there. I've had the "golden" pedal under my shoulder while laying on my back, stuffed into a fish shoot for a weight scale.......only to be pissed off by the fact that a rail torch or a scratch start wasn't available. Never mind how many times the foot pedal was tucked between my legs on a ladder like a thigh master.........
Reasearch all you want. Years or decades. Until your in the trenches and you know what truly is needed to accomplish a job......we will then have a beer and talk about it. It's easy to read specs, talk with shops/salesmen. You haven't even touched on the "art" portion of what a solid weldor does holding a couple thousand degrees in the palm of his hand does.

Edit:
Tell me, where these welds done on a miller syncwave or dynasty???

1/2" coupling welded with a pull through fit up. AKA the "keg tool". Yes, I brought that to the board.


Outside (weld side) of a flange


Same flange....Inside (drop through) of the flange

 

[mattd2]

The hf was not a reference to harbor freight but to high frequency arc starting.

Miller welders are great, that's all I have in my shop, but there are options outside of a $3500 dynasty for hobby work. The maxstar line is fantastic for DC work.

When I weld stainless I want a welder with a pedal and hf start. I can't help you with translating Chinese but I sign you well. You might be able to find a Google translate tool that can interpret those words for you.

Thanks for the tip and encouragement Sandyeggoxj - had tried a couple of the online image based translators and the results were probably more confusing than the Chinese, but they were really bad at recognising the characters (even when cleaned up to remove all the other junk in the picture)

Not sure this will help you but... http://ce.linedict.com/dict.html#/cnen/home
You can draw the characters on a little pad with your mouse and it translates them (as a group of characters). I had an optical reader app on my phone when I lived in China but I see now with subsequent updates "improvements" that function has to be purchased...nice...

I translated #2-3 - #2: Give Feedback; #3: Potential Device.

Cheers nobadays, will check out the link - those are actually pretty useful translations and make a lot more sense than it would seem and a lot better than the somewhat random string of words I was getting?

I don't read Chinese. I'm not going to try and translate it either.

What I might be able to help you with, is the ability to use the machine.
There is zero need for a high frequency start to do sanitary welds. There is zero need for a foot pedal for sanitary welds.

What is your goal here exactly?

Thanks Green Monti - really useful to get an educated viewpoint
Overall my goal is to learn to TIG stainless tube (1.6mm wall). This thread was born from me realising that a lot of the entry level TIG boxes with a variety of different features are all base on a similar (or the same) circuit design - so therefore the question being can you add features. With he most basic being the foot pedal.
Thanks for your comments above and below, I have worked as a project engineer closely with good welders in the chemical and food&beverage industries. As you say HF isn't required but it sure does make the learning curve easier - while possible a pedal would add extra complexity!
Any modifications I do would be in more than 12 months (after warranty expires ), and right now it is probably more usefully spending the money on another tank of argon to practice than a foot pedal

 

[herbortt]

1: ? (brand name?? doesn't mean anything to my knowledge)
2: feedback
3: potentiometer
4: temperature control
5: indicator light
6: argon arc switch|converter (?)
7: display
8：max. current regulator

Hope that makes some sense. Don't know nothing about welding or electronics.

 

[Saboral]

What grounds do you base your facts on?

I happen to know of a very large company that uses the simple maxstar units in the field to install breweries as well as dairy plants. Dairy would be my concern, considering it's a bit more strict than brewing beer.....
Not to mention the fact that the installers don't care much for foot pedals as they're a pain in the a$$ to use on a ladder or on your back. Trust me...I've been there. I've had the "golden" pedal under my shoulder while laying on my back, stuffed into a fish shoot for a weight scale.......only to be pissed off by the fact that a rail torch or a scratch start wasn't available. Never mind how many times the foot pedal was tucked between my legs on a ladder like a thigh master.........
Reasearch all you want. Years or decades. Until your in the trenches and you know what truly is needed to accomplish a job......we will then have a beer and talk about it. It's easy to read specs, talk with shops/salesmen. You haven't even touched on the "art" portion of what a solid weldor does holding a couple thousand degrees in the palm of his hand does.

Edit:
Tell me, where these welds done on a miller syncwave or dynasty???

1/2" coupling welded with a pull through fit up. AKA the "keg tool". Yes, I brought that to the board.


Outside (weld side) of a flange


Same flange....Inside (drop through) of the flange

I'll be the first to admit when I'm wrong. I have been practicing sanitary welding with others equipment and have spent the last three years in the market shopping for a welder. Spent a lot of time on various welding forums and every time I've brought up buying a welder, every single time I'll get a bunch of warnings and end up getting told to go find a reasonably priced syncrowave. I'll bow out to those with more experience. Sorry for any confusion, I guess I was perpetuating the flak I took when I was talking about welders I could afford. Good news I'm finally at a point where I can get a new TIG and I am shopping a Syncrowave.

Would definitely be interested in seeing which modifications you can make to this.

 

[nobadays]

Good on you herbortt!

I lived in China for 6 years, studied for 3 years, moved back to the States 4 years ago and promptly forgot nearly all the characters I ever learned! (spoken has slipped pretty bad as well..use it or lose it)

Don
Primary #1 - Nothing
Primary #2 - Black Butte Porter clone
Kegged - APA, Joe IPA Clone
Bottled - Oatmeal Stout, APA, Rye IPA

 

[mattd2]

1: ? (brand name?? doesn't mean anything to my knowledge)
2: feedback
3: potentiometer
4: temperature control
5: indicator light
6: argon arc switch|converter (?)
7: display
8：max. current regulator

Hope that makes some sense. Don't know nothing about welding or electronics.

Thanks heaps herbortt! That makes a lot of sense!

 

[GreenMonti]

Thanks Green Monti - really useful to get an educated viewpoint
Overall my goal is to learn to TIG stainless tube (1.6mm wall). This thread was born from me realising that a lot of the entry level TIG boxes with a variety of different features are all base on a similar (or the same) circuit design - so therefore the question being can you add features. With he most basic being the foot pedal.
Thanks for your comments above and below, I have worked as a project engineer closely with good welders in the chemical and food&beverage industries. As you say HF isn't required but it sure does make the learning curve easier - while possible a pedal would add extra complexity!
Any modifications I do would be in more than 12 months (after warranty expires ), and right now it is probably more usefully spending the money on another tank of argon to practice than a foot pedal

The only complexity a foot pedal or a thumb control (rail) torch adds....is another motor function to the process. Having said that, most all sanitary welds are done without adding filler. (Makes it easier to polish, right?) So, that takes away from the motor functions needed. Sanitary welding just means that you as a weldor..... look for specific things. As well as most (90%) of your welds being purged on the backside. Of which, don't require a double regulator. It can be done with a simple Y adapter.
Most sanitary welds you'll see are auto genius. Meaning, no filler added. IMO, they do the job in most instances. Yet, I have fixed a whole bunch of those welds. In fact I have a rather large plate filter I just brought home to repair a piece that broke off. It was fully fusion/(auto genius) welded
. Yet it just didn't hold up to long term use.

Don't be intimidated by welding SS. It welds just as easy as mild steel. No worries. As to the sanitary welds........it's a bit complex to describe in text. At least for me it is. Once you understand the weld width and weld bead profile it's all a piece of cake from there. It truly is a visual process with quick motor function to react to what you see.

The weld machine is part of the equation. Not all of it. Yes, it can make things a bit more easy to see/happen. However, no machine can do what you don't allow it to do.

 

[GreenMonti]

I'll be the first to admit when I'm wrong. I have been practicing sanitary welding with others equipment and have spent the last three years in the market shopping for a welder. Spent a lot of time on various welding forums and every time I've brought up buying a welder, every single time I'll get a bunch of warnings and end up getting told to go find a reasonably priced syncrowave. I'll bow out to those with more experience. Sorry for any confusion, I guess I was perpetuating the flak I took when I was talking about welders I could afford. Good news I'm finally at a point where I can get a new TIG and I am shopping a Syncrowave.

Would definitely be interested in seeing which modifications you can make to this.

Syncrowave's are nice machines. No doubt. Same goes for the dynasty's. They are however, not required. I myself do enjoy the arc from a miller product. I own three different machines by miller. My TIG machine is an old dinosaur. I have an old Dialarc. The serial number calls up a manufacturing date of 78 or 80. I can't remember exactly. The only whistle it has is high freq start, which bleeds over to a continuous high freq for aluminum.
My day job is an aerspace weldor. We have all miller machines in the shop. About 150 or so of them. All being maxstar units. We don't weld aluminum where I work. (Not for planes anyway) When we do weld aluminum we will use a push pull wire feed OR we will weld it on DC straight with pure helium.

As to a China made machine. In my opinion it really comes down to ones disposable income. The amount of use the machine will truly see. How it will be used. If a whole lot of aluminum is to be done. How thick of aluminum will you be welding? Anything over an 1/8" thick and I'd seriously consider learning how to weld it on DC straight.
If the goal is to do sanitary or stainless welding. Then a big machine isn't necessary really. Unless you plan on doing heavy work. A 100% duty cycle at 85 amps and below (like the unit of this thread) is plenty big. One must remember that the style of torch being used will dictate a duty cycle as well. Air cooled won't do as much as a water cooled torch. Unless you want to hold a club for a torch.
The company I was referring to that does big installs uses the little maxstar 150. They use them in a lift arc fashion. Big bottles with Y-splitter for the purge line.
The company I work for uses bottles for our weld school. We feed two machines on one bottle. One reg with a Y-splitter.

 

[cdbjlh]

OK, I am a Chinese, I am an aircraft maintenance engineer, so I can translate,

1. The name of the Maker or Brand
2. Feedback
3. Potentialmeter
4. Temperature controllor
5. Indication light
6. argon arc conversion (I realy don't know what this means and guess it may controll the start of the argon, so just translate word by word)
7. Digital displayer
8. Max current adjust

 

[Jaybird]

OK, I am a Chinese, I am an aircraft maintenance engineer, so I can translate,

1. The name of the Maker or Brand
2. Feedback
3. Potentialmeter
4. Temperature controllor
5. Indication light
6. argon arc conversion (I realy don't know what this means and guess it may controll the start of the argon, so just translate word by word)
7. Digital displayer
8. Max current adjust

That is EXACTLY what I was going to say...




OK JUST KIDDING! Nicely done and welcome to the forum! Are you a brewer?

Cheers
Jay

 

[cdbjlh]

Haha, if you have chance to come Chengdu, China, you can leave the message to me.

Yes, I saw the video of the grainfather and decided to DIY the whole set, but not complete yet. Anyway, I will start to my first pot as soon as possible.

 

[mattd2]

Thanks cdbjlh! Appreciate you time - keen to see your DIY version of the Grainfather!