Rheostat Wiring Run Through - Detailed

This page is intended to have you run through and confirm your remote wiring as detailed as if I were there. It will pertain to the L4-20R receptacle (but if different, we’ll get to it) the typical oem four prong receptacle. Just to be clear, the picture next to this text is the L4-20R. Tools needed are a voltmeter for measuring resistance and perhaps some wire for probing in the receptacle as your voltmeter probe may not reach all the way in. Fret not, your machine won’t be on.

Pretext: Although your oem receptacle may have 3-4 wires to the four prong, I am only interested in two. I call them the main shunt wire and the dc neg rectifier wire

SHUNT WIRE IDENTIFICATION

Opening the side door on the remote receptacle side, coming out of the generator, mid way, is two wires that connect to the J5 connector, <- (a 4 wide by 3 high molex connector) In the picture nearby, I happen to be holding the wire that connects to one of those wires. The wire I am holding, i call position number three, is one who connects to the blue shunt wire with wiring designation 602C. in a nutshell, 602C goes into the connector and comes back out 602B, and heads the to the remote circuit. the blue shunt wire identification is important for the installation of the flyback diode which is paramount and the first thing we do

That leaves us the other wire. however, to educate ourselves, confirm the other wire named brown shunt wire with wiring designation 612 enters the molex in position number 5

TIP: notice you can flip the molex as its a rectangle. however, the blue shunt wire will never be in the middle row.

That concludes shunt wire identification and pertains to installing the flyback diode

REMOTE RECEPTACLE PRONG VERIFICATION

Lets just make sure your receptacle is how its supposed to be. Perform the next readings with the machine off and the remote switch in the remote setting. We will identify the bridge rectifier location next.,the component responsible for turning AC into DC for our shunt remote circuit. Remember Molex position number 5? Well, position number 6 has wire 610. Follow that wire to the bridge rectifier. Now that you have found the bridge rectifier corner with 610, identify wire 600 in the opposite corner of the square bridge. Wire 600 is DC negative and it should be directly connected to prong Y of the oem four prong circled in red in the first picture of this tutorial.

If that is correct, we will confirm that the blue shunt wire that comes out of the molex winds it way to the W prong circled in black in the pic above. simply, on the outside, its the prong opposite of the L shaped prong. I theorize that you can measure, on the inside, .position number three spade and on the outside the again the prong circled in black in the pic above.

If all checks out, we can proceed.

FUNCTION TEST

We will confirm that the equipment has survived shipping safely. At home, or inside anywhere, plug the receiver in a wall outlet, not a machine. Turn on your hand remote and after nine seconds of the receiver being plugged in, the hand remote dial should function in the form of 1 to 100.

MACHINE FUNCTION TEST

Now that we are picking away at vetting components, perform the previous function test on your machine while leaving the four prong unplugged. Ensure the hand remote shows 1 to 100 by sweeping the dial

ARC EMF Test

Maybe not a thing, but lets rule it out. Confirm that when you strike up, the position of the receiver isn’t in a place that potential welding emfs don’t glitch the receiver and prohibit hand remote interaction until the receiver is reset. This test has the 120 plugged into the machine and the four plug still unplugged.

Welding Current Adjustment Test

Turn machine off. plug in the 120 and four prong, put the remote switch to remote and leave it in that position not touching it while the machine is running. We will check welding current sweep. We will see if it sweeps from 1 to 100 similar to your corded rheostat. put the remote at 50 and run a bead and attempt to increase and decrease the heat via the hand remote.

Adjusting the receiver min and max values

If the default settings are not right, programming must be performed. I do it with an ampmeter on the shunt wire. however, you will weld a bead to get the low and high settings. This will be accomplished with the following sub menu. the submenu called HEAT SET will actively allow you to set the low and high remapping the receiver to your machine specs.