Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello all, pardon my ignorance. I'm just a hobbyist welder. I had purchased a non brand auto darkening helmet a few months ago and left it in the garage. when I attempted to use it, it didn't work. I checked the setting, and it was set at # 10. my question is, does the battery need to be charged before I use it, or does it automatically darken from the flash from welding. Thanks

burnttoast wrote: ↑Mon May 09, 2022 10:49 am Hello all, pardon my ignorance. I'm just a hobbyist welder. I had purchased a non brand auto darkening helmet a few months ago and left it in the garage. when I attempted to use it, it didn't work. I checked the setting, and it was set at # 10. my question is, does the battery need to be charged before I use it, or does it automatically darken from the flash from welding. Thanks

I don't know anything about your helmet (batteries? replaceable? solar?) but my first question is how did you determine that it didn't work? From what you have written, I assume you have not used it when welding.

Is there a display or an LED that would indicate that it is powered on? Will it darken if you (carefully) hold it up to the Sun?

By the way, there are no non-brand eyes that can be purchased to replace yours. I would use a helmet from a trusted source.

Jack

Not knowing what you have, my guess is to find a battery and change it, or if it has a solar panel then sit it outside for a little bit. All helmets have sensors regardless of brand, and when exposed to welding light it activates the darkening lens, these sensors may be dirty or faulty.
You may need to buy a new one if you can't fix it, and often it not worth fixing.
A reputable brand doesnt always mean expensive, a novice can use a mid range one for many years these are suitable for mig and stick and most tig.
I used a flip one for a few years so you can defifinetly do that too.

Thanks, I'm going to let it sit in the sun and see if it works any better. if not I'll look into a brand name one. I apologize. it's a solar helmet. when I tried using it, the arch was very bright that I couldn't see.

The "solar charging" only works if the battery isn't toast. Buy new battery(ies) and start fresh.

first trick is to put it out in the sun, store it so it can get light.
even with good batteries you can run into this problem.
i've had it on my back up helmet. batteries where fine, even swapped out batteries, no change. leave it in the sun for a day or so and its all good.
they need to be hung on the wall, not stored in a box or cabinet.

I like to flick my BIC the sparks will darken it, if it's working.

I'm a huge idiot that didn't even realize solar charging hoods were a thing, so I looked up my sentinel A50, and while a bunch of reviews said it had solar cells, I saw nothing about it on ESAB's website and to the best of my knowledge CR2450s aren't rechargeable so I'm guessing my hood doesn't charge in the sun.

sbaker56 wrote: ↑Thu May 12, 2022 7:44 pm I'm a huge idiot that didn't even realize solar charging hoods were a thing, so I looked up my sentinel A50, and while a bunch of reviews said it had solar cells, I saw nothing about it on ESAB's website and to the best of my knowledge CR2450s aren't rechargeable so I'm guessing my hood doesn't charge in the sun.

esab says it has "Solar cell plus battery".
what i would expect is the high end ones circuits are a bit better than the cheap ones. so they just run off the battery if the solar cell is not charged up. i would assume the solar charges a capacitor.
i'm guessing the cheap ones use the battery for settings memory and use the solar for actual running. hence the common situation of them not working if they have been in the box for a long time.

tweake wrote: ↑Thu May 12, 2022 10:08 pm

sbaker56 wrote: ↑Thu May 12, 2022 7:44 pm I'm a huge idiot that didn't even realize solar charging hoods were a thing, so I looked up my sentinel A50, and while a bunch of reviews said it had solar cells, I saw nothing about it on ESAB's website and to the best of my knowledge CR2450s aren't rechargeable so I'm guessing my hood doesn't charge in the sun.

esab says it has "Solar cell plus battery".
what i would expect is the high end ones circuits are a bit better than the cheap ones. so they just run off the battery if the solar cell is not charged up. i would assume the solar charges a capacitor.
i'm guessing the cheap ones use the battery for settings memory and use the solar for actual running. hence the common situation of them not working if they have been in the box for a long time.

That would make sense why after months of using nothing but my beater hood for some nasty welding work I went outside to tig one day and thought "dang that arc is BRIGHT", only to realize it was dead. While my first impulse was to doubt there could be a capacitor since anything that would fit wouldn't hold much energy, it actually would make a lot of sense for avoiding depleting the battery in day to day use. I'd imagine the very broad spectrum of light coming from a welding arc might very well charge it as well.

i doubt the power requirements are very high.
my speedglas is sensor only and i havn't needed to change the battery.
they would use tiny tiny amount of power.

tweake wrote: ↑Fri May 13, 2022 6:55 pm i doubt the power requirements are very high.

Yup.. The auto-darkening is quite similar to basic LCD operation in that an applied voltage, but only tiny, tiny current, is used to 'flip' the state of the liquid crystal layers in the lense and by playing with the polarisation and number of layers you can get more or less light transmission (UV and IR are just plain static filter layers, so don't rely on battery power at all and always protect the eyes from damage).

If anyone remembers the plain old (non backlit) LCD clocks and calculator that would go years and years on a single button battery then that shows how low power it can be. It's the backlight on LCD displays (TV, tablet, phone, etc.) that sucks down the juice.

The 'add on' sensor bits on modern helmets like the (additional) RF ones to detect an arc when the light is covered probably are more power-hungry than the actual lense darkening hardware itself

Bye, Arno.