Welding Helmets

[CNC Dan]

I tried to open the AD lense on one of mine, and you are right, they are welded shut. You may have better luck. Mine had two 3 volt coin cells. Small tabs were welded to the cells and wired to the circuit board.
If you want to try opening yours up, I would recomend sanding/grinding arround the edge, untill you break through. Then use electrical tape to hold it together. If you try it, take some pics. I have two that are due to fail in a few years, and if i can open it without killing it I would like to add a battery holder that takes AA cells.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I am going to go the return route first to see if that will happen. If not, then perhaps a hot exacto-knife around the seam will open it up. It shouldnt be a problem soldering on a couple of tabs. I have one of the cold weld solder guns that work ok for small wires and regular electric soldering guns. I suppose you would need to keep the lower half of the battery in water bath to keep it cool.

 

[k0ua]

Gary the trick to soldering delicate things is believe it or not is to have a hot enough iron to begin with. If you iron is too cold and does not have enough thermal mass, you wind up dwelling too long on the solder joint and "cooking" things.. best to touch the joint with a hot iron quickly to make the joint and get off of it. Some things will require a heat sink clipped on, but in general if your dwell time is short, you are good to go.

James K0UA

 

[Guesseral]

I am going to go the return route first to see if that will happen. If not, then perhaps a hot exacto-knife around the seam will open it up. It shouldnt be a problem soldering on a couple of tabs. I have one of the cold weld solder guns that work ok for small wires and regular electric soldering guns. I suppose you would need to keep the lower half of the battery in water bath to keep it cool.

I am pretty sure that HF return policy would not work for the welding hoods, unless it was in the waranty period with a reciept. The lifetime waranty is for the pittsburg hand tools you don't even need a reciept for them, but everything else has a timed waranty that requires a reciept for verification unless it is an item that you purchased the extended waranty for and reqistered it on line then no reciept required because they have the dat of purchase reqistered. Wow I just realized I know way to much about HF!

 

[CNC Dan]

Gary the trick to soldering delicate things is believe it or not is to have a hot enough iron to begin with. If you iron is too cold and does not have enough thermal mass, you wind up dwelling too long on the solder joint and "cooking" things...

You got that right. Most of my battery soldering is done with a soldering GUN. Hot hot hot, one quick touch and it's done.
And pre-tin the wire too.

 

[CNC Dan]

I just had a thought... I think you could get coin cells with tabs welded on them from:
batterystation.com
I think that's the URL. Google it if not.

 

[k0ua]

I just had a thought... I think you could get coin cells with tabs welded on them from:
batterystation.com
I think that's the URL. Google it if not.

Digikey and Mouser will fix you up too.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have aquestion on these from you electronic guys. If keeping the hood in the dark makes it go bad, how does it work when in stays boxed on a shelf for a couple years?

 

[k0ua]

Gary I would say that keeping it in the box is the same, If it is an actual lithium battery, keeping it in the dark for a long period of time without the solar assist to charge it would ruin the battery after a long period. Maybe they are counting on the normal distribution channel would sell the product and the user would have it in some light before the battery went bad. If it is a storage capacitor it should not matter. BUT storage capacitors do fail. I have replaced many of them in memory "keep alive" circuits in phone systems and radio scanners. They refuse to hold a charge typically. I traded for a scanner at a swap meet a few years ago. I asked "does it work ok?" "oh yeah it works fine" Well I guess that was true as far as it went, but after painstakingly programing all the wanted frequencys in the scanner, and as soon as you removed 12 volt power it promptly forgot every frequency. I tore into it and discovered the Memory storage capacitor (1 Farad 5 volts) was bad.. A replacement was only about 2 dollars but the shipping added a bunch more. The new capacitor will hold the memory alive for months now without it being hooked to 12 volt power.

James K0UA

 

[CNC Dan]

I have aquestion on these from you electronic guys. If keeping the hood in the dark makes it go bad, how does it work when in stays boxed on a shelf for a couple years?

Being in the dark doesn't 'ruin' the battery, it's just that it won't last as long. Lithium batterys( non-rechargable) have over a ten year shelf life. The helmets current draw is so low that you will likly reach end of warranty before they quit.
Sitting in the dark for a year isn't giong to make much diferance.