I’m going to learn some welding and I’ve bought myself an auto darkening helmet. I tested it my holding it up to the sun, and it darkens, but stops darkening right away (depending on the delay I set). Also tried with a powerful flashlight and it does the same. Also left it outside for a while for the solar panel to maybe charge the battery, no dice. Is my helmet is defective or is it going to work as intended with real welding?
The light from welding is orders of magnitude brighter than the sun or any led flash light you can hold to it. If it flashes at all holding it up to light then it will most likely work just fine when welding.
Rest assured that even if you try to weld with it and it DOESN’T darken, the lens still protects from the uv rays. You should not continue to weld with it if it does not darken as it will so be bright and will strain your eyesight, but it won’t cause any physical harm to you.
I managed to make it work by setting the flashlight to a high speed strobe. Makes sense.