Patent ID: 7700893

Claim:
A wire feeder comprising: a wire feeder motor configured to drive delivery of a welding wire at an actual wire feed speed according to a stored motor calibration profile and according to a welding-type process; and a processor configured to iteratively adjust parameters of the stored motor calibration profile to form a new motor calibration profile such that the actual wire feed speed substantially matches a desired wire feed speed and to store the new motor calibration profile in a memory, wherein the processor is further configured to: engage control based on an electromotive force feedback control loop; disengage control based on a tachometer feedback control loop; receive an indication of the actual wire feed speed from the tachometer feedback control loop; compare the actual wire feed speed indicated by the tachometer feedback loop to the desired wire feed speed; adjust the parameters to match the actual wire feed speed to the desired wire feed speed; and control the wire feeder motor based on the new motor calibration parameters upon a subsequent arc start.