US Patent 9144862 System and method for determining welding wire diameter

A welding system includes a welding wire feeder, a welding power supply, and a sensor. The power supply is coupled to the welding wire feeder and configured to produce a welding arc. The sensor is configured to sense a parameter indicative of a size of a welding wire fed through the welding wire feeder. The sensor is configured to send a signal to the power supply, the signal representing the parameter indicative of the size of the welding wire. The power supply is configured to automatically implement at least one of an arc starting parameter or a welding parameter based on the signal.