Argon Ticking

Maybe someone can explain to me because I've never quite understood... how does this not damage other circuitry?

Not sure. Both my argon and my tesla arrived today, here are some pics. It's not producing any laser light...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67636717/Lasers/ALC 60X/IMG_0863.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67636717/Lasers/ALC 60X/IMG_0864.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67636717/Lasers/ALC 60X/IMG_0869.JPG

The PSU is weird... the key switch does nothing, it automatically gives power to the laser after some time. There is a "click" sound from the PSU and 10 seconds later one part of the laser tube glows nicely, but the other part remains dim. If I put the coil on the heatsink on the dim side, the tube lights up, but still no laser beam. If I put the coil on the bright side, the other side remains dim. The tube is glowing when viewed through the aperture, and each "tick" results in a flash inside, but no output. Any ideas what's wrong? :undecided:

Kinda looks like it's firing down the capillary to me, my argon would do it a lot.

How do I fix that?

I'm not 100% sure that's what's going on, but if it is, there is basically no fix

Over the tube's life, material from the cathode is slowly blasted away by the ignition pulse, and sometimes ends up settling in the capillary tube. It then becomes an easier path for the arc than down the bore.

No way to clean the capillary? What if I just left the argon to tick for a few hours?

Not really. I've heard of mild success by letting it run down the capillary for a short time, to try and "melt" some of the gunk out, but the capillary isn't designed to take an arc, and you'd risk damaging the tube. Letting the argon click is a bad idea (as I've found out myself) as it just blasts more and more material off the cathode.

Only way I've managed to get around it is to just keep trying to start it, if it fires down the capillary, turn it off and try again.

But like I said, I'm not 100% sure this is your issue. I'm not familiar with that head.

Well that would be unforunate.. I hope that's not the case. But if it was, I'd rather have a risky tube than a dead tube

A few things I'm noticing...
-there are no pins jumpered for the PSU remote pins
-the key switch does not do anything on the PSU; the laser is automatically given power
-there is a photodiode/photosensor in front of the laser; I am assuming this for "light mode"
-there does not appear to be anything at the other end of the laser, the mirror is visible from the outside
-there does not seem to be any glow from the tube in the middle section of the tube; only the central glass on the side with the three glass valves (with the HR mirror) is glowing; the glass near the aperture does not glow at all unless the tesla is placed upon the heatsink there
-all of the laser parts are OLD- the PSU is beat up, the umbilical has loose shrink wrapping, etc
-the PSU interlock does not enable/light up (there is a yellow light at the front of the PSU) unless the fan is plugged in- which uses a Molex 4-pin I believe
-the "tick" from the laser is not visible in any way unless looking into the aperture/through the HR mirror- no output flashes or anything
-each "tick" sounds a little more quickly than 1 tick per second

Is there any way to visually inspect the capillary or the inside of the argon tube? There should be reasons why the laser would only "tick" besides firing down the capillary or high pressure; could it be a PSU problem?

sounds like you got a pretty jank laser to me...obviously i could be wrong, and i hope i am

also, all the photosensor would do is limit the power...someone correct me if im wrong, but i thought the only purpose of photosensors on lasers were to maintain a steady, constant power output.

Looooong ago, I heard of baking the tube in an oven.
I don't remember the temp or time.
I believe Chris at Hurersicense knew the process.
HMike

Hemlock_Mike said:

Looooong ago, I heard of baking the tube in an oven.
I don't remember the temp or time.
I believe Chris at Hurersicense knew the process.
HMike

Click to expand...

Before you begin trying some half-baked ideas, you may want to make sure your power supply is not the problem. The simplest way may be to hook a known working head to it, or connect a known good PSU and see what you get.

pschlosser said:

Before you begin trying some half-baked ideas, you may want to make sure your power supply is not the problem. The simplest way may be to hook a known working head to it, or connect a known good PSU and see what you get.

Click to expand...

wow....admittedly, I laughed, but man, that's some bad punnage goin' on! :crackup:

cyparagon just (i am backscrolled in the chatroom) put up this link... about 3-6 days ago I started a post towards this stuff here, I will now find it and post it.

hwang21 said:

Not sure. Both my argon and my tesla arrived today, here are some pics. It's not producing any laser light...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67636717/Lasers/ALC 60X/IMG_0863.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67636717/Lasers/ALC 60X/IMG_0864.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67636717/Lasers/ALC 60X/IMG_0869.JPG

The PSU is weird... the key switch does nothing, it automatically gives power to the laser after some time. There is a "click" sound from the PSU and 10 seconds later one part of the laser tube glows nicely, but the other part remains dim. If I put the coil on the heatsink on the dim side, the tube lights up, but still no laser beam. If I put the coil on the bright side, the other side remains dim. The tube is glowing when viewed through the aperture, and each "tick" results in a flash inside, but no output. Any ideas what's wrong? :undecided:

Click to expand...

I don't think I've ever seen a 60X do that before. I'm curious, have you verified the cathode is intact and heating up prior to the "ticks"? Before the igniter pulse you should see the cathode light up like a light bulb. I'd recommend removing the optic on the cathode side, but only if you think you can realign it! It's very easy to realign a 60X, but if you've never done it before I wouldn't recommend it.

It's been a long time since I owned a 60X, but looking at your pics, I'm curious what these 2 wires are attached to. I've circled them with a yellow line, for some reason they seem out of place to me:

I have no other head to test the PSU, the uniphase is clearly incompatible.

How do you see if the cathode is heated up? I have never realigned a gas laser before