Remember to exercise those argons!

diachi · Feb 3, 2017

LtKernelPanic said:
So much for that. It flat out refuses to start. Let it warm for 20 minutes and nothing. Just ticks away. Have to mess with it this weekend and see if I can get it to fire again.

Unless the PSU or starter board is pooched, may be time for an Oudin coil.

AUS said:
I did mine last week
I have moved house since my last post and the Argon is now mounted on a trolley that I wheel out every now and again.

I went through a quadcopter drone stage for a while, and I'm currently doing glasswork in the garage and setting up a high vacuum system to evacuate glass tubes.

I like the trolley idea, I'll need to do that when I eventually get a bigger place!

Going to be making some laser tubes?

LtKernelPanic · Feb 4, 2017

Hmm. I don't get this. It worked fine less than a week ago and fired on the second or third pulse after warming for maybe 2-3 minutes at most then ran fine for an hour. It's lasing for a split second on each pulse so it's not like the tube suddenly sprung a leak and degassed. Guess it's time to go search for quack "medical" shops on fleabay and find a cheap "violet wand" to zap it with. Guess I could try my other PSU with it for grins and giggles but I highly doubt that's the issue.

edit: Wow. I left it plugged in for probably 45 minutes and after trying several times decided to try it once more because it was starting to give off the "hot" burning dust smell and it finally fired after about the 6th pulse. After the blower brings the temp down a bit I'm going to run it at about 7.5A for a good hour or so.

ultimatekaiser · Feb 4, 2017

It's easier to run than to start, It might just be really low on gas/have a worn filiment. how many hours are on it, and what's the max output it can do?

LtKernelPanic · Feb 4, 2017

It's got a ton of hours on it. About 9k IIRC when I looked. I also noticed at idle it was doing 1mw and at 10A only 10mw when it used to do about 5mw and 40-42. I think sadly it may be getting close to EOL but seeing as I paid all of $90 for it I wouldn't be too upset if that's the case.

ultimatekaiser · Feb 4, 2017

Sounds like its well beyond EOL if that's the case. it's out of gas.

DJZ · Apr 24, 2017

Don't neglect the gas!

diachi · Apr 24, 2017

DJZ said:
Don't neglect the gas!

I need a multiline in my life.

ultimatekaiser · Apr 24, 2017

I have one, but dunno if you're willing to pay for it

Sad that they're getting to be pretty rare, now that solid state is taking over.

I should run mine.

diachi · Apr 24, 2017

ultimatekaiser said:
I have one, but dunno if you're willing to pay for it

Sad that they're getting to be pretty rare, now that solid state is taking over.

I should run mine.

Probably a little out of my price range unfortunately

. There's a decent LASOS on eBay just now for a fair price (tested/working) that I'm considering, but at the same time I sort of want to upgrade my FreeNAS/VMWare servers as that's long overdue, most of that hardware is a decade old by this point.

ultimatekaiser · Apr 24, 2017

diachi said:
Probably a little out of my price range unfortunately . There's a decent LASOS on eBay just now for a fair price (tested/working) that I'm considering, but at the same time I sort of want to upgrade my FreeNAS/VMWare servers as that's long overdue, most of that hardware is a decade old by this point.

Yeah, that's getting pretty old. Though ultimately, if it still works and does its job, then there no reason to replace it other than as a convenience. alot of my stuff is of similar age and still works just fine. new computer parts are on my wishlist too, namely a good graphics card-been looking at getting a gtx 1070/1080. need a new DSLR too.

Edit: and as for the argon, I'd prolly take lower. I just feel that's a good base starting point, since mine is quite nice and we don't have a steady flow of them coming into the forum anymore.

diachi · Apr 24, 2017

ultimatekaiser said:
Yeah, that's getting pretty old. Though ultimately, if it still works and does its job, then there no reason to replace it other than as a convenience. alot of my stuff is of similar age and still works just fine. new computer parts are on my wishlist too, namely a good graphics card-been looking at getting a gtx 1070/1080. need a new DSLR too.

Edit: and as for the argon, I'd prolly take lower. I just feel that's a good base starting point, since mine is quite nice and we don't have a steady flow of them coming into the forum anymore.

The big problem is power consumption (and as a result heat) with these older machines. At $0.35/kWh running these things gets pricey when they're currently doing 300W at idle (not to mention switches, firewall etc). The heat is ridiculous too, especially in the summer. Running A/C 24/7 practically doubles the power cost. Then there's the noise, 1U and 2U rackmount servers sound like a Learjet taking off when things get hot.

Potentially looking at going custom with a few Ryzen builds in 3U cases for lower power/heat/noise.

As for your argon, higher cost is to be expected for a tested/known good/complete system.

ultimatekaiser · Apr 25, 2017

diachi said:
The big problem is power consumption (and as a result heat) with these older machines. At $0.35/kWh running these things gets pricey when they're currently doing 300W at idle (not to mention switches, firewall etc). The heat is ridiculous too, especially in the summer. Running A/C 24/7 practically doubles the power cost. Then there's the noise, 1U and 2U rackmount servers sound like a Learjet taking off when things get hot.

Potentially looking at going custom with a few Ryzen builds in 3U cases for lower power/heat/noise.

As for your argon, higher cost is to be expected for a tested/known good/complete system.

Yes. definitely true on all counts. especially the point about the AC-it all adds up. a little offtopic, but yeah the new Ryzen stuff, especially if you have fast memory speeds really makes them soar evidently.

Cyparagon · Apr 25, 2017

diachi said:
Running A/C 24/7 practically doubles the power cost.

Compressor based cooling systems typically have a COP of around 3, so that's a 33% increase, not double. If you're really paying just as much for your AC as your other power usage, your AC is desperately in need of repair or replacement.

diachi · Apr 25, 2017

Cyparagon said:
Compressor based cooling systems typically have a COP of around 3, so that's a 33% increase, not double. If you're really paying just as much for your AC as your other power usage, your AC is desperately in need of repair or replacement.

Correct, my A/C unit definitely does need replaced, it was free but I paid for that in increased energy costs. I'd certainly expect decent improvement with a new unit, either reduced costs or improved cooling for the same cost. I need both a more efficient A/C unit as well as reduced heat production. Biggest bill was ~1000kWh at $0.35/kWh a couple of summers ago (~$350) ... pricey for a 1 bedroom apartment.

Friend upstairs had a big ductless A/C unit, that thing was nice. Whole apartment stayed at 16C all summer, and his was bigger than mine.

icecruncher · Apr 29, 2017

diachi said:
Probably a little out of my price range unfortunately . There's a decent LASOS on eBay just now for a fair price (tested/working) that I'm considering, but at the same time I sort of want to upgrade my FreeNAS/VMWare servers as that's long overdue, most of that hardware is a decade old by this point.

Did you buy the LASOS?

If you did, what's the power output?

Only thing about it I didn't like was that it was 220v PS.

I saw it was sold on the 25th for $300.00 just after you posted this

Not a bad price for a working one in good condition. Especially looking pretty healthy with 8 lines.

I love the glass bell on mine, replaced half the metal case with plexi just for the purple glow

They are just a little picky about starting if they sit a while.

ZRaffleticket · Jun 25, 2017

Just fired up my argon for the first time in how long. I'm surprised it only took 10 seconds to lase...

Also, I really need to invest on a cooling solution. Cavity gets HOT after 60 seconds...

Remember to exercise those argons!

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