Argon Ion Laser - JDSU - running at full power

I recently received an Argon Ion laser to join my collection, I always fancied an Argon laser but never had deep enough pockets, luckily you can now pick up the smaller air cooled lasers for reasonable money.

I have the JDSU 2211P 20sl laser and power supply but not the remote control, pins 1 and 3 are joined and the laser runs.

My question is if this is full power or will it just be running at Idle? I understand the light output is controlled by putting volts (DC I think?) across some of the pins and that I can take 15v from pin 13. Can I simply connect pin 13 to pin 6 to run at full power?

Figured this out myself, 15 volts into pin 7 (using pin 13 for the power) makes the laser run at full power, very bright beam and a lot of heat from the cooling fan. I presume running at full power shortens the life of the tube so I need to add a resistor to reduce the power to something between idle and full power.

simonuk said:

Figured this out myself, 15 volts into pin 7 (using pin 13 for the power) makes the laser run at full power, very bright beam and a lot of heat from the cooling fan. I presume running at full power shortens the life of the tube so I need to add a resistor to reduce the power to something between idle and full power.

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You should try getting or building a remote interface. You might be able to find one for about 60 bucks but it will make your task much easier.

It takes two resistors or a potentiometer; you need to make a voltage divider. Don't short the connection for long as the driver circuitry is only rated for a certain amount of current and shorting it will exceed this current limit.

It's fairly easy to make a DYI controller for them (Sam's has the pinouts) but if you're lazy like me or want one a real one that displays the current laser output power (also like me) you can get a real JDSU controller from MI-Lasers for 68 bucks.

Meredith Instruments : JDS Uniphase Remote Interface Controller [JDSU-2500] - $68.00 - The source for laser surplus

Back when I got the "real" controller,
it was ~ $100 !!! Gettin' better all
the time !!! They are worth it.......
HMike

Yeah I got a "great deal" on my first one when I snagged one for 125 bucks off fleabay years ago. I forced myself not to order one from them when I got my second argon last fall and waited for Christmas since my mom and brother are usually prodding me for gift ideas every year. Works great and there's something about two multiline argons running at once too.