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Argon Connection Help

jayrob

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I've never had a gas (argon) laser before, but Dave (daguin) sent me one as a gift! Can you believe this guy? (he gave away two of these) Wow...

It's a lot bigger than I had expected!

It needs a power supply.

I'm really hoping I can somehow get it going...

I bought this power supply: (if you look at the pictures, it shows that it is the proper voltage I believe)
JDSU ARGON LASER POWER SUPPLY MODEL 2111-015SLBD - eBay (item 290381402476 end time May-24-10 00:24:48 PDT)

But I sure don't know how I'm going to figure out the connections.

I'm wondering if the power supply should be able to run the fan and everything from the one supply??

I tried contacting the manufacture for the Showa power supply with no result...

If anybody has any hints for me as far as figuring out the wiring configuration, please let me know!

Thanks! :)

argon3.jpg

argon4.jpg


I found this drawing of the wiring. Somebody else was trying to figure out how to power one...

argon5.jpg


Don't know if he ever got it. In the thread, he was warned not to mess with it...
http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/6956
 
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Things

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He mentions that he has never worked with lasers before in the thread, and since these gas lasers run from a relatively high voltage, it's probably safer that way. Thanks for the wiring diagram, it will be useful for me too :)

I'll do a bit of fiddling around with it and see what I can come up with. If you just ignore all the random stuff like the thermostat, fan, timer, light etc for now, it'll be much easier to figure out, and you can connect those later.

argon5.jpg


That is really all you need to hook up to get it to work, though of course you would want to add the fan and thermistor etc, but you have a few options for them, so you don't need to worry about them.
Like I said, this laser uses the filament as the cathode, so the negative output of your power supply will be connected to the cathode.

The igniter triggers itself as the tube voltage rises. When the tube is not lasing, the voltage rises, which the ignitor detects, and tries to re-fire the tube.
 
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jayrob

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Great, I'll just wait for your expertise...

I don't want to mess it up because it is a very nice looking laser! I got mine in the mail today and it is like new... (thanks Dave!)

The only thing I tested was the fan, and it works like new...
 
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Things

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I have been having a few family issues, so haven't been able to pay for the laser yet, but it should be paid for and on it's way to me next week, then I can have a much deeper look into it :)

Unfortunately, the PSU is going to cost me about $200AUD to build, which is going to take a bit of saving, but I'll try help you get yours going at least :)
 

jayrob

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He mentions that he has never worked with lasers before in the thread, and since these gas lasers run from a relatively high voltage, it's probably safer that way. Thanks for the wiring diagram, it will be useful for me too :)

I'll do a bit of fiddling around with it and see what I can come up with. If you just ignore all the random stuff like the thermostat, fan, timer, light etc for now, it'll be much easier to figure out, and you can connect those later.

argon5.jpg


That is really all you need to hook up to get it to work, though of course you would want to add the fan and thermistor etc, but you have a few options for them, so you don't need to worry about them.
Like I said, this laser uses the filament as the cathode, so the negative output of your power supply will be connected to the cathode.

The igniter triggers itself as the tube voltage rises. When the tube is not lasing, the voltage rises, which the ignitor detects, and tries to re-fire the tube.

Just to let you know, when I use my DMM to test continuity on the wires, The two orange, and the two black wires are all 4 connected to each other. And then the two red wires are both connected to each other.

So if I connect my power supply to even one of the negative pins on the plug, and one of the positive pins on the plug, it's the same as connecting to all 6 pins. (4 negative and 2 positive)

And according to that diagram, it means that power will also be going to the yellow CKT. (in the drawing) Is that the thermistor? (I know nothing about these)
 
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Morgan

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Hey,

I genuinely learn from this type of stuff and hats off to Dave for the most generous gift but...

Jay, Six and a half thousand posts; innumerable fantastic hosts; lens developments; satisfied customers and the like....

... And you've never had gas???

I am stunned! More importantly, I'm glad this oversight has now been rectified. Are you planning on fitting this laser into somesort of affordable host with battery option? When are the kits gonna be out?!!! :na: Dibs on the first one!

Good stuff!

M
:)
 
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@jayrob...

'I've never had a gas laser before, but Dave (daguin) sent me one as a gift! Can you believe this guy? (he gave away two of these) Wow...'

Note to self---be nicer to Dave:bowdown::yh:

Jay--no luck finding a PS that accepts that plug?? GL-hak

sure to be a learning experience.
 

jayrob

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Hey,

I genuinely learn from this type of stuff and hats off to Dave for the most generous gift but...

Jay, Six and a half thousand posts; innumerable fantastic hosts; lens developments; satisfied customers and the like....

... And you've never had gas???

I am stunned! More importantly, I'm glad this oversight has now been rectified. Are you planning on fitting this laser into somesort of affordable host with battery option? When are the kits gonna be out?!!! :na: Dibs on the first one!

Good stuff!

M
:)

It's about 5" X 5" and about 13" long... Rambo hand held! :crackup:

Yeah I'm completely new to gas lasers but it looks so awesome...

I sure hope I can get this bad boy fired up! :cool:




hakzaw1, yeah Dave is unbelievable...

I'm going to have to come up with something good to send him in return for the gift.

I'm really excited about this thing. But I'm finding that it may not be a really easy thing to find and configure a proper PSU...
 

Things

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The wire to the igniter board is for the igniter to know what the voltage is at. One part of it is connected to the anode, and that little wire is connected to the cathode, so it can monitor tube voltage :)

The reason they use 2 pins per wire is because of the current it draws. Between the orange and black wires, they will be carrying 13A for the filament, and also the return feed from the cathode. You can usually just connect 1 of those up, but I would recommend both, just to keep things a bit cooler and within their ratings. Remember, at full power, this tube will draw almost 1kW through that plug!

The thermistor is simply a overheat cutoff. Usually the PSU has an input for that, however depending on it's rating, you may be able to switch the tube current directly. It is designed so that when that heatsink gets over a certain temperature, the thermistor goes open circuit.

I have never had a gas laser either, and this will be my first as well. Having a bit of a background in electronics helps tremendously. Before this, I had never seen the internal structure of an Argon tube or power supply, but it is pretty easy to work out if you know what is going on :)

Cheers,
Dan
 

jayrob

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Well I can use all the help I can get! :)

I don't want to mess this up...

:thanks:



Dont forget about that sweet looking HeNe desk lamp you've built;)

Oh yeah! That does qualify as a gas laser huh? Never had an argon though. Can't wait to compare 488nm to my 473nm lasers...

Acutally, it says 450nm to 515nm on one of the labels??
 

daguin

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Well I can use all the help I can get! :)

I don't want to mess this up...

:thanks:


Oh yeah! That does qualify as a gas laser huh? Never had an argon though. Can't wait to compare 488nm to my 473nm lasers...

Acutally, it says 450nm to 515nm on one of the labels??

It should have multi-line optics on it. The research I could find looks like these were used in DNA sequencers. You'll have a 488nm line in there but you should have 5 other color lines as well

Peace,
dave
 

jayrob

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Hmmm... you mean 6 beams at once Dave? Or different wavelengths depending on current?

I have a lot to learn with this project...

Looking forward to it though!
 
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daguin

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Hmmm... you mean 6 beams at once Dave?

I have a lot to learn with this project...

Looking forward to it though!

The beam coming from your right in the picture and crossing over the color lines are what the beam looks like comming straight out of the laser. The diffraction mirror breaks up the beam into the color lines. 488nmn is the brightest one in the middle

lgnew20.jpg


Peace,
dave
 

jayrob

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Sweet!

Hey I e-mailed JDS and hope to get a data sheet showing the wiring of that PSU that I bought...

So hopefully they will have that information for me.

I couldn't find a data sheet for the SP 263A that you said should have the same pin connection as the JDS unit I bought. So if you find it on your computer, please send it over! :)
 




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