Cyonics Uniphase 2214-40MLA Argon Laser

[Mattronium]

Thanks for the information, Steve.
It's good to know that most likely nothing is wrong with the head. Since you say that there is notable risk in testing it without proper cooling I'll wait until I get a proper fan/blower before firing it up again. Hopefully it won't take too long to get a blower.

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

It's possible you're below the laying threshold, but all the ones I've used all lase at idle. I have the same model and it lases at 7.8mW at an idle of 3.9A. It may be slightly out of alignment, possibly from being too hot or too cold, and since it's been sitting for a while it's high-pressure might be deducting some power from it. Generally alignment on these doesn't go out much unless someone's fiddled with it, are the tube is under stress causing it to walk over time.

You can find out how many hours are on it by gently lifting the shutter off. It's only held on by three screws at the very very front of the laser. Just do it with care as it's attached with the ground wire, and make sure you put it back on in the same orientation.

 

[Sigurthr]

Get proper ventilation on it first and foremost though. Then bump the current to 7A and see if it comes to life.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Thanks for the information, Steve.
It's good to know that most likely nothing is wrong with the head. Since you say that there is notable risk in testing it without proper cooling I'll wait until I get a proper fan/blower before firing it up again. Hopefully it won't take too long to get a blower.

Thanks everyone for the help.

Lol I already told you this in PM get a good 150+ CFM at least.

 

[Down with Umbrella]

I sure hope you have no issues with this once you get it powered up and cooled. I have this same laser. I want to say I get 6 lines but iirc someone on here had one of those getting 8.
Yup, the control displays 3.98 when the tube is idling.
Best of luck!

 

[LtKernelPanic]

If it's been sitting for a long time it may be high pressure and need a kick from something like an oudin coil. It is possible to nurse them back to health if they're not too far gone. It's taken over two years to get my fussy cylindrical head to fire on the second or third pulse instead of on the 20th. One thing you may want to check is the hours meter on the head. On a cylindrical style it's behind the front the front cover that easily comes off after removing 4 (IIRC) screws. I posted a pic of mine here:

http://laserpointerforums.com/f43/remember-exercise-those-argons-76562-7.html#post1318213


it's hard to see in that pic but there's a little white indicator line almost directly below the bottom left corner of the blue trim pot. It's much easier to see when looking at the meter.

 

[Mattronium]

Lol I already told you this in PM get a good 150+ CFM at least.

True. You said that, but you didn't say that a short run had a very real possibility of harming the tube. (Yes, I'm being sarcastic)

If it were not for the possible harm, I would run the tube for a quick test and bring the current up a little higher for a few seconds to see if I get lasing. Since I don't have adequate cooling, in light of what Steve said, I don't want to risk it.

It looks like we have a consensus.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Lol argons are in danger of failing always. They're pretty high stress devices by nature. But with an 80cfm fan it can probably run safely for a very short low power run. We used to do ignition tests with no cooling for 5-10s. It won't harm these small ones. It takes time for heat to transfer. No matter how much there is.

 

[Mattronium]

If it's been sitting for a long time it may be high pressure and need a kick from something like an oudin coil. It is possible to nurse them back to health if they're not too far gone. It's taken over two years to get my fussy cylindrical head to fire on the second or third pulse instead of on the 20th. One thing you may want to check is the hours meter on the head. On a cylindrical style it's behind the front the front cover that easily comes off after removing 4 (IIRC) screws. I posted a pic of mine here:

http://laserpointerforums.com/f43/remember-exercise-those-argons-76562-7.html#post1318213


it's hard to see in that pic but there's a little white indicator line almost directly below the bottom left corner of the blue trim pot. It's much easier to see when looking at the meter.

I took a look at it and it showed this. It was very difficult to find the marker on the wire, but I think I finally found it at 1,800 hours. Is it always this hard to find the mark?

 

[diachi]

I took a look at it and it showed this. It was very difficult to find the marker on the wire, but I think I finally found it at 1,800 hours. Is it always this hard to find the mark?

Looks like 1800 hours, best I can tell from your picture. I seem to recall these having slightly more readable meters...

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Usually it's a nice thick black mark.

 

[Mattronium]

Well that's the only mark on the wire that I saw. There wasn't any black marks that I could see then or in any of my pictures now. Where does the mark start out at? I'd think it'd be exactly at zero, but I don't know.
Here is another pic.

You can see that there is lots of wire at the 0 hours side and almost none at the 10.000 hours side.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

I'm sure it's low hours anyway, just a nice thing to know. if it started up right away when you tried to run it earlier than it should be just fine for a long time. IIRC These are initially filled with a higher pressure than normal I think so that as they run the gas depletes to the normal range. Ultimately it's looking out like a misalignment to me. You could find out by shining a very thin low divergence HeNe through it probably. It's fairly unlikely that there's an internal problem, such as a sagging filament, with a young tube, but I wouldn't rule it out. If you hold the tube up to the light and you can see through the bore it's probably a mirror issue.

 

[diachi]

Usually it's a nice thick black mark.

Or a sort of fluorescent orange arrow.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Or a sort of fluorescent orange arrow.

yeah I think most of the cyonics ones are kind of a thick dark brownish black mark. my HeCd one has an orange mark or red I think. I dont remember off the top of my head. its possible the wire was twisted perhaps so you cant see it?

 

[Mattronium]

Sooo, I finally got around to getting a fan for the laser. talk about some serious procrastination!!!

The Comair Rotriot PT2B3 fan that I ordered should actually be here in a few days, so in the meantime I've been working on how to fit it to the head.

I think I got a plan that will work out quite well actually. I just used some 6" PVC conduit pipe that I had around and a 4" to 6" PVC adapter along with the adapter type thing that came with the head.