Experimentonomen´s first argon

[Experimentonomen]

Today my argon from timelablasers arrived:

After removing a rainforest worth os newpaper this is revealed:

Filament hookups:

Peering down the OC:

The HR:

The buildup of a psu and ignitor can now begin.

 

[vk2fro]

gawd almost copied my thread.

Hurry up and build that supply so we can see beam shots

Cheers
Ben

 

[Byrnz93]

Awesome. But why do the photos say 2005? Lol.

 

[Things]

Someone obviously hasn't set the date and time on their camera yet

 

[timelablasers]

Hey that looks familiar :yh:
Glad it arrived in good shape and so quickly.
As I may have mentioned to you before, might be a good idea to zap it with a Tesla coil or something that produces high voltage high frequency just to bring the gas pressure down in it. The tube was tested to be working before I got it and produces a beam but I don't know at what power. It has been unused for a while so give it a kick with some HV.
Looking forward to seeing the PSU.
Cheers,
Rob.

 

[timelablasers]

Forgot to mention.....it's a new tube.

 

[Experimentonomen]

So the psu construction have started, first on the list, test out number of turns for the filament winding: YouTube - Argon laser tube

In real life a orange glow is seen through the OC, but my camera seem to think its white.

 

[silvercookie]

i vote ban for showing non complete laser. j/k

whats the wavelength? or are all argon lasers ~473?

 

[Experimentonomen]

LOL:crackup:

This tube is 488nm single line.

I´ve bought one of these as it was cheaper than the parts to build one: Laser Drive Ar Ion Laser Ignitor Assembly 180V -> 7kV - eBay (item 320444511540 end time Feb-02-10 00:22:54 PST)

Btw Things, its no point setting the time and date on the camera cuz it get reset every time i take the card in/out.

 

[silvercookie]

cool. should look nice.

 

[daguin]

i vote ban for showing non complete laser. j/k

whats the wavelength? or are all argon lasers ~473?

Argon lasers produce many different wavelengths. Many are in the UV and IR range. In the visible range these are the main wavelengths produced:


457.9 - 476.5 - 488 - 496.5 - 501.7 - 514.5

Of the six 488nm and 514.5nm are the strongest.

The most available argon lasers are Single-Line (SL) = 488nm. If an argon laser has no "designation" given, it is usually 488nm.

The second most available argon lasers are Multi-Line (ML). ML's show all the visible wavelengths.

Less available are Green-Line (GL) @ 514.5nm and Violet-Line (VL) @ 457.9nm. JDS Uniphase also produced a Blue-Line (BL) that showed 457.9nm, 476.5nm, and 488nm.

On the vast majority of air cooled argon lasers, the mirrors/filters only allow the above wavelengths to be "let out" of the tube. Some argons have "adjustable" mirrors that allow the user to select which wavelength is shown.

Peace,
dave

 

[silvercookie]

I see, thanks for the info dave.

 

[brtaman]

Looks like you have a nice project on your hands! Keep us updated.

 

[argon]

Multiline units often show up to 10 visible lines. My little ALC-60X shows the following 9 lines from deep blue to green:

The beam passes 2 diffraction gratings, so the spectrum is double.

Greetings argon

 

[Experimentonomen]

Here is a schematic of my current regulator i plan to use, if it will work in reality remains to be seen.

A actually plan to add a NE555 1Hz flasher to the overcurrent LED to ensure it gets the users attention, eventually also a latching trip circuit that kills the power to the tube.

 

[argon]

Looks good, your schematic.
Maybe the power dissipation of the 4 IRFP450 could be a bit critical. In the datasheet is a maximum power dissipation of 180W given for this FET. If the FET is 100°C hot, there is only 0.4*180W = 72W maximum dissipation allowed. If your tube current is 10A, then about 2.5A flows through each FET, means that there should be no more than 72W/2.5A = 28.8V at the Drain-Source-Path of the FETs.

If your transformer output is 115V AC, then you will have about 163V DC after the rectifier and the capacitors. If your laser-tube needs 110V, then there's 163V-110V = 53V left for the FETs...

Greetings argon