If you've been looking for a GreeNe, read this.

[aryntha]

Never said i'd get them, just need them heh.

Didn't Sam have a 1677 for sale at SELEM though? Or was that a MG head... Not that I have money or anything though.

Nah they were both MG heads... LYR-173 I think, and LGR-173. (Might be wrong...)

Either way I don't even know if MG really makes greens anymore. I should ask. I know last year, they were still doing yellows.

JDSU discontinuing those lasers actually makes me a little bit sad I remember being 9 years old and looking at the Edmund catalog and longing for a 1675 or something... I mean, I have them now but, still, sad to see them discontinued. Why'd you have to break up the band, man??

 

[cheech226]

Sorry I haven't been seeing updates to this thread for some reason.

Cheech -- Can you confirm with me that the short purple wire is not broken/disconnected? This may be hard to find. It's the "CDRH Loop" and is used for interlock. It's short and might be heat-shrunk in with the main wires coming out of the PSU.

And, for sure nothing is obstructing the beam shutter, right? (I know, elementary - you see a mirror when you look into the tube, right?)

I would REALLY ASK that you ask Ken to swap out the PSU FIRST before sending the whole head back.

I -doubt- it's the head, and your likelihood of getting another one of these is... low. (Power supplies, not so much. I won't say they're a dime a dozen, but they're not hard to get.) - By the way, this isn't a threadjack anymore, as the GreeNe's from Ken are no longer available.

I'll take a picture here when I can, when I get home, of my wiring of my MG PS. It wasn't hard. But I still do NOT think you should send the head back yet. Please let me know when you've read this

i had time during the week to read more of sam's faq and i found my p/s - it's an m g 05-lpm-903. this morning i connected a real plug as instructed - brown and blue together on one side, white on the other with green ground. the hv wire from the alden plug to the head had been cut. i stripped back the wires (ground shield and center positive) and twisted them together and black taped before i pugged the p/s into the wall. nothing happened when i plugged up. gotta start cooking so i'll have to leave this for later.
happy thanksgiving! i really appreciate the help man.

 

[qumefox]

I saw those wiring directions on the laserfaq but I don't think they're correct, which is why I hoped aryntha would tell you how his are wired.. I don't think the blue wire is used at all with 115v.

The HV cable being cut is another matter all together.. Your dealing with HV here.. ~10kv starting pulses and ~2.7kv running voltage.. 'twisting the wires together with electrical tape' isn't going to cut it here. You really need to solder the connection and use insulation materials rated for the voltage.


But like aryntha said.. I'd contact ken and try to exchange the psu before doing anything. But if you've started hacking on it.. that might not even be an option anymore. I also agree that if the head doesn't rattle, it's likely not the problem, you just have a bad power supply.

 

[cheech226]

jeez, i thought sam's was the Bible ;-)
aryntha, do you know the correct wire usage with this p/s?
as regards the hv leads - this was a temp fix to see if the tube would light. altho not soldered it was a firm connect. i appreciate your concern quemfox. i have worked with hv a bit, and have been bit. when i was a kid it was a vacuum tube world.
i think my head is ok, the p/s may be the problem. i really need wiring info.

 

[aryntha]

(I have no idea why this thread is not updating me.)

Cheech, Qume is right, as far as I can tell from my existing lab version of this supply (which is nothing but it in a case) and the MG brick I got.

Make sure the purple wire IS NOT CUT, and then just brown and white to mains (hot and common) and green to ground.

Yours came with the alden cable cut? That's odd... If it were that though, you'd at least get some arcing.

Did your PS come with the blue wire and purple wire looped inside of the heatshrink? I didn't have to touch either the purple or blue as mine came. I just went brown+white to hot/common, and green to ground.

 

[cheech226]

the purple wire is a loop into the h/s close to the brick and is uncut. and the blue was inside the h/s near the plug. the way i ran it at first was as you describe, brown/white mains and green to ground. only got a volt or so across the hv leads. i contacted ken thru fleebay about the possibility of a faulty p/s - no reply yet. i haven't tried to power my bare tube yet as i wanted to use this p/s and have no other. the hv wire was cut between the alden plug and the head. the cuts matched.

 

[qumefox]

Sounds like somebody screwed up to me.. Sounds like someone tested the psu.. found it was bad and cut the HV cable so it wouldn't get used/sold... and it ended up going out anyway.

We do that here testing electronics, etc.. If something doesn't work.. it get's 'really' broken.. and usually 'bad' written all over it in sharpy too, so we won't find it later and go 'oh, I wonder if this works' and waste time finding out it doesn't all over again.

 

[cheech226]

ken said he'd swap out the p/s for me so sounds good. can't wait to lite these tubes up!

 

[aryntha]

I found out that Ken actually keeps spares on hand for JUST this reason... His responses are sometimes a bit slow, but, he basically keeps extra stock of whatever he sells "in case anyone has a problem".

Most ebay sellers don't do this. I wanted to get another 1676 from him, but he wouldn't sell it to me because he said he's keeping it incase anyone needs a replacement.

To me, that's pretty exceptional as far as an ebay seller goes. So I'm betting you'll get a good supply, and you'll be doing the beamage thing in a week's time.

 

[qumefox]

You should try hitting him up again then in a couple of weeks, or tell him that if no one needs a replacement your still interested.

Though in 'most ebayers' defense.. the vast majority only have one to begin with. heh.

 

[cheech226]

i'm starting to get too many projects going. and then someone comes up with a ml argon. have a few diode builds i need to do, get these tubes lit. i want to do a lamp thing with the bare tube, and then this argon....

 

[qumefox]

Welcome to the wonderful world of lasers. heh

Though in all honesty.. argons aren't really a 'rare find' unless it's dirt cheap. No shortage of them on ebay priced all over the spectrum.

 

[lasersbee]

I received my Green HeNe laser yesterday (on a side note it
was very badly packed with one layer of bubble wrap and
loose in the box).
I just hooked it up to warm up. Not sure if you guys got the
same Laser but my beam comes out at 90 degrees to the
Laser tube. It has a mirror mounted at the output that diverts
the beam.
This Laser is quite bright for the power it produces..

I let the tube warm up for 30 minutes and it outputs 3.6mW
as measured on our Newport 1825c LPM with Thermopile
sensor. (Pic below)

A few notes that may help others that bought one...

1) there is a Turn On delay once you apply power. So give it
time to turn on.

2) my PS had the power input wire colors identification printed
on the label. (Pic below)

The colors correspond to the wires coming straight out of the
PS block and not necessarily to the color of the wires after the
Connector. (Pic below)

There are more than 3 wires available and only 3 are used when
received. You will need to remove the protective plastic covering
if you need to access any other wires or the Violet CDRH Loop.


Jerry

 

[aryntha]

Yeah, Mine came with the right-angle mirrors, too. I removed those, as while they are first surface mirrors, they seem to not be very good ones - they do seem to cut a little bit of power. (10% or more.)

Just removing the 4 hex screws does it, no problem.

Also, even the documentation for these lasers say 30-min warmup to full power.

Could you get a reading without the right-angle mirror? 3.6 is pretty good, I just wonder how high it'll go without it.

 

[qumefox]

Yes you will get at least a 10% power increase getting rid of the right angle mirror. It's really lossy compared to even 'crappy' front surfuace mirrors i've played with, so I wonder if it was made intentionally so to attenuate the beam.

Strange on the packing.. Mine showed up in a fairly large box, packed with foam and marked 'delicate instruments'.. I actually still keep mine in that box.. along with two 473nm labbys. (the box was that big) with room to spare. heh.

I'm jealous at 3.6mW. Mine is only 2.3 but i'm not sure I can trust that particular LPM though since it's a photocell type with a 'conversion chart'

Maybe I should have gotten one of the MG heads instead of the JDSU one I did.

 

[lasersbee]

Yes you will get at least a 10% power increase getting rid of the right angle mirror. It's really lossy compared to even 'crappy' front surfuace mirrors i've played with, so I wonder if it was made intentionally so to attenuate the beam.

Strange on the packing.. Mine showed up in a fairly large box, packed with foam and marked 'delicate instruments'.. I actually still keep mine in that box.. along with two 473nm labbys. (the box was that big) with room to spare. heh.

I'm jealous at 3.6mW. Mine is only 2.3 but i'm not sure I can trust that particular LPM though since it's a photocell type with a 'conversion chart'

Maybe I should have gotten one of the MG heads instead of the JDSU one I did.

I'll test without the mirror tomorrow when I'm back in the shop.
What LPM are you using Qume ??
At least we know there is no IR coming out of those Green tubes
to screw up the readings....:crackup:

Jerry