LaserPhysics Reliant 300WC help

[ultimatekaiser]

well luckily, i have a large vocabulary of 4 letter words at my access! lol
when i 1st fired it up, reds were the lower power and green yellow and blue were strong, but now reds are far brighter than they were and the yellow is gone and one green is very dim compared to the other.
how long of a recovery burn is typical for these?

i'm not 100% but i think these are external mirror lasers. i'll take a pic a lil later of the HR/OC ends of the tube.

You're correct - sealed mirrors on these, not so fun to attempt to align (Note that I said attempt). Not that external mirrors are fun to align either, just not as bad.

Just easier to work with. Typical recovery burns depend on how long they've been sitting. older lasers are affected more than newer ones. the 300WC is multimode IIRC which makes it a bit easier, but realistically its still not fun. if its sealed mirror, I'd likely leave it be unless I had to, as those are REALLY hard and dangerous to try to realign without some extreme care, if not completely impossible since heat is a huge player here. mine is external mirror and TEM00 so I can dink mirrors all I want. but as a result the power tops at something like 100mW ish. I think I've recently gotten mine back to about 110 ish on a good day. its rated 75, so its still doing good with 1100-1200 hours ish on it. It was somewhat high pressure when I got it, and I've run it for tens of hours on and off, and I think it's still coming down a bit. but acting like a new laser now. a few hours at mid-high current is probably sufficient to make a notable change though. If the reds have suddenly taken a jump its probably due to the lack of the yellow resonating, but if it was weak already minor misalignment may have killed it. How long has this been sitting while you worked on it? if its only been a few weeks pressure isn't your problem likely in a small tube like this. It's more likely alignment or electrical.

 

[diachi]

Just easier to work with. Typical recovery burns depend on how long they've been sitting. older lasers are affected more than newer ones. the 300WC is multimode IIRC which makes it a bit easier, but realistically its still not fun. if its sealed mirror, I'd likely leave it be unless I had to, as those are REALLY hard and dangerous to try to realign without some extreme care, if not completely impossible since heat is a huge player here. mine is external mirror and TEM00 so I can dink mirrors all I want. but as a result the power tops at something like 100mW ish. I think I've recently gotten mine back to about 110 ish on a good day. its rated 75, so its still doing good with 1100-1200 hours ish on it. It was somewhat high pressure when I got it, and I've run it for tens of hours on and off, and I think it's still coming down a bit. but acting like a new laser now. a few hours at mid-high current is probably sufficient to make a notable change though. If the reds have suddenly taken a jump its probably due to the lack of the yellow resonating, but if it was weak already minor misalignment may have killed it. How long has this been sitting while you worked on it? if its only been a few weeks pressure isn't your problem likely in a small tube like this. It's more likely alignment or electrical.

See my edit on my last post regarding alignment - quote is from Steve Roberts regarding this exact model.

Can always do the prodding around with some form of insulated rod to see if there is any improvement at all, that at least lets you know the alignment isn't perfect but the changes usually won't be permanent from that method.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

See my edit on my last post regarding alignment - quote is from Steve Roberts regarding this exact model.

Can always do the prodding around with some form of insulated rod to see if there is any improvement at all, that at least lets you know the alignment isn't perfect but the changes usually won't be permanent from that method.

Yes I saw, and exactly, as it doesn't take much deformation to move the mirror enough to create a change. I just was commenting that its not a fun process.

 

[diachi]

Yes I saw, and exactly, as it doesn't take much deformation to move the mirror enough to create a change. I just was commenting that its not a fun process.

Ahh, thought you might not have seen it as it wasn't quoted.

Cooling may not be so bad on this tube while doing the alignment - looks like the shroud/fan is set up to work without the rest of the housing in place - unlike the JDSU 2214s which need the housing in place for proper air flow.

 

[DJZ]

I wouldn't bother messing with the alignment unless I knew for sure it wasn't making rated power. The last 300wc I had was quite high pressure after sitting for years. It had a total of 72 hours on it after being rebuilt. Once I finally got it started all I remember seeing was a blue line. After about 20 minutes the greens came in, followed by the red after about an hour. I think it was the next day before the yellow showed up. The unit I had wasn't polarized which was a bit of a problem for my application and unfortunately by about 100 hours on the tube it developed a problem where the green lines would go away after warm up. Didn't want to spend $2200 for a rebuild so I had to let it go.

Years ago I wanted to create a website and dzlasers.com was my first choice. I was shocked to find out it was already taken!

 

[FRITZ HID]

I wouldn't bother messing with the alignment unless I knew for sure it wasn't making rated power. The last 300wc I had was quite high pressure after sitting for years. It had a total of 72 hours on it after being rebuilt. Once I finally got it started all I remember seeing was a blue line. After about 20 minutes the greens came in, followed by the red after about an hour. I think it was the next day before the yellow showed up. The unit I had wasn't polarized which was a bit of a problem for my application and unfortunately by about 100 hours on the tube it developed a problem where the green lines would go away after warm up. Didn't want to spend $2200 for a rebuild so I had to let it go.

Years ago I wanted to create a website and dzlasers.com was my first choice. I was shocked to find out it was already taken!

hmmm... maybe i ended up with your old one! lol

 

[ultimatekaiser]

yeah. honestly, I'd put it in a place where the heat can readily leave and just let it run for a while to get the easy stuff out of the way, (presuming all your electronics are known working right) then if it still doesn't work, give the mirrors a few gentle insulated pokes and/or a light cleaning with ultra pure acetone and a cotton swab. Do the easy stuff first, then get to the harder stuff.

 

[FRITZ HID]

yeah. honestly, I'd put it in a place where the heat can readily leave and just let it run for a while to get the easy stuff out of the way, (presuming all your electronics are known working right) then if it still doesn't work, give the mirrors a few gentle insulated pokes and/or a light cleaning with ultra pure acetone and a cotton swab. Do the easy stuff first, then get to the harder stuff.

yeah, that was my thinking... i have it out in garage running at about 1/2 power. gonna let it roll till i decide to go to bed. prob let it run some tomorrow as well... then do some testings and tweekings.

 

[FRITZ HID]

have now lost the greens... down to 4 lines now :wtf:
when i turn it up from 1/2 to full 1 green line lights up for just a sec then fades back out rather quickly.
when at 1/2 power there's only 2 blue lines, no reds or greens. :cryyy:

 

[DJZ]

have now lost the greens... down to 4 lines now :wtf:
when i turn it up from 1/2 to full 1 green line lights up for just a sec then fades back out rather quickly.
when at 1/2 power there's only 2 blue lines, no reds or greens. :cryyy:

Damn. That doesn't sound good. How many hours are on the tube?

I doubt it was my old one, I know who has that. It suffered from a problem called the "Red Blues". Lots of red and lots of blue but no green or yellow.

 

[FRITZ HID]

Damn. That doesn't sound good. How many hours are on the tube?

I doubt it was my old one, I know who has that. It suffered from a problem called the "Red Blues". Lots of red and lots of blue but no green or yellow.

well.. reds and blues are all i get now! lol
2 reds 2 blues.
i don't know the age of the tube or its Hrs since somebody yanked the HR meter out of it before i'd gotten it. as well as lost the case screws.

it could very well be at the end of it's life, was only $30 so not the end of the world, just sad.
who knows, i could let it burn for a while and it comes back. or i just have a fancy aqua-dot for a while. lol

i can tell ya, it looks awesome shining thru my wife diamond ring!

 

[ultimatekaiser]

yeah sounds like an extreme pressure problem then according to steve if you just lost the greens. if the filament is in good shape, let it run for a long long time. the 488 and 647 lines have really high gain at high pressure, so they're probably eclipsing the other lines. might also be why the power supply blew. don't leave it unattended, these make horrific messes if they have a meltdown.

 

[FRITZ HID]

yeah sounds like an extreme pressure problem then according to steve if you just lost the greens. if the filament is in good shape, let it run for a long long time. the 488 and 647 lines have really high gain at high pressure, so they're probably eclipsing the other lines. might also be why the power supply blew. don't leave it unattended, these make horrific messes if they have a meltdown.

define "a long long time". lol and at which power level?
yeah i don't like leaving any sketchy high power electronics running without supervision. it's been running in the garage but i think i'll run a 240v line into the family room and set it up there for the future runs, just too damn hot in the garage this time of year.
i just shut it down about 5 mins ago but went from 1/2 to full power for the last 15 mins and checked again, one of the 2 greens lines was faintly there again...
guess i'll run it and hope for the best.
i'd seen a blown one a few years ago at a tech college, the caps confetti foiled the entire inside, causing more shorts, killing the fan, arcing all over the board... was very messy. the explosion actually dented the case in a few spots... deff wouldent want that to be sitting around unattended! :tsk:oof: :can:

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Yes. Now imagine what happens when the big 480V 3P 35A high pressure water cooled one does when it has a bad day... :tinfoil: not fun!

 

[FRITZ HID]

gonna let it run at 1/2 power for the day and see where things settle. with any luck i'll get my other lines back

 

[FRITZ HID]

::: Update :::

Had some time this weekend to fabricate a cowl/plenum adapter as well as running some 240v into my family room.
shes now in here new home until i can build a proper optics table but at least now i have better/safer access to her internals as well as a much cooler running environment vs the garage!




now i can get some proper tube V/A readings and really get into her!