My First Argon

[LtKernelPanic]

I thought those small heads were usually around 8-10A @ 100V? Should only be pulling 1kW or so.

FWIW when I ran my ML Argon at full power 10.5A, the PSU was pulling 120V @ 13A or 1560W from the wall to give me 110mw.

Yeah no kidding. No joke I plan to use it as one in the winter lol.

488nm is officially my favorite wavelength. It looks totally awesome next to a 445nm which makes 488nm look a really cool blue green compared to the vivid blue of the 445nm. Next to a 520nm it looks like ice blue. I wish they would make 488nm diodes...

Heh. Yet another person who realizes why I refer to mine as the "pretty blue space heater." It was fun taking it out in the back yard last month on a cool night and being able to run it for almost 2 hours and not sweat to death in the process. Just remember to "exercise" it once every 4-6 weeks for 30-60 minutes to keep a healthy tube pressure. Good call on the 14AWG cable too. I made the mistake of grabbing an 18 once and when I realized it the cable was limp as a wet noodle from the heat.

Oh and if you love 488nm check out a multiline sometime.

Arg-

Unless the tube is nearly dead forgetting to run it for a couple months shouldn't be too much of a problem. I didn't run mine for a few months last year thanks to it being hotter than hell last summer and it fired right up.

 

[ApexProxy]

I'm going to keep it a goal to run it for 30 minutes every other month at minimum so I shouldn't have to worry. Knowing myself I will run it for much more than that because I am so fascinated by 488nm. Plus I am going to want to show it off a lot.

I noticed after about 30 minutes the laser head gets really freaking hot. Like to the point where I am not so inclined to touch it. I have the fan that Dave gave me with it and I have it set up so that the fan is on an independent circuit and I turn it on before I turn on the PSU and I leave it on after I turn the PSU off. Anyway, I am suspecting its pretty normal for them to get super hot though. Also, where I run the laser ambient temp is quite consistently 70F.

This Argon is 100% definitely not going to be my first and last. I will have to get a multiline for sure. Hell I may even see if Dave will want to work something out with his other Argon

 

[Cyparagon]

As long as the cable temperature stays lower than the rating of the insulation (typically 90-105C), nothing is in any danger. Copper doesn't care about the temperature it runs at, unlike silicon.

 

[ApexProxy]

Hmm, good point. I guess since the PSU is rated at 115VAC and its hooked up to 120VAC the nominal decrease in voltage wouldn't effect anything as well. The insulation is rated at 105C so that's pretty damn hot.

Oh well I still have the 14AWG cable on the way. I think I will swap it mainly because I will gain another 6 feet of cable that way.