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My new HeNe

Experimentonomen

Experimentonomen

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Dec 28, 2009
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Last week i bought a HeNe laser on ebay for 49 bucks + 9 bucks shipping.
Today it arrived and i was quick to unpack it and hook it up to my diy psu and start tinkering.

Here are a few pics:
004.jpg

005.jpg

006.jpg

007.jpg

009.jpg

010.jpg


Someone have put epoxy on the beam shutter lever :(
012.jpg

013.jpg


The psu:
002.jpg


And heres the final treat, a video:
YouTube - Spectra Physics HeNe laser on diy psu
 





very cool, I need to build two PSU's so I can power all my HeNe's at once. I have not gotten around to researching it though:p
 
This thing is still a prototype which is not quite working properly yet.

It draws twice the current it need to, the tube wants 6.5mA(draw from the psu is around 5.8-6mA) at 2350V which equals 15Watts: 12V and 1.25A. But my psu draws 25W: 12V 2.2A, tho it doesent get hot despite its mere 50% efficiency. :undecided:

With the laser disconnected the thing draws around 350mA.
 
Back in the 80's that was the only way I could afford to run my tubes.

The laser heads cost me so much that another $100 ++ was more than I could afford, I never bought a commercially built supply until 1992.

the laser worked so much better on the commercial supply ;)

I used to heat the ballast resistors up so much they turned black.
 
Nice PSu , cool to see you made it yourself :D , Hene's Are nice lasers .
 
nice laser and PSU but whats with the music it makes it hard to hear you.
 
That's the seller from Israel, isn't it? The glued-open shutter is the giveaway.. That's odd. That looks like a hybrid JDSU / Spectra-Physics. (Beam shutter looks like JDSU 1125, back half obviously Spectra Physics. Interesting...) Wonder if thre was any relabeling going on back then...
 
Ya i got it from Aviv on israeli ebay.

I need a tiny allen wrench so i can take the shutter apart and remove the epoxy, i guess its glued because it opens and closes too easily, like closes if you bump the laser slightly or something in that direction.
 
On both of the ones I got from him I was able to pry the glue off without damaging the shutter, and they work now.. They aren't easily bumpable or anything, I think that they probably were used in an application where the shutter could never be closed by mistake.. (Medical? Military? Donno..)

But once you remove the glue, it's just fine. I keep the shutters of my HeNe's closed, where I have them, just to keep dust and crud off of the front mirror.

Experimentonomen said:
Ya i got it from Aviv on israeli ebay.

I need a tiny allen wrench so i can take the shutter apart and remove the epoxy, i guess its glued because it opens and closes too easily, like closes if you bump the laser slightly or something in that direction.
Click to expand...
 
I mnaged to get most of the glue out so now the shutter moves again, tho there seem like someone have been attacking the shutter with a needle or something.
 
Experimentonomen said:
This thing is still a prototype which is not quite working properly yet.

It draws twice the current it need to, the tube wants 6.5mA(draw from the psu is around 5.8-6mA) at 2350V which equals 15Watts: 12V and 1.25A. But my psu draws 25W: 12V 2.2A, tho it doesent get hot despite its mere 50% efficiency. :undecided:

With the laser disconnected the thing draws around 350mA.
Click to expand...



50% efficiency is not too bad for a homebrew PSU, even the commercial power bricks are only around 75% efficient.

Check out Sam's laser FAQ, there are a bunch of PSU schematics, including a few reverse engineered from those potted bricks. I'll likely be contributing another sometime in the next month or so when I get around to drawing it up.
 
god i think the best or at least my favorite kind of lasers is the he ne ...i dont own won but my dad does and i like to stare at it for like an hour straight ... YA
 
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