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FrozenGate by Avery

My newest Argon Arrived!

E

Escher

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Joined
Dec 22, 2010
Messages
149
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Pic will follow tonight - I just used my lunch hour to pull it out and do a quick test.

Came out of a Beckman 488nm Laser Module.. Everything is there - fan, PSU, head, nice little electrical connection block...

This one is single line only. Model 2212-4slbk... Specs say 4mw... yeah right...

I plugged her in quick just to see if she lases... yup - current mode at idle current - about 3mw cold.. Then I cranked her up quick just to see - I only expected about 10mw or so...

Yeah... right...

When I shut her down (no fan attached for the quick test) before she started getting hot - She was at 56mw and still climbing...

56mw... out of a 4mw head... this thing must be like brand new or something.. and yes, I was reading the meter correctly - I used the same cable and setup I use with my multiline argon..

wow... Bummer its only single line, but I will take a 50mw single line any day!

Stay tuned - I'll be posting lots more later..

wow... 56mw for $120 with psu and fan... this may be my best deal yet!
 





Nice :beer: you can actually see how many hours are left. The front most ring of the cylindrical heads comes off and there is an hour meter inside. (At least on mine) mines only got 5500 hours on it out of the recommended 10000 before refurb :D.
 
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Ohh yeah - I forgot!!! I'll pop that baby here in a sec!!! BRB!!!


....hmmm... I can't see a bubble in that hour meter... I know they are tiny but either its not there, or its brand spankin new and hasn't moved yet.


Edit - Update:

Wow.... I'm doing a maintenance burn, at full power to check temp and output - nice and cool.. and its around 72mw now...:D

Edit - Update 2:
Well.. This is embarrassing and disappointing...

It would appear I have been reading the output incorrectly... Its measuring 0.7V, which the cods say is 7mw, not 70...

I also checke dmy other head, which I thought was outputting 30-40mw... .3-.4V, so 3-4mw... which doesn't make sense since I'm getting 5 lines on the multiline...

Both heads are pulling around 8 amps at the highest output..

I think I'll be investing in one of the 2500 controllers to make sure I'm doing this correctly...
 
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can't hurt, I need to get one too. and the hour meter doesn't use a bubble, its a thin wire, with a black dot on it. (at least on mine)
 
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ultimatekaiser said:
can't hurt, I need to get one too. and the hour meter doesn't use a bubble, its a thin wire, with a black dot on it. (at least on mine)
Click to expand...

Getting old sucks... let me tell you! Even with reading glasses on I can barely see that meter. Still can't see any black dot on the new argon. The Multiline definitely has the black dot at around 6500 hours though...

One thing I did do in the last few days was devise a tube tweaking method that is super cheap and relatively consistent. I'll be posting that soon.. I've been out sick with a nasty sinus infection and have been in bed for a day and half... Yuk...

I managed to get six lines intermittently from mh multiline - and a max output of 5.5mw with a lot of tweaking at both the front and back of the tube... so its a weak tube for sure.

The Single line on the other hand - that one is upper healthy.. its rated at 4mw and I get 11mw with some light tweaks.
 
Could have been a refurbished argon... in which case the hour meter is likely past 10000 and was never replaced? Perhaps?
 
Perhaps. It's not unheard of. I should also note that the power meter is constant, it is indifferent whether you running a higher low current I believe, so if you run it above spec all the time, the meter won't be accurate... But it still gives you a ballpark.
 
All meters are different. I have a head made in '09 with a digital meter that on displays when the head is on, and I have some that have those meters similar to the milometer on a car.

I've heard of some that use an electrolysis method using a compound that, when receiving electricity, corrodes at a predetermined rate. They use this to tell hours. Though around 50-75% through it gets really shady.

Either way, that last one I am not very familiar with, and I probably got the terminology wrong. It came up during a long winded discussion around 330am in a Holiday Inn conference room.

Fact of the matter is that there are a lot of different hour meter types :p So take a picture of it!
 
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argonhours_zps402e4580.jpg
 
Yup - Mine is identical to that... Must be the dot is off to one end and I cant see it...
 
I've never seen the "meter" before... that is pretty cool. Thanks for sharing the pic.

-c
 
You're very welcome. The huge 3 phase coherent at the lab has a rollover readout, like an old car mileage meter.
 
For a $120 that's a killer deal. I had bought a Uniphase Cyonics 2214 multi-line that was about 65mw for around $500, and that was back in 2004.
:D
 
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