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New to gas lasers, ordered a HeNe, need a PS






DrZoidberg said:
I just ordered one of these.... New 543nm 2mW Green Helium Neon Laser Tube HeNe Melles Griot JDSU Science Fair | eBay
I was wondering if anyone knew of a good place to purchase a power supply and/or a stand for this?
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The seller you bought from is selling a brick style power supply which I believe should work for your tube: New Melles Griot 24VDC Helium Neon Laser Power Supply HeNe He NE DC Drive Lasers | eBay

I don't know where you can get a test fixture like the one in the photo. But you can just use something like tube cradle mounts that you can even purchase from Meredith instruments website: Meredith Instruments : Tube Cradle Mounts [TCM-1] - $3.00 - The source for laser surplus
 
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DrZoidberg said:
So if I bought this New Melles Griot 24VDC Helium Neon Laser Power Supply HeNe He NE DC Drive Lasers | eBay what else would I need to buy to hook it all up? Sorry I probably sound like a noob and an idiot :)
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You will probably need a male Alden cable like this one: Meredith Instruments : Male Alden Connector with Flying Leads [ALDEN-MFLY] - $18.00 - The source for laser surplus

And you will need a kind of battery or maybe an adaptor to supply a constant input voltage of 22-28 Volts to your power supply. You can find lots of these on ebay.
 
You'll need a 24v DC power adapter for that PSU. To use batteries you'd need a pile of high quality 18650s or bigger and the associated charger(s). I'm not sure how much power that will draw but I have the 12v version and it draws just over 2.1A. In theory the 24v version should draw half as much but you can always email the guys at MI and ask them the current draw so you know what to get. You'll need to connect the red wire to the +24v DC and the yellow (enable line) and black (negative) to the negative side of the power supply.


edit: You'll enjoy that laser when you get it up and running. The large tube in my avatar is the same tube I bought from them a little over a year ago. They should also include the needed ballast resistor along with the tube but if they don't *DO NOT* run the tube. You can ruin it quite fast by doing that.
 
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Ok so let's say I order New Melles Griot 24VDC Helium Neon Laser Power Supply HeNe He NE DC Drive Lasers | eBay, Meredith Instruments : Tube Cradle Mounts [TCM-1] - $3.00 - The source for laser surplus, Meredith Instruments : Male Alden Connector with Flying Leads [ALDEN-MFLY] - $18.00 - The source for laser surplus I'm guessing I will still need a 75K Ohms, 5 Watt ballast resistor (or are they the little clips I got with the laser that look like they connect around a tube and have little holes on the ends?), and for the 24v DC power adapter for the PSU do I need one that has a weird plug or will I be fine with a standard one like this A Jameco AC Adapter 102285 Output 24V DC 60Hz 400 MA Power Supply DC2404F1 | eBay or should I contact the guys at MI and ask them what they think?
 
DrZoidberg said:
Ok so let's say I order New Melles Griot 24VDC Helium Neon Laser Power Supply HeNe He NE DC Drive Lasers | eBay, Meredith Instruments : Tube Cradle Mounts [TCM-1] - $3.00 - The source for laser surplus, Meredith Instruments : Male Alden Connector with Flying Leads [ALDEN-MFLY] - $18.00 - The source for laser surplus I'm guessing I will still need a 75K Ohms, 5 Watt ballast resistor (or are they the little clips I got with the laser that look like they connect around a tube and have little holes on the ends?), and for the 24v DC power adapter for the PSU do I need one that has a weird plug or will I be fine with a standard one like this A Jameco AC Adapter 102285 Output 24V DC 60Hz 400 MA Power Supply DC2404F1 | eBay or should I contact the guys at MI and ask them what they think?
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For the clips I use glass fuse PCB clips (let me find a link). That 24 volt power supply is to small at 400ma. You will need at lest a 1 amp wall wort.

edit: fuse clip http://www.okwelectronics.com/products/camden/fuses/pcb-fuse-hold.htm
 
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DrZoidberg said:
I'm not sure, I got these little clips that look like bent horse shoes, but that is it.
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No, those are just the solder clips to avoid soldering the wires directly to the tube's cathode and anode. The 75 KΩ ballast resistor you need for this tube are found here.

Whenever I purchased tubes from MI, they sent me the rec ballast free along with the tube itself.
 
The ballast resistor was taped to the paperwork that was included with my tube. I'm surprised they didn't send one with yours. Double check the packaging to make sure you didn't miss it.

A 24v 1.5-2A wall wart should do the trick. Since a green HeNe tube uses around 2650VDC the PSU will likely need the full 1.2A in. You can get one pretty cheap off fleabay but you'll likely have to wait 10 days for it to get shipped from China or Hong Kong or if you're willing to pay a bit more you can get one from a US seller faster.

Something like this should work fine.

New AC to DC 24V Regulated Switching Power Supply Adapter 2 5A 3 3A w UL Cord | eBay

To connect them the easiest way would be to snip off the low voltage connector off the PSU and the barrel plug off the DC wall wart and wire them together directly. Make sure to verify the positive and negative leads with your DMM so you don't fry the PSU. If you're semi-handy with a soldering iron you could order the right barrel jack to match your DC wall wart's plug and replace the LV connector on the PSU with that. If you buy a decent regulated supply like the one above I'd solder a barrel jack onto the PSU so you can use the DC adapter with other things down the road.


Edit: There is a third option I forgot. You can get a bench power supply and power it from that. They're the most expensive option but if you're into tinkering with lasers or other electronics they're worth the cost.
 
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