Oh man 612 HeNE is just amazing.

[joeyss]

What a great a start for my first gas laser.


It's just amazing.


For some reason my cat loves it and goes nuts over it. He won't chase a red.

 

[diachi]

Congrats, glad to hear you are enjoying it!

 

[NightExplorer96]

^Agreed hehe.

I want to see 612nm as much as possible!

-Alex

 

[VisibleGreen]

Congrats, glad to hear you are enjoying it!

LPF could use more smileys like that.

 

[crazyspaz]

^Agreed hehe.

I want to see 612nm as much as possible!

-Alex

oklol


@Joey do you have a "normal" 633nm HeNe to get some comparison pics with? It's always cool to see how much of a color difference there is between the two

 

[LtKernelPanic]

Nice. Still need to get one (or two) to complete my HeNe rainbows. Ideally I'd love to have a bare tube and one in a head since I have one of each of the other wavelengths.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Nice I always liked 611.8nm. Pretty much the only major Orange line that exists in the hobby without going very exotic. I collect helium neon laser is quite a lot, ranging from about 5 inches to about a meter long! Congrats on your new toy! If you're ever looking for something specific hit me up, and I'll see what I can dig up.

if you're looking for beam comparisons I have a few up, both as dots on the wall and as intracavity high power. I did put a link but I'm at work and I can't dig them up ATM.

 

[joeyss]

oklol


@Joey do you have a "normal" 633nm HeNe to get some comparison pics with? It's always cool to see how much of a color difference there is between the two

No but i have one of those 638 doides and it looks red orange to me vs 650.

I've seen a 1 mw red hene.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Multi-Watt levels of each of the four main HeNe wavelengths

And here's a comparison shot of all four colors on the wall:

 

[joeyss]

Guys is it normal for the tube to get hot like 120 F after like 30 mins.

I read it takes awhile for them to get peak brightness as they warm up.mine gets alot brighter after 4 mins or so.

its 6.5ma. The heat has me worried tho.

I know the 29 watts the psu says has to go somewhere.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

yeah, it'll get fairly warm, not hot enough to burn, but pleasantly warm. the heat is normal and actually is taken into account as the tube operates. as the gasses warm up and the tube expands it will actually tend to allow the power to rise to a point. I generally don't notice mine getting too hot, but definitely warm. If it's getting excessively hot then it may have a minor electrical leak or the current may be too high. just because it says 6.5mA on the sticker doesn't mean that's what its outputting. excessive current and heat will shorten the tube's life a bit however. it's pretty easy to check however. Its also possible the tube is just a bit old, (usage wise) which will cause it to consume more power to stay lit.

 

[joeyss]

yeah, it'll get fairly warm, not hot enough to burn, but pleasantly warm. the heat is normal and actually is taken into account as the tube operates. as the gasses warm up and the tube expands it will actually tend to allow the power to rise to a point. I generally don't notice mine getting too hot, but definitely warm. If it's getting excessively hot then it may have a minor electrical leak or the current may be too high. just because it says 6.5mA on the sticker doesn't mean that's what its outputting. excessive current and heat will shorten the tube's life a bit however. it's pretty easy to check however. Its also possible the tube is just a bit old, (usage wise) which will cause it to consume more power to stay lit.

tube says nov 94 power supply is 92 sometime it has 115 and 230 volt switch and says operating Hertz 50-400(400 is aircraft lol). How good of an inverter would I need to run the power supply? Gonna post some pics of the laser but I'm going to church so I post them in like 2 hours. My dslr pics it up really nice with auto white balance. Funny thing is I imaged it to look like a sunkist can orange. It looked closer than how I imagined 589.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Yes its a nice hot burning orange color with a hint of red behind it.

diffracted into 611.8/604.6/594.1:

 

[NightExplorer96]

^
Matt, that is one lucky eraser. It's seen soooo many wavelengths :yh:

-Alex

 

[ultimatekaiser]

Don't get me started...