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WOOT! i Turned down the current a bit on my Omnichrome 150 PS and all of a sudden (on what i think is an nec3030) my 3 lines went to SEVEN! Ive had this unit for over 2 years... LOL i feel like a real dummy.


and...



gonna get some smoke shots tonight
 
fired up my ML cylindrical argon yesterday. i haven't powered it for a couple years and it still started right away :) I forgot how beautiful that dot is
 
Oh man, glad I saw this. Mine has been sitting a *bit* too long! As for Elektrotechniker, how the heck do you leave an argon sitting that long and have it be completely fine? :wtf:

EDIT: Oops, forgot to add this. Anyone looking for a cheap interface? Link
 
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New/healthy ones don't really care much about sitting. And some tube designs get over it much easier than others. But running it for a while at about 5-6A might not be a bad idea at that point.
 
Hauled both heads out tonight and once again my usually hard starting head fired on the first pulse after warming up for 5-8 minutes while I set up my other argon (which if course fired on the first pulse as usual). I'm curious to see if the smaller tube will fire on the first pulse from a cold start now.
 
Glad to hear that. I almost fired the whitelight up tonight but I didn't. I may do mine again soon. They could use some love...
 
Fired up the whitelight, and HeCd the other day.

Surprised at how quickly the HeCd fired. It'd be stagnant for a few months, but I finally gave it the time of day, and was swiftly rewarded.

Took about 3-5mins and I was greeted by lovely 442nm :)
 
Well sadly it wouldn't fire after a dozen or so pulses off a cold start. I guess it shouldn't surprise me since it has 9,000 hours on it compared to to my other head that has ~3,500 hours and has no problem firing on the first pulse from a cold start. Oh well it's no big deal to let the tube warm up for 5-10 minutes before firing it up.
 
LtKernelPanic said:
Well sadly it wouldn't fire after a dozen or so pulses off a cold start. I guess it shouldn't surprise me since it has 9,000 hours on it compared to to my other head that has ~3,500 hours and has no problem firing on the first pulse from a cold start. Oh well it's no big deal to let the tube warm up for 5-10 minutes before firing it up.
Click to expand...

Shame. I always run mine at spec so it should make it to 10K with no issues in theory.

Time for a rebuild ;) ..... If they weren't crazy expensive. though frankly if you wanted to do that now is about the time to do it before the tube deteriorates. It's probably stressful to the supply to power it with low pressure from age.
 
My first HeNe laser :D

Got it as a gift from a fellow member on this forum ... How cool is that!

I can't wait to fire it up!

BBtU64U.jpg
 
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That's quite the collection you have there Smeerworst.

My JDSU 2214 40 started hard tonight. I measured the temp in the basement at 55.6 F but as I skim this thread I see that is common for some tubes but this is the most difficult time I have had with it. Usually it starts up after the first 30 seconds. (Hasn't run for maybe 40 days)
I let it run drawing 6-7 amps for about 5 minutes then idle for about 10minutes.

I think sometime this week I might use ultimatekaiser tutorial to clean some dust out and check the optics. I haven't done that since owning it. The poor argon feels neglected since I started work on my tesla coil:/
http://laserpointerforums.com/f43/c...lindrical-argon-ion-laser-tutorial-90890.html
 
Down with Umbrella said:
That's quite the collection you have there Smeerworst.

My JDSU 2214 40 started hard tonight. I measured the temp in the basement at 55.6 F but as I skim this thread I see that is common for some tubes but this is the most difficult time I have had with it. Usually it starts up after the first 30 seconds. (Hasn't run for maybe 40 days)
I let it run drawing 6-7 amps for about 5 minutes then idle for about 10minutes.

I think sometime this week I might use ultimatekaiser tutorial to clean some dust out and check the optics. I haven't done that since owning it. The poor argon feels neglected since I started work on my tesla coil:/
http://laserpointerforums.com/f43/c...lindrical-argon-ion-laser-tutorial-90890.html
Click to expand...

That doesn't shock me. They don't really like starting when they're cold. How many hours are on it? If it's relatively low hours, it shouldn't have any trouble starting unless you run it above it's rated power a lot. 6-7A should give you quite a bit more than that? I forget. IIRC idle is about 3.8A
 
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