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FrozenGate by Avery

RF excited CO2 lasers

I have built my "power Packs" for the portable. Each tube holds 4 x 18650 cells. I have a connection problem in there because it's intermittant. When it works, I make smoke.

Mike
 

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Yes I get fire for a moment but these cells are sick or I still have a bad connection. They will output ~ 8 Amps for a moment and quickly drop to ~ 5 Amps >:( This isn't what I expected from these LiIon cells. I need 15 Amps for maybe 10 seconds --- but NNNnnooooo -----
Under load, these cells go from 34 volts no load to maybe 16 volts. That's crap.

Mike
 
Or switch from 18650s to A123 Cells, just buy two of the DeWalt 36V A123 packs on eBay!

For example: eBay no 310109058199.

These Lithium Nanophosphate Cells are rated for 70A continuous and 120A peak for 10 Sec!!!

One of them should be more than enough to drive your laser, but if you buy two packs you can switch between them when you run out of the first battery :)

You would run out of battery power after 10-12 10sec bursts so two may be needed to extend the runtime :-)

The 36V packs contain ten cells wich peak at 3.6V and settles down to 3.3 quite fast and is about 2.6-3V under max load,
so i belive the packs will hold about 30V when you load them down with your lasers 15A.
 
Meduza --

Thanks for the input.   I did find two dud cells in the pack.  That may have been the problem bit I'll look at those other cells too.

Mike

Later --Two dud cells ????  DX sent me protected cells.  I toasted those little boards fast.

More later --- Yowza Boss ;D Now I'm getting the Amps!!! Those little dime sized boards just weren't up to the task.
 
OMG 70A continuous???!!! I could use a mosfet, a FC laser diode and a few of these to build a real star trek phasor... Stuck on low of course... ;D
 
I'm glad I'm getting 14 Amps !!!! 70 amps from 123's seems a little high but all I want is ~15 amps. Now that I have figured this out, i'll clean up my connections and enjoy this.

Mike
 
I'm afraid to measure the power.  I was drawing 25 Amps a moment ago but now I don't trust the readings because of the stray RF messing with the meter.  It burns stuff though  ;D  
Guess I'm not going to worry about power now -- I need to build the thing.

Mike

Am I crazy --- 25 amps at ~30 volts is 750 watts ---- No way -- the meter is being affected by the RF.
 
OK, so this is probably a stupid question for all you HAMs out there but I just have to check so nothing's wrong here.
I got my PSU and have burned a little with my laser. There is a faint yellowish glow coming from under the brass-shield over the "transmitting antenna" (the coil), is that supposed to happen? I'm guessing it's fine but I haven't heard anyone talking about it before. The laser seems to be working great and with the ZnSe-lens it can REALLY do some damage!
On another note, My laser only seems to draw about 7-8Amps @ 95%, about 31-32V so I guess I will only need one of the two PSUs I got for it.

I'm building a housing for it now, to fit my small CNC-router. Pics will be coming when I'm done. Might take 'till after X-mas, though.

Merry X-mas!
/Tottish

EDIT: One more question. The ZnSe-lens I got had one side quite a bit more convex than the other (kind of like a plano-convex lens). Which side should be facing the laser? I'm guessing the 'flat' side should be facing the thing that you want to kill, but I don't know...
 
Tottish, the only glow I get is the tube glow, and reflection inside the shield from the tube glow I would check to make sure your coil is not touching the shield anywhere... Maybe Mike or Chris or someone else can help you further just letting you know what mine does :) Merry Christmas :)
 
TOT ---

I agree -- that "glow" is the pink plasma coming through the amber colored ceramic tube.  I never looked into the coil area when running other than to test resonance.  If you have fire, you have a beam.

I've been reporting high current draw but I'm now wondering about the effects of the RF field on my DC amp clamp meter.  That ball of intense RF energy makes measurements difficult with modern instruments.  
By the way -- never touch the antenna on the side of the tube when it's running.  You will regret that move for a month  :(

As for the lens, I don't know what you have ---  Is it coated for 10,600 ???  I usually put the curved side forward like a camera but hey guy --- experiment with that and report back!!

Keep us posted on that CNC router. Make sure smoke is removed before it cruds the lens.


Mike
 
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