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FrozenGate by Avery

Tiny HeNe tubes

paul1598419 said:
Back when I was an EE student I worked as a video/ audio technician. I had to carry CRTs and a couple of times they were charged between 25kV and 30kV and the hard part was to keep holding it while all that energy discharged through my body. To drop it would have been much worse. Wasn't easy, but I never dropped a single one.
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ouch...! but yeah I know what you mean. yay for imploding CRT tubes...
 
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Matt, I just got my Uniphase Argon laser model # 2201-20SLAT. The laser was advertised as a 35mW but the laser has an original sticker on it that states the power to be .50 watts. I thought that you might know what this is without me going on line to look it up. It has an awesome blue/ green beam that at full power destroyed my power strip I had it plugged into. I think this unit may have been set to a lower power, but haven't had it long enough to know much more than it has 6 lines and the center wavelength is 488nm.
 
That's pretty much standard on small JDSUs it seems. I have no idea why they chose .5W but both my tubes rated at 10 and 40mw says .5W on their warning labels.
 
That is strange. I have never seen that before, but have no reason to doubt you. I have a lot of research to do on this argon before I know everything I need to know about it.
 
paul1598419 said:
Matt, I just got my Uniphase Argon laser model # 2201-20SLAT. The laser was advertised as a 35mW but the laser has an original sticker on it that states the power to be .50 watts. I thought that you might know what this is without me going on line to look it up. It has an awesome blue/ green beam that at full power destroyed my power strip I had it plugged into. I think this unit may have been set to a lower power, but haven't had it long enough to know much more than it has 6 lines and the center wavelength is 488nm.
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OK first off. never run this on a power strip. Some of those supplies can draw well over 10A at a time. You should always run them direct off the wall, never on a multi-plug of any kind.

Second...most gas lasers are rated by the CDRH for the max potential of the tube, plus some for safety. that's why it says half a watt on the sticker. that tube is supposed to to 20mW Single line at 488 judging from the label.

Model #2201-20SLAT-
2201 series, 20mW Single Line (SL) and i'm not positive what the AT represents. Mine also has the A designation. its a cylindrical head #2214-40MLA. the P designation is polarized...but i'm not sure of the others. The heads are customizable for whatever application they'll be used for...running it at 20mW it's guaranteed 5000 hours run time by uniphase. If it's doing ML then it sounds like it either had its tube replaced...or its an 'oops' tube, It's hard to say.
 
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Interesting. My guess is the tube has been replaced because it does 35mW. It has a satellite that gives a polarized beam, though in what way it is polarized I haven't found out yet. I can see that I will have to do some research on this laser. Thank you for the information that you have given me. The search goes on from here.
 
well it shouldn't be run at max power. mine does 121-130mW max...but its rated to do 40. and its an original. I think that the A designation means it is adjustable, P is polarized, and T means that it is a replacement/refurbished tube...but why they would do that, I'm not sure....as they are supposed to re-label it if they wanted to do that. It sounds like it was repurposed, or it was an OOPS! tube, as mentioned above - hence selling it.
 
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paul1598419 said:
Interesting. My guess is the tube has been replaced because it does 35mW. It has a satellite that gives a polarized beam, though in what way it is polarized I haven't found out yet. I can see that I will have to do some research on this laser. Thank you for the information that you have given me. The search goes on from here.
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The 20mW rating is an end-of-life figure. Most tubes do significantly more than that when they're new.

I have a 2214-40MLA that has hit 160mW at full current.

Also interesting to note, I have an ILT krypton ion that has a sticker rating of 100mW (which should be a theoretical maximum plus safety margin) and it has done just a smidge over 100mW of 657.1nm at full current.
 
MarioMaster said:
The 20mW rating is an end-of-life figure. Most tubes do significantly more than that when they're new.

I have a 2214-40MLA that has hit 160mW at full current.

Also interesting to note, I have an ILT krypton ion that has a sticker rating of 100mW (which should be a theoretical maximum plus safety margin) and it has done just a smidge over 100mW of 657.1nm at full current.
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Yep. Nice healthy argon tube :) yeah that number is the minimum output, and the recommended output power for max life with all 6 lines in. As the tube ages the power drops, so once max current = that rating it's time for a refurb/replacement.

I haven't seen a krypton only tube in a while. They're rather fragile...and picky, But beautiful. I love all the reds and yellow they can supply, and the occasional blue/violet.

Back on topic.... I believe the smallest ion laser was about the size of a soup can. I remember talking to sam about it. Interesting.
 
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Got a little more information on this one. It was given to the seller I bought it from by a tech at Uniphase ten years ago. He believes it was purposed for a larger piece of equipment because the cable from the laser to the power supply is exceptionally long. It may have been repurposed, but that would only be a guess.
 
Been doing my homework on this laser and it may be a single line with a satellite that is polarized. That would be perfect for my applications of using it for holography. That is the reason I have gotten back into gas lasers in the first place. It is very hot here these days and will wait until the temperature drops to get a good measurement of the power of this laser. Even with my air conditioner this thing puts out a great deal of heat, as all ion lasers do, but I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. ;)
 
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If you have polarized sunglasses you can put them in the beam and rotate them, you should see the output beam dim to almost nothing if the laser is polarized.
 
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Been using polarized filters since I was a kid, but that only works for plane polarized light. I'm not sure it would work for circularly polarized light.
 
Yeah. Best to move it to another thread though :). I'll be doing one on my new toys when they arrive.
 
Sorry. Didn't mean to hijack your GB. Let me know when it's time to pay. Thanks, Paul
 
No worries. Just don't want anyone in trouble, and I wanna see it run and get details. :) come to think of it, I never made a thread on mine. I keep forgetting.
 
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