Blue Argon-Laser ALC-60X
kilovolt, Wed Mar 18 2009, 06:49PMDear All
Just wanted to show a project which i did about a year ago. There was a cheap offering from a german laser company for a multiline-argon laser head ALC-60X used and without any warranty. The unit came without power supply, so i had to build one myself. It is a linear circuit for 110V / 10A current regulated. In addition there are a 3V/25A supply for the heater and a 300V supply for the igniter-circuit inside the unit. Building the power supply took me about 1 week.
The laser unit itself:
The power supply, almost finished (but without cooling fans):
First test-run of the power supply:
Beam of the argonlaser and an old HeNe:
Argon beam deflected by 2 prism:
Argonlaser-Beam splitted in all lines with a grating:
Beam going through some water-glasses:
Greets kilovolt
Re: Blue Argon-Laser ALC-60X
..., Wed Mar 18 2009, 06:59PM
Holy bejesus thats awesome!
You should post more details on the power supply, it looks like a pretty impressive project.
Do you know what kind of output power you are getting?
I am glad you got it working
May it give you many hours of turquoise awesome.
..., Wed Mar 18 2009, 06:59PM
Holy bejesus thats awesome!
You should post more details on the power supply, it looks like a pretty impressive project.
Do you know what kind of output power you are getting?
I am glad you got it working
May it give you many hours of turquoise awesome.Re: Blue Argon-Laser ALC-60X
kilovolt, Wed Mar 18 2009, 07:38PM
Hello ...
Thank you very much for your friendly feedback
but I have to say that this is a rather simple circuit. It is mainly an operational amplifier for current control and a power stage with 12 bipolar transistors for handling the tube current. The supply for the heater is a toroidal transformer with a selfmade secondary winding.
Some of the main parts of the supply:
Material for the power stage, transistors, heat sinks and caps:
The control board with operational amplifier and shunt for measuring the tube current:
power-board for 110V-supply:
First setup without housing:
Overview of the finished power supply. Unfortunately i have no picture form the board in the middle which is for generating the 300V for the ignitor:
Opened laser unit (it's almost the same as the omnichrome 532):
Thank you
EDIT: For those of you who would like to build this power supply (works also for other Argonlasers in the same power range), I'll post here the schematics. They are not mine, but i'm allowed to post them here...
In the second schematic there must be 12 transistor stages in parallel, shown are just three of them.
regards
kilovolt
kilovolt, Wed Mar 18 2009, 07:38PM
Hello ...
Thank you very much for your friendly feedback
Do you know what kind of output power you are getting?Unfortunately, i have no power-level-meter. But due to the fact, that there are 9 lines at about 8.5A tube-current i think it will be at least around 100mW (not sure!).
You should post more details on the power supply, it looks like a pretty impressive project.Thanks again
but I have to say that this is a rather simple circuit. It is mainly an operational amplifier for current control and a power stage with 12 bipolar transistors for handling the tube current. The supply for the heater is a toroidal transformer with a selfmade secondary winding.Some of the main parts of the supply:
Material for the power stage, transistors, heat sinks and caps:
The control board with operational amplifier and shunt for measuring the tube current:
power-board for 110V-supply:
First setup without housing:
Overview of the finished power supply. Unfortunately i have no picture form the board in the middle which is for generating the 300V for the ignitor:
Opened laser unit (it's almost the same as the omnichrome 532):
May it give you many hours of turquoise awesome.
Thank you
EDIT: For those of you who would like to build this power supply (works also for other Argonlasers in the same power range), I'll post here the schematics. They are not mine, but i'm allowed to post them here...
In the second schematic there must be 12 transistor stages in parallel, shown are just three of them.
regards
kilovolt
Re: Blue Argon-Laser ALC-60X
kilovolt, Thu Mar 19 2009, 08:24PM
Sorry for double-post
An interesting experiment one could do with a multiline argonlaser is the extending of the resonator for selecting specific lines. This can be done with an additional, external mirror. In my case it was a green coated mirror from a defective green HeNe laser. The green laser line has been amplified between laser unit and mirror, while after the mirror only deep blue lines are visible.
best regards
kilovolt
kilovolt, Thu Mar 19 2009, 08:24PM
Sorry for double-post
An interesting experiment one could do with a multiline argonlaser is the extending of the resonator for selecting specific lines. This can be done with an additional, external mirror. In my case it was a green coated mirror from a defective green HeNe laser. The green laser line has been amplified between laser unit and mirror, while after the mirror only deep blue lines are visible.
best regards
kilovolt
Re: Blue Argon-Laser ALC-60X
kilovolt, Thu Apr 02 2009, 07:54PM
Just had a little argon-laser-session:
Sorry, I'm too lazy to resize the pictures again...
Best regards
kilovolt
kilovolt, Thu Apr 02 2009, 07:54PM
Just had a little argon-laser-session:
Sorry, I'm too lazy to resize the pictures again...
Best regards
kilovolt
Print this page