YAG head

[djmatt]

Oh yeah!!

Well I still havent been able to get it to fire...I wonder if theres a prob with the flash tube? But it looks fine..
I guess it just needs more power? Or I wonder if that trigger coil is messed up or something?

DJ Matt

[300EVIL]

Oh yeah!!

Well I still havent been able to get it to fire...I wonder if theres a prob with the flash tube? But it looks fine..
I guess it just needs more power? Or I wonder if that trigger coil is messed up or something?

DJ Matt

If the flashlamp is intact, it's fine. Even if it's dying, it should still be enough to lase the rod. The trigger coil only needs to ionize the gas. If it fires, it's good enough.

[djmatt]

Well its doing that, but it just will not fire... Im not sure what Im doing wrong, I guess I need to built a PSU from scratch....

DJ Matt

[300EVIL]

Well its doing that, but it just will not fire... Im not sure what Im doing wrong, I guess I need to built a PSU from scratch....

DJ Matt

Again, How do you know if your mirrors are in alignment? Also, the water acts as a lens for focusing the lamp output on the rod.

[djmatt]

Again, How do you know if your mirrors are in alignment? Also, the water acts as a lens for focusing the lamp output on the rod.

Sorry I ment the flash tube wouldnt fire...sorry

It lives!!!! Well she fires the flash tube
Im uploading 2 vidoes on youtube and Ill add a link when its done
Still no beam, but Im half way there!!!
I first thought it was the voltage..so after making 2 banks of 10uf 500v caps. I got it to 1400v Still nothing..so I started looking in to the trigger circuit...and sure enough theres a prob with the coil in the head,so I took it apart, and found something that works just as well owdin coil it looked great, but the caps leak power bad,about 100v every 5sec.
So i went back with the other 2 charged them to 450v and it fires nicely!!!
But no laser? I guess?

DJ Matt

[djmatt]

First video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUAbAcEk2Uw

[djmatt]

Test 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7xUpU-6o4k

DJ Matt

[300EVIL]

First off, get that computer coolant out of there. It's got glycol in it and will absorb a good deal of the pump energy. You'd be better off going to the store and picking up some distilled water. In your first video, it's just ionizing, not dumping the caps. The second video does look like you got it to fire but not nearly enough pump energy. It should make a well pronounced pop. What's strange is it looks like your PS is charging way too slow. I have a few of those units and can charge a cap in about 1 second. Let me take a good look at your wiring and see if I can spot something wrong.

[hologeek]

Good Effort...

What ever you do don't adjust the mirrors! I doubt those flexure mirror mounts are out of alignment.

You need more capacitance, way more. With 10uF you only get approx. 1 Joule of energy to the flashlamp, at 1500V only about 11 J. The original caps for these lasers are 75uF 1500V. At 1000V these original caps will provide ~37 joules to the flashlamp!

Capacitors for flashlamps seem unusually large and heavy if you haven't seen them before... In the back of your mind you'll think 'these must be dangerous' when they arrive in the mail...

How do you know it's not lasing??? At 2.94u you can't see it. I bet your lasing somewhat. Just get an appropriate capacitor and you'll be off to the races. Also, an easy way to check for lasing with a pulsed laser is Zapp-It alignment paper. Google it, then look for free samples.

[djmatt]

What's strange is it looks like your PS is charging way too slow. I have a few of those units and can charge a cap in about 1 second. Let me take a good look at your wiring and see if I can spot something wrong.

I was chraging them that slow It will chrage the caps in a blink of an eye if you want it to
As for the water, thats all I had at hand, but Ive go some DI water that came form a lab somewere...just dont know were...
When I get a pump,Ill add 4 more caps like the ones I use for the second video, that and I just dont want it to blow up.... Im still nervus about this thing...

DJ Matt