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Thread: Spectra Physics PSU

  1. #1
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    Default Spectra Physics PSU

    Spectra Physics 263-C04 Laser Power Supply
    Will this PSU be used on a Spectra Physics 163 A1202 ?

  2. #2
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    Cruch;

    Yes. The 263 is a direct match for the 163 series heads. I have just such a combination sitting right here (and operating). If you already have a cable it should plug right in. (You'll need to jump out the power and keyswitch pins on the remote connector if you haven't already done that.)

    If you don't have a cable to connect the head to the PSU, I can always unhook my cable and ring it out to give you a pinout diagram so you can build your own.

    Adam

  3. #3
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    Spectra Physics 163 A1202
    Is this a whitelight laser ? Guess it is blue 488nm

  4. #4
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    Cruch;

    It's a single line blue laser at 488 nm. There are some multi-line spectra physics tubes that will fit in this head, but to the best of my knowledge there aren't any whitelight tubes available for this head/psu combination. (There are some *rare* versions of this head that have a single line blue tube running at 456 nm though.)

    Steve Robers explained that the bore in these SP-092 tubes are just too small to support mixed-gas operation. The Krypton will separate from the Argon down the length of the bore if you try it. (Cataphoresis) Also, the power supply will tend to overheat because a Kr-Ar tube will drop less voltage than a pure Ar tube.

    Adam

  5. #5
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    First of all I need to get hold on the Spectra Physics 263-C04 PSU.
    So I can power up the laser!!

    I see it is one on ebay..but he will not ship to norway!

  6. #6
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    Apr 2007
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    Hi, I have a 263 psu that's malfunctioning slightly (takes 20 minutes or so to warm up, but works fine after the delay - I found this site looking for repair tips for it) - I may be posting it on ebay soon fixed or not. That may sound like an advert, but... I'm mainly writing to let you know that the 261 heads and 263 PSU's are swappable with the Cyonics JDSU 2201/2101 range of air cooled argon Ion lasers and PSU's, so you could maybe keep your eyes open for a 2101 psu - the suffix in the JDSU range is related to power and line eg 2201-ML40 is a 40mW multiline head, the PSU that goes with it is the 2101-ML40, but it's promiscuous I've got three JDSU Cyonics heads (a -SL15, -SL20 and ML-40) and two power supplies (an SP263 and a JDSU 2101-SL20).

    Both psu's run all three heads to the same max power and regulate them both the same (the SP-263 was originally running a Cyonics 2201-SL15, badly, in an OEM system until I swapped it out for a cyonics psu - my guess is that the service engineer thought the original SP head was bad and swapped in a Cyonics). Note that this swapping is only suitable for the models I mention which have two round amphenol connectors, I don't know how compatible the psu/laser with rectangular connectors are.

    PSU's tend to stay in equipment until it dies, the heads (or their tubes) tend to get swapped by service engineers frequently (which is why there are so many heads on ebay, and so few psu's).

    I find this annoying personally - I just stripped down the PSU from one of my air cooled Krypton lasers that had died - the engineer had replaced four heads in 7 years, I didn't fancy the cost of a new tube so I popped the head open and found nothing odd, but on opening the PSU, I found that a spade connector linking the capacitor bank to the rectifier bridge had been mis-fitted (the blade was trapped between the insulation and metal of the receptacle) so had gone high resistance and got hot. On the other side of the capacitor bank, the wire going into the spade connector had welded into a solid rather than being the multicore you'd expect. Eventually, this solid had eroded and broken, which is why the laser stopped this time. Presumably, the replaced heads had been killed by the arcing, but maybe they were actually fine - the only odd thing I saw on the laser head was a broken seal covering a pot on the igniter circuit, presumably the engineer had to adjust that to get the new head to work with the faulty supply when he did the refit, and maybe th eother heads had all been ok, but incompatible with the failing PSU.
    </rant>
    Sorry to be so boring on my first post Good luck in finding a PSU for that head.

    Cheers

    Ray

  7. #7
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    hehe...wellcome onboard!
    I got the head for the psu! I am selling it off at ebay at the moment. Since I dont have time to play with it.
    Missing powercord for the psu tho...still..

    Pangolin FB3 QS/LivePro/SMS2Laser
    Riya MultiBus
    Pangolin LD2000 Pro

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