Quadlex 350 - lex lighting

[Pugdaddy]

Ok, so I bought a 4 lens laser (on eBay)... Doh!
Lex lighting quadlex 350

The laser diodes had broken and had been removed.

The unit powers up ok and the step motors / galvos run through a test... But that's it.

Help! (A noob)
1. Does anyone have a photo of the inside of one of these... So I can check what's missing.
2. Does anyone have video of the quadlex 350 starting up

I've looked everywhere on the net, and found nothing, so this is my last resort!

Please help

[Galvonaut]

Hi Pugdaddy

Welcome to PL. Where in the World are you?

I'm a bit of a newb too but have learnt enough about lasers to know that cheap lasers are more hassle than they are worth. I had to chuckle when the first video I found on youtube of this laser was to this tune - I am what I am Unfortunately one of the first lasers I purchased as not working from ebay -purely for parts was a Lex laser and upon inspection, most of it ended up going for recycling.

If you really want to get this going, post some photos - if you think there are things missing. Usually with the cheaper lasers, electronics fail due to bad static handling precautions, cheap components or diabolical 'soldering skills'.

Probably the first thing I would do would be to check power supplies (cheap ones die often), then inspect the PCBs to check for dry joints and melted components.

If you think you want to get into lasers though, hang about here. It's a great community and you will soon be spending all of your money building amazing lasers and designing crazy shows!

Keith

[Pugdaddy]

Hi Keith
I'm determined to get it working
It seems this unit has 2 boards, master and slave.
Boards are identical other than one has a chip.
Boards seem ok. I've switched them and moved the chip, but the unit just runs a test sequence on power up.
I'm not sure, but I think the boards are looking for a response from the laser diodes... Which is why it stalls after running the galvo test.
I'll take some photos and post shortly.

My location = Birmingham, England

[Galvonaut]

Another UK bod

Are there any laser diodes in it at all?

If the stepper motors are going through a test, one of the boards will be the controller for them and a show-card, with all of the automated effects (probably on that chip).

Have you tried messing with the dip switches? You can look up the settings in the manual here

Are you aware of the safety aspects of lasers? 350mW is 350 times the legal UK MPE (Maximum Permissible Exposure) for a static beam. 350 mW doesn't sound much but it can do permanent eye damage if you aren't careful.

Keith

[Pugdaddy]

Hi
I've tried messing with the switches... Doesn't effect anything though
Each board has a 12v output (and wire), which I assume go to the laser diode/diode board.

There are NO diodes in the unit, so optical safety isn't a problem... At the moment.

On the plus side, it's got 4 x xy step motors (8 motors in total), which seem to be operational.

I'm thinking that worse case scenario is to replace the boards.

I've taken some photos, but iphone won't let me attach them... I'll log on laptop tomorrow

[The_Doctor]

Is there a way to know if the diodes were removed after a failure, or harvested for other purposes? That last seems possible because if they'd just failed, the odds are that either new ones would be in there, or the old ones would still be there. One way to know is to see if anything else was cleanly removed. Specifically, diode drivers, perhaps..

Edit: Any way to examine specifically for the green channel? I'm not sure but it seems likely that it would have been a small DPSS laser in this case, not a diode. The presense or absence of any part of that might give clues. My instincts seem to tell me that this was a salvage of emitters, with what's left sold for parts within eBay rules, rather than a failure. Diodes don't usually all fail at once in three channels.

[Galvonaut]

Is there a way to know if the diodes were removed after a failure, or harvested for other purposes? That last seems possible because if they'd just failed, the odds are that either new ones would be in there, or the old ones would still be there. One way to know is to see if anything else was cleanly removed. Specifically, diode drivers, perhaps..

Edit: Any way to examine specifically for the green channel? I'm not sure but it seems likely that it would have been a small DPSS laser in this case, not a diode. The presense or absence of any part of that might give clues. My instincts seem to tell me that this was a salvage of emitters, with what's left sold for parts within eBay rules, rather than a failure. Diodes don't usually all fail at once in three channels.

Agreed. Although a PSU failure could have popped the lot (but also may have taken out the show card).

Pugdaddy: I had a thought.... you see The_doctor's signature? dnar's concise guide to lasering....

I would replace the diodes with something like these single mode beasties and some nice analogue drivers, then upgrade the case, then upgrade the electronics, the galvos and everything else as and when you can afford it. In no time at all you will have spent several thousand pounds and have an amazing laser projector!

Keith

[The_Doctor]

Didn't think of that. PSU failure. Would have, seeing hardware in front of me, but I just went with the first useful thought I got.

What is interesting is that this thing sounds like it might be good. So while many cheaper projectors may be a bulk source of parts for better ones, this one might well be worth the single-mode upgrade. The small size of the new parts makes this likely to work with little hassle. DTR's One Stop Laser Shop has a kit of parts for all three channels. Total power is about 300mW now I think. Maybe a bit more.

Edit:
Didn't notice direct linkage already provided... Anyway, I'd go that way, probably. Only thing stopping me now is money, and a choice to do somethign with multimode diodes for a while.

[Pugdaddy]

I've uploaded a video of the unit going through the start sequence.
(Yes, I know you shouldn't turn it on with the cover off)

You should be able to see where the lasers were.
They were removed by the previous owner, because they didn't work. He intended to try and replace them but never got around to it.

If anyone has a quadlex 350, could they please post a photo of the inside so I can compare and identify what's missing.

Edit: forgot to mention... When I remove the chip from the master board the unit does not cycle the galvos, so I assume the chip is operational. Even though the lasers have been removed, I would expect the galvos to start moving to the preprogrammed sequences. Switches on rear on auto.. But nothing??

[Galvonaut]

My best guess is:

Green laser and mount missing from left (2 large holes in chasis) hitting dichro and splitting between stepper motor set 1 (far left) and stepper motor 3.

Red laser module missing from mount between motor set 1&2 (aimed at motor 2)

Red laser module missing from mount between motor set 3&4 (aimed at motor 4)

These lasers tend to have built in drivers that accept 12v or 5v DC. It looks like the PSU is built in to the driver boards as the transformers are heading into them with no extra wires hanging about.

Can you get some shots of the circuit boards with cables out of the way a bit? I suspect that the laser modules will plug directly into them.

A little concerned that you can't make it do anything other than self test. If the show card is working properly it should still drive the motors whether you have diodes in or not.

Keith