PJ Emergency!

[dsli_jon]

Fire out.. Thanks, Fellas..

j

[mixedgas]

Jon Needs a Manual for an Apollo Supermicro scanner amp. Its an emergency. Its 8 Pm in Germany as I post this, so no luck from the factory!

Steve

[swamidog]

what about calling the laserworld office in florida?

laserworld is a distributor of the apollo supermicro amps.

Laserworld USA Inc.
41 Skyline Drive, Suite 1017
Lake Mary, FL
USA

Phone: 407-915-5577 or -5578 32746
Fax: 407-915-5580

info@laserworld.us

Jon Needs a Manual for an Apollo Supermicro scanner amp. Its an emergency. Its 8 Pm in Germany as I post this, so no luck from the factory!

Steve

[mixedgas]

Call Placed, email sent. No Answer, who'd be in the office in lovely FLA on NYE (Other then Pangolin and LSDI).

Steve

[Laser Wizardry]

" 15 characters"

[dsli_jon]

Try LSDI, Greg knows those amps

Danke, but, I did (..my first call... and... he didn't. Well, not that he didn't "know" them, but.. Had never run-across the wakky-issue I was having, so did not know how to advise.. And - for the life of me, what caused it / cured it, Iv'n't a clue.. Ohmed-out the pins on the 'thermistor' / diode (?) on the blok, and solder-connx seemed in-tact, but.. Not sure what else on the board would 'gate' the scan-sigs, like that.. Powered-on fine, solid +/- 28V rails, PD-feedback LED on the board 'lit' when you'd waggle the mirs, but.. Mirs were limp as a 95 yr old's naughty-noodle, so.. Nothing-doing on scanning anything.. And, ya, they 'tweeked' on power-on / off, so.. Suggests something 'between' the power-stage and 'output-stage', dunno..

..But, after a good stern lecture they suddenly decided to do their jobs, and.. Show went-on / disaster, averted.. And, hey! I even stayed at a



..Special-thanks to P'Fesser Steve, for his rapid homework-efforts, and to another PL-member - "Elvis" somebody, that called me and offered to drive 2.5 hrs with a 'Pluto II', to save the day.. (!) Though it ended-up not being needed, much, much Obliged, Sir, and I look forward to being down 'yonder' again someday, and will gladly buy ya a couple rounds.. ..and, lemme know if there's any-way I can-support / help, etc..

..So, another day, another $0.50..

cheers..
j

[Bradfo69]

Gotta luv Pluto II's. And members willing to let other members borrow them. They've been available for a couple bailouts now that I know of.

[mixedgas]

When modern scanner amps "gate", its usually: 1. The power supply itself, 2. Output "Polyfuse" self resetting on overcurrent limit or 3. The coil temp calculator chip or CTC FET is failed, if installed. 4. On one European family of amps, I've seen the self reset not activate.

If its gating, the worse thing you can do is bypass the Polyfuse. Usually something else is causing it to pop and self reset.

Both amps going out points to the PSU shutting down. That's a symptom until you determine if its a bad PSU or is doing an overload shutdown.

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As I'm doing the Amp mods, I've learned one of the quickest ways to see what is going on is to have indirect, digital, Ampmeters on the rails. Having the ability to add a temporary current sensing resistor pair in series with the PSU connector on the amp is VERY useful in emergencies. Keeping a 12 Ohm aluminum cased power resistor PSU test load in the tool kit is also advisable. (or 20 Ohms for one Amp PSUs)

On a popular clone amp for example:


120 mA-/140+ mA, normal idle at zero signal input and 20 mA of AGC current in the sensor LED.

15 mA- / 35 mA +, Galvo coil not connected, sensor is lit, bad cable.

2.4 A one side, 120 mA other side, OFFSET trimmer way outside of acceptable range. (Polyfuse will be tripping shortly)

3.2 A one side, 120 mA other side, one position sensor signal likely to be reversed in cable or galvo coil wired backwards. (Polyfuse will be smoking hot in seconds) or Blown Op-amp on board.

2.2 amps of fluctuating current both sides, galvo screaming with noise, LM3886 is blown or amp is horribly miss-tuned.

Negative rail immediately shuts down PSU, LM7915 blown from PSU wiring backwards or PSU +/- 24V connector installed on +/- 15V OUTPUTS of AMP. (Which is why I now cut the output pins off before shipping!)

Of course leaving the amp powered up in the failure state for any length of time is inviting disaster. And if you make up a sensing harness, its useless unless you know what a known good amp measures.

"Thus endeth the lesson, greet those around Ye, in Peace"

Steve









Steve

[lasergrazy]

Hi Guy's,
Let me take this opportunity to introduce my self a bit, I was the guy that called Jon to offer to use my scanners and amps or even other parts if needed that I have in my Pluto II.
I just hate to see a gig going bad in those situations, I have been there myself 20 years ago, I am happy to see it all worked out for Jon.

My name is Albert
Till the early 90's where I was involved with a laser setup with a 10watt argon and 2 watt red
All that I had to leave behind when I moved to the states, but you all know ones Bit by the laser bug your done for live, no cure yet as I find out.
Did nothing with lasers till last June I ordered an Pluto II and a beyond software package just to see what a diode setup can do and to see how the newer software is holding up, well I am impressed a lot of things are changed in the last 20 years.
No plans to go pro yet, for know I have my quick laser fix, but who knows what the futher brings to me.
Thanks, Albert

[dsli_jon]

hey Albert! -

Hi Guy's,
...I was the guy that called Jon to offer to use my scanners and amps...My name is Albert..

OMG, I guess I need to 'clean out my ears', Lol! ..I could have *sworn* you said your name was "Elvis" (..which, given the 'region', didn't sound all that 'strange'.. haha, Anyhoo..

Thanks again for the Offer of Help! Any time I can be of some-service - tech-questions, etc.. Lemme know, happy to 'return the Good intentions'.. Meantime, here's one for ya..

Bbbuuuurrrpp!!

Cheers, and Thanks Again..
J