argon krypton Ebay-

[dsli_jon]

hey guys,
guess it wasnt so good after all. gotta excuse me, im not too familiar with the ion stuff.

Hey Marc - Hey! Cheer up, man! No excuses needed - that's why we're all here! Share - Learn - Grow...Like 'Hooked on Phonics' only with Photons! (sorry, that was bad...) Hope we gave ya somethin to at least think about, Pros and Cons...

I'd PM Skipp (UV99LASER), there - sounds like he has got some good experience, and perhaps could give you better advice on this particular unit...

And hey, speaking of Skipp...

...I have seen 2.2 watts out of the krypton lasers and 14 out of the dye laser argon tubes.

You saw 14 Watts out of an I-90 Argon???? For how many seconds??!! Or are you talkin like an Am 920 Ar/Dye Head? THAT would make more sense! I buy the 2.2W of Kr, but 14W out of an I-90??? This is not a 'challenge' to your statement, I have just never heard such a thing... An I-200, sure, but a 90?? ...News to me.... lemme know..

And, hey, Dave...

Wasn't really thinking sagged cathode, it'd be rotated 180. I was thinking more of polarization.

Yeah, more likely, but I have seen ones that were sagged IN this 90˚ config to start with, rotated just another 90 when vertical pol was desired - as long as the 'clipping' wasn't too severe...

Got any idea WHY they (as Skipp said) put them this way? X-polarization help with convergence on the fiber IC, or something?? In the twin-tube systems I've worked on, we always had the tubes BOTH vert, just to make it easier for max PCAOM effic., rather than screwing around with changing the H-pol to match the V-pol with more optics - what's the point? Just rotate 'em both V-pol...

Anyhoo, Adam - yeah, cleaning that thing up to salvage the Ar tube SUCKED - went thru like 20 rolls of toweling and 5-6 boxes of latex gloves...was not pretty.. we filed insurance claim. won.

RE: Steve Roberts / re-gas, well, um, he sent me a PM a couple weeks ago, letting me know he still does, and his amazingly-reasonable price, etc, Sooo, maybe that has changed in 2-3 weeks? - Steve - care to comment? - peace..

- J

[UV99LASER]

14 watts no shiza. 39 amps and still more head room....
I have a few hy-bred Spectraherents.
That is spectra power supplies powering Coherent tubes and magnets. The Dye tubes usually are good for 14 watts at 39 amps. I rarely run them over 36 amps, 10 watts is usually good enough for most shows.
Skipp

[dsli_jon]

14 watts no shiza. 39 amps and still more head room....I have a few hy-bred Spectraherents.
That is spectra power supplies powering Coherent tubes and magnets. The Dye tubes usually are good for 14 watts at 39 amps. I rarely run them over 36 amps, 10 watts is usually good enough for most shows.

Hey Skipp -

Well, ok, cool, thanks- I've done that, too (SP 265 + I90) works good; but the question was 14 watts out of an I-90 MA Tube???? (I-90 being the key-word!) That's the magik clarification I am looking for... cause if you are getting 14W out of an I-90 - we need to TALK!

peace..
- J

[UV99LASER]

I-90-MA-DYE tube.
You should try one.
The scientific tubes suck.
The medical ones are the only way to go.
Skipp

[dsli_jon]

I-90-MA-DYE tube.
You should try one.

Hey Skipp - what's the secret? longer bore than a standard MA? Not familiar with these... CAN the be re-pumped Ar/Kr?

Ya know, you learn somethin new everyday!

- J

[UV99LASER]

I think they have a bigger bore a little longer too.
They were designed to produce 10 watts at 30 amps to pump the dye cell.
The optics are different too. It makes the laser real green, not at all like the aqua argon color we are familiar with.

I think they needed 10 watts minimum to produce 3 watts of red and 2 watts of yellow.
I sold the last 14 watt tube to a hospital for $7K.
My hot tube now is only good for 12 or so watts.
I do however have a pair of 20 watt argon lasers.
Skipp

[dsli_jon]

I think they have a bigger bore a little longer too. They were designed to produce 10 watts at 30 amps to pump the dye cell. The optics are different too. It makes the laser real green, not at all like the aqua argon color we are familiar with. I do however have a pair of 20 watt argon lasers.

Hye Skipp -

But still, damn - that is SOME hot I-90... just another mark up on the chalk-board for 90s - tough little scratchers... And 10+W SINGLE-LINE?!! So is it 14W with the multi-line / mm optics, or are you saying 14W SM optics? What the heck could it do ML / MM, then?! Sheesh.... Uh, CAN these be regassed WL? Perhaps you end up with 6-8W of WL?...

What are your 20W'ers, 171s? I-200s? 400s? - ciao

- J

[UV99LASER]

10 to 14 watt broad band. Around 60/40 green/blue.
The 20 watt jobbers are very old school Laser Ionics (trymedyne) medical units.
They have switching power supplies EWE.
Skipp

[gottaluvlasers]

hearing you guys talk kinda makes me wish i started with "old skool" lasers!!
argon ions, kryptons, ar/kr. seems like this is where 90% of the laser theory is learned!
dye pumps, rotating sagged cathodes, i-90 pumps at 40 amps, linearly polarized argon optics... where is the flux capacitor??? lol...
UV99-
dont remember if it was this thread or not, but DAAAAAAMN- your list of lasers is makin me REALLY jealous!
dont get me wrong, i love my yag. but seems like i lost a lot of the learning experince and "laserists" experience by not messin around with the "big boy toys" first.
DSL-
the ar/kr i posted the link for wasnt for me. i just came across it and posted it here for some of you guys. but i guess it turned out not to be too great of a find. i wouldnt even know where to begin on that thing. sh*t, i'd probably take a water hose and clamp it to the 408V 3rd phase input!! (yes, kidding!)

you guys think it is still worth getting a higher powered argon system or ar/kr in this market?? of course solid state is A LOT more money, but arent you EXTREMELY limited on where you can use the beasts like 3 phase 10+ WATT argons and ar/kr?? an average nightclub or average corporate type of event wont have access to a 3 phase line will it? or water capabilities that are reliable enough not to FRY an ion tube??

im REALLY starting to think i may have a new investment coming up! WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO TO ME??????????? LOL...

-Marc

[chad]

I miss ion's. There is still no better beam than a couple of watts of white light.
All of the Chinese blues I have seen have terrible stability issues. The solid state blue is awesome but nichada are still really proud of them.

As far as 3phase and water are concerned most commercial venues have this. Water can be tamed with bladder tanks and pumps, this eliminates the toilet flush - loose the laser problems. If you have to you can rent a nice generator for clean 3 phase (whisper watts rock!).

Speaking of an old school ion trick. Have any of you used the car battery on the cathode heater to alleviate over pressure in a tube? Darndest thing I have ever seen.
When I was at the planetarium many many years ago one of the lasers went over pressure and had terrible color.
Toby went out and got a car battery and some jumper cables. He then disconnected the heater cable and clipped the jumper cables to the laser and the positive on the battery. Then he touched the negative and the heater got real hot very fast once it got to a certain point the gas in the tube around the coil ionized, then he disconnected the bat and let it cool. He repeated this 6 or 7 times then reconnected everything and fired up the laser and the color balance was MUCH better. He left the laser on full blast for about a week and he got the gas pressure to a usable level.
This got us by for a couple of weeks until a new tube could get shipped.

So the moral of this story is if you can't get your ion running all you need is a jump with a car battery.

Chad