I'm new, and LaserPhysics 50S

[dash8brj]

Hi

I'm new around here, and will soon be taking delivery of a laserphysics Reliant 50S with the key, interlock plug and original box. I chose it as it has very low hours, and the fact I used to own an argon a while ago (an NEC 3030, with home made power supply).

I'm looking for a manual for this laser, in particular pinouts for the interlock plug so I can make a remote control for it. The closes I have come to on this forum is for a laserphysics 300WL which has no detail.

I've tried on LPF, but had no luck in the gas lasers section so thought I would come here as many of you guys have gas lasers (specially argons).

Cheers
Ben

[buffo]

Hi Ben;

Welcome to PhotonLexicon!

DZ used to have a Reliant, but I think he sold it to Stuka recently... Still, you might want to get in touch with him and see if he knows the pinout for the interlock plug.

Steve Roberts (aka Mixed gas here on PL) may also be able to offer some assistance. He's contributed quite a bit to the ion laser section of Sam's Laser FAQ; he can probably find the information you're looking for.

Are you planning to build a projector around that laser?

Adam

[dash8brj]

Adam:

No this laser is just to satisfy my love of argon gas lasers.

When I eventually build my projector it will use all solid state diode / DPSS lasers to make it easier to cart around.

Steve Roberts is a great guy, I have spoken to him via email regarding the NEC 3030 I had years ago which was stubborn to start one evening with an oudin coil.

Not that it lasted long. Having the filament cathode tap on one side of the filament winding killed it in short order. I didnt really take notice of centre tapping the filament winding in my home built supply. (BJ/SGIL1), so it eventually melted the cathode helix off the supports.

Fast forward 20 years and now I have my full call amateur radio license, know a bit more about electronics; than a simple transformer, rectifier and capacitor, and will be reverse engineering the LaserPhysics when I swap the tube over later for a multiline tube. For now though its just a plaything, and at most will end up with a set of 30kpps scanners up front and a pcaom for blanking, if I can find one cheap on ebay.

My RGB scanner will be quite a few months in the making. I still need a blue DPSS and a Red one. Aiming for 1-1.5 watts total power. I have a pair of green dpss units (150 mw and ~1 watt). Thankfully I bought glasses when I got my 15mw pointer (which I gave away), so when I upgraded to 150mw, and then a whole watt, I already had eye protection. The glasses also cover the 488nm output of the argon. All my modules (I dont have any pointers anymore) do 532nm. At the time, the phase I was going through was the burning phase, so powering up a 1 watt laser to burn stuff was fun; but it gets boring after a while, and actually wanting to do something with that $1000 laser apart from popping balloons and lighting tape up, is going to be more satisfying than burning stuff.

For burning I might just build a small water cooled CO2 laser, invest in a few pairs of goggles, and show my friends what a real burning laser can do I'll probably pick up a little 1-2mw hene tube to align it.

I have to be ultra careful with my eyesight. Lost the right channel in a car accident so makes the sign "do not stare into laser with remaining good eye" to me read "Do not stare into laser. At all!"

Cheers
Ben

[buffo]

Hi Ben;

Ah... Another ham radio operator - cool! I used to be known as KA9KPG once upon a time. But that was long ago. Still, we've got more than a few hams here on PL.

If you ever do decide to stick a PCAOM in front of that argon, it would be fairly easy to add a few hundred mw of solid-state red to the output... That would give you a complete RGB rig for a reasonable price. (Just direct-modulate the red.)

Sounds like you've been down a road not all that dissimilar from the rest of us with regard to your previous lasers. Glad to hear you've already purchased some goggles to keep you safe. Sorry to learn that you're already running one eye short though. That does complicate things!

You know, if you're itching to get into scanning right away, that 1 watt green of yours would make a nice projector all by itself. Just stick a pair of scanners in front of it and you're all set.

One request though: If you do start a projector build, be sure to take lots of pictures. We like pictures!

Adam

[dash8brj]

Well I popped the top on the laser and had a poke around inside (after waiting well over 2 hours after it was switched off), and I found connectors on the main pcb marked "current control", "Tube Voltage/Current" amoungst others, like an force idle connector that would undoubtedly lock the laser power to the lowest current.

Later I will probe around with the multimeter and see if they map out to the interlock connector.

I assume most argons of this size are max 10A (7-8 amps for good tube life), and have an output of 0.1 v/a on the current monitor pins?