Lightwave Halfnote Green Laser Questions

[Laser Ben]

Well Junktronix, AKA Kevin stopped by here today and dropped off some fun new stuff for me. I got a nice 2.5W 532nm Lightwave Electronics Half-Note system from a medical system. It needs a new diode which I also got. Secondly I got a nice, nearly new ALC 60X Argon system producing 175mW Multiline. It has 179.4 hours on the clock .

Attached are some pictures, no beam shots yet, those will come as soon as I can get this Lightwave system working! I just need a 500hZ signal which I will replicate with a Stamp. I also have a question about the logic of the input. Here is what I was told for the pins I need.

On the 50 Pin connector

enable pin 6
-enable pin 2
reset 4
diode current pin 8
current monitor 28
watchdog 18
+5V Pin 27
analog ground 34
digital ground 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19,21,23,36,38,41,43,45,47,5 0

enable needs Hi level signal
-enable needs Lo level signal
reset needs Hi level (This is used to clear fault conditions)
diode current (0-5v will set laser from 0-Max Power)
current monitor (0-5v means 0-50 Amps to diode)
watchdog needs 500Hz signal

What does it mean what I have to give a low signal. Shouldn't a pin already be at low without a signal or do I need to connect it to a digital ground? Also, when I give a high signal, do I connect that to the 5V pin?





Ben

[dave]

What does it mean what I have to give a low signal. Shouldn't a pin already be at low without a signal or do I need to connect it to a digital ground? Also, when I give a high signal, do I connect that to the 5V pin?

The pin is probably sitting in a high state, via a pull-up resistor or the like

So connect the pin to ground to give it a low signal, or to + to give it a high signal..

[Laser Ben]

Ah okay, got it! Does anyone know if you can cause damage to a power supply by supplying current to a diode that is dead?

[mixedgas]

Ah okay, got it! Does anyone know if you can cause damage to a power supply by supplying current to a diode that is dead?

That is a design specific question. I doubt it on medical gear. A 1 ohm resistor in in series with two or three 10A01-T diodes would be decent test load. 10A01-T is a 10 Amp silicon diode, any 10-20 A 100V diode would work.

Ben,get yourself a copy of Horrowitz and Hill, The Art of Electronics, 2nd Edition. ALso get the optional problem solution book. Its really good for both analog and digital. I doubt Wim Hill has the 3rd out yet, but he may.

Its excellent, it is the number two selling book to electronics people after the Holy Bible, and is designed to bring you up from scratch with easy math. well basic algebra at worse.

Steve

[daedal]

Nice! Congrats Ben...

I wanna see it working... What's taking so long? :P

--DDL

[Laser Ben]

I'm gonna program my stamp today for the signal I need to power it up then I will hopefully have some working green photons assuming the current diode is working. I also have a replacement so I will try that one when I get it running.

Ben

[shrad]

just a question: why don't you use something more simple like a NE555 to generate your signal?

[Laser Ben]

I will do that, but for now, it is a lot easier to just use a couple lines of code to replicate the signal.

Do
High 1
Pause 2
Low 1
Pause 2
Loop

[Laser Ben]

So I got a stamp setup today and it gives about 500hz, I am guessing I can change the values a little and get it to give closer. I will hook it up tonight and see if I get any green light. I did hook up power today and everything seems to power up fine on the low current power supply. The high current one is on a switched circuit so it needs the interlock signals to turn on.

[mixedgas]

Or just

Do
sound 500,1
loop

Steve