Repair and Redesign of a 110W surgical laser unit to operational functionality.

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Originally Posted by mixedgas

As Brad mentioned, Daniel Briggs is a UK Laserist with experience in the high power yag laser arena. You very much need his help. He is a PL member.
Otherwise you need an industrial laser tech, a hospital biomedical engineer with surgical yag experience, or a laser show person with the YAG skill set such as Mr. Briggs.
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I'm not so sure I'd do this at my workplace, well, unless I owned the company or was paid to do it. I work in academic laser labs for a living.
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Your at the level of laser power where your high quality beam stop needs to be water cooled and the beam spread before impacting it.
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Again, little details that are only known to those skilled in the art. I'm supposed to write that you should scrap this and move on to another project at this point, because this is a IR Class IV system.
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I don't know you well enough to continue helping you, and I state that not as a personal insult, but based on past experience with the wrong person getting their hands on one of these and abusing it.



Steve

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Informed OP that this is a terrible way to start out on the LPF thread and mentioned that I've got a decent amount of experience, at least for a hobbyist, and I'm still scared shitless of these things ... and for good reason... Sent him in this direction. Suggested contacting either Nigel, Rob or Dan for assistance (hopefully in person) seeing as they are in the UK and have experience with these beasts or at least similar systems at similar power levels.

Full original post...

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Originally Posted by diachi

A Q-switched arc-lamp pumped YAG for your first laser :wtf: ... This is a terrible idea all round. I've been messing around with lasers for 8 years and these things still scare the shit out of me - and I've been around several working models doing 40W@532nm, Q-switched. I know several people with more experience than me that refuse to go near something like this. Not just dangerous from the ridiculous output power (Major fire hazard, burn hazard, eye hazard, hazard to the space time continuum ... OK, that last one's a joke), but there's plenty of electrical components in there that'll quite happily kill you.

Which safety pointers have you read? I don't think there's really anything on this forum that adequately covers the safety measures needed for one of these.

There are a couple of people here (But more so on Photonlexicon) that know how to get these running. - including one guy who pretty much developed his own very similar system intended for show use. They may however refuse to help you due to previous issues with inexperienced operators running such systems. Much of the knowledge isn't public, and for good reason.

Modifying it to a diode pumped system is going to be far from trivial.

Edit: I know 2 or 3 people in the UK that can work on these systems - they are all active over on Photonlexicon.

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OP has got to be a little better than a certain "Pro DJ" ... hopefully OP listens carefully and follows advice given by the experts here.

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Originally Posted by Diachi

OP has got to be a little better than a certain "Pro DJ"

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'Pro DJ'? Is it worth me hearing the story?

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Originally Posted by Diachi

... hopefully OP listens carefully and follows advice given by the experts here.

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That's certainly why I'm here......

Where in the UK are you located?
Did that come from a surplus dealer in Cambridgeshire by any chance?

I'm based in Dorset myself.


It came from some guy reselling it in Merseyside.

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Originally Posted by TCWilliamson

'Pro DJ'? Is it worth me hearing the story?


That's certainly why I'm here......

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Ehhh ... Long story short is that some "Pro DJ" managed to get his hands on a similar system to yours and wanted to use it for laser shows but ended up taking the "I know it all" approach when the experts here were trying to help him get it converted for show use in a safe and responsible manner. Didn't listen to pretty much any advice, safety related or technical (After all ... he knew best! :rolleyes:)... There's a little more to it than that, but that's essentially what it comes down to.

IIRC that situation is part of the reason information on converting/repairing/running these systems isn't publicly available. Can't say I disagree with keeping it that way myself. These things should be something you work your way up to after some years of experience and earning the trust of someone who knows what they are doing.

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Originally Posted by Diachi

Ehhh ... Long story short is that some "Pro DJ" managed to get his hands on a similar system to yours and wanted to use it for laser shows but ended up taking the "I know it all" approach when the experts here were trying to help him get it converted for show use in a safe and responsible manner. Didn't listen to pretty much any advice, safety related or technical (After all ... he knew best! :rolleyes:)... There's a little more to it than that, but that's essentially what it comes down to.

IIRC that situation is part of the reason information on converting/repairing/running these systems isn't publicly available. Can't say I disagree with keeping it that way myself. These things should be something you work your way up to after some years of experience and earning the trust of someone who knows what they are doing.

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Well Fuck me, that has got to be the stupidest thing I've heard of.... a home brew 100W laser light in a public show... (They don't use ones that powerful... do they?) even if they do I wouldn't even think of putting any laser creation I made into a public place. (unless it was a laser cutter for example and the unit was locked down with interlocks during operation without any viewing windows)

Please, I do have some sanity....




I am listening to all advice, the only thing I am hesitating to 'avoid' is the topic of sitting on this thing for a few years, I have no interest or uses in the smaller laser diodes as my interests don't lie so much in the lasers themselves to a 'oooh pretttyy' degree, more of a 'lets see what I can invent with this tool added to my belt.'

I want to develop something new that hasn't been thought of before or improve existing technologies.

You may want to make the effort to get up to Lincolnshire on the weekend of the 17 /18th Sept for UKLEM. Lots of knowledgeable people there and Dan Briggs is likely to be there; look for the UKLEM thread on here.

I'm hesitant to mention the miscreant, reading and seeing pictures about his exploits, alleged and actual, gave many of us headaches from fear. Some people here might have felt a duty to arrange an introduction for him with the Federal authorities. Including his plans to scan his audience with 35 watts of green light point blank. I'm told he has straightened up after a few years in college and having to be self employed. Especially concerns about his statements that it was up to his unskilled audience to decide if they wanted to walk past his "Danger" sign on the door to public facilities. In other words, his free will to have fun was possibly more important then the eye safety of others who are un-aware of what they are walking into.
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That lead to self enforced rules on PL about discussing how to bypass the controller on a common, cheap, big, green, medical laser. The schematic that is out there in the "scene" has serious errors, Thank God.
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My point is this, mentoring people on PL has been a pleasure for me in most cases. I've arranged some graduate school interviews, and helped some PLers get scholarships based on a healthy interest in lasers. There have been a few bad apples, and two or three very dangerous ones. So now I screen whom I help. Usually the discussion on high power goes off list. Usually phone calls and/or personal visits are involved before discussions. Fair Enough?
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PS, He still tries to get me to friend him/recommend him on Linked-In. He claims it was all an act on PL, to get attention..
Steve

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Originally Posted by TCWilliamson

Well Fuck me, that has got to be the stupidest thing I've heard of.... a 100W laser in a public show... (They don't use ones that powerful... do they?) even if they do I wouldn't even think of putting any laser creation I made into a public place. (unless it was a laser cutter for example and the unit was locked down with interlocks during operation without any viewing windows)

Please, I do have some sanity....

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Actually yeah, ~50W (possibly more, I'm not caught up on recent developments...) Q-switched, frequency doubled YAGs have been used in public shows for years - decades really - nothing wrong with that if you know what you're doing. Things go very wrong, very fast, when you don't know what you're doing.

Not a YAG laser, IIRC it was a CuBr (Copper Bromide laser) but still 10s of watts and pulsed, much like the YAG lasers we're talking of: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...blinds-30.html

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Originally Posted by NobleGas

You may want to make the effort to get up to Lincolnshire on the weekend of the 17 /18th Sept for UKLEM. Lots of knowledgeable people there and Dan Briggs is likely to be there; look for the UKLEM thread on here.

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Oh yeah, that's a good point! Might even be a similar system or two there - there has been in previous years. That'll give you an idea of the incredible amount of power these things produce and may scare you out of working on this project, for now. Maybe work your way up to the high power CW stuff first... I remember being pretty much flash blinded by a beam at 20W(Or was it Dan's larger 40W...?) scanning briefly over a light post about 50 yards down the car park at one LEM.

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Originally Posted by mixedgas

I'm hesitant to mention the DJ, reading and seeing pictures about his exploits, alleged and actual, gave many of us headaches here. Some people here might have felt a duty to arrange an introduction for him with the Federal authorities. Including his plans to scan his audience with 35 watts of green light point blank. I'm told he has straightened up after a few years in college and having to be self employed.

That lead to self enforced rules on PL about how to bypass the controller on "That" common, big, green, medical laser.

My point is this, mentoring people on PL has been a pleasure for me in most cases. I've arranged graduate school interviews, and helped some PLers get scholarships based on a healthy interest in lasers. There have been a few bad apples, and two or three very dangerous ones. So now I screen whom I help. Usually the discussion on high power goes off list. Fair Enough?

Steve

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Yeah ... definitely can't argue with that.