nd:YAG questions

[gogu]

beam expander, Is that a scanlabs scanhead? if so, what model, digital/analog?

Seen some lasers similar to that one there rated to as high as 150W CW, but actual output is closer to 75-100CW, but your rod does look much beefier.
What software are you thinking of using to drive that scanhead?

What lamp are you thinking of replacing that with?
You should be able to run that setup as is, for lower power 10-20A at around 5-30W cw? Pulse it with the q-switch and you're in the KW )

ps. thank you for the pictures

cheers,

[mixedgas]

Take a look at the Perkin Elmer flashlamp book, there is NOT much difference between a xenon lamp and the krypton ones, you may be able to pulse the existing lamp.

Steve

[Experimentonomen]

There is a difference between a flash lamp(pulsed) and an arc lamp(CW), the electrodes are completely different and i think the gas pressure is different too.

[andythemechanic]

What is also different is the thickness of the glass tube. CW lamps have a much thinner glass tube for more efficient cooling and they don't need to take the shock wave from flashing the lamp. Because of this the explosion energy of a CW lamp is much lower (this was experience once. ).

Andreas

[Experimentonomen]

CW lamps are typically 5-10 atmospheres in pressure and can violently explode when pulsed while flashlamps are only 0.5-1 atmosphere to prevent such an explosion.

[mixedgas]

CW lamps are typically 5-10 atmospheres in pressure and can violently explode when pulsed while flashlamps are only 0.5-1 atmosphere to prevent such an explosion.

I stand corrected..

Steve

[Laserman532]

why would anybody pulse a CW arc lamp Popping balloons ???

Run it CW (q-switched) and pop holes in nickels

[Henry]

why would anybody pulse a CW arc lamp

Because if the person dont have the PSU to drive it CW and a 180W CW YAG PSU would cost a lot more than he now paid for the laser and scanhead together.

To drive it full CW would need a monstrous and special typ of PSU probably even at smaller powerlevels and since i dont have one so would i need to build one and the work to build a PSU to this would be, to say the least, very complex. I dont think this lamp could be driven with say a bigger flyback run mazzilli style and so on but i could always hope im wrong about that because if so then it would be a lot easier to drive it in CW, at low powerlevels ofcourse which is just what i want. 180W CW will never happen, maybe pulsed if can get the q-switch going but im not familiar with active types q-switches so i have to read to learn about it first.

But if it might be possible to pulse the lamp anyway, with very low energy levels ofcourse so the lamp wont explode, so should the electronics for this be really easy to build.



gogu:yes its a Scanlab scanhead named SK1010 and its digital according to the manual, which is little of a bummer as i see it because if it would be analog so could it be quite easy to control manually i think.







The software to control it is one that i got with the laser and that the industry used, dont know the name of it right no, but i cant use it because it require a kind of hardware key that seems that it should be connected to the port on the computer connected to the scanhead and/or controlboard. But i can move around very little in the program anyway and its "looks" quite good so it would be dam good if i could use it. Its pure DOS however but that really doesnt matter. But i dont have the key so cant i do anything with the program, everytime i click on almost anything it complains about this key.

It seems like the key would send signals back to the computer and unlock the software because the program complains that there isnt any key connected so i dont think it has directly something to do with the scanhead so that would be locked or so, or at least i hope not. These types of key have a special name but i can remember it right now. It might maybe also be that the key would decode any signal from the software to signals the scanhed/controlboard would recognise so it would be more hard to override, but i dont know.


About the arclamp then; since it would be risky to pulse an arclamp so should i then be able to maybe change this to an ordinary flashlamp instead that is meant to be pulsed and that should probably work as i see it.

[Laserman532]

well i dont know how much you paid for the laser but, you could pick up a 4kw ALE ps for about 500.00 and you would be in the money. a pulsed laser of this type is useless, not worth your time...get her running cw, give me a month or so and i will have a 6kw lamp driver available for about 3k$ if you are in the market then.

[gogu]

bummer, it could have been an easier fix on the scanhead if it was analog.
Those types of keys are usually called dongles, hasp key.. older styles were mostly parallel newer ones are usb.

Did that laser come with any other hardware other then what you've taken pictures of?

Not sure if it would be worth trying to purchase all the remaining components. i'm guessing mega bucks.
chiller, rf-driver, power supply/ignition box, control card/software for the scanhead, ps for rf-driver, ps for scanhead.
Does the scanhead work? those things are not cheap to fix 2000-2500 (+ shipping to germany)
Is the YAG rod any good? cracks, damage to the coatings on the ends? how about the HR and OC mirrors?
If you can get most of the components for cheap it would be awesome, or it could end up being a very expensive project.