Old laser i bought for US$14, any good? (with pics).

[dream beamz]

is it possible i aligned it to a reflection and the 2nd beam is the real one?

no, the 2nd beam is because of the optics in it. I could be wrong but pretty much every ION laser I ever owned had that beam.

[Psi]

thanks

that answered all my questions

[peterniss]

-Update-

I did some googling and found this laser which looks very similar

http://www.fullof.info/argonlaser/

Hey there,

you are right. the laser at the above link was built by me 15 years ago and the head was second hand. The power supply you have there looks to be the same as the original spec provided by oatley electronics.

To answer your question re the second "ghost" beam, do you have the original optical power resistor in the beam output assembly (the hole where the beam exits the laser)? There is a splitter mirror in there from memory along with a photo resistor connected to the board inside the head.

[peterniss]

That looks like one of the nec3030 kits Oatley electronics in Australia used to sell..

it is. tho I doubt you will be getting any more than 40mw tops. for $14 you got an absolute bargan. ive spent over $1500 on mine after the first head died. ive moved on to diodes now and keep it as a heater for cold winter nights.

[Psi]

Hey there,
you are right. the laser at the above link was built by me 15 years ago and the head was second hand. The power supply you have there looks to be the same as the original spec provided by oatley electronics.

To answer your question re the second "ghost" beam, do you have the original optical power resistor in the beam output assembly (the hole where the beam exits the laser)? There is a splitter mirror in there from memory along with a photo resistor connected to the board inside the head.

yeah, i noticed that power sensor at the front, used it to get the front mirror aligned for peak power.
I removed it a few times but the 2nd spot was still there.
The one thing i've not tried tho, is to tweak the alignment of the back mirror. Ya can't get at the back mirror alignment screws with the case one and i didn't want to run it for more than a minute without the case+fan on. At some stage i'll drill some holes in the case at the back so i can get at the screws.

it is. tho I doubt you will be getting any more than 40mw tops. for $14 you got an absolute bargan. ive spent over $1500 on mine after the first head died. ive moved on to diodes now and keep it as a heater for cold winter nights.

Thanks,
Yeah, it seems in the range of 30mW but i don't have a power meter to confirm it.
Totally agree about the heater :P the thing puts out so much heat

[gottaluvlasers]

Sticker powers and actual powers are very different. I had a JDSU 2214 that did ~54mW at 10A and had a sticker on it saying that it was .5W

just a quick note on labels. Proper Laser labeling does not refer to the output of the laser in question. (in the U.S. anyway). The labels on Lasers here are more for certification requirements which is why the lables are almost always higher than the actual output. The labels have to correspond to the submitted specifications of that lasers product report.

Remember, 99% of all of these old argon laser systems were deisgned, developed and made for some sort medical, industrial and/or military usage. so almost all of these systems have submitted product reports and variances associated with them. Very rarely did a manufacturer ever state actual output power on a product report. Not to mislead customers, but more for convenience and future developments. This argon for example labeled as 400mW would have been covered for any further developments or upgrades up to 400mW.

So, instead of doing 50 different product reports for one laser, manufacturers would try to think ahead or think of "worse case scenarios" on outputs. Then all that would be needed upon product modifications would just be a change or ammendment to an existing variance.

Sorry, this wasnt as quick of a note as i thought.

...back to our regularly scheduled programming...

-Marc