Hello and inherited laser help

[SamV]

Hello all,

Just thought I'd introduce myself, I'm Sam from London and have come over from Speakerplans following advice from Norty303. Anyways, I've got my own small little av business, and in terms of lasers the only I have is a chinese quad beam one.

Anyways, I've been having a root around the place and found a homebuilt laser left by me mate years ago. It seems all it's missing is the scanners and drivers? Having next to no knowledge I thought I'd post up here and see if it's worth bringing it back to life?

It's built into a reclaimed Tecnotronic lighting case of some sort in two parts, the top houses the laser module and scanners and the lower case which is bolted on houses the controllers for what I think is ILDA.

The top case contains a Laser Quantum Entertainer laser module specs as labelled are 532nm 1064nm CW Power <1.0w Class IV Laser. A small piece of glass in front of the aperture. Male and female 25pin Dsub style connectors (ILDA?), which connects up with the power system and then head down into the lower box via a 9pin dsub type connector, which also has an IEC input daisy linked from the top box and then a 15pin connector goes from the bottom box into the top box and plugs in directly to the laser module.

The base plate on the top box is loaded with heatsinks. The module powers up and shoots a visible beam with no smoke needed. It's about 2 or 3mm thick beam that stays pinpoint and straight, ie it doesn't get fuzzy or widen. There are trailing cables with small 4way and 6 way circuit board type connectors, are these for the scanner controllers?

So my questions are:

1. Is it likely to be worth getting scanners for?
2. How powerful is the laser?
3. What is the piece of glass for?
4. Is it likely to be IDLA?
5. If I was to fix it where is a good place to get a better case for it? It's litterally a bodge makeshift type job.

Cheers all,
Sam

[allthatwhichis]

Welcome Sam, and um...



Let us see what you found.

[SamV]

I figured as much Photos coming tomorrow when I go back with my camera.

[Laser Ben]

Sounds like a nice system! Can't wait to see some pictures

[ElektroFreak]

Sounds like it's got a very nice laser in there. Laser Quantum makes very good stuff, well above the typical Chinese fare we normally see here. It would appear to be rated at 1W which is quite powerful.

Most typical scan sets are much cheaper than that laser module, so if the system still makes rated power it would certainly be worth restoring IMO.

[SamV]

Good to know Will have t be rehoused though as it looks horrible.

[SamV]

Why is there what seems to be two colour frequencies? 532nm 1064nm?

[norty303]

Hiya Sam

The glass is likely be to seal the enclosure to prevent ingress of dust/dirt and it'll probably be antireflective coated (AR). It may also be some sort of IR filter but that is more likely internally or part of the laser head itself.

It will almost certainly be able to be ILDA controlled. Even if you don't have a connector, the laser should have a blanking line and the scanset you get will have standard inputs so an ILDA connector could be retrofitted.

Sounds very nice 'find', I'm quite jealous!

[SamV]

The piece of glass isn't part of the laser, it's just been glued and bolted to the baseplate about 15mm from the laser module.

[danielbriggs]

The 25 pin connector on the back of the laser is NOT an "ILDA connector".