Hi Watson,
Most of the early HeNe lasers were really bad leakers. The mirrors used were quite delicate, so the manufacturers would use a special "high torr" epoxy to glue them onto the glass capillary tube. The epoxy couldn't keep the He in. On many of these tubes, they put a big gas reservoir as part of the tube to extend working life.
The best HeNe lasers use steel tubes, and the windows are soldered in using an indium solder. They will last virtually forever.
-Chuck Harris
Wats> In article ,
Reminds me of that mail order house "Poly Paks". Pure junk. I don't think they exist anymore.
In article , snipped-for-privacy@ix.netcom.com mentioned...
Yeah, I remember those ads in the back of every issue of the electronics magazines. I never did get suckered into those. I think it was because there were a couple local electronics shops that attracted me instead. And I didn't have any money to begin with. But I think I learned my lesson about mail order when I started collecting stamps with those "stamp approval" mail order services. They would send me those packages of junk stamps and bill if the packages weren't sent back in time. Finally the U.S. Postal Service put an end to those 'approval' operations when they passed a law that said, "If you receive something in the mail that you did not request, it's yours to keep, free". They should make a lot more laws like that!
-- @@F@r@o@m@@O@r@a@n@g@e@@C@o@u@n@t@y@,@@C@a@l@,@@w@h@e@r@e@@ ###Got a Question about ELECTRONICS? Check HERE First:### http://users.pandora.be/educypedia/electronics/databank.htm My email address is whitelisted. *All* email sent to it goes directly to the trash unless you add NOSPAM in the Subject: line with other stuff. alondra101 hotmail.com Don't be ripped off by the big book dealers. Go to the URL that will give you a choice and save you money(up to half). http://www.everybookstore.com You'll be glad you did! Just when you thought you had all this figured out, the gov't changed it: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html@@t@h@e@@a@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@m@e@e@t@@t@h@e@@E@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@
Don - You seem to have more experience with this. I gladly defer to your explanation.
Regards - Oppie
I think they went out of business quite a few years ago.
I only bought from them once. This was for GaAs infrared laser diodes with output of a few watts. The magazine ad did not say that this was peak output and that the duty cycle had to be so low that average output was only a few milliwatts, although the datasheet that came with the diodes did say that. I returned the laser diodes. It turns out that the low duty cycle and low average power of such GaAs laser diodes was fairly common knowledge - but not obvious to one who first hears about them in an ad when first starting to read electronics magazines.
This was about 20 years ago. I haven't seen hobbyist/surplus outfits selling GaAs laser diodes for quite a few years now.
- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
In their time, I think Poly Paks was probably higher quality on average than Radio Shack (being mostly surplus), though both had dubious fallout products on offer. Armaco (Russ Mack, IIRC)) in BC was another early supplier of oddball stuff- brought in all kinds of weird and wonderful Japanese stuff so you wouldn't
Yes, I remember that. CW lasers (even IR) were quite an achievement in their time. What were the pulsed ones used for? Can't remember..
What would a hobbyist do with them? They are free in every junked CD player, of course. And the low-end versions of the visible red ones are very, very cheap in laser pointers. Blue laser pointers will be cool, when they arrive, for a few months. Last I looked ( a couple of years ago) the green ones were still $200+ US each- okay, they are $90 now and use a Sony green laser diode rather than an IR laser and a frequency doubler (much like the optical version of a varactor, eh?).
Best regards, Spehro Pefhany
-- "it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward" speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com
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