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New toy

I'm starting some work on laser beam diagnostic instruments, so I needed a few for reference.

I snagged a Burleigh WA-10 WaveMeter off eBay, apparently somewhat sick, for $250 plus shipping. These are scanning Mach-Zehnder interferometers that have two corner cubes back to back on a translation stage that's moved by a cam plus tie rod arrangement, and make wavelength measurements good to about 1 ppm for CW lasers.

It arrived yesterday. Of course it was freezing cold, so I left it wrapped up overnight so that it could warm up without water condensing on it.

Today I unwrapped it and plugged it in, at which point it started making all these grinding and klunking noises, and complaining about not having enough reference channel power.

I took the vacuum chamber apart, and found that somebody had been monkeying with it--they'd left off a nylon washer that kept the tie rod from hitting the cam. When I cleaned and replaced that, and left it running for awhile to dry out the He-Ne laser, it started working fine--it measured my green He-Ne's wavelength accurately.

I've got more good stuff off eBay in the last year than I would have believed, for two to four cents on the dollar. What a great time to be building a lab!

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal
ElectroOptical Innovations
55 Orchard Rd
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
845-480-2058

email: hobbs (atsign) electrooptical (period) net
http://electrooptical.net
Reply to
Phil Hobbs
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On a sunny day (Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:42:54 -0500) it happened Phil Hobbs wrote in :

Agreed, I have a < 70 K free piston stirling cooler in the UPS mail from ebay for about the same amount, as part of a superconducting filter unit. But I am waiting for the customs.... Hopefully before the end of 2011?

Think of the Q of superconducting filter :-)

Reply to
Jan Panteltje

I've always listened in amazement to all this whirring and clattering that goes on in optical lab gear. Our stuff only has relays clicking once in a while.

Nice!

Then one day when you and I are in an old folks' home your grandkids are wondering what to do with all this stuff gramps piled up in the basement :-)

Yesterday I visited someone in an Alzheimer's care home. Very nice place. On each door there were photos and brief life histories of the people living there. Many high-class professionals, and now some didn't even know their own names. That was a bit depressing.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.
Reply to
Joerg

If my lab stuff is the worst they have to deal with, they're getting off lightly. Of course I'm 51 this year, which means I'm officially one card short of a full deck already. ;)

1 Corinthians 13:7-10 (RSV)

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.

Good to remember when we start thinking that this world is what matters most. I'm looking forward to that, actually.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal
ElectroOptical Innovations
55 Orchard Rd
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
845-480-2058

email: hobbs (atsign) electrooptical (period) net
http://electrooptical.net
Reply to
Phil Hobbs

d
,
n
g
g

be

:-)

Too many people find they were going to dump the lot without even asking

At least qualified engineers have below average incidence

NT

Reply to
Tabby

...

A huge AMEN to that!

Wilby

Reply to
wilby

Better sell test equipment before its completely worthless. It devaluates faster than a car! I recently bought a Tektronix TLA700 series logic analyser module for $50 from Ebay (with DOA waranty!). It was sold by Tektronix for about $25,000,- in 2002.

Nowadays when I congratulate people with their birthday I say "Happy birthday. May you die in good health".

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
indicates you are not using the right tools...
nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Reply to
Nico Coesel

It's only worthless if you don't know how to use it. I'm very happy with my pile of boat anchors--I can do lots of useful things with them. There are a couple of newer features I'd like to have, e.g. a FFT spectrum analyzer that goes up to 30 MHz or so rather than 102.4 kHz.

But by all means keep talking like that, so I can keep getting good stuff for nearly free. ;)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
Phil Hobbs

That's bad!

Jamie

Reply to
Jamie

The guy who dies with the most toys wins.

Cheers! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

The guy who dies with the most toys, leaves the biggest mess for his heirs to clean up.

--
For the last time:  I am not a mad scientist, I'm just a very ticked off
scientist!!!
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

... or has a rather rude comeuppance after death but then it's too late.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.
Reply to
Joerg

AAAAAAMEN!

Can you tell that I met Baptists on Dec-25? :-)

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.
Reply to
Joerg

Did you wear protection? ;-)

--
For the last time:  I am not a mad scientist, I'm just a very ticked off
scientist!!!
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

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