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SSY 1's Recently?






@lightningstalker - Mi used to sell entire SSY-1 units with the rod, q-switch housing ect all assembled. They had them available for a long time too. Until sometime last year, they stopped selling them. My guess is they ran out of units or the demand of parts greatly exceeded finished units. I really don't think its about the money because AFAIK they were the only seller of those units and could have charged whatever price they wanted.

Hwang, I have read in the FAQ that the SSY performs better for burning if you take the Q-Switch out. The only reason you'd want the Q-switch anyway is if you were going to pump a KTP. In which case you could do anyway, just at less peak pulse power. You aren't going to get many pulses before the unit needs to cool down as well so theres almost no need for the passive dye cell Q-switch.
 
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I think you can do that with many of your lasers :whistle:

@jeffery where did you read that? I thought Q-switches made higher peak pulse powers, which would result in better burning abilities?
 
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My old knowledge indicates that the Q switch
gives a higher / shorter output pulse. Removing
the cell levels the output.
As I recall, the average output is near the same
but still a bunch. Depends on what you want.
HMike

I repeat: "A Q switch is like a bung hole holding back diarrhea. It holds as long as it can then POOOO. Too much energy passing through will damage the cell just as it damaged my lens. "
 
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Right so without the Q-switch you would get a flat plateau of laser power over a larger time interval, with the Q-switch you get a sharp peak of laser power over a short time interval. This makes the total energy outputted more or less the same, but isn't that extra punch of output power what you want to burn through things?
 
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Hwang21 -- That is how I understand it. See the previous
post describing a Q switch in "biological" terms -- LOL
HMike
 
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Right, so to be able to burn through things better you'd want a Q-switch installed. I also read somewhere that you have to have the Q-switch in place to have breakdown of air/"cool white plasma ball snapping sound thingy" and that's definitely cool
 
Taken from sams faq under multiple sections. Sam's Laser FAQ - Commercial Solid State Lasers

"Without the Q-switch, the output will not be as short a pulse but may actually result in more total energy (though less peak power)."

"Before, when I charged my capacitor up to 700 volts (about 275 joules) I could only put about a 0.020 inch diameter hole in a 0.004 inch thick razor blade. Now, without the Q-switch I can put a 0.033 inch diameter hole through the same razor blade. If you just ratio the changes in volume the output energy has increased by over 2.5 times"
 
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Interesting. So that means the pulse duration without the Q-switch is much much longer than with the Q-switch, giving the object more time to absorb heat and melt/burn/vaporize. Even so though, I'm pretty sure no Q-switch=no air breakdown :undecided:
 
That's pushing the assembly a bunch. You must
have about 100 mFd @ 700 Volts. That's likely
too much for the Q cell but WOW.... Any pulse
forming coil?
Will it pop a balloon ? ? :-)
HMike

I think the Q is needed to ionize air. Lots of
tradeoffs with this design. I Bet the Curiosity
Mars rover has the Q installed.

Hwang -- Longer doesn't mean better burn. The
cloud of vapor can blur the beam if not blown away.
This stuff happens in an instant.
 
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Patrick Priebe has a YAG laser with a Q-switch that still has air breakdown, does that mean the Q-switch dies very quickly? Or does this change with rod/lamp sizes?
 
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I'm a bit confused here...
" a Q-switch that still has air breakdown" ?????
Why "still has" ? If the Q cell has not been
toasted, it will work.
There are active and passive Q switches and I have
only used the passive ones which are damaged with
too much power. Rod and lamp size still relate to power
applied.
HMike
 
Bad wording, sorry about that.

I don't know how much power is needed to get air breakdown to occur, but it seems that that is way too much for the Q-switch to be able to handle? How long do Q-switches normally last? (referring to the passive Q-switches used in SSY's and YAG's like these)
 
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I'm getting my S together!!! I have a small camera strobe PS
now with two 200 mFd , 330 V photo flash caps in series.
That's 100 mFd @ 660 Volts if my math is still correct!
Driving the PS with 3.8 volts, I quickly get to 550 Volts -
That's about 15 "Jewels" if I didn't mess up a DPoint again.
This should run on a small LiIon cell.
HMike

Hwang -- Where do you get all the Q's ?? :-)
I got air breakdown using ~ 15 J and a 5" FL glass lens.
I saw it several times but my wife was not impressed.
The Q switch was installed for this.
How many shots for that Q cell??? Ask the Mars rover --
I think it has something similar to this.
 
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I now have two old camera flash units coming here so
I can harvest the best power supplies. I may power
up the old SSY-1 tonight to test the first PS.
REAL POWER is a rush.
HMike

I tried my old SSY-1 at 15 J tonight and nothing---
I jacked it to 50 J and I got output. I'm using old photo flash
caps and the ESR may be high.
 
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