I just bought my first laser and I’m at the point where I need to install the laser tube. There are no instructions to install the laser tube and I’ve just been watching a bunch of YouTube videos and I haven’t found much that is applicable.
I have in front of me a 150W YL-Laser A8S [ link ]
All of the documentation and videos I’ve seen mention that I need to have a ceramic block between the power supply and the high power (red) end of the laser. I don’t believe I was supplied with one. Is it only necessary if a wire needs to be spliced together between the high power line and the laser tube? There are terminals (screws) on each end of the laser and a giant red (silicone?) cap on the positive side. In this case my wire has a round terminal that will fit under the screw on each side, so I’m guessing I don’t need the ceramic block smothered in silicone gel since the connection will be under the red cap?
Also, there is another thing I can’t make sense of. There is an aluminum? tube with 2 o-rings that came in the laser tube box. I can’t figure out what it’s for.
Can you take a photo of both the cathode and anode ends of the tube? Also, what do the ends of the wire coming from the LPS look like?
My laser tube did come with a ceramic block but I’ve seen plenty of installations without a ceramic block. What’s critical is that the high voltage side be well insulated and physically separated from the laser chassis.
Did you laser come with some silicone paste? That’s used for the installation to help insulate.
The first picture is of the negative side of the tube also showing the end of the wiring from the laser power suppy. The other side is identical in that there is a screw to terminate the power supply wire, but also has that giant red cap to put over the end. I do have a tube of silicone as well, but it’s unclear if I need to use the silicone paste as well as the silicone cap?
That looks like a Reci tube or a similar style. I haven’t used one myself but I’ve seen videos where the terminals are just screwed in. For sure the silicone cap would go over the high voltage side. But as far as the paste is concerned I’m not sure how practical it would be given the metal ring that goes around the entire tube would likely still be exposed. In any case, paste won’t hurt the situation but seems it’s not strictly necessary.
Thank you! My google-fu was not able to produce that video which seems to explain a lot. I’ll give it a go and report back. Still a little bothered a bit by not knowing what the small tube and o-rings are for but I’m guessing it will reveal itself in spectacular fashion at some point, hah!
I bought a Cloudray tube that came with the line connected to the tube. It’s a tiny wire inside of a heavy plastic jacket. Since your forced to make that connection I’d make sure you have a good ground on the frame of that machine.
I have instructions but they do not appear to include anything about installing/wiring the tube. The only thing regarding the wiring was an addendum (loose page) about how to check for power supply fault with the green resistor in my pictures.
I’ve hooked up three tubes over the years. The thick red wire always went direct to the back of the tube. Everything is well insulated. The normal wire to the front of the tube has a small shunt resistor needed for the power meter.
Do to the extremely high voltage on the red wire I’d not add any unnecessary connections to it as it might arc to the metal frame. Add globs of silicone on any exposed connector metal, unless proper shielding is provided.
Yes, email is being sent to OMTech now… I was trying to avoid contacting them. I tried to schedule a support tech call with them but they are scheduling out at least 1 week and I’m unavailable at that time so it would be at least 2 weeks before I could speak with them. So I’m thankful for the community here
Ha, I tried to Tetris that aluminum tube everywhere. No luck.
If the tube was not installed prior to shipment I suspect you may have some mirror alignment issues. Make sure the center of tube is planar with mirror 1. If it’s not you’ll have to somehow bring the tube in-line with mirror 1 or bring all the other mirrors planar to the tube.
