Ray

Assuming you have Kr/Ar, lifetimes vary from anything less than 1 year up
to about three years if you are lucky. In our experience failures under 1
year (within the warranty period) are sudden while failures on longer lived
devices are preceeded by intensity loss and image quality degradation
usually first noticed in the far red channel. Leica have told us that the
intensity drop off is non-linear so if you measure the intensity with a
meter and start seeing a reduction then its time to order a new one soon. I
believe there is a clock recording HT hours inside the laser box somewhere
(where you can't see it !). We log laser usage using a simple Excel macro
that pops up whenever someone logs into the PC.

Hope that helps and good luck with that laser.

Regards
Lloyd Donaldson - Microscopist
Future Forests
Forest Research, Rotorua, New Zealand
Ph 64 7 343 5581
email [log in to unmask]
www.forestresearch.co.nz/mnz



                    ray hester
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                    Sent by: Confocal                 Subject:     life of air-cooled lasers
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                    11/09/01 04:38 AM
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Use of air-cooled lasers on our Leica TCS SP has been my first exposure to
this type (we have water cooled ones on our FACS and ACAS).   These (5-watt
water-cooled ones) seem to either work, or not - is that true of the
air-cooled?  If not, is there a good way to tell when they are losing power
other than the fact that a sample doesn't seem as bright as it should be,
or
the laser light out of the objective seems dim?  Do these lasers have
clocks
recording the accumulated hours of usage, as do the water cooled ones?
Thanks.

Ray