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Could the heat the laser reaches depend on how hard you are running
it, and thus how long the cooling fan needs to stay on?  If you are
running it at low power perhaps it is not getting as hot?  Does the
body of the laser feel warm even after the fan has shut off?

Craig

On 11/2/07, Julio Vazquez <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Search the CONFOCAL archive at
> http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/cgi-bin/wa?S1=confocal
> Greetings to all!
>
> We have a Zeiss LSM 510 confocal with a multiline Argon laser. After turning
> the laser OFF with software, it goes through a cool off period, with the
> cooling fan staying ON for a while, and then automatically shutting itself
> OFF.  The manual says that laser should be allowed 10 minutes of cooling off
> time, before powering down the system. However, on our set-up, the laser and
> fan shut themselves down after 1 minute. I wonder if this is enough and
> would like to get some feed back from LSM 510 users as to what their
> experience is. Our laser died after about 3.5 years (and definitely less
> than 10,000 hours), and I wonder if we are losing laser lifetime for not
> allowing enough cooling.  So basically, how long is your cooling off period,
> and can that be set somewhere in the software?
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Julio.
>
>
>
> --
> Julio Vazquez
> Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
> Seattle, WA 98109-1024
>
> http://www.fhcrc.org/
>
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