Anyone know anything about Zeiss Visulas Argon lasers?

[DougD]

Hello,
I was in to our local optho guy today, and he knows that I have some
background in lasers, etc. He took me into their laser room where they
have both Zeiss argon and YAG lasers. They've not been using the
Argon due to unspecified problems, and he asked me if I would be
interested in looking into it as apparently it's no longer under a service
contract, and Zeiss is no longer supporting it, other than parts.
I will probably go in and at least yank the covers to try and see
what type of tube, etc. is in there. From the nameplate on the laser,
it's marked as a "Argon 514 476 5 watt", and at first I suspected that
it might be an air cooled pulsed argon, but after poking around the
net, it turns out that it's a self contained water cooled CW laser that
can be run pulsed or CW.
Anyone have any ideas as to what they use for tubes in these
things? Who might have sourced them, and who in N America might
be able to rebuild or supply replacements? I'm not real big on digging
into an optho laser, but if the laser itself is modular, I'd have at least
some hope of being able to do something non-destructive to help these
guys out, and maybe get a little extra biz for myself as I guess there
are a lot of these on the island, and apparently, not too many folks
around to service them.. And I'm bored silly...
Thanks!

D.

[STEVE ROBERTS]

zeiss used lexel 85s, on older units, I have a source for them. Zeiss
used SP 2016 series on newer units, good luck with that. the 88 supply
was a zeiss custom, there is some data floating around the net,
probably Florian.

Steve Roberts

[Martin Whybrow]

Post by STEVE ROBERTS
zeiss used lexel 85s, on older units, I have a source for them. Zeiss
used SP 2016 series on newer units, good luck with that. the 88 supply
was a zeiss custom, there is some data floating around the net,
probably Florian.
Steve Roberts

Zeiss do have the data on the switcher used to power the Lexel 88 based
Zeiss unit, although you'll probably have trouble tracking down the right
person; I was lucky and they faxed me a few sheets that I needed to make a
repair.
Martin

[DougD]

Post by STEVE ROBERTS
zeiss used lexel 85s, on older units, I have a source for them. Zeiss
used SP 2016 series on newer units, good luck with that. the 88 supply
was a zeiss custom, there is some data floating around the net,
probably Florian.
Steve Roberts
Zeiss do have the data on the switcher used to power the Lexel 88 based
Zeiss unit, although you'll probably have trouble tracking down the right
person; I was lucky and they faxed me a few sheets that I needed to make a
repair.
Martin
--
martin<dot here>whybrow<at here>ntlworld<dot here>com

Thanks Guys! All info is welcome and appreciated! I'm going in on Tues. a.m.
to pop the covers and see what's actually going on in there. Because there are
no water lines to the very small vertical cabinet, and that it is spec'd at 5
watts max, I figured that it probably had a vertically oriented tube, and the
only ones that I could think of made for that app. were the 2016's which were
designed expressly for that. I've not been told exactly what the problems are,
and the surgeon that uses that particular one will be there to hopefully fill
me in on it. And I'm hoping that there will be SOME documentation around,
but not getting my hopes up on that.. In the event that it is the tube that's
gone flaky, what kind of options are there on either getting re-built or
new(ish) lexel or SP tubes? It's been so long since I've dealt with SP, and
have never dealt with Lexel other than when I had to get a twin tube argon
etalon controller back to life, and I can't for the life of me remember who I
talked to on that, I think it was a "Brian"? Also, any opinion on best sources
for tubes these days? I see that HoloSpectra is still offering them, and I'm
stumped trying to remember the guys out in the Sas Jose/Freemont
area who were/are the current laser gods, I keep thinking it's "Evergreen"
or something like that. I should probably try and remember as they have
a 164 that was supposedly "given" to me in lieu of money owed by a
former employer, (good luck on that....) Well, I'll know a lot more on Tues.,
and am looking for any suggestions on good tube folks, both in the US and
in Canada (if any). Also, any "quirks" as to working on Optho or other
medical lasers, other than just the common sense stuff of not using Ebola
tainted acetone/methanol for cleaning?
And a real long shot... This setup is basically the laser and
controller in a seperate unit from the slit lamp and all those other
Frankestein devices they screw up to your eyeballs with, and the laser is
connected to that via fiber. Is it possible in a worse case to replace the
possibly unrepairable laser unit with a new, standalone non-OEM laser and
then fiber that over to the optho devices, as long as any control and comm
issues are resolved? I.e. take an out of the box new laser and put it on the
shelf, take away the old tower and pump the fiber? I'm not sure how the
pulse forming takes place, from what I can tell, the specs all fall under
something that could be done with an electrically controlled shutter, i.e.
200mw at .25 seconds at 1 pulse every 3 seconds for 20 total pulses. That
seems to come from the Ortho side controller, and I could see a number of
ways to duplicate that, but my major worry is what problems something like
that might cause strictly from a regulatory/liability problem.. The Zeiss gear
is no longer supported, or under any contract, so it's there's to do what they
want. As an option, I have found complete used systems for under $14k
USD, but I would suspect how much life they have on them as well.
The main reason I'm interested in this is that these folks tell me
that there are probably about 40-100 of these type lasers on the island, and
no one local to take care of them. Most are switching over to YAG, but there
are a lot of the gas lasers that they would like to keep running if it's
economically feasable, and I could surely use the work as it would be done
"at my leisure", which is the best kind of gig... If I can pull off one
succesful attempt at this, there will be a lot more down the road, which would
be just fine for me, now that I'm "retired"....thppppthhhhht...
Thanks!

D. O' the North..
(sorry for the painfully long post.. and thanks again for the replys. If you'd
prefer to offer opinions offline, try me at ***@shaw.ca)

[Sam Goldwasser]

Post by DougD

Post by STEVE ROBERTS
zeiss used lexel 85s, on older units, I have a source for them. Zeiss
used SP 2016 series on newer units, good luck with that. the 88 supply
was a zeiss custom, there is some data floating around the net,
probably Florian.
Steve Roberts
Zeiss do have the data on the switcher used to power the Lexel 88 based
Zeiss unit, although you'll probably have trouble tracking down the right
person; I was lucky and they faxed me a few sheets that I needed to make a
repair.
Martin
--
martin<dot here>whybrow<at here>ntlworld<dot here>com

Thanks Guys! All info is welcome and appreciated! I'm going in on Tues. a.m.
to pop the covers and see what's actually going on in there. Because there are
no water lines to the very small vertical cabinet, and that it is spec'd at 5
watts max, I figured that it probably had a vertically oriented tube, and the
only ones that I could think of made for that app. were the 2016's which were
designed expressly for that. I've not been told exactly what the problems are,
and the surgeon that uses that particular one will be there to hopefully fill
me in on it. And I'm hoping that there will be SOME documentation around,
but not getting my hopes up on that.. In the event that it is the tube that's
gone flaky, what kind of options are there on either getting re-built or
new(ish) lexel or SP tubes? It's been so long since I've dealt with SP, and
have never dealt with Lexel other than when I had to get a twin tube argon
etalon controller back to life, and I can't for the life of me remember who I
talked to on that, I think it was a "Brian"? Also, any opinion on best sources
for tubes these days? I see that HoloSpectra is still offering them, and I'm
stumped trying to remember the guys out in the Sas Jose/Freemont
area who were/are the current laser gods, I keep thinking it's "Evergreen"
or something like that. I should probably try and remember as they have
a 164 that was supposedly "given" to me in lieu of money owed by a
former employer, (good luck on that....) Well, I'll know a lot more on Tues.,
and am looking for any suggestions on good tube folks, both in the US and
in Canada (if any). Also, any "quirks" as to working on Optho or other
medical lasers, other than just the common sense stuff of not using Ebola
tainted acetone/methanol for cleaning?
And a real long shot... This setup is basically the laser and
controller in a seperate unit from the slit lamp and all those other
Frankestein devices they screw up to your eyeballs with, and the laser is
connected to that via fiber. Is it possible in a worse case to replace the
possibly unrepairable laser unit with a new, standalone non-OEM laser and
then fiber that over to the optho devices, as long as any control and comm
issues are resolved? I.e. take an out of the box new laser and put it on the

Yes, well that is the rub. And what about liability? You really don't
want some Frankenstein laser involved in medical practice.

Post by DougD
shelf, take away the old tower and pump the fiber? I'm not sure how the
pulse forming takes place, from what I can tell, the specs all fall under
something that could be done with an electrically controlled shutter, i.e.
200mw at .25 seconds at 1 pulse every 3 seconds for 20 total pulses. That
seems to come from the Ortho side controller, and I could see a number of
ways to duplicate that, but my major worry is what problems something like
that might cause strictly from a regulatory/liability problem.. The Zeiss gear
is no longer supported, or under any contract, so it's there's to do what they
want. As an option, I have found complete used systems for under $14k
USD, but I would suspect how much life they have on them as well.

The fiber may have a standard SMA connector so, sure, you can connect
another laser. The Zeiss slit-lamp is used on many different ophthalmic
lasers. But it really has to be another ophthalmic laser.

And even then, if not supported by a recognized service organization, you're
opening up the liability can of beans. Been there.

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Post by DougD
The main reason I'm interested in this is that these folks tell me
that there are probably about 40-100 of these type lasers on the island, and
no one local to take care of them. Most are switching over to YAG, but there
are a lot of the gas lasers that they would like to keep running if it's
economically feasable, and I could surely use the work as it would be done
"at my leisure", which is the best kind of gig... If I can pull off one
succesful attempt at this, there will be a lot more down the road, which would
be just fine for me, now that I'm "retired"....thppppthhhhht...
Thanks!
D. O' the North..
(sorry for the painfully long post.. and thanks again for the replys. If you'd