I've spent some time trying to figure out the configuration of BeamConstruct to suit my YAG laser. My laser has built-in first pulse suppression so I run it in YAG mode 1 with LASERON wired to the 'gate' input and LASER1 wired to the q-switch trigger input. Power is adjusted by changing the q-switch pulse rate and / or by RS-232 commands to control the pump diode current.
I'm have some questions:
- in RTC Definition, there are 2 parameters which I'm not clear on, Stand By Frequency and Stand By Length. Best I can tell, these are only used in CO2 mode. Can you tell me if they have any affect in YAG mode?
- in Pen Settings:General - Power is only used for lasers where power is controlled by the RTC output defined in RTD Definitions 'Power Output' (such as lamp pumped YAG lasers with an analog power control signal) - Frequency - not sure what this does. It does not seem to affect the q-switch rate
- Pen Settings:Laser - Pulse Length -> Q-switch Pulse Width - First Pulse -> FirstPulseKiller Length - Half Period - This does not seem to affect the q-switch pulse rate. I think it may only apply to CO2 mode? - Stand-By Pulse Width - also seems to be CO2 specific - Stand-By Frequency - CO2 specific?
My biggest question right now is which setting actually controls the q-switch pulse rate (on the LASER1 pin of the RTC card). The performance of my laser varies dramatically with pulse rate so I need to set it for each different material I work on. I think it should be the 'half period' setting, but I have not seen any change in performance with this set to widely different values.
Kevin