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Darren Null
08-14-2007, 11:09 AM
http://cambs.com/etch/laser_install.jpg

Nearly there. I'm only mystified by 2 wires, which is pretty good going for me. Attached is a photo showing the laser bay, the laser and the identifiable cables. The two wires labelled with a '?' have identical sockets to plug into in the bay, but I'm not sure what they are or what will happen if I get them the wrong way round. They *look* like low voltage power leads to power little extra bits within the laser, but I'm not confident enough of my ninja laser installation skills to test the theory by plugging them in and seeing what happens....
Any ideas please?

This is my last gormless question of the day, I promise.

Joe Pelonio
08-14-2007, 11:34 AM
One suggestion, see if the red and black match up with both sockets, if not you have the answer. If they do, you still have to figure it out. I would not experiment by trial and error. Hopefully someone has the same model and can look.

Darren Null
08-14-2007, 11:38 AM
Good thought (and one that hadn't occured to me). Alas they are identical.

Darren Null
08-15-2007, 4:51 AM
Update: According to Synrad the wires are part of a GCC modification. So GCC are the only people who can give me an answer, God help me. I've started the process, but dunno how long I'll be stalled on this.

Rodne Gold
08-15-2007, 5:38 AM
Looks like they are for the red diode laser pointer , cos there is nothing that plugs into the laser tube barring the trigger (the co ax plug) and power.

Dave Jones
08-15-2007, 4:44 PM
It looks like the two wires are different length, and the connectors they plug into are in different positions. I would mount the laser and see where the wires run naturally. It may be that the two wires just naturally match the positions of the other two connectors because of their difference in length. If so, it should be obvious which one goes where.

Another thought is to look at where the wires go on the laser. Do they go to the exact same place? (same terminals) It might be that power is running through the one cable, going to the red diode pointer on the laser, and then continuing on from there to somewhere else. (but that's just a wild guess) If they do both go to the exact same terminals, then they are interchangeable.

Darren Null
08-15-2007, 4:53 PM
Bonus points for Rodne and Dave- one is indeed the red laser diode. I tried the 'wire length' last night, but both wires will reach both sockets. I am sorted now though because I got an answer from GCC:

Actually, from your picture, all the cables you mention are correct.
For the two cables that you do not know, one is for laser control and one is for red beam.
Laser control is the cable coming from inside of laser tube and it connects to laser control pcb (in attached picture "cables 002.jpg", you can find the connector has black and grey wires). So you check this wire and trace back to which connecter it belongs.
You can see the picture("cables.jpg") which one is red beam cable and laser control cable.
And "cables 006.jpg" shows that where the red beam is connected on main board.
HOORAY! I just need a few bits from town when it reopens tomorrow and I'm hopefully in the game! WOOHOO!

Darren Null
08-17-2007, 10:20 AM
Both of the mystery leads disappear up into the top left of the laser bay (as seen from behind in the first post photo.)
You'll need to remove the panel on the side of the machine to trace the leads.

The laser control lead (which appears from inside the laser unit) plugs into a small PCB marked LASER CONTROL.

The laser diode lead (attached to the laser diode on the business end of the laser unit) takes it's power from the motherboard itself.

Brian Robison
08-17-2007, 10:43 AM
So Darren, is it back up and running yet?

Joe Pelonio
08-17-2007, 10:45 AM
So Darren, is it back up and running yet?
Hopefully it is, and we won't hear from him for a while because he's having so much fun playing with it.

Darren Null
08-17-2007, 11:25 AM
Is that 'hopefully the laser's working' or is that 'hopefully we won't hear from him for a while'? hehehe.

It's all in, the table moves in an encouraging fashion, and I have a shiny red dot exactly where a red dot should be. I've just discovered that my laptop doesn't have a printer port- I didn't bother checking because every other laptop I've ever owned had one and I just assumed that it'd be there. DOH!

I'm going to have to stuff the signal down USB if the driver will have it.

Doubly ironic really, because my basestation computer has just stopped working. *sigh*

Mike Hood
08-17-2007, 11:30 AM
If you can get the red dot laser to fire and move in the appropriate direction, then your half way there. :)