[Laser] Marlin Jones IR laser assembly - looks nice

[Art]

Good Day Bob and all,

These are the 'timeline modules' as sold by Timeline on the web for $20. 
each. They are also being sold on ebay for 15 and 10 dollars 
each....perhaps I should have said 'listed" because there are no bidders at 
these prices.

When I got mine years ago, I tried to reverse engineer it. I was able to 
figure out the power supply inputs based on the partial schematic I was 
able to trace out. But, that was all.

Recently, I was able to determine that they are from a very old 
Xerox  laser printer....half the size of a car although it is a real 
workhorse, even by todays standards.

I even obtained a Service Manual for the printer on ebay, but it did not 
include any details for the laser module and the 10 pin plug on the 
motherboard was not detailed either. SO, I never was able to apply 
power...so mine is sitting in a box in the basement.

I'm glad to see these listed for a reasonable price now! The optics appear 
to be very high quality and the line generator produces a nice line which 
is straight as an arrow! It is easily removable if you want the collimated 
dot output.

Laser Sam has a short section on these in his laser FAQ, but it is somewhat 
less than detailed:>:

Can anyone who purchased one of these units confirm that they give full 
full hookup details, or do they just supply the basic information that 
Laser Sam has in his FAQ?

Reply to the list please...these are nice modules and they are cheap and 
modulatable at decent rates! I think the list members would be interested 
in hearing more about these units.

Smile...

Art





At 04:26 PM 1/23/03 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I just got a box of the laser modules (12102LZ) that Marlin Jones is selling
>for 2.95 each (they have a $15 minimum purchase plus add shipping)
>
>They look nice, compared to pointers or pulling modules out of old CDROM
>drives.  But perhaps this is old hat to people who frequently use printer
>heads, which is what they are:
>
>         As described, they require +/- 12 v and +5 AT 150 ma
>
>         They have TTL level input for beam modulation - I don't know the 
> typical BW
>on these, but the TTL input is identified as "Video Signal Input" TTL High
>for laser on, TTL low for laser off
>
>         There's a 0 to -6 v control line to control beam power - spec'd 
> to control
>over at least the range of 0.17 to 1.55 mw.
>
>         And, there's a laser output line calibrated to 1 volt/Milliwatt.
>
>That's a pretty cool combination.  Of course, they aren't small (4.5" x 4.5")
>nor are they particularly light (maybe a pound each).  But given what they
>have in them, I think they are a great deal if you are interested in, and can
>work safely with, IR.
>
>Bob, AA1ZC
>FN31xk
>
>
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