Fried Power Supply

After all the troubles we've had with the SpectraPhysics Evolution/Spitfire system (see JP's blog below) it came as a shock to actually have other problems. Our OPA (Light Conversion Ltd. Quantronix TOPAS) had been a trooper, finicky yet appeasable. In fact, 98% of the time when we have issues getting power out of the TOPAS it's because the pulses out of the amplifier are not quite what they should be. It has had it's frustrating moments, it not really being calibrated means we usually have to go through the extensive guess-and-check procedure of setting the wavelength out, realigning the DFG, and finding the beam after the spectrograph to discover that we're nowhere near where we set it (wash, rinse, repeat). But in recent months it had settled down, giving us reliable powers without any realignment and dutifully managing to output the exact wavelength of light we required on the first try. Life was good...

...Until we tried to change the wavelength again (for the 4th time in as many weeks) and nothing happened. No crystals turning, no grating being adjusted, no stepper motors at all, in fact, doing what they are supposed to do. The computer program, WinTOPAS, thought it was doing something, but nothing was changing. After attempting the tried-and-true method of turning off everything and unplugging it, then plugging it back in and turning it back on, it was clear that something serious had gone wrong. The SOS to Lithuania was sent out and the following day we received an answer: "Sounds like the power supply. Turn the TOPAS over, take the bottom off and take some pictures for me." Needless to say we were not excited about turtling the TOPAS, but we obviously couldn't do any work otherwise so over it went. Immediately it was apparent that the power supply had blown; the board was blackened, the capacitors were swollen and gooey, and some type of explosion had left splatter on the nice white case.

The next day we had two new emails from our peeps in Lithuania, one from the sales associate giving us an unofficial quote for the pieces we may have to replace (that also happened to be in stock), and one from the electronics tech giving us specific instructions to test the control board to see if that needed replacing as well. The testing went smoothly, only the power supply needed replacement, and the official quote for the part was emailed to us within an hour of our request. (Donatas must have been working late that day, Lithuania is 10 hours ahead of us.)

Overall, this TOPAS catastrophie turned out to be a minor hassle. The quality of service we received from Light Conversion Ltd (Quantronix) and the snappy responses from the well-coordinated support team, despite the 10 hour difference, put them miles ahead of SpectraPhysics. The whole snafu has completely allayed any anxiety I may have had about the tech being in Lithuania (as opposed to California). The $150 power supply is being ordered and sent to us with UPS Express and I have no doubt that the TOPAS will be up and running shortly after the 4th of July. Our special thanks go out to our contacts, The Big G, Donatas, and Darius, for proving that it really is a small world afterall and you don't need to be in the same hemisphere to provide good service.