COMPUTER CONTROL of LASER OPERATION
General Statement
All laser products that are manufactured by Lee Laser contain standard and/or optional
interface circuitry to permit control of laser operation by use of a customer-supplied computer.
The interface circuit accepts control instructions from the computer and converts them into
internal laser control signals. The computer access to the lasers are through one or more
connectors at the rear of the power station cabinet, either the power supply chassis or the rear
panel of the cooling unit or refrigerated chiller.
No Lee Laser products contain software to control laser operations. Lee Laser does not
supply any computer with our lasers. This is the responsibility of our customers.
Lee Laser offers the following general computer control capabilities:
1. Q-switch Frequency or Pulse Rate Control
a. Standard feature of all Q-switched or pulsed lasers
b. By ON/OFF gating at a frequency that is set on the front control panel
c. By pulse rate generated by the user s computer
2. External Computer Interface
a. Optionally available
b. Permits computer control of laser output power via:
1. Flash lamp voltage on Series 600 lasers
2. Arc lamp power on Series 800 lasers
3. Diode current on Series LDP lasers
c. Control signals for laser output power may be either 8-bit digital or analog voltage
3. External System Control
a. Optionally available
b. Includes functions provided by External Computer Interface option
c. Permits computer control of all laser start-up and shut-down functions
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4. Opto-Isolation
All user-supplied control signals and monitors are opto-isolated to prevent ground (earth) or
electrical interference problems between the user s computer and the laser. The input signals
are into moderate-impedance circuits to prevent false triggering from nearby industrial
equipment. As such, drive circuitry must be stronger than simple TTL. For more information,
please see technical documents in this section that apply.