We recently got the opportunity to partially disassemble and examine a Brio Ice 450 laser power supply manufactured by Big Sky Laser (Quantel). This item was lent to us a by a friend, but they did not have the actual laser head. Therefore, we can't make the power supply do anything interesting, however we still thought it was worth a writeup. The Ice 450 is the combined power supply, controller, and cooling system that is compatible with a variety of Big Sky Laser/Quantel laser heads. This unit is responsible for regulating power to the laser head, supplying the high current pulses for the flashlamp, and monitoring the laser head. The laser head is also connected to the Ice 450 as part of the water cooling loop to dissipate heat from the head and electronic components within the power supply. Since the laser heads intended to be used with this system are often pulsed, the Ice 450 has the necessary provisions to drive the integrated q-switch. According to the Ice 450 manual, it contains the following components:
- AC Power Factor Correction (PFC)
- CE Compliant Line Filtering Electronics
- The Flashlamp Pulse Forming Network (PFN)
- The Capacitor Charging Supply
- Power Distribution Electronics
- Microprocessor Based System Controller
- System Input/Output (I/O) Electronics
- Coolant Circulation Pump
- Coolant De-Ionization Cartridge
- Water-to-Air Heat Exchanger and Cooling Fans
- Coolant Heater
On the front of the unit are several BNCs for interlocks, q-switch synchronization, and flashlamp synchronization. There is a DB-9 connector for the RS-232 serial interface and a USB connector. The 5-pin DIN style connector is used for the remote control module (remote box interface) to operate the laser system. The small key-switch isolates power from the entire system when switched off. There are two water cooling connections on the front for draining and filling purposes. The laser head uses the water cooling connectors on the back. Lastly, there is a power on and laser on indicator LED on the front.
The system is designed to stand up on the rubber feet while in use and has a carry handle on the top. It can also be laid on its side when it use, but the vent connection on the front must always be above the drain/fill connection on the reservoir.
On the rear of the casing are the water inlet and outlet connections for the laser head along with a specialized D-SUB connector with some high current pins in addition to standard pins. There is also an access cover for the de-ionization filter, a large fan and radiator, an IEC AC power input, and a DB-15 connector for the PIV interface. The PIV interface allows two Ice 450 power supplies to be operated together in a master/slave configuration.
Removing the side cover reveals a tightly-packed system with a combination of high voltage electronics, low voltage control systems, and water cooling components. There is also a large capacitor visible on the left side. Mounted behind the radiator is a cooling fan. The large white plastic component is the water reservoir, which connects to a pump and is part of the water cooling loop. There is also an LED indicator mounted to the reservoir which is used to indicate the fill level.
This is the digital control board of the Brio Ice. It's quite complicated, with several interesting test points, dip switches, and LED indicators. There are also quite a few bodge wires. The main processor is a Philips 80C552 8-bit MCU. Located near the processor is an Atmel AT29C512 flash memory in a socket. We extracted the flash memory module and dumped the contents. You can examine the HEX and ASCII dumps below. There is some funny PCB art of Spongebob Squarepants located on the lower right corner of the board. On the back side of the board, there are just a couple of IDC connectors.
This is the charger and simmer control board. It connects to the digital control board via an IDC ribbon cable. There are many high voltage connections on this board along with an SCR mounted to a right-angle bracket. We suspect that there is a major switching component (likely a MOSFET or IGBT) on the reverse side of the board mounted to a heat exchanger block, but we did not disassemble the system far enough to get pictures of them. In the lower right corner, there is some PCB art on this board as well.
Removing the other cover reveals more interesting components. There is a power distribution PCB, which is water cooled. The water pump is also visible, which connects to the reservoir. The fan is installed behind a small radiator that is part of the water cooling loop. Additionally, there is a float switch or fluid sensor on the reservoir and a large AC line filter near the AC input connection.
This is the bottom side of the power distribution board. It has several test points, LED indicators, and potentiometers. Most notable, is the potentiometer labelled "gear shift". We have no idea what it does, but it's interesting! Continuing on with the PCB art, Bart Simpson makes an appearance on this board.
The small cover can be removed from the rear panel by loosening the thumb screw. This reveals the de-ionization filter, which can be removed by flipping the metal retention latch. The filter then rocks out of the side and rear mounted quick-disconnects and can be extracted from the system.
Below is a picture of the water de-ionization filter cartridge.
We plugged the unit in and turned the keyswitch on. The fan started and the pump ran quietly inside. A red and blue LED illuminated the water tank and is visible from the front. It just flashes endlessly, likely indicating some sort of error condition (such as insufficient coolant). We probed the serial interface at the factory baud rate of 9600 but did not get any output. The system also did not respond to any command we sent it. We did find reference in the manual that the serial interface could be disabled using the remote controller. Perhaps it was disabled or it just will not function without a laser head connected. The manual does provide a list of serial commands.
Check out the manual for the Ice 450 power supply below, it's quite detailed!