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  1. #1
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    Default Lidatek, LLC LE-10 : History, Facts & Myths.

    This is just a history lesson + some clarification of some facts & myths. Hope ya'll find it interesting.

    In 1996 I was working at Synrad, LLC. They manufacture high power industrial lasers using CO2 as the primary gas and high power, high frequency RF energy to excite the gas and produce coherent light in 10W, 25W 50W, 100W & 1000W configurations.

    One day the CEO/Owner/Chief Scientist, Peter Laakman, came in and was a bit upset. He had just gotten a speeding ticket by a LEO using Lidar. Peter was also fascinated because he did not know of Lidar and lasers being used as speed monitoring devices. As an oldschool German with a leadfoot, Peter liked to drive fast in his Mercedes. He had a Valentine 1 radar detector in his Mercedes and loved the thing. It allowed him to drive fast.

    Peter was rich, owned his own company and was fascinated by technology and lasers. So he immediately charged his Research & Development team with the task of investigating the possibility of creating a device that could block the use of Lidar. Andy, Ben (IIRC) & myself began working. Andy was the Head of R&D. Ben was the genious electrical engineer. I was the lead Prototype and Test engineer (for Lidatek). After a design was settled on, I began building the prototype units and refining some of the components for proper firing times and power levels. I also submitted Rev changes to electronic components, PCB designs and lens shapes. Once we had a final electrical design hammered out & tested we began designing the solid machined aluminum case.

    It was at this time I was charged with setting up a manufacturing & testing lab in and empty wing of the Hughes Aircraft Building in Mukilteo, WA. Synard, LLC rented 2 floors of the building to move into. I began setting up manufacturing and testing jigs. Most notably the jig we used to precisely alight the front lens with each laser diode. We also purchased a Lidar gun and began looking for a 1 mile stretch of road to begin field testing every LE-10 before it was shipped out the door.

    After everything was up and running on its own. I was rolled back into Synrad, LLC and left the company about 6-8 months later to move to San Diego, CA. I only stayed with Lidatek until the 1st 400 LE-10's were build and everyone was properly trained.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------

    Facts & Myths:

    2 Mhz or 4 Mhz:

    Originally the LE-10 was designed to fire @ 2 Mhz. And this was not changed during the 8 months that I worked there as it worked quite well. It may have been changed after I left. I cant really say. Also, I was not the chief electrical engineer. Ben may have changed that and not notified us. However the parts list for the Surface Mount components going onto the PCB would have changed. And I never saw this during my time there.

    JTG & Punch Through:

    Yes the unit did JTG and there was NO Punch Through. But keep in mind this was 1996-97 Lidar gun technology. Things may have changed since then as Lidar gun tech advanced. Also remember that the LE-10 only fires for 5-7 seconds. So a JTG would have to happen with the gun being fired pretty close to you. But we did testing on our 1 mile test strip at distances of .5 miles to 100'. In the test lab we put the LE-10 laser in a jig and fired the Lidar gun from a distance of 10'. If it passed that test it moved onto the Field Testing.

    Firmware / Software / Filtering / Logic:

    There is no firmware. There is no software. There is no filtering. Peter wanted a simple device that worked as designed 100% of the time. He didn't want to have to worry about the device not working due to some bug in the system.

    The LE-10 is pure electronic logic.

    "Do I see a 904nm input on my receiving diode" = NO = Don’t fire.
    "Do I see a 904nm input on my receiving diode" = YES = FIRE!!!!!!!!!!

    Power output, Jamming Technique & Beam Pattern:

    -Power output:

    The Laser Diode itself is a Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) diode. Directly from the patent docs "The diode laser 106 is implemented in the preferred embodiment by a gallium arsenide laser sold by EG&G Optoelectronics under the name PGAUISI6". Just your average 905nm 13watt @ 15 amps, 150ns pulsed laser diode.

    "Class IIIB laser diode. 14mW @ 904nm"

    That was the sticker we put on the devices Control Head unit. In reality....the laser diode we used was rated for 35mW @ 905nm (in the configuration we were using it in). It was designed to operate @ 14-20mW for 5 seconds so as to promote longevity of the laser diode. There is also an electronic timer that prevents re-firing for 45-60 seconds. We actually included a test strip of material to verify the laser head was working. (Think back to the old Transformers that had the black sticker on them that was heat activated. Hold your finger on the sticker and it revealed Autobot / Deceptacon). Well once you installed our kit you could hold up the test strip in front of the laser head and trigger it to fire. The heat from the laser would activate on the test srtip. The problem.....you could hold the test strip up to 8 inches away form the laser head and still get a heat reading. The strips activated at 100 degrees F. Closer than 6-8" away you could feel the heat of the laser energy on your skin. We never submitted any test samples to the FDA to verify our Class IIIB status. At least not that I know of


    -Jamming:

    Pure bruteforce. No fancy pulsing or anything else. It will throw error codes on damn near anything it jams. It is not stealth in the slightest.

    -Beam pattern:

    Basically we designed the beam to be shaped like a rectangle. Almost the same dimensions as a standard license plate (for obvious reasons). At a distance of 6-7' the beam pattern is the same size/surface area as a license plate. That is why JTG and Punch Through were so good. IIRC...the beam pattern was like 100' wide x 50-60' high @ 1000' distance. Peter want roadside to roadside coverage width wise & vertical coverage if any LEO's were shooting from overpasses.

    Jamming time:

    Why only 5 seconds? There were 2 reasons.

    1)Peter was VERY conscious of the quality of the products he put out. A longer jam time would eventually start to compromise the lifespan of the Laser diode. There is a thermistor & re-fire timing circuit built into the design that makes sure the Laser Diode does not get over worked.

    2) 5 seconds was determined to be a sufficient amount of time for a User to register a Lidar event and take appropriate action to reach the PSL. This part is clearly addressed in the patents mentioned below. This re-fire timer also prevents the LE-10 form raising suspicion by causing a JTG situation.

    If you read through the patent documents, it is clear that Peter's thinking was WAY ahead of it's time. And that is why the parent company, Synrad, LLC, is still in business and an industry leader in the CO2 laser market. Long after Peter's death.

    Patents:

    5,767,954 and 5,793,476 and 5,793,477. You can plug these patent #'s into the Patent Offices search and pull up the patents to read them over. They are an interesting read.

    ---------------------------------------------------------------

    I think that is about all the info I can recall off the top of my head. If you have any questions, I can try to answer them. I know this is old technology so this is more of just a history lesson.

    P.S.

    I still run the LE-10 system on my Mustang. Over the last 13 years I have had to replace the Control Head unit 1 time. I've used 5 Laser Head units over that time. 2 failed for some unknown reason. 3 had to be replaced due to damage.

    Fortunately, when I left the company I was given "as many parts as you can fit into this box". Well it was a small box. So I just stuffed with with 20 Laser Heads, 6 Control Heads & 4 power cords. I didn't care about the big bulky license plate mounting frame or the mounting hardware. So I'll probably use 1 more kit then go with an M27 Blinder kit. I really like the looks & performance of the M27. It's got great firing time and no Jam Codes. However the LI jammers are really making me look hard at them as well.
    Last edited by fatchick1o9; 07-17-2010 at 01:46 PM. Reason: minor change to correct some specs

  2. #2
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    Default

    thanks sooooo much Le10 is a legend
    Last edited by Stealth Stalker; 07-06-2010 at 04:52 PM.

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Lidatek, LLC LE-10 : History, Facts & Myths.

    Yea, cool stuff!

    Anyone have the IR video showing the LE10 firing?

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Lidatek, LLC LE-10 : History, Facts & Myths.

    Quote Originally Posted by srtga View Post
    Yea, cool stuff!

    Anyone have the IR video showing the LE10 firing?
    There is a link to the Video on this forum. I just cant post it cause my Post count isn't @ 15 yet.

    I did watch the video last night and kind of chuckled to myself. Only because that was the production level "sold to customer" unit. I could tell by the volume level of the alarm. Which was ramped up in later revisions. Peter Laakman drove a nice Mercedes which was very quiet inside (plus he only listened to classical music when he drove). So a quieter alarm was sufficient. Remember, in all reality we were only building them so he could drive fast. Selling them and making money was just a side benefit to him. Our second rev of the Control Unit had a much louder volume (like in the video). And a slightly different Silk Screening on the Case.

    So I can tell in the video that was the 14mW, 5 second LE-10 laser head. And that video shows exactly why we wore safety goggles from the time we walked into the lab till we left at night.

    In the lab we saved a cache of special diodes with a higher power output and better beam pattern. We used these diodes to build "juiced" laser heads for ourselves. As well as changing the surface mount resistors to increase the firing time and power output. I didn't go nuts like some of the guys did. Simply cause I wanted my Laser Heads to last a long time. So I only increased the firing duration to 5.5-7 seconds. BUT since our Laser diodes were rated for 35mW I did increase the power output to 20-25wM. I figured a 50-60% increase in power output over the 14mW would give me much more range with a minimum decrease in lifespan. And it looks like I am right. I still have Laser Heads that fire properly but have only been removed due to me accidentally cutting the cable in a wreck on the race track. and they were 8 years old.
    Last edited by fatchick1o9; 07-06-2010 at 03:09 PM.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Lidatek, LLC LE-10 : History, Facts & Myths.

    Thanks for the history lesson!

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Lidatek, LLC LE-10 : History, Facts & Myths.

    Cool stuff.

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Lidatek, LLC LE-10 : History, Facts & Myths.

    Thank you very much for sharing this little story, Eric!

    We enthusiasts really appreciate it!

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Lidatek, LLC LE-10 : History, Facts & Myths.

    My pleasure. We were quite proud of what we built at the time. Of course we had no idea just how awesome and innovative it was at the time. From what I have been gathering the LE-10 is the "cat's meow" of brute force jammers. It's only Achilles Heal is it's short firing time and high power consumption. We ran a 5 amp fuse in the power cord because each laser head consumes 1.5-2 amps while firing.

    I actually left Synrad, LLC / Lidatek, LLC because they were bought by a Holding Company of bean counters and upper management types that had no idea about the science & products. So they began F'ing up the company. It was at this point I left for greener pastures. I also think that the Holding Company decided to trim the fat off the company. Lidatek was considered an unnecessary expense and not synergistic to Synrads Industrial Laser product line. I believe it was sold off or spun off into it's own company. Then the product made major changes from its roots. Specificaly the change from Laser Diodes to regular LEDs. Quality Laser Diodes are $$$$$.

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Lidatek, LLC LE-10 : History, Facts & Myths.

    awesome stuff and be proud that you were involved with such a legendary jammer that has stood the test of time. Who else is alive from the original team?

  10. #10
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    Default Re: Lidatek, LLC LE-10 : History, Facts & Myths.

    Thanks a lot for the post. And welcome to the board. I never did get an LE-10 but I had the LE-20 and still have the LE-30. I'm wondering how they compare today to state-of-the-art units like the LI. I wish you had stuck around Lidatek and had more to report, especially on the LE-20 and 30. But, great info anyway.

 

 

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