Hi to all,
this problem has been discussed to some extend on the confocal email
list. You may want to check their archives.
I have had a very similar problem in using a 100Watt mercury/Xenon
flashlamp to generate strong UV flashes. Of course one cannot switch on
the flashlamp before switching on all other electronics (since the flash
is administered during the experiment). I fried several computer
components and electronics. What really helped is careful shielding of
the lamphouse, the cable and the supply. I used fine iron mesh, wrapped
arround the cable and base of the lamphouse, grounded with very short
wire to the metal table that itself was grounded to the powerline. You
definitely have to take the lamphouse apart and make sure all the metal
parts make electrical contact (since these usually are made of eloxated
aluminum, they have to be scratched for good contact) and ground
everything REALLY well with short, thick wires. One can measure the
electromagnetic pulse (simply with an oscilloscope; hold the probe at
some distance) before and after, and this should reduce the pulse at
least 100-fold.
Beware: the pulse travels mainly through the air, not primarily via the
power outlet. Changing to another group doesn't help.
hope this helps.
Kees jalink
--
Kees Jalink Ph.D.
The Netherlands Cancer Institute, dept. of Cell Biology H1
Plesmanlaan 121 1066CX Amsterdam, the Netherlands
020-5121933 (tel) / 020-5121944 (fax)
kees at NKI.NL (email) / 0297-320248 (tel at home)
