Arctic G2 has arrived

I have a 475xx order number, and mine is still listed as 'backordered' on the WL site... Does anyone else's order say this, or does it say something else?

I did get the 'G2's are shipping' Email, so I guess the order is okay, it's just kind of annoying to keep seeing the 'backordered' thing...

Rik

aryntha said:

Yup. I *finally*, after a week and a half of trying to extract an order update, just -yesterday- got a message from "Iya" that, quote:

"I will arranged for your order to be included in our next G2 shipment if possible. "


Again, I just got that yesterday.

Click to expand...

That is the message that will actually get the Arctic in your hands. I received that one too and replied back asking politely but to the point what the hold-up was do to my order number being a very low number and there are suppose to be really shipping now, etc.

I received a polite reply back and was told by another person, that they were very sorry that a "newbie" in the shipping department didn't prioritize my order properly, and that they would personally see that it gets immediate attention and gets shipped out, and they would get back to me shortly.

I think part of the confusion on my order(s) was first they said I already had my Arctic (G1) and included the tracking info, I then pointed out that Yes & No because I have another order number that is one digit difference and that is for the G2 as requested and it certainly has not been shipped out yet.

The fact they blamed it on a "newbie" (their words) showed me it wasn't a canned email and they did get right back to me after I showed them their mistake on order numbers.

Anyhow I had the G2 in my hands 4 days later counting the weekend, so that was really good service once they got it sorted out.

AJ_Dual said:

The brown/yellow tape that seems a bit "different" than the American/European brown plastic packing tape is probably Chinese. I've had stuff from DX and elsewhere from Asia with that tape on it.

My guess is that Wicked repurposed your order from someone else, who got fed up, cancelled, and they figured it out at the last minuted etc. Or maybe cut it open to peek, worried there was a G1 in there/confirm it was a G2.

I suspect they're in full "Chinese Fire Drill" mode over there, and have been all summer.

And generally, it's ALL in the bar-code. A package with a perfectly legible address but a defaced/missing bar-code will get where it's going a lot slower with UPS/FedEx/USPS etc. than it would with a bar-code but no visible address.

Each time it's scanned, your info comes up, so the driver may have had to figure out where it was going, scan it with his pad/PDA at the worst.

Click to expand...

Thanks for this message, because it jogged my brain, I have a box in the garage from a different Chinese shipper that I remembered had alot of tape on it too; in-fact it has loads of tape on it.

I went and compared it to the G2 package and it looks Exactly the same in color and thinness as to the re-tapped job on the G2 package.

So I would then assume they cut it open briefly to check and make sure it was a G2 this time around, and that is probably what the red dots means on the box; because there is almost no way anything got put in or taken out of that slit of one side of the bubble package; a double-check make sense all things considered.

Thank you Electron for posting all that helpful information and congrats on getting your G2. All you need to do now is post a youtube video of the first G2 in action.

Do you know why the high pulse mode only outputs 356mw? I assumed that because it is pulsed that it would increase the power over high power constant wave like giving it short pulses of higher power, but apparently not. Any idea why that is?

Edit: one other question - in your second picture it appears that the smart switch button is lit up; does the button light up when you power the laser on?

Making a video is hard for me to do so, as for the pulse readings I was wondering about that too and thought it would be at least equal to the full constant power. I repeated the test several times though with little to no change, so I would have to think it's the way the driver has been setup??

Edit:

Yes the SmartSwitch is lite up green in color and it's not overpowering in brightness, I turned the switch on hoping it would stand out to show it being the G2 model.

I HAVE MY ARCTIC! I'll post pics soon.
doesn't seem 1W tho..

Cool! Can't wait to hear your impressions too.

This post is no longer updated, click on this link for my updated review:
http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/w...review-overview-mikeeey-54816.html#post772323

Pics are now uploading, probably about <10 minutes left.
Youtube video also uploading (just shows the switches) about 11 mins as of right now.

btw, they forgot my expanded lens kit, I'm so pissed. I called and their phones are just disconnected. time to talk to colinbot

I will update this post with the pics and youtube video.

btw the goggles are nice!! Way better than my Olike glasses, although offering less protection, I can actually see the blue now. It serves the perfect amount of protection for me, I'd at least like to see the dot of my laser, and especially it's true color.


PICS:
http://img26.imageshack.us/slideshow/webplayer.php?id=p1010471q.jpg (click this slideshow or the below link if you don't wanna click each picture)
http://img26.imageshack.us/g/p1010471q.jpg/

(each picture is clickable. Click the larger picture on imageshack to view the full-res picture)







YOUTUBE VIDEO:
this video shows the smartswitch, the first 2 times slowly shows it, the 3rd time shows how fast the user is able to turn it on, making it less annoying


EDIT: it's dead, well, not really, the wires to the diode pins just came loose, but I'm already starting to dislike it, I'm not gonna try and fix it, I'm just gonna send it back and get the Spartan. I thought about selling it for profit, but there's the possibility that it was killed when the negative wire came loose and start touching everything else. Then the positive wire came loose. If it managed to kill itself while the wires came apart I wouldn't wanna try and sell that, I'm just gonna send it back.

PROS:
+Looks awesome, feels nice
+Interchangeable lens's
+Included laser shades are NICE
CONS:
-smartswitch is annoying, can't simply just turn it on to quickly point
-not 1W, probably a little over 700mW
-the inside is a MESS, the soldering was poor, it came loose
-customer service sucks, they also forgot my expanded lens kit
WAY too big, it's taller than a water bottle.

Burning tests:
White paper - Made a hole, no fire... failed
black magazine - Made a hole, no fire... failed
candle - smoked... failed
skin - OUCH... success
(not too long after is when it wouldn't turn on and I unscrewed it to look at the inside)

For 1W I'm not going to try the basic tests like lighting a match and popping a balloon, I'm going to do the tests that should be expected of it's advertised output.


DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TRY TO UNSCREW THIS PIECE IF YOU WAN'T YOUR LASER TO CONTINUE WORKING


Mine came undone from a poor soldering job and a tight negative wire. I then unscrewed it to troubleshoot the problem and found the positive had also came off in the process. There should be no reason to take the G2 Arctic apart anyway because I assume you can't change the current now due to the smartswitch.

arctics host are nice, is the power button lit? battery charge indicator is awesome as well. wonder how we can incorporate it into home made hosts, or even is it feasible?

@ mikeeey VERY nice job with the Video, that part I'm not too good with and I'm glad you did that for everyone. Also I see you are much faster at turning in on than I am, but hey I'm probably older than you are. :thanks:

Thanks for putting up all the pics and video!!

Thanks guys I appreciate it!

Here I've turned that post into an even more detail review/overview:

http://laserpointerforums.com/f52/w...review-overview-mikeeey-54816.html#post772323

There isn't too much more I can add to it now being my Arctic won't turn on.

My Wicked Laser supplied 18650 battery has EXPLODED!!!

http://laserpointerforums.com/f53/beware-arctic-battery-explosion-54974.html

electron said:

My Wicked Laser supplied 18650 battery has EXPLODED!!!

http://laserpointerforums.com/f53/beware-arctic-battery-explosion-54974.html

Click to expand...

On the other hand WL will say that your charger was fault + these batteries are known to be unprotected and that there is a risk that they CAN explode.

I´m sorry for your bad luck

Oh I'm sure they will, IF they even bother to answer me; I'm not counting on them doing anything about it. I carefully plugged the charger in this afternoon and it still puts out 4.20v but it's badly burned; so I'm not going to use it anymore.

Any 18650 unprotected battery can explode, which is why they bought out protected ones.

denodan said:

Any 18650 unprotected battery can explode, which is why they bought out protected ones.

Click to expand...

Either type can explode.
If it's a protected cell, it will help prevent it from exploding by excessive discharge current or too low of a voltage (battery drained too low), but it won't prevent explosion from an internal breakdown of the insulating layer. Some of the cheaper cells are cheap for a reason; lack of quality materials and workmanship, lack of sufficient product testing and more; having a protection circuit on a cheap battery is better than not having the protection circuit, but by no means does it prevent explosion from a cheaply designed and built cell.
You should download the LG spec sometime, they test the crap out of their design, they charge & discharge them at very high & low temperatures, thermal shock (heating then quickly cooling many times), mechanical shock and vibe testing, overcharge and over-discharge, high impact and crush testing. All per UL (underwriters labs) spec UL1642.

This kind of testing is not something you're going find on a tenergy, ultrafire or other 3rd party battery.
If you want safety, go for something that has passed UL testing and approval like the LG. They are priced very closely to the other batteries on the batteryjunction website and I would trust ever their unprotected cells much more that other companies protected ones.