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Dragonlasers Spartan GW 300 review

Amnizu

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So I posted a placeholder topic a long time ago, and while it was holding the place for the review, a bunch of jerks decided to fill it with stupid drama and whiny shit, so I made this here new one.

The Dragonlasers Spartan is different from virtually all other high-powered lasers on the market for a few reasons:

- No safety features
- Small, slim body
- Click on/off tailcap
- Easily removable lens cover that doubles as a protective lens ( See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bToakIj78qo for how the lens cover/protective lens thing works)

That being said, it does bear a striking resemblence to Wickedlasers' Spyder II:

126.jpg




This unit is rated at >300mW, meaning that at all times it will output a minimum of 300mW. Thus far, this has been my experience. The unit is very stable and when I had it tested at a local university, it did very well, peaking at 380mW and averaging about 350. This is with batteries charged that morning, though, I'd expect a slight drop in performance with used batteries. The unit uses LI-ION 18650 batteries, like the Optotronics RPL series.

I have to say, I love this laser. It's very small and fits easily into your pocket, be it your jeans or your jacket you're putting it in. Compared to my friend's Aries-175, it's tiny. Here's a picture to give you an idea of the scale:

Pictured is my WL Fusion, a pen I had nearby, the Spartan and a shitty little 5mW red from the dollar store.



Now, for the fun stuff:

Some of these videos are a little bit shitty, its somewhat hard to tell what's going on in a few due to my camera not being very good.

Match lighting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3yIvOskQ-g
Burning paper: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcnIgMAKhTA
Lighting a firecracker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBJIkHRRQn8
Burning through a plastic bag: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6npufEmwy8
Melting holes in a jewel case I had lying around: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQvh5A5xwwY

For beamshots at night, during the day and otherwise, consult my Photobucket:

http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f138/amnizu/Lasers/Spartan GW 300/?start=all

So far, the unit has modeshifted a little bit, but only when I take it outside. Indoors at room temperature, I haven't had any problems with modeshifting at all. It's sensitive to cold, but seems to like warmth. In fact, in the paper burning video you can see towards the end that I'm moving the laser along the paper more quickly than at the beginning, because as it warms up it gets more powerful. It seems to have an optimum operating temperature that it will warm up to over a period of a minute or so.

All in all, I'm very happy with this purchase, and despite the reputation Dragonlasers has, I feel they sell a quality product and I wouldn't hesitate to buy from them again.
 





Razako

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That's one powerful laser. Burns like my RPL 300 and it's a lot smaller.
 

Amnizu

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Razako said:
That's one powerful laser. Burns like my RPL 300 and it's a lot smaller.

Definitely one of my top 5 reasons for buying it; I don't like the PGL/RPL body style, it's too bulky.
 

Switch

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Just wondering about the duty cycle...Is it TE cooled like the spyder?
 

Amnizu

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Switch said:
Just wondering about the duty cycle...Is it TE cooled like the spyder?

As far as I can tell, it has no duty cycle. The whole body acts as a heatsink, like in an RPL or PGL-style laser. It gets pretty warm if you leave it on for a few minutes, but I haven't noticed any dimming or significant power drops after its been on for a while.

No idea if it's TE-cooled like the Spyder, though.
 

Justin

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When you tested the laser, did you check to see if there was an IR filter or were you measuring mixed green/IR output?
 

Amnizu

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I don't have an IR filter, so I couldn't test to see if it was leaking IR, but I suspect it wasn't. I'm told by the DL staff as well as the product page that it has an IR filter, and I'm inclined to believe them. If anyone knows where I can get an IR filter, or better yet, make one myself, so I can redo this test, let me know and I'll do it.

edit: I'd prefer not to buy one from the internet, but if that's my only option then so be it.
 

Amnizu

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Yeah, it looks like I'm gonna have to buy one from Nova. Might as well, I guess, since I plan to buy many more lasers after this, so I might as well have a proper IR filter to test them with.
 

Entity

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I want one sooo fucking bad but there are none in stock!!!!!! :'( NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
 

Amnizu

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Entity said:
I want one sooo fucking bad but there are none in stock!!!!!! :'( NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Patience, young grasshopper. Good things come to those who wait.
 

Entity

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Well, all may not be good. This is the last email they sent me. i have been asking over and over again when the Spartan GW 300 and BP 60 will be in stock:

"Thank you again for your interests in buying Dragon Lasers, there is not any shipment will be coming, we manufacture these lasers by ourselves in Changchun city, its very difficult to manufacture Spartan lasers over 60mW and we have not plan to manufacture some now because our technicians are very busy manufacturing other products.



Best Regards



Sales Department
www.dragonlasers.com"

Apparently the BP 60 and 50s have been out of stock for 2 months.
 

Amnizu

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Yeah, unfortunately they do that a fair bit, that's how I got my Spartan GW 300, I ordered the Spartan GP 300, but they discontinued that model since it was too difficult and costly to produce versus the GW 300, so they gave me that for the same price as the GP, 1100.
 
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Razako said:
Burns like my RPL 300 and it's a lot smaller.

In the theory it would NOT burn as good as the RPL-300 because of the difference in beam diameter (1,45 mm vs. 2 mm). But how is it in real life? Can you feel any difference in short range (and long) burn quality because of the diameter?
 




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