Spyder III Pro Arctic - Questions Answered

Curious said:

Sorry for this noob question but.. I don't understand why this isn't a big deal 1 Watt Blue Laser Pointer Ice Series but the Arctic is a big deal?

I guess it's not continuous and half the "120min" battery life of the arctic.

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The Arctic was the first to market, at an amazing price at the time, got a whole lot of attention (a huge amount negative, because of problems with early builds and crap customer service). New 1W blues are coming out from Dragon, Rayfoss and others quickly now.

I think two hours is a little optimistic. I got an hour, with plenty to go, but I don't know if it would get another hour.

Oh, So the artic was big news when it first came out (was announced). It's not really out yet for 90% of the people who ordered. So why wouldn't everyone cancel their order that hasn't received it yet and get one of these ones they don't have to wait for at about the same price and with more reliable battery/lens/CUSTOMER SERVICE/everything?:beer: Yes, I think I'm clever for sneaking in the customer service.

Edit: Just convinced myself to cancel my Artic order. After all this waiting... Now I am kind of relieved and sad at the same time. Gonna order a Spartan probably. And I take back what I said about their customer service, I got my refund in 1 hour. That's not too shabby .

Just another shameless plug for my thread.

http://laserpointerforums.com/f53/fire-safety-lithium-lithium-ion-batteries-55214.html#post778294

Take care with those batteries. We already had one explode.

Curious said:

Oh, So the artic was big news when it first came out (was announced). It's not really out yet for 90% of the people who ordered. So why wouldn't everyone cancel their order that hasn't received it yet and get one of these ones they don't have to wait for at about the same price and with more reliable battery/lens/CUSTOMER SERVICE/everything?:beer: Yes, I think I'm clever for sneaking in the customer service.

Edit: Just convinced myself to cancel my Artic order. After all this waiting... Now I am kind of relieved and sad at the same time. Gonna order a Spartan probably. And I take back what I said about their customer service, I got my refund in 1 hour. That's not too shabby .

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You might want to check out the Rayfoss. Read this thread.

We are getting less complaints, and more Arctics are being delivered.
We know they have made changes from the originals.
Maybe they are getting their act together on production. Now, if they could just improve communications....

I think one of the problems with communications with getting the Arctics shipped out properly in the first place might be the fact that it appears that WL has farmed-out the actual production of the Arctics to a 3rd party and thus has lost a lot of control over how/when/who that company is shipping them out for WL; as they are being directly dropped shipped from the actual manufacture.

There are people recommending removing the lens from the "training lens" by unscrewing the the brace from the inside.

Well I just got my G2 yesterday, and it looks to me that my lenses are epoxied closed. I cannot "unscrew" the training lens out no matter how hard I try.

Does anyone else have this problem or any recommended solution?

So I guess WL read people were doing that on here probably, and now they have epoxied the lenses in too? Geez are we aloud to do anything with our own property? I don't think that is fair one bit.

Can you carefully scrap any of it off? I used chloroform in the past to melt away epoxy, its very slow in doing so, but clean. The problem is its expensive and can be dangerous if your not careful and the sale of it is controlled.

electron said:

So I guess WL read people were doing that on here probably, and now they have epoxied the lenses in too? Geez are we aloud to do anything with our own property? I don't think that is fair one bit.

Can you carefully scrap any of it off? I used chloroform in the past to melt away epoxy, its very slow in doing so, but clean. The problem is its expensive and can be dangerous if your not careful and the sale of it is controlled.

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It's like a screw that's been dipped in glue and then screwed in. I don't think I'll be able to scrape it off because I can't even see it. I don't have access to chloroform :-(

Maybe I should just smash the lens? Damn this sucks.

flameboy said:

It's like a screw that's been dipped in glue and then screwed in. I don't think I'll be able to scrape it off because I can't even see it. I don't have access to chloroform :-(

Maybe I should just smash the lens? Damn this sucks.

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I'd use a tile bit and drill it out.

flameboy said:

There are people recommending removing the lens from the "training lens" by unscrewing the the brace from the inside.

Well I just got my G2 yesterday, and it looks to me that my lenses are epoxied closed. I cannot "unscrew" the training lens out no matter how hard I try.

Does anyone else have this problem or any recommended solution?

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Pics of yours?

G1 looks like this:

My Arctic arrived a few days ago. Except for the fact that I requested a G1 and got a G2, and that I tried to cancel it 3 weeks before it arrived, I can't complain too much about it. Yeah, it's only metering between 770-800 mW, but it hasn't died yet. It's still my most powerful laser, and while it may not be the best deal out there, $200 bucks for 800 mW is a pretty good in my opinion.

And I should have two XJ-A140 diodes coming from Kiyoukan, so I'll have a couple ~1 W 445s soon.

ZapU said:

Pics of yours?

G1 looks like this:

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You can see how the training lens on the right seems to have some sort of clear glue around the edges making it impossible to unscrew that back piece.

I think the regular lens is also similarly glued with epoxy. So I cant modify either of them without breaking the glass :-(

I can't quite tell from the picture about it having clear glue around it, but if you say it does, well you have it in your hands, then it does.

I wondering when they started doing that? Both my G1 & G2 are not like that at all for the training lens.

Now the full power lens does have the white glue as shown in your other picture on both my G1 & G2, so that won't work.

I guess there are a couple of ways you can handle this, depends on if you want to be able to put it back the way you bought it; which I know I would want to.

As you said, you could break the glass and the black ring is really only plastic, so that can be done in very short fashion. The only other way I know of would be to get some chloroform and soak it overnight in it.

There may be other agents that work too, but you've got a plastic ring there; so you'd have to be careful not to deform or melt it. I had a 1.5L of it in the garage and looked all around for it, and for the life of me I can't figure out where it went; I've used it many times in the past to dissolve epoxy from electronics, but that was years ago; I was going to offer to send you a couple ounces of it, sorry.

Speaking of melting it, how about carefully using a heat gun such as the ones used for shrink wrap tubing and heat it up and try to turn the ring then? You should be able to get that glue warm enough that with a little force with your snap ring pliers that you could get it to turn. The more I think about it, the more I think I would try heat, but don't over do the heat for obvious reasons.

flameboy said:

You can see how the training lens on the right seems to have some sort of clear glue around the edges making it impossible to unscrew that back piece.

I think the regular lens is also similarly glued with epoxy. So I cant modify either of them without breaking the glass :-(

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The retaining screw plate on mine is aluminum. Heat might work to release the glue. If you have a small soldering tip, you could test it easily.

I can verify that the two Arctics that I just received have epoxied-in training lens retainers as well.

I updated the picture to point out the glue just so everyone can see it. I appreciate the chloroform offer. I think I just might try soaking it in goo-gone over night and see what happens and post back with the results.