Spyder II GX

Here are some pictures, and information on the Spyder II GX. My brother in the army wanted me to get him one... 300 Wicked Bucks later. It arrived! So here is a review.

Power readings: (Overall, not bad. It averages around 320mW) [smiley=thumbup.gif]





Cons:

:exclamation The M16 rifle mount/switch advertised on their site was custom made, and cannot be purchased.[smiley=thumbdown.gif]
:exclamation You would think WL could make their own custom GREEN warning labels.[smiley=thumbdown.gif]
:exclamation The battery level light shows up red, on a fully charged 3.7V 2200mAh 18650. Maybe the batteries are under powered. [smiley=thumbdown.gif]
:exclamation For the price, you would think they could build their military grade laser out of 7071-T7 Military Grade Aluminum. Not 6061-T6 Aircraft-Grade Aluminum. (Thats only good for Aircraft) Lasers don't need to fly. [smiley=thumbdown.gif]


Pros:
:exclamation Overall its built better, and stronger then any other laser on the market. (Great choice as a rifle mount). [smiley=thumbup.gif]
:exclamation It has a great average output of 320mW. However only time will tell how the crystals stand up to the intense power. Most lower grade crystals become over-saturated after only 100-hours of use. But for now I give it a [smiley=thumbup.gif]
:exclamation Continuous Duty Cycle! Can't beat it. [smiley=thumbup.gif]
:exclamation Waterproof! [smiley=thumbup.gif]

Slide Show:

http://s95.photobucket.com/pbwidget....com/albums/l143/mattsphoto_2006/8459a910.pbw

That power output graph is kinda disappointing.

I mean, doesn't this thing have a 100% duty cycle? Thus shouldn't the power stabilize, not continually drop?

And where are the pics! That slideshow is kinda annoying, just made straight pics Plus pics of it working!

Looks nice... I wouldn't trust that graph until you get it tested by someone else, though.

Another question... Are you sure it's running in TEM00? In a few of the beamshots, there appear to be 2-3 distinct beams. It may just be the camera shaking, but I'm still curious.

My camera is a piece of shit ;D

I spent all my money on lasers.

Oh, now I see the beam shots. Damn that slideshow is confusing. What's wrong with the laser label anyway? The standard has and always has been red for the beam on the label, regardless of laser output colour.

Oh, and here's something I never noticed before. The tripod part of the Wicked Stand is EXACTLY the same as this from DX: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1307. Then you couple it with this: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14150 to get something that won't scratch up your laser, and you've got a better option for less than 10% of the price It's the setup I have, and it works great

Murudai said:

That power output graph is kinda disappointing.

I mean, doesn't this thing have a 100% duty cycle? Thus shouldn't the power stabilize, not continually drop?

And where are the pics! That slideshow is kinda annoying, just made straight pics Plus pics of it working!

Click to expand...

I'm going to barrow my dads camera to take some better beam shots. Maybe even some video of it in action.

As far as the the power stabilizing... I don't fully trust wicked's graph. I think its very stabilized.
And its definitely TEM00. (Again, my camera sucks!).

Murudai said:

Oh, now I see the beam shots. Damn that slideshow is confusing. What's wrong with the laser label anyway? The standard has and always has been red for the beam on the label, regardless of laser output colour.

Oh, and here's something I never noticed before. The tripod part of the Wicked Stand is EXACTLY the same as this from DX: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1307. Then you couple it with this: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14150 to get something that won't scratch up your laser, and you've got a better option for less than 10% of the price It's the setup I have, and it works great

Click to expand...

Yeah it takes a wile... LoL

And your right though. Thats the same stand for a fraction of the price!

that graph is very confusing. I mean, I thought the numbers were in seconds, but then you see down at the bottom right it says (.1 seconds). So does that mean that "100" is actually only 10 seconds?

I wouldn't trust wickeds graph either. Maybe send it off to someone for power testing?

GooeyGus said:

does that mean that "100" is actually only 10 seconds?

Click to expand...

That is correct.

Cyparagon said:

[quote author=GooeyGus link=1219557062/0#7 date=1219561169]does that mean that "100" is actually only 10 seconds?

Click to expand...

That is correct.[/quote]


so basically, in 30 seconds it drops from 440mW to 240mW. Sweet.

drop after few sec great laser

Ya know I'd be more than happy to make a graph of your laser over a period of time, will even pay for shipping TO me and back. (I'd like to see this laser) supposedly these things have TEC's inside them and make for more stable running. Does the barrel get warm?? I'd like to put one of my barrels in your hand and see what you think about build quality of those. It's not military quality aluminum only 6061. Is this thing truly waterproof?

Kenom said:

Ya know I'd be more than happy to make a graph of your laser over a period of time, will even pay for shipping TO me and back. (I'd like to see this laser) supposedly these things have TEC's inside them and make for more stable running. Does the barrel get warm?? I'd like to put one of my barrels in your hand and see what you think about build quality of those. It's not military quality aluminum only 6061. Is this thing truly waterproof?

Click to expand...

Waterproof [smiley=thumbup.gif] And no it doesn't get warm.

What is TEC?

Kenom said:

Ya know I'd be more than happy to make a graph of your laser over a period of time, will even pay for shipping TO me and back. (I'd like to see this laser) supposedly these things have TEC's inside them and make for more stable running. Does the barrel get warm?? I'd like to put one of my barrels in your hand and see what you think about build quality of those. It's not military quality aluminum only 6061. Is this thing truly waterproof?

Click to expand...

If the C-ryton series goes through, you can put 10 of them in my hand.

TEC is thermo electric cooler. or a peltier. it's an electrical device that generated extremely cold temperatures on one side and draws the heat to the other side (which needs to be heatsinked to draw that heat away) It claims to have "The Spyder II™ GX laser is designed to operate under the most demanding of conditions, and is the first portable laser equipped with thermoelectric cooling." quoted from wicked lasers website.

Like this? http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/523476