Dragon Lasers 1W Spartan

[00Giorge]

Hi! A newby here. I just talked to Dragon lasers last night and was told due to the current influx of orders for the spartan that it would be aprox 20 days. I canceled my order with Wicked and I am waiting for the refund. I was never able to get any response from Wicked until I canceled my order. I ordered in June and just got fed up with all of their crap. I tried 3 times to get on the forum that is on the wicked site and never got a response. Here 1st time! thanks!

 

[Spartan X]

Hi! A newby here. I just talked to Dragon lasers last night and was told due to the current influx of orders for the spartan that it would be aprox 20 days. I canceled my order with Wicked and I am waiting for the refund. I wa never able to get any response from Wicked until I canceled my order. I ordered in June and just got fed up with all of their crap. I tried 3 times to get on the forum that is on the wicked site and never got a response. Here 1st time! thanks!

Good choice. I did the same thing. It took 24 days for me to get my Spartan after I ordered, which was super fast compared to the 58 days I waiting for nothing on the arctic.

 

[00Giorge]

I couldn't even get on the Wicked forum. I registerd 3 times and was never accepted.
It really gets frustrating when you try to contact them and get no reply.

 

[00Giorge]

After speaking with Dragon at least I know that there is a wait and the reason for it unlike Wicked saying that is in stock and the rush shipping of nothing.
Dragon said that they have heard from a lot of people that canceled their orders with Wicked.

 

[denodan]

Is your beam straight coming out of the host? Mine comes out at an angle.(1w version)

I do know Lasers can get out of collimation. Sounds like your laser has got out of Collimation. I know using a laser to collimate your mirrors, you much check your laser for collimation, as it is well konwn using lasers as a collimation tool can get out of collimation, so need to be collimated, or checked before use.

My Collmation laser I use to collminate my mirrors, the guy would drop test them and never gets out of collimation, but astronomers have always known that lasers to need collimation, as a matter of fact, collmation lasers have collimation screws, or a way to adjust it.

You can check your laser collimation by cutting a block of wood in a v shape and place the laser in it and slowly turn the laser in the v, if it moves around your laser is not collmiated, or got out of collimation while posted to you. If it stays in the same place while rotating it, then it's collimated.

 

[Spartan X]

You can check your laser collimation by cutting a block of wood in a v shape and place the laser in it and slowly turn the laser in the v, if it moves around your laser is not collmiated, or got out of collimation while posted to you. If it stays in the same place while rotating it, then it's collimated.

Already did something like this similarly. I was outside and set my camera to a 10 second exposure time and put my laser on the ground on some cloth, angled up. I slowing rotated the laser. If the beam was straight, the beam in the picture would remain unchanged, but as I suspected, you could see just how bad it was, as the beam produced a "cone" shape on the picture.

 

[ludwigfan]

That graph is unusual -- It's almost like a TEC turned on to bring the power back.
I didn't read all of the review because about 25% runs off my screen.
Not everyone has HD monitors.

HMike

Perhaps the diode is expanding due to heat and then makes a more thorough contact with the heatsink thereby reducing the heat after a small period of time.

 

[X FLY]

Perhaps the diode is expanding due to heat and then makes a more thorough contact with the heatsink thereby reducing the heat after a small period of time.

Nice theory but OP already said it was the batteries that caused the drop in power. He has a second test with some new batteries and theres no drop in power

 

[WarpWar]

I got my WL refund this morning, I am going to buy a Spartan 1W sometime tonight.

you can buy a Tenergy 6 battery & charger combo set and save a few bucks:

6 battery & charger combo set

2 batteries & charger combo set

individual batteries

These all appear to be the type recommended by the OP.

 

[denodan]

I got my WL refund this morning, I am going to buy a Spartan 1W sometime tonight.

you can buy a Tenergy 6 battery & charger combo set and save a few bucks:

6 battery & charger combo set

2 batteries & charger combo set

individual batteries

These all appear to be the type recommended by the OP.

A tip also which is useful is put a number on your batteries. Like I have numbered my pairs as 1,2 and 3, that way you know what's been charged and charge them in the right pair, so one pair have numbered 1, then 2, etc.

 

[X FLY]

Got my spartan! If you want to see my review with alot of pics from the spartan click the link on my signature.

 

[checkers6676]

Thanks a ton for writing this rview, I'm currently waiting for my 1W to arrive and had bought the batteries which you rated as not worth using. Doesn't look like I'll be able to return them so thats $20 down the drain but ive now bought the batteries you recommended

 

[plexus]

It sounds like your Arctic has a much tighter beam than the Spartan here. I read more recent reviews of the Arctic and it does appear to be getting much better and have a very tight divergence on most of them, not all of them though. It seems like the quality is slowly improving, not too surprising really, like any new product. Its making me want to keep my Arctic more.

Only problem is i'm getting very impatient, I am getting close to buying a Spartan to go along side my Arctic, but that's a lot of Blue laser! lol. I guess one advantage to having both is that I'd be able to actually take the Spartan out of the house if i wanted without requiring a fork lift like the Arctic. what is the size of the new spartan host?

I measured the diveregence on the two arctics i have at 1.28 and 1.47 mRad respectively, on the fast or x axis. here is the post (i have them for sale) :evil: http://laserpointerforums.com/f39/sale-wicked-lasers-arctic-spyder-3-extras-55584.html

 

[Dave 300]

My Spartan turned up yesterday and i have the beam expander which works really well but mine dosen't have any corrective lenses it looks like the 400mw that was pictured is this right ?

 

[kcorbhv]

My Spartan turned up yesterday and i have the beam expander which works really well but mine dosen't have any corrective lenses it looks like the 400mw that was pictured is this right ?

i dont know what the 1watt version looks like but this is all thats inside the 400mW version

 

[Dave 300]

Yes your right this is what i have , now i do believe that somewhere there was a little tube type trimmer that was made for fine tuning these lenses. Ok it seems i cant manage my attachments on this forum i would have included a pic of my 1 Watter.