Dragon Lasers 1W Spartan

[Raiden Gekkou]

DON'T get the blue tenergy batteries (900mAh) for your spartan. (Read the first post, the review itself. Laserlight has a battery test in the end of his review)

Damn, I read it before I posted, but I didn't pay attention to the fact that they both looked the same, because they were the same. So now that we ruled out the protected 900mah (the blue one), what about the unprotected 900mah (http://www.batteryjunction.com/rc390reliba.html)?

 

[X FLY]

Damn, I read it before I posted, but I didn't pay attention to the fact that they both looked the same, because they were the same. So now that we ruled out the protected 900mah (the blue one), what about the unprotected 900mah (Tenergy RCR123A 3.0V 900mAh Rechargeable Li-Ion Battery)?

Probably the same because they both are voltage regulated li-ion batteries, so everytime you turn your laser on for a short period of time they will spike at 3.7-4.2v before dropping to 3.0-3.2v. I wouldn't risk damaging the Spartans circuit board using regulated batteries and probably the best LiFePO4 batteries you can get atm are the tenergy 750mA ones. If you want some cheap batteries DealExtreme also sells some ok quality LiFePO4 batteries.

 

[Raiden Gekkou]

I just thought that since both of the small Tenergies (900mah blue and 750mah yellow) looked exactly the same besides the color, and are the same size, that they'd also have the same type of internal build.

 

[zdarkazn]

I bought a Spartan before, after my order for the WL Spyder never came and i had to cancel it. I dislike the fact that you cant really focus it well without their beam expander.

 

[Raiden Gekkou]

I bought a Spartan before, after my order for the WL Spyder never came and i had to cancel it. I dislike the fact that you cant really focus it well without their beam expander.

I use the focus cap that came with my Arctic for my Spartan. I have to hold it in front of the Spartan's front cap though. I ordered 2 extra front caps so I can gorilla glue my galaxy and focus lenses to them

 

[zdarkazn]

I use the focus cap that came with my Arctic for my Spartan. I have to hold it in front of the Spartan's front cap though. I ordered 2 extra front caps so I can gorilla glue my galaxy and focus lenses to them

Good thinking. At least you know the Spartan is 100x more durable than the Spyder.

 

[Raiden Gekkou]

Probably the same because they both are voltage regulated li-ion batteries, so everytime you turn your laser on for a short period of time they will spike at 3.7-4.2v before dropping to 3.0-3.2v. I wouldn't risk damaging the Spartans circuit board using regulated batteries and probably the best LiFePO4 batteries you can get atm are the tenergy 750mA ones. If you want some cheap batteries DealExtreme also sells some ok quality LiFePO4 batteries.

If the blue unprotected 900mah Tenergies are the same size and design as the yellow unprotected 750mah ones, and you say that the blue one is regulated, wouldn't the yellow ones also be regulated?

 

[X FLY]

If the blue unprotected 900mah Tenergies are the same size and design as the yellow unprotected 750mah ones, and you say that the blue one is regulated, wouldn't the yellow ones also be regulated?

No. Its because they are made using different chemistrys. The yellow one's are LiFePO4 batteries (outputting about 3.0v/ea) and the blue ones are just plain old li-ion (lithium ion) batteries that output 3.7v-4.2v (regulated to 3.0v). You can stuff a lot of different things inside a container that seems to be the same from outside

 

[Raiden Gekkou]

What about the yellow and the green ones? The green ones are stated to be 3.2V, and the current batch of yellow are printed as 3.2V but are actually 3.0V. Would the green ones give any more power off of a combined 0.4V increase, or are the yellow ones my only option?

 

[X FLY]

What about the yellow and the green ones? The green ones are stated to be 3.2V, and the current batch of yellow are printed as 3.2V but are actually 3.0V. Would the green ones give any more power off of a combined 0.4V increase, or are the yellow ones my only option?

A quote from my Spartan review:

DANGER: DO NOT USE 3.6V or 3.7V CR123A BATTERIES WITH THE SPARTAN, YOU COULD DAMAGE IT AND IT WILL SHORTEN THE DIODES (AND POSSIBLY DRIVERS) LIFETIME! IT WONT GIVE YOU HIGHER OUTPUT POWER, THE EXTRA VOLTAGE WILL JUST CONVERT INTO HEAT AND OVERHEAT YOUR LASERS COMPONENTS.

I would just stay with the yellow ones.

 

[Raiden Gekkou]

Crap, I seem to have worded that wrong. I meant to ask if there would be an increase in battery life with the green ones. But if they're just going to generate more heat, I guess i'll just have to live with the yellow ones. Sorry if my questions seem noobish, but i'm still new to different battery types. And does anyone know what the Spartan's duty cycle is? I can't find info on it anywhere. If I run it for more than a minute I can feel it getting a little warm, and I always turn it off by then just in case it's not 100%.

 

[X FLY]

The Spartan should have a duty cycle of 10 minutes, but just to be safe I never keep my Spartan on for more than 5 minutes straight A good rule of thumb is, if it feels unconfordably hot to touch turn it off. But still even if you run it for 20 minutes straight it shouldn't do any damage many Spartan owners (LaserLight, the creator of this review for example) ran his 20 minutes straight (till the batteries went out flat) when testing the Spartan's power and his Spartan is still like new.

 

[Raiden Gekkou]

Would that be like 10 minutes on/5 minutes off?

 

[Trevor]

Would that be like 10 minutes on/5 minutes off?

Run it until it gets warm (5-10 minutes), turn it off long enough to cool off.

-Trevor

 

[X FLY]

Would that be like 10 minutes on/5 minutes off?

Yea that would probably be enough because the Spartan cools down quite quickly due to very good heatsinking that makes the whole laser body act as a large heatsink But like twhite said when you feel its not that hot anymore you are ready to go again. Depending on the ambient temperature that might be 1 minute or even more than 5 minutes, but generally 5 minutes should be more than enough.

 

[zdarkazn]

Sounds like the duty cycles for the Blue Hotlights