If You've Actually Received Your Spyder III Arctic - Post Here

[Trevor]

Even the lens pen they sent is a knockoff failure.

-Trevor

 

[qumefox]

Even the lens pen they sent is a knockoff failure.

-Trevor

Well this is a chinese company that already had a less than stellar reputation that's being dealt with after all. What else is to be expected?

 

[jbtm]

I don't have an issue with it. Be nice if the other end was made for the diode. I found if I just spin the brush, and start from the side first, i can get it to go down to the diode and clean the lens. Now my laser doesn't have a messy lens =D

I got no complains. I just wanted another pair of glasses for viewing the dot at a far.

Its funny that these pair dont even have a OD rating or wavelength range printed on it.

 

[sportcoupe]

My G1 finally arrived today. Ordered on June 24, got a ship notice that it was sent out Sept 11 and received it today (Sept 17). Order number was 54xxx.

Everything was well packed and complete. Nothing was touched by customs. I opened everything and am satisfied with condition, no damage, marks, excess heat compound, etc... physically it is perfect.

I charged the battery and put it on my laserbee LPM. I recorded 821mw with the standard lens on, 862mw with the lens off. Using the training lens I measured 187mw.

Beam divergence seems pretty tight. I have not measured it yet.

Overall I am satisfied with the purchase although it took very long to arrive.

 

[ZapU]

My G1 finally arrived today. Ordered on June 24, got a ship notice that it was sent out Sept 11 and received it today (Sept 17). Order number was 54xxx.

Everything was well packed and complete. Nothing was touched by customs. I opened everything and am satisfied with condition, no damage, marks, excess heat compound, etc... physically it is perfect.

I charged the battery and put it on my laserbee LPM. I recorded 821mw with the standard lens on, 862mw with the lens off. Using the training lens I measured 187mw.

Beam divergence seems pretty tight. I have not measured it yet.

Overall I am satisfied with the purchase although it took very long to arrive.

Congrats on finally getting your laser. Personally, I think the G1 is preferable to the G2. (less to go wrong and the ability to wire up a remote control)

 

[sportcoupe]

What is the ideal replacement battery for the Arctic? I have some protected cells that don't quite fit. I don't trust the battery that came with the Arctic.

 

[ZapU]

What is the ideal replacement battery for the Arctic? I have some protected cells that don't quite fit. I don't trust the battery that came with the Arctic.

You should read the review I posted (click on my sig). I posted links to compare some protected batteries and links to purchase.

I recommend the Tenergy 2600. I have one, it works great. Some people disagree with my choice, but that's OK. It's the only protected battery proven to fit in the Arctic. I figure that battery manufactures go through all the grief to put protection in, we should use it. In fact, we are specifically told not to use unprotected Li-ion batteries without some kind of external protection built in to the device.

I made this same argument in this thread:

http://laserpointerforums.com/f67/trustfire-protected-18650s-54997.html#post776115

I even quoted a tech sheet from Panasonic saying that their unprotected batteries were not to be sold as a bare cell without external protection circuitry.

 

[Ash]

I charged the battery and put it on my laserbee LPM. I recorded 821mw with the standard lens on, 862mw with the lens off. Using the training lens I measured 187mw.

Beam divergence seems pretty tight. I have not measured it yet.

QUOTE]
Thanks for posting this.
I got my G2 the other day, and haven't gotten arud to measuring it's output 'till now.
Training lens: 179mW
Regular Lens: 823mW
No lens: 892mW
I didn't see any thermal grease on the inside of the front of my arctic.

Also, my divergence seems alright, only about 1.8mRad
using this calculator

 

[electron]

What is the ideal replacement battery for the Arctic? I have some protected cells that don't quite fit. I don't trust the battery that came with the Arctic.

Personally, I'm using an AW IMR battery, fits perfectly (65.04mm) no need for any protection pcb and the battery is perfectly safe; it's a different chemistry.

Also it's the type of battery that the Arctic is spec'd for in the manual; not that WL even went by that though (el cheap-o). :yabbmad:

AW IMR18650 1600mAh LiMN rechargeable lithium battery

What ever you do, don't use the WL supplied $0.50 battery, it can be dangerous.

 

[drumz0rz]

I finally received my G1. They actually shipped it to me back in mid-August however my address had changed and the post office mailed it back. They quickly mailed it to my new address (at no extra fee) and I picked it up today.

My initial thoughts are good. The build quality seem pretty high, I don't notice any of the issue people were previously commenting about. I have nothing to measure the power output with however I can burn through white objects at full power pretty quickly so I assume it's pretty high (maybe low 900s).

One thing I noticed, there was a thread about a battery that exploded and a lot of complaints about the stock batteries. I noticed everyone's photo showed a green cell, the one I received was orange so it's possible they've got a new batch in, hopefully less prone to failure.

Also, the goggles look to be the cheapo maybe OD+1. Shining the beam through them with the training lens on I can still see a clear blue dot on the other side. I think I'll buy a better pair to be safe.

 

[ZapU]

I finally received my G1. They actually shipped it to me back in mid-August however my address had changed and the post office mailed it back. They quickly mailed it to my new address (at no extra fee) and I picked it up today.

My initial thoughts are good. The build quality seem pretty high, I don't notice any of the issue people were previously commenting about. I have nothing to measure the power output with however I can burn through white objects at full power pretty quickly so I assume it's pretty high (maybe low 900s).

One thing I noticed, there was a thread about a battery that exploded and a lot of complaints about the stock batteries. I noticed everyone's photo showed a green cell, the one I received was orange so it's possible they've got a new batch in, hopefully less prone to failure.

Also, the goggles look to be the cheapo maybe OD+1. Shining the beam through them with the training lens on I can still see a clear blue dot on the other side. I think I'll buy a better pair to be safe.

Could you post a pic of the battery?

 

[Trevor]

Be safe, just don't use it. Not worth risking your life / house / whatever.

-Trevor

 

[drumz0rz]

Of course, of course. Pics or it didn't happen.

Looks like they're using an IMR battery now, so this shouldn't have an explosive risk.

 

[Trevor]

Of course, of course. Pics or it didn't happen.

Looks like they're using an IMR battery now, so this shouldn't have an explosive risk.

No, that tells you they're using a battery that has IMR printed on the outside.

What part of "it's not worth it" don't you understand?

-Trevor

 

[electron]

Thanks for the pic, about darn time they used an IMR battery; as that is what the Arctic was spec'd for in their own documentation.

Now let's hope it's not a counterfeit MNKE brand, as a quick search on CPF shows there are a lot of counterfeit 'MNKE' batteries out there for some reason. I'm kind of thinking it's not, because it doesn't look like the counterfeit ones I've seen pics of.
I wonder what the mAh is?

 

[Markus Unread]

I know the haters don't care, but just got my Arctic yesterday - with the IMR battery.
Took just under two months to get it. I really like the host design, I must say!