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ArcticMyst Security by Avery

KD 150mW Focusable Kinda sorta Review...

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riplaseryz1.jpg


Well, um....lets see where I should start.
perhaps the positives?


PROS:
This laser is very powerful, bright (that is an understatement), and the focus is very nice! I wish there were more focusable green laserpointers out there, it really is great.
This thing burns like a 250mW Red laser! its very beastly! its VERY bright, you can see the beam very well in a dim room, in a dark room you can see it even better, and at night it's AMAZING. its so bright. In a lit room you can see the faded beam. At night, when you Unfocus the laser and point it around, you can see it perfect, it looks amazing! it looks like a flashlight/spotlight! when you point it up in the sky it "appears" like a spotlight and "appears" to be touching the clouds (but i doubt it really is, it just looks like that).

CONS:
It uses a button instead of an on/off switch.

I believe i received a defective unit, as the first day it wouldnt turn on, i pressed harder, it finally did, and after that first press it turned on better. It seemed you would need to give it a few "good" clicks before it finally worked and normal clicks worked.
I got home and tried to stuff some toilet paper in it, it worked with my 30mW romison laser. well it seemed like it worked, the blue button was half way lit up, that was better than before (it wasnt lit at all). So for a day my laser was working, the button worked. The next day it wouldnt turn on when i pushed it, i pushed harder and it struggled to stay on. Nothing would seem to work, it was getting worse and worse.
By the next day it was not working at all, the button was definatly bad.
I was not able to take it apart, i got close, but the aluminum part that you usually pull out was pushed inside the body with none exposed, therefor it was impossible to grip, it could not be taken out.

I've sent an email to KD about a replacement. They say that if it's within 30 days of purchase it's ok, so im hoping it really is ok.
 





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sucks that such a nice laser would be limited by something as stupid as a simple 10 cent pushbutton switch :(
 
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I know!!! The focus makes it burn as good or better than dragonlaser's Hulk laser!! and now it's ruined!
well fortunately KD replied to my email and they are going to replace it ;D
i do need to send it to hong kong, i wonder how much it will cost..
 

Razako

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Just letting you know that the piece you broke off is a simple lens that you can glue back on. You might still be able to fix this. Even if KD does send you a replacement you will be out a bunch of shipping money and the replacement will probably have the same problem with the foam under the PCB.
 
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yes i know i can glue on the piece I broke off, its ok, Im going to send the laser back, they will cover the cost :)

Hi,

Please only send the pen, without the battery.

I will exam the next pen on my own and make sure it work perfect before it is shipped out.

Regards

Connie

this makes me feel better about the replacement.
 

Razako

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mikeeey said:
yes i know i can glue on the piece I broke off, its ok, Im going to send the laser back, they will cover the cost :)

Hi,

Please only send the pen, without the battery.

I will exam the next pen on my own and make sure it work perfect before it is shipped out.

Regards

Connie

this makes me feel better about the replacement.
That probably isn't going to work because the replacement laser will still have the cheap foam under the board. Basically the laser will work well for the first couple of days and then turn to garbage. It's a kind of scam used by the lazy Chinese manufacturers who can't be bothered to install decent support under the PCB. When KD says they will test a laser they mean it puts out green when you insert the battery and press the button.

Btw how do you get decent service from KD? They still haven't shipped a laser that I ordered 43 days ago and they have ignored my emails asking for a refund.
 

Benm

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Well, this is very lame, but also a 'positive' review in that the laser really works well not considering the button. You are talking about this one, right: http://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=4351

Can you perhaps post some pictures of the laser opened up and taken apart as far as you have been able to? There might be some clue as to how the circuit board is accessed - bypassing the button shouldnt really be that hard.
 

Razako

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Benm said:
Well, this is very lame, but also a 'positive' review in that the laser really works well not considering the button. You are talking about this one, right: http://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=4351

Can you perhaps post some pictures of the laser opened up and taken apart as far as you have been able to? There might be some clue as to how the circuit board is accessed - bypassing the button shouldnt really be that hard.
He posted some pics of the laser here
http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1213250338
Imo he should still try to save it because it sounds like the laser module itself is good and that is the hardest thing to get right on these lasers. The replacement is more than likely to have mode hopping issues and the same button problem.
 
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Razako said:
[quote author=mikeeey link=1213320042/0#4 date=1213397694]yes i know i can glue on the piece I broke off, its ok, Im going to send the laser back, they will cover the cost :)

Hi,

Please only send the pen, without the battery.

I will exam the next pen on my own and make sure it work perfect before it is shipped out.

Regards

Connie

this makes me feel better about the replacement.
That probably isn't going to work because the replacement laser will still have the cheap foam under the board.  Basically the laser will work well for the first couple of days and then turn to garbage.  It's a kind of scam used by the lazy Chinese manufacturers who can't be bothered to install decent support under the PCB.  When KD says they will test a laser they mean it puts out green when you insert the battery and press the button.

Btw how do you get decent service from KD?  They still haven't shipped a laser that I ordered 43 days ago and they have ignored my emails asking for a refund.[/quote]
well actually, it wasnt even so much the foam problem, but the actual button itself. you had to press really hard for it to work, even if the foam was pushing the button all the way up. I would say the combination of the foam + faulty button caused the problem.
it's been 43 days since your filed a request for an RMA? or 43 days since you sent them the laser back? im not sure why they are so mean to you lol.

Benm said:
Well, this is very lame, but also a 'positive' review in that the laser really works well not considering the button. You are talking about this one, right: http://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=4351

Can you perhaps post some pictures of the laser opened up and taken apart as far as you have been able to? There might be some clue as to how the circuit board is accessed - bypassing the button shouldnt really be that hard.
your right Benm, it is lame. I havnt much to say since I've only had a day to use this laser. but from what I was able to get out of it...i LOVE IT!
As Razako linked in the above post, I did post 2 pictures of how far I was able to open it. It wasnt with the greatest camera, my phone camera actually, but you can still see how far I got. I was happy when i FINALLY got the brass part to budge, but it only rotated and I was not able to pull it out.

Since Connie is responding to my emails and being very good at customer support, i will make sure to mentioned that the blue light easily turns on from a normal press, and the dot is a dot, and not 2 dots or a disformed dot.
 

Razako

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mikeeey said:
[quote author=Razako link=1213320042/0#5 date=1213398241][quote author=mikeeey link=1213320042/0#4 date=1213397694]yes i know i can glue on the piece I broke off, its ok, Im going to send the laser back, they will cover the cost :)

Hi,

Please only send the pen, without the battery.

I will exam the next pen on my own and make sure it work perfect before it is shipped out.

Regards

Connie

this makes me feel better about the replacement.
That probably isn't going to work because the replacement laser will still have the cheap foam under the board. Basically the laser will work well for the first couple of days and then turn to garbage. It's a kind of scam used by the lazy Chinese manufacturers who can't be bothered to install decent support under the PCB. When KD says they will test a laser they mean it puts out green when you insert the battery and press the button.

Btw how do you get decent service from KD? They still haven't shipped a laser that I ordered 43 days ago and they have ignored my emails asking for a refund.[/quote]
well actually, it wasnt even so much the foam problem, but the actual button itself. you had to press really hard for it to work, even if the foam was pushing the button all the way up. I would say the combination of the foam + faulty button caused the problem.
it's been 43 days since your filed a request for an RMA? or 43 days since you sent them the laser back? im not sure why they are so mean to you lol.

Benm said:
Well, this is very lame, but also a 'positive' review in that the laser really works well not considering the button. You are talking about this one, right: http://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=4351

Can you perhaps post some pictures of the laser opened up and taken apart as far as you have been able to? There might be some clue as to how the circuit board is accessed - bypassing the button shouldnt really be that hard.
your right Benm, it is lame. I havnt much to say since I've only had a day to use this laser. but from what I was able to get out of it...i LOVE IT!
As Razako linked in the above post, I did post 2 pictures of how far I was able to open it. It wasnt with the greatest camera, my phone camera actually, but you can still see how far I got. I was happy when i FINALLY got the brass part to budge, but it only rotated and I was not able to pull it out.

Since Connie is responding to my emails and being very good at customer support, i will make sure to mentioned that the blue light easily turns on from a normal press, and the dot is a dot, and not 2 dots or a disformed dot.[/quote]
I bought a 100mw genuine newwish pointer from them 44 days ago and they still haven't shipped it. I tried emailing them to ask why it is taking so long and they responded saying that it would be shipped in 1-3 days. That was over 2 weeks ago and recently I got sick of the waiting and emailed them asking if they can simply cancel my order and give me a refund and now they aren't responding at all. I bought the thing when it was listed as IN STOCK (ships in 1-3days). Is it unreasonable to expect it before the end of June? At this rate I will be lucky if I get it some time in July.

Just checked again
Order Number# DateCreate Status
44247 5/1/2008 11:26:16 AM Collecting from supplier(s)
lol I don't plan on ordering from KD ever again. This is pathetic. Even DX hasn't made me wait this long. A 100mw green laser shouldn't be that hard to get from the supplier :-/ It isn't like I ordered a rare special order item.
 
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happytomato said:
Would pushing a chunk of plastic under the pcb work?
nope, maybe if the button worked, but then in that case stuffing toilet paper under it would work too. The problem is That the button is also faulty.
 

Benm

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It's hard to tell from the pictures, but when looking from the top down into the lens, does the outer (aluminium) ring have 1 or 2 notches in it? You can usually use needle-nose pliers to get some torque on that and see if its removable that way.

I still think it should be possible to access the circuit board either from this end or the other, and simply bypass that switch.

Also, since it seems to perform exeptionally well in term of output power and mode stability, i'd prefer such a hack over ordering a replacement that might not be as good. Besides that, the swtich is probably serverely underrated for its jobs wich will cause the same problem again at some point.
 

Razako

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There must be some way to get to the PCB in these lasers. If they got it in you can get it out. Then all you need to do is solder the switch to be on constantly and the laser is fixed.
 
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Benm said:
It's hard to tell from the pictures, but when looking from the top down into the lens, does the outer (aluminium) ring have 1 or 2 notches in it? You can usually use needle-nose pliers to get some torque on that and see if its removable that way.

I still think it should be possible to access the circuit board either from this end or the other, and simply bypass that switch.

Also, since it seems to perform exeptionally well in term of output power and mode stability, i'd prefer such a hack over ordering a replacement that might not be as good. Besides that, the swtich is probably serverely underrated for its jobs wich will cause the same problem again at some point.
there are 2 notches, i tried to use something to make it budge, but the aluminum was so weak scraps just chipped off like clay lol.
well, they are going to cover the shipping, and check my next order to make sure it works, i dont really mind...
 

Benm

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Perhaps it has somehow been glued in then - these things usually turn without excessive torque, or not al tall.

But then again, if you are returning it, stop maiming it further ;)
 




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