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Review of the 2+ watt S3 Spyder Arctic G2 445nm Blue Laser w/SmartSwitch™

I highly doubt they are 9mm diodes. WL spending money on quality parts :crackup:

They are also shitty LED drivers......what a joke. LED driver in a flashlight = disaster waiting to happen
 





Livinloud said:
Have fun in 3 months with a dead laser. They are OVER driving these M140s now. People complain about under spec, heck we will just bump the driver up and shorten the life expectancy. Not underspec anymore but hey it'll only last 3 months and then opps, dead.

M140s over driven, any diode over driven, dont do well for long. 638nm diodes pushed over 1W = cool, wait half a year and then you'll have a cool paper weight, same thing with the new WLs.
Click to expand...

Do you actually know this? Or is it just a guess?

I'm not defending WL at all. All I'm saying is that even over driving an M140 to 1.8-2 amps does not guarantee that it will be over 2w or even 2.5w for that matter. Some M140's can obviously make it over 2.5w but not very many.

BTW nice review but come on, $600 bucks for this crap?!?! I would buy it... if it was under $100 :p
 
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Hmmmm, interested to see what is REALLY going on... I doubt these are M140 results, but i also doubt these are 9mm...

Want to take apart a WL and see? :D

THis is fishy business.

Update and tell us how long the laser lasts :)

:beer:
-Matt
 
Doesn't a 9mm make the most sense?
Given the advertised unlimited duty cycle a conservatively driven 9mm would be the most logical explanation. Their 1w used to be around 750mw why would they go out of their way to overspec the 2W model?

Yeah, it's a fairly expensive diode but we are talking about a $600 laser. Making an easy 2.5 leaves a lot of room for profit.

With that being said. I'm not about to break open my new toy to find out.
 
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Good point, but i dont think you understand how WL and all of those chinese companies work. In a perfect world, you would be right, but over there, its all about the $$$. if they can save $40 on a diode per laser, and reduce the lifetime, why should they care?

And i think you are confusing duty cycle with life expectancy. Duty cycle is how long you should keep the laser on before letting it cool down, while lilfe expectancy is how long the laser will last as a whole.

Them using a conservative 9mm?
Logical? Yes. Realistic. Hell no

Do not illude yourself, they dont give a sh** about you, they care about the money, another reason you should buy from members on the forum... So if your laser is unstable and breaks, they already have your money!

Enjoy your laser, whether it lasts two days or twenty years! Im serious. Lasers are lots of fun! But on your next purchase i would advice doing just a bit more research.

Don't worry. THink of it as a learning experience!

:beer:
-Matt
 
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I've already made my next purchase. A 500mW 405nm from blorg.
I do understand difference between duty cycles and life expectancy. If we assume that running a laser for extended period of time, let's say 45m (what one can expect from a full charge on this laser) and if heat is the enemy and the unlimited duty cycle claim is false then one would expect a reduced life expectancy.

As we all know this is a business who clearly likes to make money.
Why would they provide a one-year warranty if running it under such conditions would lead to failure? Having to give your customer two of your products for the price of one is a really bad business model.
 
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:crackup:

Just recently have seen borg, blorg, lol.
 
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Dave has taken many of these arctics apart and I'm 99% sure he said they were M140s so its nkt a guess. Ill dig the thread up and post a quote if I can fjnd it
 
Assuming you mean Blord... Good choice!

Much better priced than WL dont you think?

:beer:
-Matt
 
Since when does anyone trusts WL word????? Their word is as good as a pile of cow crap. Let it sit for a while and it makes a good thing to toss.

Edit: I'm interested to know what those graphs and stickers they are talking about. IMO they are wanting people who actually got over spec lasers to show them off to help save their a$$. 99% of people who buy WL lasers don't have a LPM so they will never know they got a pile
 
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Of the three reviews I found on LPF of the 2W arctic they were 2.4W-2.6W
Perhaps wicked knows when a forum member orders and sends an overspec laser for that exact reason?

You do realize this is insane... Right?
All the information available suggested it was a 9mm.
And now there's official company confirmation that it's a 9 mm diode.

Let me ask you this.
If you saw the earth from space would you still believe it is flat?

Do I have to literally dismantle my laser on a live stream to squelch this nonsense?
That's not going to happen. And the earth round. And this is a 9mm diode.
 
Yup you'll have to dismantle it. No one trusts WL, its a fact. Of those reviews how many of them did you see that people NEVER RECEIVED their laser or the ones that were super under spec. No duh you can find good reviews for anything if you search hard enough. Point and case; lazerer. You can find a bunch of good reviews for them from a few years ago. Look at the reviews in the past few years and oh they are all crap. Ever think that its a m140 with a high transparency lens similar to a g series lens? A lens is a lot cheaper than a diode. Buy a g series or even a 95% transparency lens in bulk and they are probably under $10/piece. Add that to a hard driven m140 and boom easily 2.5W. I currently have a m140 driven at 1.8a doing 2.6W with a STOCK 3 element lens. Tell me how WL can't do the same???? Its 0.4W less than my 9mm driven at 2.2a.

You are a fool for believing anything out of WL and for insisting its a 9mm. Only way to know is for someone to take the dang lens off and see for sure. Its a freakin lens, not telling you to pull the driver out of the laser
 
Konad said:
Of the three reviews I found on LPF of the 2W arctic they were 2.4W-2.6W
Perhaps wicked knows when a forum member orders and sends an overspec laser for that exact reason?

You do realize this is insane... Right?
All the information available suggested it was a 9mm.
And now there's official company confirmation that it's a 9 mm diode.

Let me ask you this.
If you saw the earth from space would you still believe it is flat?

Do I have to literally dismantle my laser on a live stream to squelch this nonsense?
That's not going to happen. And the earth round. And this is a 9mm diode.
Click to expand...


That was the proof we were looking for. No need to be defensive!:)

Thanks for sorting that out.

And that earth analogy does not apply because seing the earth from space corresponds to evidence, and we had none until you contacted joe


AND there is still the possibility that WL is simply lying... ("livinloud)
:beer:
-Matt
 
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