Wicked Lasers Arctic Dissected

[Astroguy]

You'd be better off making a cast instead of trying to machine multiple parts. Then you wouldn't have to take it apart.

I agree that casting is the way to go that is how Wicked does it in the first place the Arctic host is cast.

 

[Tech_Junkie]

you at least have a nice host.

A host that costs >$200, took over a month to arrive, and needs to be retro fitted to fit an AixiZ module. :yabbmad: I'd be insane at this point.

 

[Cyparagon]

But even after shorting the Arctic driver multiple times, both the diode and battery terminals, my multimeter indicated that the driver was still putting off voltage in a range from 0.020 to 0.080 volts. Enough to essentially destroy the diode I am guessing.

No, 20mV will cause VERY little (if any) current to flow across the diode. Ohm's law. Even hooking it up to a constant voltage 1.5V source will do almost nothing.

 

[Astroguy]

Were you able to unscrew the heatsink to get at the diode? If so could you post a picture. It looks like the anodized part should unscrew from the other part but I have been unable to get them apart.

 

[Sirillious]

Is that the potentiometer I see in picture 5? I'd be tempted to dissemble mine when I get it and crank that sucker up and push 1.2 Watts as the sticker says Sadly though, it seems pretty difficult to get the circuits out without easily breaking something.

Thanks for the pics and info, though sorry to hear about your Arctic's problem. Put it back together neatly and RMA? lol

 

[Deleted member 10578]

Thanks for the pics and info, though sorry to hear about your Arctic's problem. Put it back together neatly and RMA? lol

Huh???
He voided any possible warranty when he took it apart.
Trying to put it back together neatly and RMA, would be dishonest & fraudulent.
Not the kind of advice I would expect from someone quoting verses from the bible in their signature.

 

[Crazy Jay]

Huh???
He voided any possible warranty when he took it apart.
Trying to put it back together neatly and RMA, would be dishonest & fraudulent.
Not the kind of advice I would expect from someone quoting verses from the bible in their signature.

Did you noticed the "lol"? You sure he was being serious or are you just wanting to pick a fight? :thinking:

 

[Deleted member 10578]

Did you noticed the "lol"? You sure he was being serious or are you just wanting to pick a fight? :thinking:

Is "lol" a smiley for putting your hands in the air, like when a touchdown is scored?
No, I'm not trying to start a fight, I wouldn't even have replied to the message suggesting the arctic owner try to commit fraud and send it back (even though I think WL is ripping everyone off big time and anyone deserves it, WL does) I replied because for two reasons.
Many customers have tried to tell me they didn't dissable and try to fix their laser, then send me back the results of their effort thinking I would cover it under warranty.
The other reason is that I recently left a church altogether because of all the hypocrisy of it's members; so when I saw the verse quoted in his sig, it set me to replying.

 

[Crazy Jay]

Is "lol" a smiley for putting your hands in the air, like when a touchdown is scored?
No, I'm not trying to start a fight, I wouldn't even have replied to the message suggesting the arctic owner try to commit fraud and send it back (even though I think WL is ripping everyone off big time and anyone deserves it, WL does) I replied because for two reasons.
Many customers have tried to tell me they didn't dissable and try to fix their laser, then send me back the results of their effort thinking I would cover it under warranty.
The other reason is that I recently left a church altogether because of all the hypocrisy of it's members; so when I saw the verse quoted in his sig, it set me to replying.

No "lol" stands for laugh out loud. I never use it myself. I like speaking and using regular English without any short cuts.
I never used to use smileys but that ended up pissing people off. They get the wrong idea.

 

[Pontiacg5]

I agree that casting is the way to go that is how Wicked does it in the first place the Arctic host is cast.

The Arctic may be cast, but there has to be a machine step in there somewhere. You can't cast threads like that and there is no way you can consistently cast a knurled look like that.

Where are you getting your info or are you just going on looks?

A casting may work, but I'm just going to measure it all out and make a CAD drawing from it that way.

I might be able to cast some stuff in aluminum, I have a furnace/kiln here that can do 1200F, Aluminum melts at 600c = ~1115f, so it would be close.

 

[Trevor]

The Arctic may be cast, but there has to be a machine step in there somewhere. You can't cast threads like that and there is no way you can consistently cast a knurled look like that.

Where are you getting your info or are you just going on looks?

A casting may work, but I'm just going to measure it all out and make a CAD drawing from it that way.

I might be able to cast some stuff in aluminum, I have a furnace/kiln here that can do 1200F, Aluminum melts at 600c = ~1115f, so it would be close.

Question - how would you go about making heatsink-fin-bumpy-things (like the Arctic) without casting? Just curious, I've been wondering. To my eye, it doesn't look like you can just turn it...

-Trevor

 

[Pontiacg5]

That is where a 2.5 axis lathe comes into play, it has whats called "live tooling" which is essentially an end mill in place of a regular lathe bit. The spindle is controlled by a stepper motor which holds it in place while the regular movement of the X and Y axises do the cutting.

From the pictures I've seen it would not take anything more than a 2.5 axis lathe to do all the work.

This depicts it just a little bit better. Go to 2:20 if your impatient!

 

[Sirillious]

Huh???
He voided any possible warranty when he took it apart.
Trying to put it back together neatly and RMA, would be dishonest & fraudulent.
Not the kind of advice I would expect from someone quoting verses from the bible in their signature.

I thought the "lol" would obviously imply that I was indeed joking, but apparently not. No he should not try to put it back together neatly and RMA, that would be very dishonest and wrong.
Hypocrisy - I see it too in church sometimes sadly, but it's important to remember that there were never any perfect people, except Jesus himself.

Back on topic: These dissection pics help a lot to for when I will take mine apart after my warranty has expired, it is exactly what I needed to see. But my question is, can the main board be removed without taking out the smaller circuit? That's the one i'm interested in, and I don't want the smaller one to break.

 

[Astroguy]

The Arctic may be cast, but there has to be a machine step in there somewhere. You can't cast threads like that and there is no way you can consistently cast a knurled look like that.

Where are you getting your info or are you just going on looks?

A casting may work, but I'm just going to measure it all out and make a CAD drawing from it that way.

I might be able to cast some stuff in aluminum, I have a furnace/kiln here that can do 1200F, Aluminum melts at 600c = ~1115f, so it would be close.

You are correct, the threads are machined after casting. Of course the first one had to be machined to get the model for casting. Machining 1000's of these of coarse is possible but to do it as cheap as possible casting cost less. If you look closely at the arctic's finish you can see it was cast also on the inside of the of the tube where there is no threads mine has the unmistakable rainbow hue of cast aluminum. I do have a 4 axis cnc mill and could machine one if I had the CAD drawing. But I am not very proficient at CAD and it would take me forever to do the drawing.

 

[AJ_Dual]

Question - how would you go about making heatsink-fin-bumpy-things (like the Arctic) without casting? Just curious, I've been wondering. To my eye, it doesn't look like you can just turn it...

-Trevor

Yes, it would definitely take some milling to make those bumps on the front of the Arctic's Spyder host.

For the same "look" I would just drill and tap the host and bolt on short pieces of M1913/"Picatinny" rail for firearms optics and accessories, and then it would actually be useful. (and it would still have some heat-sink/surface area benefits too...)

There are even firearm rails that are curved on the inside depending on what model of firearm you're trying to mount it on. It may match the curvature of your host. Some hex-head button screws, and you're all set. Add some thermal compound to the underside of the rail if you feel like being anal.

Then you could mount a small scope or reflex dot sight to the host if you wanted to, and once aligned, you'd know where it was pointing before activation. Or you could mount pistol grips, tripod/camera mount adapters, all sorts of things.

Here's an example of one cheap at Amazon. Amazon.com: UTG G36 Handguard Picatinny Rail, Set 3: Sports & Outdoors UTG is generally "cheap of the cheap" in firearms circles, more suited for Airsoft and paintball, but for a laser host you're hopefully not abusing to begin with, as opposed to taking to war, dropping it, sliding down hills with etc. it'll do fine.

 

[plexus]

Is this being called a POS because of the build quality or the fact that this particular Arctic died? If the former, I am not seeing anything in the pics that is demonstrating crappy design or build quality. If so, can you elaborate as to why this is a POS in general. If its the former, there will always be products that fail. My two arctics are running fine and one is outputting >1W CW (the other is 800-950mW CW). They seems to be well designed and assembled.