Wicked Lasers Arctic Dissected

[plexus]

Plexus:

I am using a 405-G-1 from Jay, and it works just fine in the Arctic You need to get His Ez-Focus assembly and remove the knurl nut. This allows to assembly to be screwed in deep enough to achieve Focus. I don't have a LPM, but I am getting a higher output.

Interesting, Coherent, my 405-g-1's have the focus ring removed. I was just not able to get it deep enough. so i'll try it again.

I want to measure the output difference between the 405-g-1 and the stock arctic lens.

 

[Coherent Light]

Interesting, Coherent, my 405-g-1's have the focus ring removed. I was just not able to get it deep enough. so i'll try it again.

I want to measure the output difference between the 405-g-1 and the stock arctic lens.

It goes way way down in the host. You have to remove and not use the spring, because jay's lens has to practically sit on the diode. You might have to use teflon tape or a drop of loc-tite to hold focus if Your's is like mine. The deep threads don't seem to be cut correctly, so that You will have a bit of slop.

 

[TheGr8Revealing]

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.

I unfortunately wasn't able to get them apart either.

 

[Pontiacg5]

If its like the rest of this thing its pressed together. I doubt you would ever be able to get it out without destroying it.

 

[TheGr8Revealing]

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.

I suppose it could be done if you were able to apply enough heat to the internal battery spring in the butt-end of the host to the point that it melts the solder connecting it to the driver. But that will be difficult. There is a fairly thick metal disk (check the pictures) on the back end of the driver and I am assuming they put it there as a heat sink to protect it from just such an intrusion.

There is a possibility if you were able to get the main driver out without a violent struggle that you could snip the wires the run to the smaller driver, thus leaving it intact.

 

[TheGr8Revealing]

Any chance that you may provide these for other Arctic owners?

I got mine today and my main gripe is the power output and the initial beam diameter. It hasn't died yet, but I did just straight up use an AW2600 instead of the battery that came with it. I figure that the beam diameter is probably just the size of the diode die. Are you planning to decrease the beam diameter with these "corrective optics"?

I am probably just going to run to my former universities machine shop and do a one-off of it. I am no longer a student and also I dont think they would like it if I were making money off of parts I sold made with their machines. Sorry :-/

I may mock up some 3D CAD models though if you'd like them.

Here are the Optics. The member Dr. Lava is handling those. http://laserpointerforums.com/f55/cylindrical-correction-optics-445-638-a-52925.html

 

[Barnacules]

I am very glad I cancelled my order. What a pile of crap! I hope Wicked Lasers tanks and goes under due to all the charge backs from credit card companies that will occur because of this garbage product. I was drawn here by the Arctic, but now I stay as a Jr enthusiest and I will buy a kit and build my own >1 blue as a result. So I guess the experience wasn't all bad

 

[Tech_Junkie]

I am very glad I cancelled my order. What a pile of crap! I hope Wicked Lasers tanks and goes under due to all the charge backs from credit card companies that will occur because of this garbage product. I was drawn here by the Arctic, but now I stay as a Jr enthusiest and I will buy a kit and build my own >1 blue as a result. So I guess the experience wasn't all bad

Good man.

 

[jbtm]

Well, me and many others who lucked out probably laugh at that, as I'm extremely happy I kept my order. My G1, after 2-3 weeks of daily many uses, works good. There's no loose lens inside the laser (no beam morph when tilting it up/down), both safty keys are fully functional, nothing is loose, the paint is good. Not one thing is wrong with my laser. I got exactly what I wanted, a fully working less than 1.5 mRad Blue laser. Wattage wasn't important to me, I already have a >1W DIY 445nm. Sure enough, I got 1.36 mRad, and at 20ft had no issues smoking a wooden door after a few seconds of on.

Love the laser, Happy I bought it and after thinking about canceling my order, I relies how stupid I would have been to do that!

 

[ZapU]

Well, me and many others who lucked out probably laugh at that, as I'm extremely happy I kept my order. My G1, after 2-3 weeks of daily many uses, works good. There's no loose lens inside the laser (no beam morph when tilting it up/down), both safty keys are fully functional, nothing is loose, the paint is good. Not one thing is wrong with my laser. I got exactly what I wanted, a fully working less than 1.5 mRad Blue laser. Wattage wasn't important to me, I already have a >1W DIY 445nm. Sure enough, I got 1.36 mRad, and at 20ft had no issues smoking a wooden door after a few seconds of on.

Love the laser, Happy I bought it and after thinking about canceling my order, I relies how stupid I would have been to do that!

I'm with you jbtm. I've learned a lot in the two months wait reading this and other forums, probably a good thing (I can still see!) :thanks:

For $230, it's a deal. At $330+, probably not.
The inability to change focus was my only gripe. I've made mine focusable through the front opening of a gutted training lens, using a flat bladed screwdriver. Just took out the lens and reinstalled it with Teflon tape, left off the "top hat" and put a bushing under the training cap to seal out dirt.

 

[lasersbee]

Well, me and many others who lucked out probably laugh at that, as I'm extremely happy I kept my order. My G1, after 2-3 weeks of daily many uses, works good. There's no loose lens inside the laser (no beam morph when tilting it up/down), both safty keys are fully functional, nothing is loose, the paint is good. Not one thing is wrong with my laser. I got exactly what I wanted, a fully working less than 1.5 mRad Blue laser. Wattage wasn't important to me, I already have a >1W DIY 445nm. Sure enough, I got 1.36 mRad, and at 20ft had no issues smoking a wooden door after a few seconds of on.

Love the laser, Happy I bought it and after thinking about canceling my order, I relies how stupid I would have been to do that!

Good for you... so you got one out of the few that actually work..op:

After all the crap that hit the fan with the Arctics malfunctioning
and dieing.. I realize how stupid it would have been not to cancel
my Arctic order...

Jerry

 

[JonWienke]

I think "the few" is more of a majority than minority given the thousands of arctics ordered and the relatively small number of "defective arctic" posts. If most of them were really defective, then there would be hundreds of threads about "my defective arctic" clogging this forum. Dissatisfied customers tend to be far more vocal than happy ones.

 

[lasersbee]

We don't even know how many Arctics actually shipped...
and after all the negative towards WL and therir lies one would
think that every one would post Good or Bad about their Arctic...

It seems that there are more posts on this Forum of received
Arctics not working as advertised than posts of praise of on
spec received Arctics by members...

Jerry

 

[JonWienke]

We don't even know how many Arctics actually shipped...
and after all the negative towards WL and therir lies one would
think that every one would post Good or Bad about their Arctic...

Most of the negative stuff has been posted by people who canceled their orders, and have never even seen one in person.

It seems that there are more posts on this Forum of received
Arctics not working as advertised than posts of praise of on
spec received Arctics by members...

...for the obvious reason that disgruntled people are far more likely to post a complaint than satisfied customers are to post a positive comment. The satisfied people are out actually using their laser instead of online complaining about it. It doesn't matter what the product is, people with problems are far more likely to post than people without.

My arctic works just fine, BTW.

 

[Benm]

Sure, people with units that actually work well arent likely to complain or even comment - works like that with everything.

Comsidering how its actually assembled, i'd say that DIY would be a better option in most cases. Just randomly press fitting pieces together doesnt seem like the most viable method, and its it likely you would be better off with some design using modules, heatsinking and thermal compound, even if you are not exactly sure of what you ae doing.

Heatsinking is one of those things you can safely over-do without negative effects, but under-doing it due to design failure tends to leave you with destroyed components... and usually the most expensive ones if murphy has his way

 

[haveblue]

Mine is working fine. I'm using the training head with the lens removed. The whole thing gets pretty warm after a while so I figure that it's doing a decent job at pulling heat away from the diode.

My only gripes are a bit of side-splash on the beam and that the lens can't be set closer to the diode to allow for a smaller beam diameter.