Yet another - Wicked Lasers Arctic Spyder III laser review - [very image heavy!!]

[ZapU]

They tested around 3.5V when I pulled them out. I suspect under load the voltage is lower.

 

[Eudaimonium]

I'll test mine out too just to make sure

Administrative note, there will be a second review about the laser from me.

Indeed, Wicked Lasers sent two Arctics to me. Reasons unknown.

Very nice lady in Overseas HR pushed it under the type of packages which do not get taxed, although value declared is over 22€ . She was very nice to me, contrary to the idiots I spoke before in customs office.

So basically, the second Arctic I am about to get will actually be free, as in "No money needeed to get hold of it" free. Unlike first one which costed me $90.

Anyhow, yeah, andrenaline would be rushing now, if it weren't for two facts. First, I am not going home this weekend. Second, messed up some tests I weren't supposed to mess up this week. Stuff stopped going uphill for a minute, but I'll get it straight in no time.

But, to save you the babble, yeah, in short, I got another free Arctic.

I sent an Email to Wicked, but have not recieved any reply yet. So I decided to keep the second one, athough it would be most fair of me to ship it back.
I will give it to my friend after reviewing it.

I guess I've used up enough luck for two lifetimes.

 

[Jaseth]

Great review Eud!
I like how much detail you go into showing the finish of the host.

I think you should add "Useless goggles" to the list of Bad points though.

*Warning, rant ahead*

In my opinion, sending out thousands of lasers to complete noobs with goggles which do not even slightly protect them is dangerous fraud to the level that WL should be permanently blacklisted. If a company in Europe had pulled a similar stunt they would have been closed down by government officials within days and would most likely have a class action lawsuit worth far more than their entire company value set up against them.

I would not be surprised if hundreds of people had actually suffered permanent eye damage by trusting these faulty goggles.

The laser itself is not the reason for my anger towards WL. It is a fairly decent laser, despite some battery issues, unnecessary features, and being very underpowered (usually around 680mW rather than the stated 1000mW). Nobody can deny that the host is pretty sweet and the overall features are not below average.

However, this is the 4th or 5th time that WL have lied to customers and then claimed they were trying to better themselves.

Let us check how honest they are:
1) Specs of lasers - Most lasers sent out, even cherry picked review units, have been far below the stated power. Some of the high powered 532nm lasers they produce also have huge stability issues, dropping to 10% of peak power within a minute.
This was an issue 2 years ago when I first discovered WL, and nothing has changed.

2) Shipping times - Hundreds, if not thousands of people have waited far far longer for their Arctic than they were told numerous times by customer services it would take. Many people have waited more than 4 months, and some still don't have their laser despite having ordered it in June! They have been ignored or lied to by customer services.

3) Safety goggles have been provided with the claim that they would protect against the beam of the Arctic, but so far only ONE person (The_LED_Museum) has received a pair which actually worked. This is the greatest sin - like selling a car with a bicycle pump and shopping bag as air bag, and a sheet of cardboard to reinforce the doors.

4) WL posted a guarantee that anyone who had their laser confiscated by customs would received double their money back. Many lasers have been confiscated due to WL lying about the laser being FDA approved and providing a fake accession number. So far I have not heard of a single case in which WL actually honoured this "guarantee".

I am sorry for flooding your review with this rant, but since WL has sent these review units out to try to pull back some business, I feel it necessary to inform people of just how bad a company they will be dealing with if they purchase one of these lasers. If on the other hand you still want to deal with possibly THE most deliberately dishonest laser company there is, go ahead.

 

[Eudaimonium]

And I thought I forgot something in Bad points. Damn.

Oh, please Seb, by any means, thread is here to discuss the laser - so you are doing just that.

About other underspec lasers, I don't know - I never had one and can't give you my opinion on that, I am afraid.

About the questionable features, I already mentioned that 6Hz strobe modes are really useless and they should simply remove that. I really agree with the input sequence needed to power the laser. I feel somehow ... much more relaxed while thinking about how my laser sits in a drawer at the dorm while I'm attending classes.
Worst case scenario, it gets stolen, but nobody is blind.

Also, I'm not here to judge FDA comliance and accession numbers. I live in Croatia and there are NO laws about import of lasers and that is not my concern.

I do feel bad many people got their lasers confiscated, but that's half/half their fault - first of all, you are breaking the law by ordering such a laser, as far as I understand. Or am I wrong here?

Also, another half is Wicked's fault since FDA laws have changed since then and, AFAIK, laser would comply to them if they bothered to aquire the real accession number, or whatever is neccesary to make it legal.

Now, they are making this guarantee. Double money back ... They should by all means honor it. If not, one more negative thing to say about them.

However, I don't have a say in that, because I don't live in US.

 

[Jaseth]

I want to make it clear that I in no way question Eudaimonium's honesty or the quality of his review. He is an exceptionally trustworthy person, and I think the post just above me further enforces the fact that he is not biased.

I also see many good points about the Arctic - especially the coded activation button and the massive, good looking host. I simply wish it was produced by a company which was not notorious for its relentless lying to customers.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Thanks Seb for nice words

Well, primarily - the laser *could* be cheaper a bit, I mean after all that's MINIMUM $330 because it's $30 shipping alone. Can't pick cheaper option AFAIK.

Now, I am not sure here but I think that 1W Spartans by CNI aren't exactly top of quality too, I have seen first hand pictures of entrails for one.

The case connection to the driver was done by having a little copper trace exposed to the front edge of the driver PCB and soldered DIRECTLY to the brass module which houses the diode and the optics. I mean seriously, couldn't they use the case pin of the diode? It's what it's for, after all!

So basically, all lasers made with 445nm diodes, commercially available lasers that is, are about same level of quality, the rest is just personal prefference. Also, budget.

But again, I do not own any other products so I cannot speak freely about them and what I said COULD be wrong. Except the driver's case connection on Spartan. Witnessed.

 

[EDC Laser]

:crackup:

 

[Eudaimonium]

You seem to be missing the quote or something , whatever are you already laughing at.

Either way, you are not exactly doing any productive posting. It's OK to be angry at the company for sending you crap stuff. But don't be angry at me and other members who got good stuff from that company.

 

[EDC Laser]

You seem to be missing the quote or something , whatever are you already laughing at.

Either way, you are not exactly doing any productive posting. It's OK to be angry at the company for sending you crap stuff. But don't be angry at me and other members who got good stuff from that company.

That laugh was not directed at you.

It was directed at the member who gave me -reps for my opinion of WL Arctics.

They know who they are, so no point in posting names.

"Freely discuss laser companies and lasers" one LPF's motto's.

 

[goninanbl00d]

That laugh was not directed at you.

It was directed at the member who gave me -reps for my opinion of WL Arctics.

They know who they are, so no point in posting names.

"Freely discuss laser companies and lasers" one LPF's motto's.

Freely discuss laser companies and lasers...in the right section.

If you want to go on a rant about WL, go make your own thread, preferably in the Companies section.

Learn to show some respect to other members and their threads. If you insist on coming along and trashing others' threads because your ego insists on doing so, there's certainly no need to say it in a way that creates an implication that the OP is stupid.

I didn't -rep you because I didn't like your opinion, I -repped you because you came along and started pissing on a perfectly good review thread.

Doesn't take more than two brain cells to work that out.

I personally don't like WL, or their business ethics. But do I go around posting in everyones' review threads and implying that they're stupid for buying and/or reviewing Arctics? No. Big difference there.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Please guys, let's take a moment to relax here, hm?
:thanks:

Okay so, I have emptied a battery in an Arctic, the green one I got with him.
When battery is empty, laser goes off and 3 LED lights are blinking like in strobe mode.

Voltage of the battery was 3.56 V. Hmm...

Might be a little to high, but perhaps that's extra 0.7V from a rectifier diode dropout which prevents damage if battery is inserted wrong.

 

[goninanbl00d]

Please guys, let's take a moment to relax here, hm?
:thanks:

Okay so, I have emptied a battery in an Arctic, the green one I got with him.
When battery is empty, laser goes off and 3 LED lights are blinking like in strobe mode.

Voltage of the battery was 3.56 V. Hmm...

Might be a little to high, but perhaps that's extra 0.7V from a rectifier diode dropout which prevents damage if battery is inserted wrong.

Yeah, it's time to stop. I'm hoping he gets the point- we'd dropped it, except that bigot decided to bring it up again.

I guess getting these pretentious, arrogant, know-it-alls to show some respect is too much to ask for... :undecided:

Anyway, I'll leave it at that. It's just wasting our time and forum space. If he comes back, just send him here: Internet Butthurt Report Form

Back on topic, in my Arctic the cell usually goes first (UltraFire protecteds). I'll do a test or two with the green Samsung cell, and see how it goes. I'm surprised that the protected cell cut out first.

 

[bbshamsa]

Now, I am not sure here but I think that 1W Spartans by CNI aren't exactly top of quality too, I have seen first hand pictures of entrails for one.

The case connection to the driver was done by having a little copper trace exposed to the front edge of the driver PCB and soldered DIRECTLY to the brass module which houses the diode and the optics. I mean seriously, couldn't they use the case pin of the diode? It's what it's for, after all!

So basically, all lasers made with 445nm diodes, commercially available lasers that is, are about same level of quality, the rest is just personal prefference. Also, budget.

But again, I do not own any other products so I cannot speak freely about them and what I said COULD be wrong. Except the driver's case connection on Spartan. Witnessed.

No offense, but you are incorrect in thinking this.

Yes, you can use the case pin of the LD as a case path, but that doesn't mean it's necessary.

The ONLY circumstances where is is necessary is where you can't get a case path from another part of the case, such as the brass module, or a pill etc...

For example, in pure aluminium hosts, because you can't solder to aluminium easily.

As the the blue LD's are case neutral, once pressed into the host, it's irrelevant at which point you make the case connection to; case pin, module, pill, whatever.

As long as there IS a case connection then that's that.

Furthermore, if you decide to go all the way in heat-sinking and use something like a ceramic based compound between your LD and the host, then you effectively break, or at least weaken, the electrical contact between the LD case and the host, therefore making a case pin connection a potentially worse choice than taking the case path from another part of the host.

I'm not an expert but am totally certain of this as it's a very basic rule of circuits right??

The Spartan is anytyhing BUT inferior to an Arctic, from an engineering perspective at least.

Also, when you mention that you have seen the entrails of a Spartan, is that a reference to the thread posted by that member who mistakenly applied current to the driver output for his curiosity?

Yes, he killed his Spartan by doing this, but again, not something to consider against the Spartan.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Woah, no need to get all defensive, dude. I did not say Arctic was superior to Spartan, I just said that Spartan is not exactly engineering masterpiece.

There are also ton of threads about people recieving defective or DOA ones.

I just think that case pin was much better to use than soldering on diode casing, because if you think of the assembly procedure, you are actually heating up the casing and diode to the soldering temperature!

Also, you need to use 2x CR123 for Spartan, and for 1.2W after lens, current draw is aproximately 1.2-1.4 Amps. Out of CR123! 18650 cell is much better solution.

And no, it was pictures on laserchat of a member trying to fix it, in real time, not the stupid thread here on LPF where dude did unimaginable stupidities.

 

[bbshamsa]

I just think that case pin was much better to use than soldering on diode casing, because if you think of the assembly procedure, you are actually heating up the casing and diode to the soldering temperature!

Also, you need to use 2x CR123 for Spartan, and for 1.2W after lens, current draw is aproximately 1.2-1.4 Amps. Out of CR123! 18650 cell is much better solution.

Sorry, I don't see how I was being overly defensive, but it's hard to suggest errors without seeming so.

Anyway, regarding the current draw. As there are two CR123A's delivering a total current of 1.2-1.4A, doesn't that mean that current is shared between them?

I'm not certain but it seems logical that the total output current would be shared between the two cells.

Also, I understand "case connection" to mean the host case, which means that soldering to it doesn't mean you have to heat up the entire brass module to soldering temperature at all.

Anyway, I'm a fan of the Arctic, I owned one as well as two Spartans.

I'm just trying to address a couple of issues I noted in your comments.

As for all those threads about dead on DOA Spartans, not sure I agree. Sure some have appeared, and the ones I read about all turned out to be user error.

They're about as reliable as the majority posted about the Arctic with users not being clear, not backing up with evidence etc... With the remaining reliable accounts being too few to be statistically relevant.

 

[Eudaimonium]

Well, if the cells are in series, their voltage is summed together. If they were in parralel, their current would be summed, or if same current drawn, it means they would each deliver half of that current.

So no, each cell is delivering 1.4 A, but that's not total of 2.8 A in total, because they are in series. What is summed is voltage, being total over 8V when cells are full.

Soldering requires proper "wetting" of the surface you're soldering to. Since we are talking brass mass here, a good conductor of heat, you DO need to heat up entire brass module to get the solder to properly adhere to the surface.

But shortly - I see your point here. It's all good, I guess I got offensive here, please excuse me, I'm really being an asshole lately and too much shit happening in real life and everything.

Sorry for everything. Let's not derail the thread now. I will be posting updates in reserved post this weekend. Stay tuned