Wicked Lasers 445nm <1W Spyder III Pro Arctic Series

[Flashanator]

Any Aussies game enough to order this baby? What with our laws & possible fines.

[Shiftlock]

Yes, but wouldn't it be fun if all the journalists reading our posts with bated breath were to dig into Wicked Laser's shady history? I digress. WL's FBI rap sheet is for another thread.

FWIW, I don't believe that Chris is affiliated with WL anymore. I believe he sold the whole thing. I don't know this for sure, but I heard rumors while back, and it's the impression I get by the way the company has changed. Oh well, who knows...

[bshanahan14rulz]

Sure, people are contesting whether the 445nm diode can do 1W or not, but nobody really has an issue with the beam divergence of 1.5 mRad...

Nobody is contesting whether the 445nm diode can do 1W or not. Everybody is curious about the beam divergence claim of 1.5mRad, though. This diode is transverse multimode, you will see a line of emission. Also, divergence will be crap on the fast-diverging axis.

God that would really suck; If it was not a circular beam

This means bad for holograms. For a pointer, who cares. No sweat, Smurf, you'll like it. It'll be a line, but the line will be as wide as a dot if you were using a regular diode.

Here's a horrible photoshop I did that might give you some idea of what i'm talking about:

Leads me to believe there needs to be more efficient lenses to capture the entire emitting area

If I recall correctly, (buncha stuff about WL owner)

Yes, but wouldn't it be fun if all the journalists reading our posts with bated breath were to dig into Wicked Laser's shady (link)history? I digress. WL's FBI rap sheet is for another thread.

You are aware of the underground, raccoon? I think it would be a better fit for these types of posts. Besides, whose side are you on? I, for one, like light, especially light from semiconductors. It would pain me to know that I could have bought some 445nm 1W diodes, but that because of the media panic and a bunch of people on the intarwebs, they will have been banned and I won't have bought any in time. Let us all work together to keep monochromatic coherent light sources available to the public.

[PhantomPhoton]

I too am waiting for the product to ship to actual customers (+ reviews). Once I see that happening I may put in an order for one. Personally I'd be okay with the diode only running at 0.5W. But I don't like how wicked has put the <1W marketing crud out there when what I really want to know is the minimum output. Beyond power output I'm also waiting for a review on the divergence.
Too good to be true was definitely my first thought, so I'm not jumping in without taking a look around first.

[matt304]

Leads me to believe there needs to be more efficient lenses to capture the entire emitting area

Uh, no.

It is a MULTIMODE diode. It has nothing to do with lenses not capturing the entire emitting area. The lens easily captures the entire emission. The laser cavity emits an excited output shape of a 'slit'. Just like a squished football.

The way you correct this is with a lens assembly shaped like a half cylinder. Light enters the flat side and one axis stays the same while the other axis widens. Or, an anamorphic prism pair is used. I have found anamorphic pairs, but the stinking things are not coated for 400-500nm range light and are useless. They ain't cheap, either!

Someone asked me if my 1.1W laser will hit clouds. No, not really. The beam is super bright an visible, but laser beams mostly look the same because your eyes cannot determine the length of the beam. A 445nm beam actually terminates earlier in the air from the observers view than say, a 400mW 532nm green laser. Side by side, the observable difference would be a tiny amount up in the sky, but in reality that difference is in miles. The football shaped 'dot' from my 1.1W laser gets huge very fast. You can see the dot on buildings at maybe 1000 yards or more, but if it was a true dot with the divergence of the narrow axis of the beam now, that dot would be visible at 3000+/- yards.

The only thing cool about the 445nm laser, so far, is the beam. A blu-ray laser at 500mW will burn the skin and objects much better than 445nm due to a true dot shape with amazingly tight divergence.

If someone can correct the beam to a dot, and then focus it, problems will be solved and this laser will become truly amazing.

Oh, someone also asked about star pointing? I don't know, that pretty odd you would seek a 1W laser for star pointing. Of course it will point to stars. So will 50mW of green.

[TheFathomlessBlue]

Here it is boys and girls.....

The Arctic III does in fact exisit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-SduY4A2kE

[ejot]

cool

[StarHalo]

Here it is boys and girls.....

The Arctic III does in fact exisit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-SduY4A2kE

lol, blue neon indeed! It just looks like a long, thin Lightsaber.. And I'm definitely not concerned about the shape of the beam after seeing that, you'd need welder goggles just to see where exactly the beam is hitting..

[Shiftlock]

Here it is boys and girls.....

The Arctic III does in fact exisit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-SduY4A2kE

Interesting. That video was posted by the YouTube account "wickedlasersvids". Is that Wicked Lasers themselves, or a customer? With the low price and all the media attention, WL has to have received a metric sh*t ton of orders for that unit, so I wonder how long it's going to take them to ship them all. They're going to have to cannibalize a ton of projectors, if that's where they're really getting the diodes. I imagine they've at least attempted to get the diodes direct from the manufacturer, though.

I'm still waiting for a video of some power measurements.

[matt304]

Based on all of the testing I have followed plotting these diodes and plotting myself, there should be no problem at all getting 1 watt out of the WL to meet their claim. Hell, I use a little heatsink for 1.1W and it gets warm, but that huge thing they are using should have no problem! That laser is way bigger than I had expected, or hoped for.

[Shiftlock]

Based on all of the testing I have followed plotting these diodes and plotting myself, there should be no problem at all getting 1 watt out of the WL to meet their claim. Hell, I use a little heatsink for 1.1W and it gets warm, but that huge thing they are using should have no problem! That laser is way bigger than I had expected, or hoped for.

Where did you get the diode, if you don't mind me asking?

[matt304]

Where did you get the diode, if you don't mind me asking?

A forum friend who bought a projector containing 24 of them.

[Isak Hawk]

That dot looks much better than I expected, small and round

I wonder if it's just the video making it look better than it actually is or if wicked really solved the transverse multimode issue? Seems unlikely that they put anamorphic prisms and stuff in a $200 laser...

Anyway, that thing looks badass and I can't wait to get mine

[AnAppleSnail]

That dot looks much better than I expected, small and round

I wonder if it's just the video making it look better than it actually is or if wicked really solved the transverse multimode issue? Seems unlikely that they put anamorphic prisms and stuff in a $200 laser...

Anyway, that thing looks badass and I can't wait to get mine

It's a 1.5mm speck of burning fire, I doubt its shape is apparent in a youtube video...?

[ejot]

The dot shape is shown very clearly through a filter that blocks most of the radiation.

[Raccoon]

So much for the theory of a grossly football shaped dot. Though the beam shot video has to be around 20 feet, I see no indication of ugliness. Now if they would release a 100 meter beam shot video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-SduY4A2kE#t=2m15s

Now I'd like to know how much of that side spillage is camera bloom, and how much is actual side spillage (flashlight).

[senecaripple]

I too am waiting for the product to ship to actual customers (+ reviews). Once I see that happening I may put in an order for one. Personally I'd be okay with the diode only running at 0.5W. But I don't like how wicked has put the <1W marketing crud out there when what I really want to know is the minimum output. Beyond power output I'm also waiting for a review on the divergence.
Too good to be true was definitely my first thought, so I'm not jumping in without taking a look around first.

by then the price may jump astronomically!

[Isak Hawk]

It's a 1.5mm speck of burning fire, I doubt its shape is apparent in a youtube video...?

Did you watch the video to the end? The guy puts a filter in front of the camera so you can see the dot nicely, without the intense light and blooming

Edit: oops, didn't see ejot's post

[matt304]

So much for the theory of a grossly football shaped dot. Though the beam shot video has to be around 20 feet, I see no indication of ugliness. Now if they would release a 100 meter beam shot video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-SduY4A2kE#t=2m15s

Now I'd like to know how much of that side spillage is camera bloom, and how much is actual side spillage (flashlight).

It looks like they may have actually used cylindrical lenses to correct the football shaped output of the diode.

It's hard to tell, though. The youtube quality sucks ass, and it almost appears there is a darker "line" through the middle of the dot. A high def video very close through a filter would work better.

Why would anyone hesitate to buy this? Reviews? Come on, you can't apply that tactic here. This is something too good to get away. Order the damned thing, it's $200 bucks. If it isn't up to your idea of quality for $200, which is almost impossible when you compare to any other laser, just sell the thing on the forums and get your money right back!

[Bimmerboy]

Most interesting, lively, and overall best laser thread in a good while.

Glad it stayed open!

[Raccoon]

New thread including stills of the video's beam shots.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/...d.php?t=280601

I'd encourage few postings on that thread, and more images as they come in. Less pages equals more quality.

[Fat Boy]

Anybody else notice that they raised the price of the 2 year warranty? I just called them to find out what is up and they said at least one more week till shipping. ?!?!

[wyager]

Anybody else notice that they raised the price of the 2 year warranty? I just called them to find out what is up and they said at least one more week till shipping. ?!?!

That's because even though these diodes can handle above 2 watts without dying, even at 1 watt the power output will drop over a few dozen hours of use, and on top of that since these lasers are so cheap someone with no laser experience will, say, leave it sitting on a table until the diode heats up too much, gets COD, heats up more, and BOOM 18650 explosion. There's just more risk with these I think.

[Fat Boy]

also they have taken my money about a week + but I still havn't gotten an email confirmation. I called and asked for the email to be sent again and I still havn't gotten it. I did verify that they have my correct email and address for shipping. Anybody actually get an email?

[wyager]

also they have taken my money about a week + but I still havn't gotten an email confirmation. I called and asked for the email to be sent again and I still havn't gotten it. I did verify that they have my correct email and address for shipping. Anybody actually get an email?

How much have you paid them, total? Just wondering because if you paid a while back they only charged you $200 but won't send you anything unless you pay them an extra $30 for shipping. If you paid about $230 you're good. Keep in mind they're totally inundated.

[Shiftlock]

also they have taken my money about a week + but I still havn't gotten an email confirmation. I called and asked for the email to be sent again and I still havn't gotten it. I did verify that they have my correct email and address for shipping. Anybody actually get an email?

They're too busy ripping apart projectors to answer the phone or send emails.

Seriously though, with all the media and blog attention this laser has received, I could see Wicked Lasers selling 20,000 of these. If they make $100 profit on each one, that's a cool $2 million.

Will someone please tell me why I'm not the one doing this?!

[Raccoon]

Will someone please tell me why I'm not the one doing this?!

It's not too late, other people are already cashing in on this. One guy at LaserPointerForums is selling each diode for $35, and arrays of 24 for $550 ($23 ea), so he's making at least $12 to $20 profit per diode sold... and he's already sold 6 dozen diodes, plus numerous arrays. That's an earning of at _least_ $864 on the diodes, and as much as $1200 to $2000 profit total. In just 2 weeks.

[wyager]

It's not too late, other people are already cashing in on this. One guy at LaserPointerForums is selling each diode for $35, and arrays of 24 for $550 ($23 ea), so he's making at least $12 to $20 profit per diode sold... and he's already sold 6 dozen diodes, plus numerous arrays. That's an earning of at _least_ $864 on the diodes, and as much as $1440 to $2500 profit total. In just 2 weeks.

BTW, those projectors cost $700 minimum. So it's not a huge profit, about $6 apiece. However, right up until recently they were selling for $50 apiece. And right before that, they were $30,000 apiece

[Raccoon]

BTW, those projectors cost $700 minimum. So it's not a huge profit, about $6 apiece. However, right up until recently they were selling for $50 apiece. And right before that, they were $30,000 apiece

If they are spending $700 on the projector, then they are fools for selling arrays for $550. That's a $150 loss per projector.

[SmurfTacular]

I hope that you guys realize that each projector contains about 24 445nm 1W diodes, so buying a single projector for $700 and selling 24 arctics gives you a profit margin of 4,800 per projector. Ofcourse you would have to factor in the price of the host, lens etc. And if they sell 10,000 of these, they are currently dominating the 445nm laser market.