Alexander Hollins wrote:
well,,,, just remove the infrared filter from any webcam, and its
an ir camera. quick and easy. what kind of definition are you looking for?
Honestly, I do not know.
If this method works, fine -- problem solved. I will grant there are
times when relatively simple, cheap instruments suffice even in a
professional lab. For example, ordinary handheld voltage meters are fine.
I was just using this to illustrate some larger points about the
limitations and inherent problems in low-budget experiments with
"kludged" equipment. Generally speaking, it is more trouble than it
is worth. I have no experience with IR cameras but I have more
experience than I wish with other cold fusion related equipment such
as: used equipment especially coolers, cheap pumps, and low tech
rotary flowmeters. You don't want to deal with that stuff if you can
afford something better. Used equipment or obsolete equipment is
Trouble. An expensive flowmeter has no moving parts. It adds a pulse
of heat to the flowing water, which it detects downstream. It is a
high tech black box; the kind of instrument you just gotta believe is
working, but it is far less trouble, believe me. Actually, you don't
just gotta believe. You test it with low tech measures: you take the
return hose out of the cooler, click a stopwatch and let it flow into
a graduated cylinder for a given duration. That gives a pretty good
answer which you check against the precision flowmeter.
Storms and McKubre dispense with flowmeters altogether, using weight
scales and a siphon in an automated procedure similar to what I just
described. Anyone who has dealt with flowmeters will be inclined to
dispense with them by tossing them in front of an oncoming steam roller.
- Jed
