Anyone bought an OK stud finder on Amazon?

[TonyT]

Thermal camera does work, at least the expensive ones show this detail.

 

 

[Gone West]

16 hours ago, pocster said:

It’s an invention that needs to be done . Would a *super* sensitive thermal camera be able to differentiate between say a sheet of osb with / without timber baton ? . There must be some minuscule temperature difference.

When I looked at buying my present house I hired a Protimeter Surveymaster which uses FM radio waves to detect damp under the wall surface. I haven't a clue as to how it works but it could be a basis for detecting different materials.

[ToughButterCup]

15 hours ago, Radian said:

.... The trick might be to put a fan heater blowing on the surface for a while, then look at the IR as it cools back down to the original temperature. ...

 

Going to give that a go this morning. I'll post the pics later.

What a sad old git I've become.

[Radian]

15 minutes ago, Gone West said:

When I looked at buying my present house I hired a Protimeter Surveymaster which uses FM radio waves to detect damp under the wall surface. I haven't a clue as to how it works but it could be a basis for detecting different materials.

 

RF moisture meters utilise the relatively high dielectric of water to most building materials. This results in radio signals being absorbed differentially so measuring the power loss gives an indication of moisture content. It won't be sufficiently sensitive to distinguish between different materials unless one has a higher moisture content than the other. Terrahertz waves, on the other hand, are beginning to be used for portable radar imaging. Give it a few years and they'll probably start appearing on the domestic market.

[SteamyTea]

7 minutes ago, Radian said:

Terrahertz waves

They use them in airports to look at my todger.

[dpmiller]

Walabot uses this kind of tech, an array of antennas

[Radian]

39 minutes ago, dpmiller said:

Walabot uses this kind of tech, an array of antennas

 

The beamforming antennas are part of radar in general but while Walabot is ultrawideband, operating from 3gHz to 10gHz, the Terahertz frequency range   is generally considered to start at 0.3 THz which is 300gHz and up. We're not quite there yet with something handheld but it's no doubt coming.

[markc]

Just need a Tricorder .. (Trekkies know what I mean) .. couple of buttons and a few flashing leds but somehow it displays anything in great detail.

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, markc said:

Just need a Tricorder .. (Trekkies know what I mean) .. couple of buttons and a few flashing leds but somehow it displays anything in great detail.

 Please! It's TREKKERS!