Infrared Thermometer buttons?

[RzB]

I'm trying to make up my mind between this one...

this one..

can't work out what the extra buttons are for on the Maplin one.

Any recommendations? Roy

[Phil L]

They say F and C, and one is a light, the other looks like an on/off button

[Grunff]

I have the Maplin one, it's good. The buttons are Celsius, Fahrenheit, Laser, Backlight.

[Peter Andrews]

Farenheit and Centigrade, light in display, red button turns laser pointer on/off, for temp readings press trigger at front.

Peter

[Roger Mills]

I have an earlier version of the IR-88 from CPC - and it's perfectly good for balancing radiators, which is why I bought it.

There's another button on the RHS of the casing - which doesn't show in the photo - which is what you press to take a reading.

The red button gives you a MAX function - so if you move it over the surface of an object which is hotter in some places than others, it gives the maximum temperature it finds. If you don't press this button, the displayed temperature goes up and down as you move around.

The yellow button turns on a laser beam to (allegedly) point to the bit of the object whose temperature is being sensed. [I say 'allegedly' because I'm pretty certain that there's a bit of parallax - but it's good enough for most purposes].

As far as I'm aware, it only measures on Celcius - so if Fahrenheit is important, go for the Maplin one. Otherwise the CPC one is cheaper and does the same job.

[RzB]

Many thanks to all for the responses.

One other point - The Distance:Spot ratio. Do I take it that's the size of the area being measured vs. distance from surface? So if it's 8:1 then if you are 8 metres away from the surface it's measuring a 1 metre diameter area.

Many thanks, Roy

[Phil L]

No, it's in mm, you can be 800mm away and get a 100mm feild in which readings can be taken, sort of like a torch beam.

It won't pick up anything from 8 metres away because it's over 26 feet.

[Roger Mills]

Yes. Imagine a narrow cone with its apex at the sensor and its base on the surface whose temperature is being measured.

[Alan]

In message , Roger Mills wrote

A picture of the earlier unit is at

There is also a switch in the battery compartment to switch between degrees C and F.

The button functions seem to have changed in the current version. Although mainly unreadable in the CPC photo, the display seems to have a lot more options listed but the description says it still has the MAX hold function. The earlier version didn't have a display backlight.

Possibly the buttons are now multi-function to change between modes?

That seems to have been changed/swapped for 'laser on' in the CPC photo.

The CPC unit is a _lot_ smaller (4inch x 2 inch x 1inch) than the Maplin unit so this may be a deciding factor.

[Alan]

In message , Roger Mills wrote

Switch inside battery compartment changes scale.

[Codswallop]

Would this do, £30 delivered:

[Ian Stirling]

It's not like a torch beam, when the farther away you get, the dimmer it gets on the thing you're shining it on, till eventually you can't see it.

The building (or whatever) shines in the infrared - and all that happens as you back away is that you measure more area. It doesn't get dimmer. (until you get a few kilometers away, or it's foggy, in which case the air starts to absorb a fair bit)

[manatbandq]

It's a ratio, it isn't in any units.

MBQ

[<me9]

If it's like my CPC one it has a switch inside the battry compartment to switch between Celcius and Farenheit. I keep mine on F to get a finer resolutionas it only does whole degrees.