@donkjr Yes, that’s right. It’s something that could be made by yourself very easily, but needs calibration against an existing standard.
@artag yes calibration is needed for accurate measures. I have been tinkering with a peltier module because I am not so much sure we need an absolute measure of power as much as a relative one.
In most cases I see we need to measure power loss from one optical component to another. My thought was to measure the beam throughout the optical path when it is working well and set that as the base to make future measure from using the same instrument.
My goal is to find something inexpensive, requiring no machining and easy to use.
@donkjr Do you find the Peltier offers any improvement over a thermocouple ? I would have thought it more massy and harder to maintain a differential temperature.
@artag I don’t know yet if it offers an advantage, I figured that a large area would be easier to hit and more mass would average changes. Don’t know :).
I think the tough problem in either case would be the surface that the beam hits and if repeated exposure to the same spot would cause an error in the reading.
If I recall the dohicky and commercial units use an anodized coating on aluminum.
@donkjr Yes, the dohicky is anodised. Which will itself get damaged if the beam is focused on it, though that may not matter too much. I have a commercial sensor that has a rough grey surface at the bottom of a hole - but not as thoroughly buried as a black body radiator.
This is getting a bit off topic for Red’s question !
@artag your right, we can move to a new thread or go to hangouts.
@Red_Naxel_A you can order it via me. Just send me a pm or goto my website awesome.tech and send me from there an email. I will respond with the orderinf details. Once kickstarter releases the funds i will set up an up an order page on awesome.tech thanks