Thread: Moisture Meters?

I have not got one nor have I used one but with a background (a long time back) in electronics I would love to get into the guts of one and see what makes them tick.
I would place a small wager that there is not $200-$400 of componentry and I think they may be simple to construct. I am basing this on the metal destector market of some years back when a 'top of the line' detector was retailing for about $1000 and after getting inside one I built one for about $100 after working out how the coil was constructed. I suspect that these little devices are much the same and may only be a microwave tranducer?????
Someone else may have more clues. Back to our Greek friend Mr Archimedes, owns the local fruit shop, he worked on weights and specific gravity, can we not do the same with a log and base species on weight and bulk? Has to be a good guide and reasonably accurate. Does anyone have a figure for arguments sake .1 cubic metre of Jarrah, Oak etc etc. Think of the money you could save and with the aid of a scale and a calculator would be easy to work out moiisture content.
Just a point to ponder.
Sorry I did not answer your question but may give you something to think about and could contribute to another Festo.

G,day Iain,I had a Instrument/electro tech mate make me up one from info that I have around somewhere but cannot lay my hands on at present ,if I do I'll let you have a copy of them.My problem is the bulk of the instrument rhat he made for me.....awkward when going to timber sales and auctions hence my leaning to a digital model and I'll most likely sell this one but my local bloke rang me today with a fairly good offer on one.
Now if I can only wrest control of the ol'Visa away from er indoors?
Cheers

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Johnno

Your on the money there Iain. I've got a circuit for a pin type Moisture meter here, as we speak. I'd say as a rough guestimate that if you went to D. smith elec' you'd get all the bits for about $20-. I got as far as etching the board and collecting the componantry.....Ahh' another day, another day.
coo-ee
roj

Roj, reminds me of a few years ago when the TV went on the blink, opened up the back and found a mouse had connnected across the EHT circuit while doing an aerobic workout. Remove charcoal mouse and TV works again.
Impedance of mouse...120 ohms but I do not know if it was male or female, suspect a male may have been a few ohms higher with the additional circuitry.

Iain, the important question i just have to ask!!! Was the mouse found in the Lotus?

Can't recall Roj, I do remeber that it must have has a bad temper as it had arced up!

They do that.