On 09/08/2012 19:22, Dave wrote:
Looking to buy an infrared thermometer without breaking the bank and
also without knowing exactly what I'm looking at - for instance, what is
"emissivity" and does it need to be adjustable?

I'm sure that these are the sort of things that are bought for one
purpose but actually end up being used for dozens of things and I'm sure
I'll find loads of uses for it, but my main use at the moment would be
to monitor temperatures of GPUs and CPUs on laptop motherboards.

I live about a mile away from CPC in Preston and have seen this one for
£43 inc VAT:

http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/level5/mo...ml&sku=IN05457


or http://tinyurl.com/bp2p5wd

Anyone have experience of them? Good? Bad? Anything better for
absolutely no more than £60, but preferably £50 or less?

TIA


I have something unbranded but similar looking, and a smaller cheaper
version (no laser). I think they would be fine for CPU temperatures,
they are also good for balancing radiators. I stick a bit of black PVC
tape on the valve when doing this in the belief it should improve the
accuracy. For most purposes you don't need absolute accuracy to less
than a couple of degrees. In theory results should be less reliable on
shiny metal surfaces (google emissivity for more details). If you were
using it (say) for process control where accuracy was important you
could always calibrate it against a thermocouple (and then you would
have to decide whether you need a calibrated thermocouple). My guess is
that they might have similar errors to cheap thermistor based devices.
But they go up to much higher temperatures.