Demo and teardown of an X-ray fluorescence gun (measures chemical composition)
Applied Science2 HN recommenders · 2020–2024
369K views · demo · evergreen · Uploaded 2020-08-31
Ben Krasnow of Applied Science demonstrates an X-ray fluorescence gun that measures chemical composition, tears it down, analyzes its failure, and discusses a new XRF technology appearing on eBay.
HN recommends it as a hands-on introduction to XRF and a fascinating teardown showing the x-ray tube and beryllium windows.
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6 comments from Hacker News
I believe manganese does naturally, but only with a UV laser: [VIDEO] Artificially, one that works with probably most/all lasers would be an active phosphor display(I forget the specific cocktail it's composed of), like the kind from an oscilloscope
For what its worth they did make the tape based xray florescence machines, I saw them on applied science [VIDEO]
Applied Science did a video playing with one. [VIDEO] There are some significant limits on what it can analyze, but it's terrific for learning about metal alloys.
I would like to add a video on XRF from Applied Science, as the device is not very well known (at least in .cz, I have learned about it only recently). [VIDEO]
It's easy enough to generate x-rays, for better or worse, but the devil's in the details. The x-rays apparently need to be monochromatic, or nearly so, so you can't just apply HV to any old random radio tube that's lying around. And then you need a beryllium exit window on the tube and another one at the detector entrance. Fascinating teardown on one of these things at Ben Krasnow's channel [VIDEO] .
There are no hand held devices which will tell you if the soil you're vaguely near has heavy metals in it, nor how much. Well, technically, there are, but now you're back in the ionizing-radiation business: [VIDEO]