Brainiac75

Bad Beams? | How divergent are lasers?

You would think after 12 years of making videos that I have an idea of how much work is needed to make a video idea come true.

Nope... I thought a video about measuring a laser beam's divergence would be quick and easy. Just measure the beam width at two different distances. How hard can it be?

Well... hard once you try it in practice. The width of a laser beam or its spot is not obvious! Not to mention the safety aspects when measuring strong laser dots.

Watch me give it a ...

Will this really zap me?

In my April video here in Patreon, I showed you the 400W UV cannon. Odd in many ways, but an alarming oddity is the warning about 'never touch the plug's contact pins!'
Could this light fixture zap me with 230V when unplugged?
Let's dig deeper into the mystery...

Lots of info in this one. You can press 'K' to pause the video, 'J' to rewind 10 seconds or 'left arrow' to rewind 5 seconds :o)

Next public video is planned for release next Friday, May 28th. I will measure a featu...

SD Card vs. Radioactivity | Data Loss?

Oh boy. I want all my videos to be good and successful, but some more than others. Considering ESA asked for my help in this one, I really want it to be and do good. 

Hope you will enjoy my effort and watch all of it, click like, comment and even share if possible to help give the video the all important good start on YouTube.

I want to show ESA that there is a serious yet entertaining side to YouTube they can work with. I would not mind cooperating more with agencies and com...

400W ultraviolet!

In this Patreon exclusive video, I will give you a closer look on the latest UV light in my arsenal: a UV cannon featuring a 400W high-pressure mercury gas discharge bulb!

This light is crazy in many ways. As demonstrated in the video. Enjoy!

If you haven't already voted in the #yourwaytospace poll on my channel's community tab, you can do it here: https://www.youtube.com/c/brainiac75/community<...

Measuring Monster Magnet's Grade

After failing at finding a way to measure the grade of my largest magnets using a kitchen scale, it is time to go back to basics. I will attempt to measure the grade of my monstrous magnets using a gaussmeter and spreadsheet as demonstrated earlier.

I will even go a step further and use a more advanced, free program called FEMM. Will it all work out or will their grade remain a mystery?

200x50 mm magnet donated earlier by magnetportal.de

Laser pointers from Wish.com. Worst ever?

I am regularly asked by viewers to test their lasers. But I don't have time to test them all and don't like to be responsible for expensive lasers that aren't my own. Especially when shipping internationally with the risk of customs seizing the lasers or adding import taxes etc.

But when Ian from Sweden asked me to test some of his lasers from Wish, I said yes.

No real value involved if something goes wrong, and I wonder how good the quality is on lasers from Wish. Are they as bad...

The struggles of weighing a magnet | Density = Grade?

Sometimes, well... often I get some crazy ideas that I just should leave alone. This may be one of them.

I would like to test if there is any correlation between a magnet's grade and density. That would be so convenient and make it easier for anyone to test the seller's claim on a magnet's grade.

Sounds easy to test the density of a magnet, right? Not in my experience... Here's my video on it.

Ouch! Why I (usually) wear gloves

I am often asked why I wear gloves while handling large magnets. There are several reasons: Avoid small pinches, avoid nickel allergy, avoid cuts or splinters from tools handled near the magnet and even a slightly better chance of getting fingers unstuck in the event of an accident.

During the filming of the upcoming February video, I managed to disregard the gloves in my eager to quickly test a hunch. And of course I got pinched...

Not a big accident, but a clear reminder that gl...

Even Stronger Garden Laser?!? | Laser classes explained

Last year I bought a new garden decoration laser. Yes... I've already got four of them, but this one stood out since it is labeled class 3R. Stronger than my current ones in class 2!?

Perfect opportunity to investigate the different laser classes. Where does 3R fit in compared with class 3A and 3B? Is this new one really stronger or is it just another mislabeled laser?

Firmware upgrading the RadiaScan

Back in January 2020 I upgraded the firmware on my RadiaScan-701A geiger counter and filmed it. Then 2020 happened and I forgot about the recordings... until now.

Here's my experience on how to upgrade the firmware and a little test on a new function. Feel free to share, if you know someone who could use the info.

In case you missed the video where I test the geiger counter donated by RadiaScan, it is here: https://y...

Don't use strong lasers without this - easy to make!

Final video of 2020! A special one where I try some DIY when building and testing a beam dump.
A device that is strongly recommended if you regularly use class IV or even class IIIb lasers. Kind of embarrassing I haven't had one until now...

I thought this would be a quick video to make and give me some time off in December.
Well, I was wrong. Building something WHILE filming takes ten times as long. And try counting the number of video clips and editing cuts in this video...

Best of 2020

Let's be honest. 2020 was a horrible year, but I want to focus on something positive in this final Patreon exclusive post of the year.

For the third year in a row I managed to release a video every month. Focusing hard on the videos was a way of keeping me sane in 2020. Something normal, a familiar goal in a year where everything else seemed disrupted.

In this video I look back on the videos and highlight my own favorite part of the videos. Including a sneak peek on the upcoming D...

You drink this? | Fluorescent Food

I have a feeling that this winter will be particular dark and the holidays not so jolly as we are used to. My humble contribution to 'lighten' the mood is a video showing the fun and beauty of fluorescent food and drinks. Experiments with common household items you can try at home if you have a UV light source.
There are  a lot of edible fluorophores as I show in the newest video.

If you know of some other fluorescent food and drinks, I would like to hear about them. I love find...

English transcript of TV feature

Thanks to a massive effort from one of my Danish, long-time patrons, Klaus Andersen, I now have an English transcript of my recent TV appearance. I have attached it as a PDF-file.
Big thanks to Klaus - send him some love :o)

As something exclusively for you, my patron, I have even made some notes in it to add some extra depth. Let me know if you have any questions or comments after reading it.

Here's the link for the video again: 2020-11-22 19:45:07 +0000 UTC View Post

I was on TV?!?

This is mostly for those of you who understand Danish....

I recently had a crew from the local TV station visit me at both my day job and at my home/studio. After around 5 hours of filming, they made and published a 4 min and 15 min segment about my dual personality as a public accountant and youtuber.

I have linked to the 15 min segment on their website. It is in Danish, but even if you don't understand it, you can at least hear me speak my native language and see some behind-t...

Monster magnet meets plasma ball

Time to find out what happens when a big magnet comes close to a plasma globe.

Will the plasma filaments follow the magnetic field? Will nothing happen or something completely different?

I also test their light output on the spectrometer to figure out what gases are inside. One of them had a hidden, not very pleasant emission I haven't seen documented before. Including a mystery spectral line I am not sure about the origin of. Maybe you know it?

Hope you like the video. Let ...

Heads-up

Well, this is new to me. I will actually have a video ready a day before planned. So the new video will be released tomorrow in stead of October 31st as announced earlier.
Hope you are ready to help me give it a good start by watching, liking, commenting, sharing etc. It will go live October 30th at 20:15 CET (3:15 p.m. ET?).

Bonus info: Filming this was a challenge. The light from plasma balls is weak. Most of the output is invisible as I will reveal in the video.
So filming the...

I want to supersize this!

I really need to make a video about vortices. They are one of the beauties of nature.

I was reminded of it when I recently stumbled upon a table lamp in the local supermarket.
A 'tornado' lamp that's really a whirlpool lamp. It is just far from perfect, so I want to make my own version. Any ideas and input for the project is more than welcome.

The teaser at the end is from the video scheduled to go public Saturday, October 31st. It will be an interesting one in my Monster Magne...

What makes green lasers the best lasers?

After giving you something to think about in the poll about the brightest laser, it is time to show you how to calculate lumens (and lux) from a laser to find the answer.
It is relatively easy for a monochromatic light source like a laser. And the results make it obvious, why the Laserglow Hercules has the most visible beam of all my lasers.
Wanna guess how many lux it is? Sunlight is max 100,000 lux in case you need a reference.

Thanks for helping out with the luxmeter, spectrome...

Brightest laser?

Has anyone figured out how to bypass that arbitrary limit of 24 hours a day? Looks like I may not have time for a bonus video this month...

But I can give you a little teaser on the subject of the upcoming main video:

Which one of the lasers listed below look the brightest to us?
(assume equal beam size and divergence).

Just take a guess. It is totally anonymous and I am interested in your gut feeling about it. After publishing the next video I will comment with the right...

Don't use a green laser in the cold!

Time to bring some public attention to the risk of using green DPSS lasers in the cold.

I know green lasers are used to point out stars on frost-clear nights, and Christmas decoration lasers are used outside at winter too.

But are people aware of the invisible hazard from an apparently non-working laser? In this video I try to show how bad it can be.

And as a sidetrack, I test the wavelength of my IR remotes :)

Banana Bloopers and Outtakes

Wow, where did first half of August go? Ah well, you're never bored when time flies by so fast.

Here's a bonus video featuring some outtakes and bloopers from my latest public video. What looks like an easy, quick one-take may actually have taken a while and several attempts :D

Next public video planned to be released next Sunday, August 30th.

How radioactive are bananas and other radioactive foods?

On the internet there are a lot of quotes and videos on how bananas are radioactive and Brazil nuts are the most radioactive you will eat.

I would like to put things in perspective with my own video. Time to show that even the most radioactive Brazil nuts are not even close to being the most radioactive and edible you can find in a grocery store...

I will also test the pulp and peel of bananas separately. One of the parts turns out to be by far the most radioactive!

Testing eBay infrared filter and homebuilt laser

In this Patreon exclusive for patrons I will test some laser related items donated by... patrons.

Thanks to Piter Soft for sending a home-built laser based on a laser diode from a DVD burner. I will test the power and wavelength of it.

Thanks to zedd for sending an inexpensive infrared filter from eBay and the "filter" that was replaced in his high-powered green laser pointer. I will test how well they filter infrared. I am bit surprised by the result...

At the end there is ...

Can I measure the grade of a magnet?

This is a video I have hesitated to make. But it is a video that is fitting for my channel and answers a question I occasionnally get from viewers (and ask myself): Can the grade of a magnet be measured?

I believe it is very difficult at home due to many factors and relatively small differences between the grades. Not to mention the grades are ranges - not exact values.

I will however attempt to determine the grade of a cheap N52 magnet from eBay using only a gaussmeter and some t...

Extra details and a teaser | Bonus June 2020

Just a quick bonus video with some extra details and behind the scenes from my latest video. But also a little teaser for my upcoming video...

My world is crazy right now, but I hope to release the next public video Sunday June 28th.

Strongest LASERs in my collection | Power and wavelength measured

This should have been a short and simple video, where I test the accuracy of the new spectrometer with some lasers. But I got excited, carried away and ended up testing a lot of lasers - including the power of them all.

So the video is now my second longest ever - edited down to under 15 minutes and jam-packed with info and details for the enthusiast. Hang on for an intense journey into my laser collection. Some will disappoint - others will shine!

And I finally reveal, if the He...

How strong is my aging Hercules laser?

As mentioned in my previous post, I will test the Hercules-400 laser on the laser power meter. I bought the power meter a long time ago but have hesitated to power test the Hercules. I am simply worried about being disappointed...

For this poll, I would like to hear what you expect, based on the following info:

I bought the laser back in 2008 (12 years ago!) so it is far from new. Especially since I bought it secondhand online. I can't remember how long the first owner had it. 2020-05-27 17:44:46 +0000 UTC View Post

Testing the new spectrometer in ultraviolet!

In my next video, I will test the wavelength of all the laser colors I have in my collection. I will use the new spectrometer unboxed in the last Patreon video.

It will therefore also be a precision test of the spectrometer in the visible and infrared spectrum.

But I do not have any invisible UV lasers, so to give you and me an idea of the spectrometer's performance in the ultraviolet spectrum, I made this video. Enjoy.

You may need to pause the video at some places in the f...

Magnetic heating and cooling | Magnetocaloric Effect

I'm spent... This video was originally planned to be a relatively simple and short niche video showing the magnetocaloric effect with gadolinium. But over time it expanded to be a more broad view on how magnetism can affect temperature.

It now includes a race between an induction and resistive cooker, a short explanation of how low voltage affects their performance, an animation of a refrigeration cycle using the magnetocaloric effect etc.

It ended up being one of the most editing...