Servomex paramagnetic oxygen transducer

[@daquifsta]

I work for a company manufacturing gas mixing systems, so we have a lot of this type of equipment around. The manufacturers are usually happy to repair and calibrate but you can run into grief if something complex like a microcontroller has died, as often they will have become obsolete. The equipment is generally very robust though - we have an Oxygen analyser that's easily 15 years old that, although being repaired twice in its life for heating element failure, is still going strong.

[@ross123540]

We use these at work in our ABB ACX systems, they are EXTREMELY reliable oxygen sensors, with hardly any drift, great bits of kit :-)

[@TheStevenWhiting]

Always find it amazing that people come up with these designs & then build them. It looks so complicated.

[@superdau]

I didn't even watch the video, but just the title alone tells me I'm in for something very interesting!

[@mikeselectricstuff]

I have a decent one - it's just on loan to someone ATM. The one I used for this is something bought cheap as faulty for a teardown, but managed to get working.

[@mikeselectricstuff]

Panasonic HDC-SD10, which is currently on loan to someone. This was with a SDR-H90 & I think I forgot to set quality to maximum.

[@arcadeuk]

Great video Mike. I love how you went the extra mile to generate some oxygen for testing :)

[@markbell9742]

Super cool. In old school stuff you often hear the term “electro-mechanical” used; this is electro-physics-mechanical. Not that there might be anything interesting (but you never know) you might soak the inner block in solvent for a few days to see if it disaggregates (now there’s a two bit word). Cheers

[@mikeselectricstuff]

No, a red stuck on -change in shade will be due to white balance and compression artifacts

[@mikeselectricstuff]

Stanley Cabinet handleld #1 Pozi - best screwdriver ever made - indestructible blade & perfect handle shape - don't know why they stopped making them.

[@Mishtkrah]

I absolutely love your videos Mike. Thank-you so much for all your efforts with the channel!

[@billfernie7320]

Mike very good Video - Bill FERNIE - From Servomex

[@TheCrazyInventor]

Very cool teardown of a piece of really interesting hardware. Thank you Mike. :)

[@douro20]

To get an accurate atmospheric reading from one of these things it is necessary to use a sampling pump. A small aquarium pump should work nicely.

[@mikeselectricstuff]

...except that I didn't have either to hand. I did however have water & electricity. Would microwave chips work?

[@mikeselectricstuff]

There probably wasn't enough in the syringe to displace all the air that was already there, and this thing could also be way out of cal or faulty

[@phonescreamer]

I'd love to see what you're planning on doing with those magnets. They make for some fun experiments.

[@mikeselectricstuff]

Not sure - presumably a fault in the silicon, maybe damage from sunlight or a laser (not by me!) or maybe cosmic radiation.

[@Muonium1]

The chromium is being produced at the anode with oxygen. It will be going into solution in an acidic environment due to the H+ ions being produced there and any hexavalent chromium will be converted to the harmless trivalent ion immediately. Anyway, even if it weren't it's a very tiny amount, and Cr+6 is only carcinogenic when inhaled.

[@TheBadFred]

The interesting part for me is that magnetic fields can influence oxygen gas. But it looked very old and crusty, but it seemed to be hand soldered, no solder mask, just clear finish to protect from oxidation.

[@daveb5041]

Still can't figure out how the O2 spins those. Unless the unit has a right side up and the gas causes the N2 to be buoyant or something but it doesn't look like it. Does the magnetic field cause the o2 to circulate?

[@andrewmcneil]

What camera do you normally use mike?

[@thewaytruthandlife]

Thanks; tomorrow I am going to have a job-talk with servomax.. this info might serve me very well Great thanks showing me this.... Hope I'll get the job... I'll try to remember to mention you too they might have you too (at least if you are interested)...... you have a lot of insight in these things I see.

[@DgaDM]

Looks quite modern for late 80ies!

[@nodariel]

Interesting piece of kit, I wonder if it measures oxygen by mass or volume.

[@Dibblah1900]

Interesting. Wonder if you could DIY oxygen separation using very intense fields like this.

[@misterquriocity5762]

Amazing technology considering they were making sen$e of a science experiment. As the oxygen increases in mass the concentration of molecules displaces the reflective mirrors thereby 'telling' the feedback circuit to increase the current flow to keep the mirrors in line, the current to do this is proportional and measurable. There is a really cool science experiment given by professor on this site concerning para-magnetism and O2. Try flowing N2 for zeroing your analyzer.

[@daveb5041]

I think all its going to read is zero. No way to put that back together and having it work again.

[@paulmoir4452]

There is such a thing, which is popularly used in diving rebreathers. It operates like an air battery. Teledyne, Analitical Industries eg make them. Unfortunately, like a battery it wears out. I'm sure there's other important differences like accuracy and response time.

[@whitcwa]

At work, I am responsible for masking dead pixels (most are hot) on professional CCD cameras. There is an automatic masking routine, but it sometimes masks the wrong pixel. It won't mask two adjacent pixels, so I have to correct the mask. Some hot pixels are caused by cosmic rays. The cameras which travel by airplane have more than those left near sea level. Of course, they also get xrayed more. Some dead pixels will disappear. They use annealing on the Hubble Space Telescope sensors monthly.

[@andyb7813]

Excellent video Mike, thanks

[@curtisbeef]

I loled when you snapped the Allen Key those standard L shaped ones are crap though.

[@polprog702]

i might be a bit late but i've seen similar coiled pipes on industrial pressure meters. They said it keeps condensated water (and stuff) out of the meters, so that's probably it. The gas might contain some moisture.

[@mikeselectricstuff]

Not sure - it's disappeared somewhere

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

Very interesting video as always! I didn't even notice the hot pixel without it being pointed out and without my screen zoomer on! Is the tiny and expensive balls and mirror thing lost in the bin now?

[@richard0crewe]

Do you have a hall sensor that can measure the strength of the magnetic field in between those knife edges?

[@KickF]

10:49 "OOOO" hehe, but you have a great point here, that label does not provide much info. But did you make sure you did`t have radioactive source in there ? I`m sure you have a geiger counter somewhere in your shop :P Another question, how much did this cost you on ebay ? I love pulling stuff apart myself, but I never bother to buy it from ebay since I then have to pay taxes for it just to get the stuff inside to Norway. Silly 200NOK ( ~20£ ) tax free limit.

[@Mythricia1988]

The date inside that box missed my actual birth date by one day. On the other hand, interesting stuff!

[@stepanf6471]

Are the manufacturers of these expensive measuring/scientific apparatuses willing to repair and calibrate such old stuff or they only want to sell the new stuff?

[@mmmpljms]

They use this system on anaesthesia machines to measure inspired and expired oxygen concentration. Modern paramagnetic analysers don't use the mirror arrangement - instead they measure the force needed to resist the movement of the spheres and calculate the oxygen % based on that.

[@dumle29]

But isn't that what this is doing? measuring the force needed to keep the mirror point in between the two optical sensors.

[@CxC2007]

How is the Job with the Nano's LCD and the FPGA's ? I'm very interested about that. Br.

[@DjResR]

Is the fdanger sign for hydrogen, as it can ignite with static discharge?

[@ElectronicTonic156]

Can you measure how many Tesla is the magnetic field density?

[@lennyhome]

Use graphite electrodes for electrolysis. It corrodes but it's cheap and gives very clean products.

[@dos541]

I wish i had a few of those magnets for my shop I would stick them to a long strip of metal and wolah a good magnetic toolholder I bet those magnets would have no problem holding a hammer

[@rosselur]

why is it orange sometimes?

[@danbrit9848]

those mags gave me an idea...2 magnets with anof force to bend thin metal and can be turned on and of...auto metal cutter by using bending back and forth fast between them

[@Razor2048]

if you can find a really old CRT monitor and a really powerful magnet, try pressign it against the screen. (weak magnets can really mess the picture up, but what about insanely powerful magnets (eg the ones that can hold 60-70kg :)

[@Jamac666]

What actually causes a hot pixel?

[@FiveseveNp90]

Because it was a blue pixel that died?

[@mjekov]

Great video! Thanks!

[@FrozenHaxor]

Interesting bit of technology

[@Doom2pro]

It's too bad the camera firmware in most cameras doesn't have an option to average out dead pixels with data from the surrounding pixels. Wouldn't be too hard to implement, just have to manually select the dead pixel for the camera to identify it, and camera controls should do the trick.

[@mikeissweet]

Very American sounding "danger" lmao

[@NerdNordic]

Mike, don't lend your camera to photonicinduction! ;)

[@sparkyprojects]

You could make a motor with that magnet ;)

[@Ghlargh]

Ghaaaa! I hate when someone has managed to magnetize tools, all kinds of iron dust and shavings stick to them and makes them hard to use... Great teardown though!

[@douro20]

I'm sure that the DANGER label has to do with the very powerful magnet inside.

[@AlexandreJasmin]

The dead pixel on your camera turned red. That thing has been annoying for a while. You should start a funding campaign to get your camera replaced.

[@SkyOctopus1]

I too went "what the heck is that?" and now I know!

[@ceilingcat6922]

"Oh look -- A paramagnetic oxygen transducer!" *lol*

[@daveb5041]

Mike very good Video - DAVE B - From The Internet

[@somvitbakshi1105]

Good work

[@actionvideostudios-bloodreflex]

Good stuff Mike. What i want to know, is what the hell you searched to find all this crap?

[@TheAmmoniacal]

Should put that on your fridge.

[@randacnam7321]

Entropy. Any good tools (and many things besides) always end up getting discontinued. Another characteristic of this is that the replacements/'new and improved' versions are always inferior to some degree.

[@FrontSideBus]

I bet that wasn't cheap back in its day!

[@Nexfero]

interesting technology...

[@DanFrederiksen]

"vaguely plausible reading" :) As usual, looking at this device I can't help think that an oxygen sensor could be done much simpler and cheaper. That device looks rather complicated and expensive and prone to vaguely plausible readings over time :) Oxygen no doubt responds to some kind of light or radio so I would immediately shoot for a solid state principle rather than a mechanical one.

[@KallePihlajasaari]

Use the magnet to make a tiny cyclotron 🙂

[@DaveCurran]

Now put it back together........ ;^)

[@stonent]

Mike, maybe we should send all our stuff to you instead of Dave since he doesn't seem to like opening his mail very much. :)

[@aserta]

I strongly recommend a Stanley Allen key set. I've had one for almost 7 years now and i didn't pull any punches on them. You buy them once. Preferably the red holder Stanley set, black keys. "h tt p : // 2.imimg.com/data2/SN/BL/MY-3369285/stanley-hex-key-250x250.jpg"

[@TylerLarson]

Can you expect to make back from advertising on a given video the amount of money you spent to buy this teardown equipment? Or is this funded out-of-pocket more for your entertainment?

[@cstgwu1]

make a generator out of that frame

[@TheAmmoniacal]

Volume.

[@nwnchrst07]

I think you might have broke it.

[@Llyod3000]

:D "DANGER!"

[@253UC]

Because they work lol, same reason they stop making anything good!