Laser Measurer

[bainbrig]

I've been given a laser measurer, a Suaoki S9, and the manual is of course hard to follow(!)

What I want to know is, can I use it in this way: point it at one end of an object, then point it at the other end, and get a reading of the object's length?

I can do this, after a fashion, with the Measuring Thingy on my iPad, but I can't work out how to do it with the Suaoki.

Any help?

Ta.

BB

[jackthehat]

No. The laser dot will need something to reflect off in order for the unit to determine a 'length'.
If you can set something up at right angles to an 'external' corner, or the end of an object, you'll be able to use that to bounce the laser dot off.

[bainbrig]

Thanks Jack. So to do what I want, I'd need to put a 'pretend' wall at either end of my object. I shall see what I can do.

[sanmac]

Does this help?

[jackthehat]

Yes.
Some lasers have trouble calculating distances under about 500mm (although using a laser-measurer for less than that may be a little impractical). If you have any other queries, I'll be happy to help. :o)

[IJKLM]

From this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Distance-Digital-Reference-Recording-Measurement/dp/B071YPS2J9

MEASURING MODES: it can measure single and continuous distances (min/max), area, volume, Pythagoras for height and triangular area, and features add/subtract function

Cautiously, yes, but only if the length you want to measure is one side of a right-angle triangle.

Those things usually work on the 'time of flight' principle. That means the thing has a super-accurate time and sends out pulses so that it fires a pulse and keasures the time before it sees a reflection.

If it can also measure and angle, then it 'could' have a simple trigonometry engine to estimate the 'thid side' of a triangle.

Looks to me from the quote above that it can do this, but is liited to somple right-angle triangles.

Usually, you would set it at the base of the thing you want to measure and fire it toward a target at the other end (such as an interior wall, for example).

Hope it helps.

[bainbrig]

Great minds, IJK, that's what I was working on - i.e. using the triangle function, but not in their way - so measuring one side of a 'triangle' (which only exists theoretically) might give me what I'm after.

Ta for the link, Sanmac - unfortunately the manual (and the several videos on YouTube) aren't wonderfully helpful.


BB

[IJKLM]

Hi BB

I was being thick. It doesn't measure angles. It just gets two measurements and does the squares and subtracts the smaller from the larger.

It does what it says: Pythagoras.

It's up to the user to make sure the measurements it takes are consistent with the calculation.

So long as you are sure that you are measuring a right-angle triangle, it would probably be easier to take the measurements and do the calculation by hand (or calculator) than to work out how to use the device to do those sums for you.