Use a thermocouple in contact with the side of the tip while in its
holder, or use a small solenoid to move it to make contact when needed.
I picked up a digital thermometer with a 2000 deg F thermocouple
complete for less than $30 on sale at Harbor Freight not long ago. Not
lab grade, but one doesn't always need +/- 0.1% accuracy at 1500F. ;)

I would either use it directly if all you needed was a readout, or tap
into it for data or the input to its PIC if it has one... at least to
get ideas or proof of concept...

-Skip

John Chung wrote:
> Thanks for the correction. I like to build an IR
> thermometer for some projects. One of the possible
> case scenario is to actually measure a small spot like
> a soldering iron. The spot would be the tip of the
> iron. I do have a IR thermometer which can read the
> temperature of the tip after SOME adjustment. It is
> getting annoying to say the least. So to measure the
> tip I thought of a IR thermometer with a better
> fixture and possible getting a better reading of the
> tip. I do know of the thermal control solder iron but
> currently I am messing with the idea of just
> identifying the temperature of the tip. I have thought
> of other possible solutions but it requires me to
> actually heat up the element to get the current
> temperature at the tip.... I could wind some coil to
> the iron to gain the overall temperature of the
> iron..... 300c at one inch for the tip should not harm
> it since it pretty much localize. Yes I do know of the
> diameter that the IR gun can measure at a given
> range.......
>
> I hope that my new explanation would help clarify my
> needs. :)
>
> John
>
>
>  
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