"Meters" .... does anyone use these?

The meters that are in the back of all the tool catalogues...does anyone actually buy/use these?

Thanks.

Lots of shops carry em.....I know law enforcement does for sure.

I use to build the Pocket Detective for a part time job in Littleton Colorado................

Ive got one. Even though Ive been tinting 9 years, sometimes it hard to "tell" how dark a window is. The meter reads darker then the actual VLT of the film, but it gives me an idea anyway.

we have one and use it all the time

I have one and they come in handy for showing customers what the police do when they pull you over and check for !llegal film! It's a great persuader for alot of customers who want dark film on there cars!

the cops have a card, in fl, is 35% and the card reads 35% in a light grey color broken up
but only in dimond shapes
if tha film is darker than 35% he can not see the dimonds

we bought one about 6 months ago and I am glad we did, it is amazing how differant 35% reads on differant cars.

Oh dayum, that's why mine is f'ed up ........

does any one know if the vlt meter has to be calibrated and how often. customer got a ticket for film on front doors to dark i put 20% he said the cop show the meter read 17% so the cop gave him ticket
i put 35% which it lighter than what florida law reads the darkest is 28%. after he went back to the police station to have it tested again they say the film reads 24% still not passing. the film is soltek never had a problem b4. can a vlt meter be off that bad.

a lot of smaller reboxers/"manufactuer's" post specs that are "subjective and only to be used for comparison reasons only" they aren't real specs they have had tested.

I believe they can but probably not +/-.04 I know the btu meter and IR meters can be off...

If the meter doesn't have a good battery it'll spit out all kinds of numbers.

I have one and it comes in handy. I never heard of the cops using a card in Florida. I have had them use a meter on my car 3 or 4 times. Yeah they pull me over alot.

If you have an iPod Touch or iPhone, would you be interested in using it to measure the Visible Light Transmission (VLT) percentage? I just completed an application called ‘iTint’ , and should be available in the Apple App Store by the end of August 2009.

Dude, that is a sweet idea. Let me know when you have it available and I will post it as news on the Zola Distributing site. Good luck! Great to see someone innovating.

So how can it measure vlt without a 'known' light source to measure from ???

lmao.............this is comical

very interesting idea

Maybe you measure the light coming through a non-filmed window followed by a filmed unit. That would give you the comparison if you figured that the first was 100% (we know the glass removes some vlt, but for the test this would work) and then the second would be based on the reduction from the first. I do not know if that is how this app will work, but that might be one way. I am assuming that it will take the measurement with the camera?

Is this one of these constructive criticism posts we should be making Sarah?

its funny to me.....it has to be like the pschology thing to make it work on a i-phone or touch

I don't have an issue with what you posted, you post stuff like this all the time, I was referring to Sarah chewing us out about your snapping film for back windows thread.

sorry when i said that, i ment the way you eye sees things or percieves things. psychology is the only way a app like that would work...like the card trick the post before. where they talk about the diamonds only being able to be seen at certain darkeness. that is psycology ...the same as point perspective....

always good to have

Actually the light source is the bottom half of the screen, which you place behind the tinted glass. The top half you adjust the brightness to visually match the bottom. Works great to measure relative brightness, i.e. you can get a number that let's you determine which object is darker. Of course everyone's eyes are different, so it's not 100% accurate. I was able to get some measurements off some samples I had using a Phantom Visible Transmission meter for the VLT, but the numbers are off using my app. This could be because the measurement of the VLT% is done on the entire visible spectrum, not just one color.

you would think they could afford a meter. I guess just like us, law enforcement is looking to save as much money as possible.

it would be much better as a windows mobile media app.. than a apple app...why lock it to apple...booooo-thumbs down...there is so many people that have other mobile media phones/pocket pc's....

One advantage Apple has is that if you have an iPod Touch (which is not a phone) you have no monthly charge. If this idea works, then it will be ported over to other mobile devices, like Blackberry, Palm Pre, Android, and Windows Mobile. Apple makes things easy for independent developers, unlike some of the other companies.

i have a i-paq by hp and works with most apps. that are pocket windows. i would be intersted in wotking with it, when its available for a pocket pc

OK. The app is now available on Apple's App Store. Check out my web site at http://www.hjchome.com/itint.html for a description of how it works. This app will work on an iPod Touch as well as an iPhone. With calibration, I can get within 5%.

I just saw this and if this app works I give big props to you for the idea and completion of the project Now convince verizon to carry a iphone so I can get one

Apple just lowered the price of the 8GB iPod Touch to $199. The iPod Touch is not a phone, but iTint will work on it. No monthly charges on the iPod Touch.

I like the idea... but do you mean + or - 5% or +-2.5% (5% total) ??

and in order for it to work you need to be able to see the other side of the glass and operate the device at the same time ??

With practice, you actually get better. I will be adding a practice mode in the updated version to help the user refine their skill. I am actually getting within +- 1% now. If you read the detailed instructions at http://www.hjchome.com/itintuse.html, you can see how it works. I've been showing the app at several local (San Diego, CA) companies that work in the tint/window business, and they are all interested.

A Demo version called 'iTint Lite' is now available on the App Store for free. The app randomly sets the bottom brightness (sometimes with a slight color tint), and you try to match the top as closely as possible before checking your results. Maybe I can make a game out of this later.

put this on and sit in the feffin corner ...why would you boo any one trying to help the industry in any type of way casue your cheap azz is the only one who dont have a i phone or i touch nonsense go back to posting pics of your tint work

Gents,

I truly wish I had access to a physics professor for a single day. There are several questions about our industry that after 26 years are still unresolved for me.

One of them involves these tint meters. I think that the process of measuring glass+film simultaneously is fundamentally flawed. Here’s why:



Take a drinking glass out of your kitchen cabinet and fill it ¾ of the way to the top with water. Now put a spoon into the water. Use a spoon that is tall enough so that it sticks up above the water level. Now look at that spoon from different angles. The spoon looks bent – but of course it’s not.

The reason for this optical illusion is that the glass and the water have two different refractive indices. The light waves do not travel at the same speed thru the water as they do thru the glass. The difference in these values is what makes the spoon look bent.

What does this have to do with tint meters?

I have meters in the warehouse that just measure film. I also have the glass+film meters that we sell to you guys, like the Pocket Detective.

I can take a piece of 50% film and put it in the meter. It meters 50%. If I double it up, it correctly reads 25% (which is 50% of 50%). With me so far??

Next I take a meter like a pocket detective and meter a piece of unfilmed glass. I get a 70% reading. Then I put the 50% film onto the 70% glass. It should read 35%, right? (that’s 50% of 70%). But it never does. I am sometimes off by 8-12%. I think this is due to the fact that polyester film has a different refractive index than glass and hence, cannot be accurately read simultaneously.

Anyone know someone with a PhD in physics?



-Howard

interesting! Makes sence though!

I bought the tricked out model from EDTM, made in the USA and it is quite handy. I have used it for automotive applications but I primarily use it for residential and commercial glass. This meter is capable of providing SHGC, UVT and VLT. Based on the results provided by the meter you can determine, fairly accurately, the exact type of glass you are looking at and coordinate with the glass manufacturer's specs for more information. Great tool for F2G charting if you live in a geographic area that utilizes a lot of low e/hp low e glass. Thanks to Mark at EDTM, that guy is a glass guru of all gurus.



- FB

This meter I speak of specifically states that it is not intended for use with glass in conjunction with film, but I have used it with moderate success. Which way is your meter off? You say it is 8-12% off, which direction is it miscalculating? With practice you could "dial it in" and account for the error to determine what the actual results are, for a quick fix of course. You are already aware of this I'm sure, I don't have access to a Physics doctor but it would be cool to have this explained!

Very interesting development:

I found a service called intota.com that will find you an expert in any field of science you wish. I was immediately able to find a qualified expert!! I just had a half hour consultation with this fellow: http://www.intota.com/expert-consultant.as...mp;perID=720984

Check that resume !!! MIT and Princeton !!! It does not get better than that !!

In a delightful French accent, he explained that if the glass + film were bonded together with "zero gap" it would make no difference that they had different refractive indexes. But in this case, there is a layer of adhesive between them and that would make metering them "as a unit" inaccurate. I explained that the layer of adhesive was infinitesimally thin - but he stated that it does not matter. As an example, he reminded me that people apply sunscreen lotion to their skin (imagine how thin that layer is) yet it effectively screens the UV wavelength.

Unfortunately - he informed me that due to his current research workload, he could not take on the project in the foreseeable future. He was very intrigued by the problem and wished he had time; he believed he would have enjoyed it.

Based upon this consultation - I am going to find an expert that will work with me. It is foreseeable that if we could have the present metering methods declared legally invalid, enforcement pressures would let up. So many of my dealers are complaining about "the heat".

This is very interesting and I will pursue it. I'll keep you posted.

-Howard

Very interesting development:

I found a service called intota.com that will find you an expert in any field of science you wish. I was immediately able to find a qualified expert!! I just had a half hour consultation with this fellow: http://www.intota.com/expert-consultant.as...mp;perID=720984

Check that resume !!! MIT and Princeton !!! It does not get better than that !!

In a delightful French accent, he explained that if the glass + film were bonded together with "zero gap" it would make no difference that they had different refractive indexes. But in this case, there is a layer of adhesive between them and that would make metering them "as a unit" inaccurate. I explained that the layer of adhesive was infinitesimally thin - but he stated that it does not matter. As an example, he reminded me that people apply sunscreen lotion to their skin (imagine how thin that layer is) yet it effectively screens the UV wavelength.

Unfortunately - he informed me that due to his current research workload, he could not take on the project in the foreseeable future. He was very intrigued by the problem and wished he had time; he believed he would have enjoyed it.

Based upon this consultation - I am going to find an expert that will work with me. It is foreseeable that if we could have the present metering methods declared legally invalid, enforcement pressures would let up. So many of my dealers are complaining about "the heat".

This is very interesting and I will pursue it. I'll keep you posted.

-Howard

Thast some VERY interesting stuff there Howard! Good Job!

I got it and it actually works pretty well.

Version 1.1 is now available. Default calibration points are used if you don't have calibration samples. Check out the App Store.

I've got a tint meter in the shop, like said before in this post it is a good way to deter customers from going too dark... lol I sold 9 of these to a police force 30 min away