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Peltier Cell Cooled Cloud Chamber.
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How to build this Cloud Chamber. A few pages on design, construction and use of this cloud chamber. |
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A short video describing a very simple cloud chamber. How to build a simple peltier cell cooled cloud chamber. No dry ice and very quick to assemble from common household materials. |
Here are a few images and a short video.
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Peltier cooled cloud chamber - no dry ice. Homemade in a few hours. Full how to build instructions here.
Heatsink water-cooled in a 16 Litre aquarium. 5 Litres per minute are pumped directly through the heatsink fins.
All power is supplied by an old PC power supply: 12 volts ('hot' peltier) 5 volts ('cool' peltier), 350 volts for the ion scrubber (brown and blue wire loops), fans & illumination.
Small computer fans help keep the camera and light windows clear of condensation.
Solder reel is my 'gentle heat source' to keep the alcohol vaporising, as it tends to overcool after 30 minutes or so below -36C.
Aluminium 'cold plate' painted black. Am241 source, from an old smoke detector, is embedded in a foam block mounted on the 'fence'.
The 'fence' (clear, thin polycarbonate) helps increase the depth of the active zone, where the air is coolest, by reducing the 'spill off' the Al' plate.
Plate is fixed to the 'hot side' heatsink using nylon countersunk screws and strain relief 'springs' to allow for thermal expansion/contraction of the 'stack'.
The white item is my temperature probe. Black 'screen' behind them is only to improve contrast for imaging.
Video of the chamber in operation - this is uncut (raw) footage in real time:
My Videos:
How to make a CD wimshust machine - A 9.3 minute video providing full instructions on how to make a wimshurst machine from CD blanks and household items.
CD wimshurst machine 1 - wimshurst machine, cobbled together in an afternoon from scraps and a couple of CD's.
CD winshurst machine 2 - Short video of the wimshurst machine made in the 'How to build a CD wimshurst machine' showing max sparks of 15mm and overloads.
32cm wimshurts machine - A short video of a wimshurst machine with 32cm disks, this produced over 130mm sparks and is a very reliable wimshurst machine.
Cloud chamber 1 - 1 short video of an Alpha source (Am241) and background radiation in a homemade peltier cooled cloud chamber without dry ice.
Cloud chamber with Water as the 'fuel' - a short video demonstrating water as active vapour, very quickly frosted up! How to make a cloud chamber without dry ice.
Poorly Lit homemade cloud chamber- contrasting good and bad lighting in my homemade peltier cloud chamber! No dry ice.
Granite in a cloud chamber - no dry ice - some activity from a piece of granite. No dry ice, peltier cooled.
Background radiation in a peltier cloud chamber - no active sources anywhere near, just background radiation. Peltier cooled, homemade cloud chamber not using dry ice.
How to make a cloud chamber - a 5 minute video on how to build a simple cloud chamber in less than an hour. How to build a cloud chamber without dry ice, peltier cooled.