Gadgetory

so before we get D monetize for that intro for the James Bond reference in the fake blood that's YouTube now we're gonna talk about the mod Matt and its thermal tolerance this is something a lot of you have asked about I have not tested it yet so I'm gonna be testing it more or less live except not on camera while you guys are watching and we're gonna see what I can stand up to a lot of people have asked how it would hold up against soldering and how it would hold up against a heat gun like for hardline tube bending and stuff like that so we have a digital heat gun here that I just picked up and TR industrial I can set the output bought it myself and we're also gonna use it for water coin stuff later hopefully so we can set the output on that we've got a soldering iron test both of them against the mat and see how it does currently the only thermal numbers I have from the factory is they basically said conservatively keep it below 60 degrees Celsius which I that shouldn't be a problem we're gonna see if we go over that though because that's where it should get interesting we've right now we've not recommended using the mod mat as a soldering surface it's not a soldering mat it's made of rubber and ink for the most part so those things both melt it's just a question of at what temperature do they mouth and also we want to know how well it holds up to a heat gun which is more relevant to our a lot of our audience either way if you're not familiar with the mod mat you go to stored I cameras nexus net and backorder it it's more or less an order at this point because we're getting them in this weekend at the time of filming this video so they'll be shipping out basically immediately and then factory and shipping time to get to you it's an anti-static building surface so great for PC modding we've done a lot of water cooling on it with leakage and it's held up very well to that so fairly water resistant now we just need to see how heat-resistant it is and if we can make some things melt or catch on fire today I think let's start out with let's start setting up the surface so my plan here I'm gonna stick some thermocouples on it we're gonna treat this like a normal benchmark and should be reasonably scientific but not too crazy with it what we're gonna do is stick a thermo on the surface somewhere and then we're gonna stick one on the underside of the mat and then I have a blue mat the old blue mat if anyone remembers that under here it's these blue ones by the way we bought these for business use and they're $100 each any we're gonna use this to protect the table underneath the mod mat that may be up for melting today and I'm just gonna stick one of these down with some captain tape which is basically a thermal tape so we have one k-type thermocouple on the top and one on the bottom k types are plus or minus two point two degrees we've calibrated these but it's typically plus plus my point two point two degrees tolerance now that said just to clarify something here a lot of people here at two point two they think wow that's a lot it's actually not because it's perfectly inaccurate so if it's two point two degrees off it is always two point two degrees off in the same direction so let's say we have a known true temperature of a hundred degrees Celsius hitting this thing and let's say that this has an an in accuracy of one degree negative so it reads ninety nine when we go up to 200 it'll read 199 we go up to 300 I mean it can't these can't really tolerate too much heat but basically it's always one degree negative offset so it's perfectly inaccurate which means calibration just requires that you know what the accuracy is and then you adjust for that manually and spreadsheets or whatever I'm gonna put one basically on the opposite side of this one so you plug in the K types to the thermocouple reader figure out the temperature of the material in between by doing that so somewhat scientific approach to this and then this one will have an ambient temperature probe and a manual thermometer which is also a K type setup but I can take this thermometer and the planets touch it to the end of the soldering iron so that we can figure out what's the temperature of the soldering iron versus what's the temperature of the mat of ambient and all that stuff okay so we're all set up to go not sure how well the captain tape will hold up to actual hot air blowing on it normally it's just kind of conductive heated see with from components we'll try it out and this is somewhat controllable so we're gonna try and set it to I don't know roughly 60 degrees Celsius for a starting temperature then we'll go up rapidly from there just because 60 is what the factories told me is good I would like it to be higher than that obviously so we'll see how well it does so we're going to be this is basically anyone remember the thousand degree knife that wasn't actually a thousand degrees this can go up to I think actually a thousand degrees Fahrenheit it doesn't exactly count so may be the thumbnail we can do that wasn't degree heat gun versus Matt take some that cuz that's I can't can't bring myself to do that so we're going for 160 is what we're gonna set for Fahrenheit because this doesn't do well I mean might be solved if I don't know how to do that so got a not pointed out myself while you're reading it which is about sixty degrees Celsius and let's just it'll take a minute to kind of heat up but that's the end of this I think it is and sky not too hot yet so it is if you look at the right thermocouple leader in the bottom left of the screen it says sixty two point two and that's the thermometer I'm holding my hand so we're pushing 60 C out of the end the mod Matt is still at about 53 which will give it a bit more time to heat up but there it's definitely pretty resistant to heat it's it's a really high under rubber like it's an industrial material we chose that's why the at such high quality but it'll take a little bit longer let's see if it gets to 60 eventually you're not melting or anything yet I want to bring it up in speed all right so that's that's enough I think we're 60 let's print it up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit which is roughly and mind you something solid is named 93 92 93 96 and we're gonna test two things one is when does the rubber melt and when does the paint know which I'll do this test separately don't have to point the gun at something painted separately for that also for anyone worried about how this tapes affecting it we're hitting the surrounding area as well so the thermocouples really just tell us what the temperature is nearby and all the tapes doing is block until the air sure but clearly it's still heating up to 60 plus and then we've got the underside thermocouple to validate for us what is that 50 we got a doll for about 10 degrees at the bottom is 50 it's pretty safe to assume obviously the entire way through for this vertical slice it's going to be 50 degrees plus and 60 on the surface because if they're on a couple breathing on the surface all right so we've had them at over 60 for several minutes now and we've gotten it up to a peak of about 70 so let's kind of inspect if any damage has been done the general area where's your tape residue that's to be expected no damage let's see if I can dig any rubber out no no that's fine cool okay well that's a good start all right so we're set to 115 degrees Celsius right now let's see if there's any difference and down to that on there all right so that's two minutes that's two minutes at 100 degrees Celsius for the top and round are roughly 80 for the bottom it's pretty pretty uncomfortably hot any damage so man that is super resilient I mean the neighboring paint isn't that uh isn't that much there isn't as warm but let's um let's look at the underside as well you definitely see where we that's a piece of tape and dried up all the stickiness and the tape all the moisture and the tape is dry underside still really warm so really happy with that so far the mat thus far hasn't had any issues with 80 to 82 degrees Celsius for the mat temperature as measured after a few minutes of the heat gun we're only spot checking a few things here and we haven't tested an access of ten minutes or anything like that but to be fair you shouldn't really even point in a heat gun directly at the mat at a painted area without anything in between them for that lawn anyway so also quick note here the temperature of the mat is different than what's coming out of the heat gun so when we say 80 to 82 degrees mat temperature that's different from the air temperature the air temperature as it's hitting the mat is over a hundred degrees but the mat temperature itself obviously is a bit different because it's a different surface there's thermal resistance to take note of and and conductivity and then also the air coming directly out of the heat gun is quite a bit warmer than the air hitting the mat as well as because it's further away you leave some of that as you get closer to the mat so we need to do is see how the paint holds up maybe let's let's blast one of these pin outs over here so these are our power pin outs like if you wanted to see where the 12 volt lines are so you could maybe do a resistance check for 12 volt versus a shunt resistor or something so if these start bleeding color obviously it'll be really obvious to us we're gonna check those next okay so what we've done here this time we change the meth but there's still a thermocouple on the underside and it's taped exactly opposite of this metal thermometer just in case the metal thermometer is more sensitive on the the very tip which is not directly touching the mat in case it's more sensitive here and it's detecting the hot air temperature rather than the mat temperature we've stuck another thermocouple to the mat on the top and this is reading at the the point of the thermocouple so we should get a more accurate reading and then the underside is gonna be our best bet of what the true mat temperature is because it's not being hit by the air so that's the number we want to pay the most attention to that for this one I think just cuz that'll give us a conservatively low thermal tolerance number which I would rather rate it conservatively low and be pleasantly surprised so when we care most about I've just switched so that's this top number here twenty seven point six currently and then the bottom one is going to be the thermometer so that's the thermometer that's the underside let's see how it does and then this this thermocouple is over here on t2 currently twenty eight point five for that in case you're wondering this number up here normally is our ambient readout except it's going to be influenced by the heat it's behind the thermocouple readers so that's not really the most useful number other than roughly room ambient before the heat starts getting to it the air hitting the mat right now 137 degrees that's the air temperature hitting it 75 for the under side 124 for the top thermocouple again getting influenced by air especially liftoff at this point so we can't believe we can't disregard this number this point it's no longer touching the mat completely it's now getting under draft from the air so that number is no longer good for us unless I read tape it down let's just disconnect that for use confusing okay air temperature currently 148 degrees 140 145 is our range for air temperature Celsius underside is 88 for sure so the mat for sure is at least 88 degrees plus or minus 2 which is actually we'll see if there's any damage at this point it smells kind of like a match so it definitely smells I mean yeah there you go there's some there's some paint damage right there I was very very very hot what's her surface temperature right now surface temperature is like a hundred degrees holy crap so reading 86 on the surface right now this is by the way after turning it off and letting it sit obviously for a good thirty seconds so it cooled down a lot this time it's straight down touching the mat so known temperature in the 80s so in the 80s Celsius for the mat we're getting paint damage which I have to say is it's pretty damn good it's not even that bad it's not like it melt it didn't delaminate but it is coming off so yeah not the not so bad really I'm pretty happy with that result if you're pointing a heat gun straight down for like several minutes there's like five total but it was two at that temperature but five or so total at a heavily painted area than at about 90 degrees service temperature maybe 150 degrees air temperature Celsius for all these underside temperature 80 we're getting some paint damage and it still looks pretty damn good considering the what it just went through oh yeah I'm pretty happy at that result cool so yeah the mat looks great there's no no melting or anything like that down here certainly certainly warm still but there's no visible damage on the underside no visible damage to the rubber on the topside obviously some paint damage so that's just one more time go over the numbers here we're roughly ninety degrees Celsius service temperature I'm being conservatively low there so that's a rough temperature based on a measurement like 20 seconds after the gun was turned off 20-30 seconds and then the underside was in the 80s and then the air temperature was about 150 degrees Celsius so this was at 143 degrees air temperature 88 degrees mat temperature we have some paint damage here which is to be expected as it's ultimately ink which is comprised largely of things like water but the matte rubber material looks perfectly fine we're not seeing meaningful material damage overall we're really happy with this result there aren't a lot of people who would be blasting the mat again from 2 inches away with the heat gun dead-on on a painted part at nearly 150 degrees Celsius for the air temperature as it hits the mat that's a bit excessive it looks like it's pretty good for this for soldering again yeah if you're gonna make contact with the surface it's not a soldering mat that would cost us a lot more money to make and still print on and if you want printed graphics on it it's going to be kind of hard to pull off with a soldering mat anyway because ink melts or at least evaporates or dries up or something so let's see how we do with a higher temperature we saw the 380 degrees Fahrenheit last time I want to do this a little more ad-hoc just take spot measurements with the third metal thermometer 440 Fahrenheit it's a gun is set to 226 Celsius right now and let's pick a spot that I can easily replicate that hasn't been messed with already so we're gonna point right here at this blower fan in the design the GM logo design is that about the same two inch distance or so we're at 170 something degrees and climbing air temperature so 180 we're at 181 180 degrees Celsius somewhere in that range and surface is whether it's let's see what the surfaces right now leave it alone for a second we're doing just fine and that was at 440 degrees Fahrenheit coming out of the heat gun which is again 226 degrees Celsius let's bring it up to 500 Fahrenheit which is 260 actually it's a little higher than that 520 degrees not okay it's been about two and a half minutes one thing to note here when the mat is coming up like this it's either partly because air is getting through the pores of the mat and underneath it causing liftoff or because the rubber is expanding as it's heating up and currently we are reading we're still climbing to study state in the 70s currently obviously it's cooling down while we're doing this okay let's check the underside if possible it's like probably it's it's about eighty degrees down there alright that's about two and a half minutes again none of the ink is coming off and the rubber seems fine oh is it steaming or is that the gun it's steaming for sure is yeah the Matt is there's steam coming off the mat right now it's definitely super hot I mean it's it's steaming so it's gonna be up there it's roughly 80 currently and that's after being off for a while all right soldering iron test we're gonna do turn it on we'll test the temperature of the tip of the soldering iron and then apply it for a known period of time to the surface we'll start with an unpainted area and then go to painted there's some oh got a breaker or what that was a short see if it does it again I guess site wiring fault let's see if that's what lights up and that is cool I think the soldering iron I want to use might have a short or something because when I turn it on it trips the huh let's just let's show that one time so when I turn this Saturday night on you're gonna see it'll flip our protective circuit in the APC power strip so protection working keep an eye on this and one two three pretty cool so I found another one it is not controllable in any way but it's it's ancient it's been around forever so we're gonna see what tetra this gets up to you right now we're eating 121 degrees 124 degrees 26 28 still climbing that the thermometer is catching up with it right now so we're at 148 149 on 50 this is gonna be really hot I don't think I have a way to control it see how it does on an unpainted surface first service is at a lot of degrees Celsius current temperature very high C and 6870 175 178 181 oh my god 188 yeah that's causing some burning so this is what you can expect if you get a soldering iron up to say I don't know I don't know exactly what temperature that's started you can expect damage like this is still too hot to the touch yes I should not touch it presently this is an iron that's 200 degrees and obviously that's going to cause all kinds of problems because we're melting robbery it's 200 degrees I don't really know what else you would expect but if you were to lay it down maybe for like three seconds it'd be okay leave maybe a bit of a scorch but it's it's when you do anything longer than that so basically if you're trying to find a surface yeah you can stab it with the iron like if you're just working you kind of slip and go like that sure they'll cause a bit of a scorch but it's not gonna like burn through the rubber instantly that'll take a while it's just we still don't recommend it as a perfect service for solder and you could solder on top of it it's just you know if you stab it especially for long periods of time at 200 degrees Celsius expect a bit of damage that said the mats holding up really well despite not being built for this purpose of soldering the mat will still protect the underlying surface but it will get a scorch whenever you make a contact point with a really really hot iron so we don't recommend using the mat as a soldering mat specifically if you want it to be perfect for multi hundreds of degrees irons and remain without any damage basically if you want to be a pristine surface with the ink unharmed then soldering is going to be a bit of a problem for ink obviously we're not afraid to say that it's not a soldering mat however we're interested in making one of the future so keep that in mind if you do want a specific soldering at grade mat this is just more of a building service that said it holds up really well overall so although we don't advertise the mat as a soldering mat you can use it during soldering you certainly could if not stabbing it for long periods of time or wiping the iron on the mat intentionally to clean it off or something service temperature seems best kept below 80 degrees Celsius our official spec for safety of the mat is still 60 degrees Celsius but we've tested up to and Beyond 80 degrees here today and have observed minimal damage at those temperatures especially if you're talking heat gun versus soldering iron and if you still really want a soldering mat again and this isn't good enough although it's quite good if you are okay with it taking a couple scorch marks when you're at 200 degrees it's still holding up pretty well it's just not meant for it but anyway if you're still really want of soldering that we're looking into them and if you have specific ideas tweet them at us or something like that we'll see what we can do the takeaway is that if you're using a soldering iron that's multiple hundreds of degrees Celsius it's gonna be a little bit hot for a rubber and ink so we're not a soldering mat I'm perfectly okay saying if you're gonna be using this thing for soldering and you're gonna be laying down the soldering iron on the mat it's not the best fit because we're not trying to be everything for everyone we're trying to do one thing really well which is be an awesome mod Matt and I static build surface with some diagrams on it but from the perspective of water cooling enthusiasts it works pretty damn well but there's the ink hasn't run off and the rubber hasn't melted so there might be some discoloration if you're at 300 degrees Celsius with the air temperature the temperature of the mat is obviously different it takes a while to heat up thermal resistance as a factor but the end of the day you're not going to be pointing a heat gun two inches away from the mat for like 10 minutes at really high temperatures like that so I'm really happy with how it held up because our spec previously was to keep the mat below 60 degrees Celsius and and so that's kind of what our rough guideline was it can handle a bit more than that and in terms of air temperature can handle quite a lot as long as you're not pointed at it for you know a really long period of time basically for long enough for the mat to start heating up to say 90 degrees so held up really well if you're still interested in it and you want it well we can say now that a heat gun shouldn't be a problem excellent fit for water cooling enthusiasts for PC building and also for soldering if you're using either lower temperatures or you don't actually like stab the surface and hold it there for several seconds like I was doing and you can socket the soldering iron somewhere then it'd be fine for that too it'll just eventually yeah you'll cause some damage if you sit there and hold it on it for several seconds at multiple hundreds of degrees like two hundred c-plus but that's me expected I mean it's not an impervious material so lots of fun though thanks for watching if you want a bio and go to store that gamers nexus net we are shipping the current round in a couple of days here so get your orders in thanks for watching as always subscribe for more I'll see you all next time