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Did you look into stud finders? They’re devices specifically made to detect pipes and electrical wiring in walls. I love that you immediately went to WiFi for this though. Gotta love us tech people over complicating things haha!
Stud finders are for finding studs, not pipes and wiring.
2.4ghz isn't great at detecting small obstacles like wires. There's a smartphone mounted device that can do this with 60ghz: https://walabot.com/
Pixel 4 have SOLI 60Ghz radar chips that allows various object categorization (eventually through walls applications).
Unfortunately the radar API was never released. It's unfortunate because a smartphone already has various sensors that ideally you'd like to use to do some sensor fusion using the camera and accelerometers to determine the position of the sensor and fuse the radar information in the map, like in those 3D photogrammetry room scanning applications.
Various object categorization :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6sn2vRJXJ4
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/4/18168083/google-project-so...
Reverse-engineered attempt have been successful (but are locked behind paywalls (since it's a 2021 paper and sci-hub doesn't download recent (>=2021) articles during its trial in india) : "Reverse Engineering the Soli Radar API for Military Applications" : https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9455321/
SOLI chips are based on infineon chips https://www.infineon.com/cms/en/product/promopages/60GHz/
You can find some demo board using the chip :
https://www.digikey.fr/fr/videos/i/infineon-technologies/get...
The walabot referenced in other comments is an example. Based on a different chip from https://vayyar.com/technology/ https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/learn_tutorials/7/2/4/walabo...
Get an infrared thermometer camera. I have a FLIR add-on for iPhone that lets me see studs, gaps in insulation, leaks... it's amazing what shows up. It won't show cables, unless they're hot. You can use an AC stud finder for that. You can flip the photo between the actual and IR image, and it overlays an outline over the image. I make a video in and out of the house on the hottest and coldest days.
What have been your top discoveries with the FLIR device?
The infriray is the Chinese knockoff brand which is actually better than flir because they don’t have to follow the US weapons law. So with it I get 30(?) fps instead of the ~5 with flir. Resolution is better too. It’s very sensitive and can clearly show a hand print on a surface for a minute or so even if you only touch it for 1/2 a second.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Stud finders are for finding studs, not pipes and wiring.
i've literally never seen a stud finder that doesn't also detect wiring and pipes
2.4ghz isn't great at detecting small obstacles like wires. There's a smartphone mounted device that can do this with 60ghz: https://walabot.com/
Have you tried this product? What do you think of it?
It has been useful to find pipes and electrical with some confidence, when their location is called for.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It takes 2 minutes to fix a hole with filler paste. You can also find a discrete place to put it, like the opposite side of the wall, under the threshold, behind a closet, using existing holes for wiring. Drilling gently through wood or gypsum, you will notice immediately that you got through the sheet, before you can even hit a pipe or anything else behind. Then use that hole for the endoscopy to map out the beams a…
As i have not done this, my concern was drilling into wiring. I have a multi story house and i figured there could be writing that drops down through the walls that are not directly aligned with any switch. Am i being overly paranoid ?
Check out the Gosforth Handyman on how to avoid pipes and cables: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeTXAPYzqpY
(Note that the rules he describes on where cables should be are from UK regulations - other jurisdictions will have different rules).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What have been your top discoveries with the FLIR device?
Used my Infriray while house hunting. Possibly saved me big time €. Great also for spotting leaks any water in/on surfaces shows up quite clearly. In the same vein I use it to spot pet accidents. The infriray is the Chinese knockoff brand which is actually better than flir because they don’t have to follow the US weapons law. So with it I get 30(?) fps instead of the ~5 with flir. Resolution is better too. It’s very…
Did you look into stud finders? They’re devices specifically made to detect pipes and electrical wiring in walls. I love that you immediately went to WiFi for this though. Gotta love us tech people over complicating things haha!
Stud finders are for finding studs, not pipes and wiring.
The knock test shouldn't be skipped.