Gel-o-meter

A simple and compact, battery-powered device to monitor the cooling of gel-based media. It uses an M5Stack Stick S3 device with a connected non-contact infrared temperature sensor to measure the surface temperature of an adjacent vessel, along with the internal temperature of the device. The sensor is accurate to 0.5ºC and has a fast response. When the device is turned on, temperature measurements are displayed on the screen. The sensor can be located appropriately next to the vessel - e.g. flask holding the molten agar or agarose after boiling in a microwave oven. Pressing the front blue button then activates comparative measurements versus a set point. If the measurement is over temperature a red indicator is set, as the object cools to below the set point, a green indicator is set and an audio alarm is set off. Re-pressing the front blue button stops the alarm.