# Great way to count bubbles per second!



## Al Slick (Jan 22, 2012)

Hey everybody! 

I've noticed that many people use stopwatches or time pieces to figure out their CO2 output based on bubbles per second. While this is certainly a reliable way of doing it, some people may feel unsure if they're doing it accurately and might like to try this method!

I am a musician and when I first wanted to count the bubbles per second coming from my diy unit, I thought of using a metronome with a tap tempo feature. This allows you to simply tap a button every time you see a bubble come out! The Metronome averages your taps over time to come up with a beats per minute unit, or bpm.

Now most of you probably don't have digital metronomes, but I know that many of you have smartphones! Whether you use Android OS or iOS, there a many metronome applications on the market! 

Do a quick market search for "Mobile Metronome Free." Many others may work but I chose this one because it has many useful options when practicing music and what-not.

Once you have downloaded the app, open it and you should see this!










Up at the top is the tap tempo feature:










The button on the right that says, "or tap the tempo here!" is the one you're looking for. I circled it in red here:










Okay so now that you have your mobile metronome follow these easy steps for a very accurate bubble per second count.

1. Watch your bubbles and tap the button every time one comes out.
2. Do this for about ten to twenty bubbles
3. Look at the tempo reading in the top lefthand corner (Mine says 141 bpm (or vivace ) in the pic above).
4. Divide your temp by 60 to convert from beats per minute to beats per second (141/60=2.35 bubbles per second!)

There you go! That's a very accurate and precise way of counting your bubbles per second! If you have two separate CO2 leads going into a DIY bubble counter than you can tap each line individually, add your tempos, and then divide that total by 60!

Thanks for reading and feel free to discuss your own methods of bubble counting!


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## ktownhero (Mar 21, 2011)

Very creative!


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## SlammedDC2 (Jun 4, 2011)

Nice, I'm downloading the app now.


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## ryc120 (Jan 17, 2012)

Awesome! Thanks for the suggestion!


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## xxbenjamminxx (Aug 8, 2011)

I was thinking about taking a video recording of it for so long and play it back at a slower speed allowing me to accurately count the bubbles per second since it seems once your around that 3-4 mark it becomes quite hard to keep up with them.


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## Al Slick (Jan 22, 2012)

xxbenjamminxx said:


> I was thinking about taking a video recording of it for so long and play it back at a slower speed allowing me to accurately count the bubbles per second since it seems once your around that 3-4 mark it becomes quite hard to keep up with them.


Well this metronome's limit would theoretically be 3.83 due to the 230bmp limit, however you can easily get around this by tapping the met button for every other bubble and then multiplying by two!


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## xxbenjamminxx (Aug 8, 2011)

For me anyhow its just that at even that 3 bps I have a hard time keeping up with counting them. I just use water in my BC though. I will have to try this out and see how it works. Thanks for the tip


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## Al Slick (Jan 22, 2012)

Yeah good luck! It does really work well for me as my bubble count is lower, I can see how it could be much harder when they faster but good luck to you!


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## Psionic (Dec 22, 2011)

I'm one of those people that counts them with a stop watch lol. Ok, I watch the stop watch, my husband does the counting. I'm gonna have to download this and give it a shot. Thanks!


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## majstor76 (Jun 11, 2010)

For a *really* nerdy, theres better way 

http://alternet.us.com/?p=1388


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## DarkCobra (Jun 22, 2004)

Another slightly nerdy way is to press a microphone against the bubble counter and record a sound clip. Looking at the recorded waveform, you can usually pick out and count the bubbles; even if they're too fast to count by eye.


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## majstor76 (Jun 11, 2010)

DarkCobra said:


> Another slightly nerdy way is to press a microphone against the bubble counter and record a sound clip. Looking at the recorded waveform, you can usually pick out and count the bubbles; even if they're too fast to count by eye.


Maybe with android app like this

http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/media_and_video/recorder_ozsp.html


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## EnigmaticGuppy92 (Jan 31, 2012)

Nice easy method will save mne alot of wasted time haha


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