Thread: Thermal cameras

about 5 years ago my local library had kit (checklist information etc) with a thermal camera that you could borrow for a week

regards david

I've used a FLIR at work for various things and it is indeed a nice piece of kit but from memory it costs many k's $. One of the things we used it for was to find hotspots in the heater tape used around ultra cleanlab walk in freezer lab doorways.The heater tapes were run at about 40ºC to prevent the doors from icing shut - not good if you're working in the lab and the door freezes shut1

The problem was the hotspots could start fires in the rubber door gaskets - one time one did send a small wisp of smoke into the main lab which triggered the particle counter alarms well before the smoke detectors did nd we were able to extinguish the smoulder before it took off.

If you are doing relative comparison stuff only then I think the UNI-T unit would be more than sufficient. I have a UNI-T bench top digital voltmeter with a large/bright LCD display and I reckon they are pretty good value devices.

Originally Posted by Bernmc

Wondered if anyone had any experience of these things here?

I want to get something to start sorting out all the draught spots and insulation issues in this old house, as well as possibly going through all the old electrics to make sure there aren't any hotspots. So, a thermal camera might be useful.

And then I saw prices

$500 seem a lot for something that will not get a huge amount of use. In this price range, are the Flir One Pro - around $550 with a bit of shopping around, or the Uni-T 690B (which seems to be the same as the 290B). Currently on a bit of a special eg around $465 on banggood.

My concern with the FLir is the lightning connector for my iPhone. The EU are making apple change to USB C at some point, which gives the camera a limited lifespan unless I get an OTG USB-lightning connector. A Pro is that the phone can do the processing etc, so potentially better images?

The UNI-T seems to have reasonable reviews. Bit slow to start up and when changing options, but you have to pay double to move up to models that improve on that.

ANy ideas/advice?

You can borrow mine

(Though it is lent to someone else at present).

Mine is a Infiray C200
I think the same as a 690B? Infiray actually make them for other mobs I think

Eevblog forums have plenty of discussions

Seems to work nicely. My only significant annoyance so far is that you can't seemingly 'fix' the measuring range.
It auto adjusts so the hottest thing in frame is max bright and coldest is max dark. Fine for that view, however makes it harder to easily compare opposite walls / different areas (you have to rely on the temperature readout, which can be set to middle spot sensor, hottest in frame etc).

(I don't know if other thermal cameras do have function to fix the colour palette rather than auto adjusting)

Originally Posted by pippin88

You can borrow mine

(Though it is lent to someone else at present).

Thanks Nick - I'll take you up on that. Saves me spending on something I may only use once. If I find it's more useful than expected I'll get one.

My son has an ap on his mobile phone that does just what you want. Do a search and if you have trouble finding it, I will try and contact him for the details. I saw it working and it was good.

Hooroo

I don't think the mobile phone apps do true thermal imaging (can't see how they could with no sensor). They just use some sort of thermal mask and a fudge... may be wrong there.

I'd be interested to hear what he's using.

Just rang the boy. It is an attachment for his phone and cost him about $700. Brand was Seekthermal
He had a quick look at BangGood and similar were about $300.
He suggests you chase around the various cheapies and you may do better.
Hope this helps.

John

Thanks John

They sound like the Flir one attachment for the iPhone mentioned in the original post. My concern with this type of imager is that the phone connectors will likely change, making the imager redundant (eventually)

Or possibly borrow a scope or binoculars from a hunting buddy?


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