Can anyone explain why I would get a FLIR Lepton system (America) vs an InfiRay P2 (China) system? The InfiRay seems to have much better performance for the price, and sturdier construction. But software? As much fun as DIY is, I want something with a UVC interface I can plug into a Linux machine.
DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
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Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#42Can anyone explain why I would get a FLIR Lepton system (America) vs an InfiRay P2 (China) system? The InfiRay seems to have much better performance for the price, and sturdier construction. But software? As much fun as DIY is, I want something with a UVC interface I can plug into a Linux machine.
I purchased an InfiRay P2 and it started failing the day after I purchased it. Had to return it. I suspect the seller just resold the defective unit over and over. Nice device if you can find a working one.
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#43Was curious and found this (somehow both terrible and amazing) video, of various everyday human activities, viewed through a good high resolution thermal camera: https://youtube.com/watch?v=48bwQVa0AQc (Note, there are a couple of moments that are very NSFW.)
Cool video, but yes, I could have done without LWIR penis. Imagine the chaos this would cause an innocent physics teacher who showed this to a class of 15 year olds...
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#44Can you make a slightly crappier version with a much cheaper visible spectrum sensor? I don't know much (obviously) about how they work, but intuitively it would seem a bit weird to me if they just happened to be restricted to exactly the same part of the spectrum as our eyes as a hardware limitation. Can you ignore data about visible red and higher in firmware, and get a thermal image that's obviously not as good as…
prolly not for room temperature; planck's law tells us there's a rapid exponential dropoff of spectral radiance with f/T, and room temperature is about a third of the draper-point temperature, so you'd expect undetectably low radiance below about 2000 nm, three times the 700-nm limit of visible light silicon's bandgap of 1.1 electron volts corresponds to about a 1100-nm wavelength; is that the minimum photon energy a…
Yes. In my experience, the scenarios where NIR picks up a difference due to heat are very limited. Years ago, I did a test and there was no visible difference with an electric stovetop until it was set to medium[1], which would be more than enough to severely burn your skin.
A physicist once emailed me to say that it's possible to pick up NIR emissions from a soldering iron, but only in a dark room.
Beyond the sensor limitations, MWIR and LWIR require special optics, because regular glass is opaque to them. The last time I looked into it, the glass was usually germanium-based.
One can do some neat stuff with actual thermal imaging. I was lucky enough to get a FLIR E4 when they could have the firmware replaced to turn them into an E8. 320x240 resolution is still pretty low, but having seen the difference between that and the stock 160x120, I'd not want to use a sensor with a resolution any lower than 320x240 or so.
[1] Scroll way down to the "Stovetop Bokeh (Stove on Medium-High)" section of https://www.beneaththewaves.net/Photography/Thermal_versus_N...
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#45$523 total? That's not my definition of affordable.
Depends. 523 USD for a car is suspicously cheap. 523 USD for a mediocre sandwich is outrageously expensive. Context matters and thermal imaging is very expensive usually.
I still find it expensive for a thermal imager. I personally bought a Chinese Guide PC210 for €216 shipped, and that includes 21% VAT, for a whole unit and not just a sensor. For another €15 I got a ZnSe lens for macro use.
Not only is it cheaper, on paper it's also much better:
- 45 mK vs 50 mK thermal sensitivity
- ±2 °C or ±2% vs ±10°C or ±10% accuracy
- 256x192 vs 160x120 resolution
- 25 vs 8.7Hz framerate
- -20 to 550 °C vs -10 to 450 °C range
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#46Can anyone explain why I would get a FLIR Lepton system (America) vs an InfiRay P2 (China) system? The InfiRay seems to have much better performance for the price, and sturdier construction. But software? As much fun as DIY is, I want something with a UVC interface I can plug into a Linux machine.
I purchased an InfiRay P2 and it started failing the day after I purchased it. Had to return it. I suspect the seller just resold the defective unit over and over. Nice device if you can find a working one.
Was that from eBay/AliExpress etc or a proper retailer? If it was a retailer with a relationship to the manufacturer that indicates poor quality control on production stock. (E.g. I would hope these guys are okay: https://www.pergear.com/products/infiray-p2-pro )
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#47The DIY-Thermocam V3 is a low-cost, do-it-yourself thermal imager, based on the popular radiometric FLIR Lepton sensor and an open-source ecosystem. It gives private persons, educational institutes and companies access to a portable, affordable and customizable thermal imaging platform that is based on open-source software and hardware. It is constructed as a self-assembly solution, that can be build at home by only…
The very first line of the "Building" page states:
> The DIY-Thermocam V3 Kit from GroupGets contains all required parts to build the device:
One has to scroll below the image to see a suggestion that the FLIR sensor and breakout board are not included in the kit.
The groupgets page is more clear, but even there one has to scroll to very far down before one finds:
> The DIY-Thermocam V3 self-assembly KIT contains all required components excluding the FLIR Lepton 2.5/3.5 and the Lepton Breakout Board V2.
When I started reading the "Building" page, my interpretation of "all required parts to build the device" is that all (meaning every last one) parts necessary are contained in the kit. Finding the wording just after the large photo of "in case you do not already have ..." seemed odd, as it was hinting at "all" not really meaning "all", but not making such meaning clear. Only the groupgets page clarified that "all" did not in fact mean all, and even then took some scrolling to find that clarification.
I suggest you reword the first sentence of the "Building" page to read:
> The DIY-Thermocam V3 Kit from GroupGets contains all required parts excluding the FLIR Lepton 2.5/3.5 and the Lepton Breakout Board V2 to build the device:
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends. 523 USD for a car is suspicously cheap. 523 USD for a mediocre sandwich is outrageously expensive. Context matters and thermal imaging is very expensive usually.
I still find it expensive for a thermal imager. I personally bought a Chinese Guide PC210 for €216 shipped, and that includes 21% VAT, for a whole unit and not just a sensor. For another €15 I got a ZnSe lens for macro use. Not only is it cheaper, on paper it's also much better: - 45 mK vs 50 mK thermal sensitivity - ±2 °C or ±2% vs ±10°C or ±10% accuracy - 256x192 vs 160x120 resolution - 25 vs 8.7Hz framerate - -20…
Emphasis being "on paper". When I worked for a research company we got a cheaper Korean company to demo their thermal cameras. They were just way way worse than FLIR and the software was abysmal (FLIR's software is surprisingly good).
Ended up going for the £4k FLIR camera (not my money tbf). On the plus side I didn't even know about the 9fps thing at the time and they didn't ask me about it, but we still got a 25fps camera. Not exactly sure how that happened.
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#49Strongly suggest looking into Guide T120 PC210 (resolution 256x192) see this eevblog review:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/guide-pc210-re...
It can save JPG with temperature info, and also stream video to PC. I got it last year from AliExpress for around 299-350 USD and prefer it over the more expensive FLIR TG267.
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#50Was curious and found this (somehow both terrible and amazing) video, of various everyday human activities, viewed through a good high resolution thermal camera: https://youtube.com/watch?v=48bwQVa0AQc (Note, there are a couple of moments that are very NSFW.)
Cool video, but yes, I could have done without LWIR penis. Imagine the chaos this would cause an innocent physics teacher who showed this to a class of 15 year olds...
If they don’t review the video for its educational value beforehand, and they somehow get past their District’s Restricted Mode filtering and they don’t notice the video being rated mature, the very first second of the film should give them a clue.
Also, this video is 8 years old now.