Awesome project. But $300 is still quite steep for a thing I might maybe use once a year. I really wish these thermal sensors came down in price...
You can rent a FLIR camera for $80/day from Home Depot if you really need one for a quick project.
DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
51–60 of 97 posts
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#52Can 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.
If you want a UVC setup then the purethermal carrier is the route to go.
You buy FLIR because they're well made, reliable products. Same reason people spend the money on Fluke. I'm not sure you can necessarily say the support is better for consumers because they mostly cater to OEMs, but the camera cores are (mostly) very well documented and software support is good.
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#53"Low cost" is still 300 bucks. That's very expensive.
I wish this tech would come down a bit so it would enable a whole new range of applications that weren't possible before due to the price.
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#54"Low cost" is still 300 bucks. That's very expensive. I wish this tech would come down a bit so it would enable a whole new range of applications that weren't possible before due to the price.
It's also lowish-cost for the field and is possible because the tech has come down quite a bit, which enabled a whole new range of applications that weren't possible before due to price. ;)
But I assume the chinese parts at least will continue to become cheaper, although afaik they are currently not as available as individual parts vs complete devices.
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
you could make your own thermal sensor, which is what i thought the article was going to be about from the title this is a bit like 'i made a working, drivable car from scratch using only basic hand tools, raw materials, and a 2005 honda civic' or 'i built my own operating system around the linux kernel'
That would be really neat, but I haven't seen anyone even make a CMOS imager on SKY130. https://github.com/google/skywater-pdk One could make an array of thermopiles, like the hacker that made their own imager out of discrete diodes (digiOBSCURA) . But each pixel would cost $7. https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/excelitas-technol... One might be able to make an array of thermistors (possibly with active cooli…
i think the google shuttle thing and tinytapeout are only for digital chips, not even analog
i was thinking of directly measuring rc fall times for the keyboard multiplexer rather than running free oscillators
relaxation oscillators will give you a lot of harmonics, might be good or bad
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#56"Low cost" is still 300 bucks. That's very expensive. I wish this tech would come down a bit so it would enable a whole new range of applications that weren't possible before due to the price.
+220$ for the sensor and breakout board. However looking at AliExpress the price looks reasonable
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
there are a lot of different optical materials you can use, but some of the cheap ones are deliquescent, which can be a real drawback
or you can use mirrors
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#58Excellent specs and design, good value.
Somewhat off-topic, but if you want to get into thermal imaging for super cheap (albeit at a lower resolution again), you can get a compact FLIR kit from M5stack for $79 that's ready to use as soon as you charge it, but also freely hackable.
https://shop.m5stack.com/collections/m5stack-new-arrival/pro...
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#59Excellent specs and design, good value. Somewhat off-topic, but if you want to get into thermal imaging for super cheap (albeit at a lower resolution again), you can get a compact FLIR kit from M5stack for $79 that's ready to use as soon as you charge it, but also freely hackable. https://shop.m5stack.com/collections/m5stack-new-arrival/pro...
Thanks a lot! That's super cool, very nice price tag, compact design, thanks for bringing it up :)
Re: DIY-Thermocam: A low-cost thermal imager based on the FLIR Lepton sensor
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
That would be really neat, but I haven't seen anyone even make a CMOS imager on SKY130. https://github.com/google/skywater-pdk One could make an array of thermopiles, like the hacker that made their own imager out of discrete diodes (digiOBSCURA) . But each pixel would cost $7. https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/excelitas-technol... One might be able to make an array of thermistors (possibly with active cooli…
i think the google shuttle thing and tinytapeout are only for digital chips, not even analog i was thinking of directly measuring rc fall times for the keyboard multiplexer rather than running free oscillators relaxation oscillators will give you a lot of harmonics, might be good or bad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSZm3q4rUBg
Above is a seminar on analog layout designed to target Tiny Tapeout that went over Magic (by Jonathan Edwards) and Klayout (Thomas Perry). Sky130 and tinytapeout can do analog, but most of the tools and the examples are digital based.
https://i.imgur.com/NespRr4.png
https://www.klayout.de/forum/discussion/1879/video-demo-of-a...