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Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

catphones.com

271–280 of 343 posts

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#271

The lack of a replacable battery is infuriating because it's planned obselescence of a FLIR device. I got one of the first CAT s60 phones when they came out and tolerated all the android spyware on it because I really liked having a properly ruggedized phone. Got about 4 years out of it. The flir camera I would say I used most often at night for finding my dogs poop to pick up on neighbours lawns in the dark, but I u…

All those use-cases you've described actually seem really practical, especially the fraud detection. Being able to detect things that would otherwise be invisible or require physical contact to ascertain already makes it a worthwhile EDC tool in my opinion.

I’ve got a Seek Thermal attachment from my iPhone I got on cyber Monday a few years ago. Once you have one you find all sorts of uses for them.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#272
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using a BlackView 9900 Pro for over a year, and attest to the surprising usefulness of the built-in thermal camera, such as checking how well food is heated after microwaving, or even watching the heat distribution of rolling, boiled water. My phone's battery is degraded now and I'm dreading a switch to something else. I've eyed the S62 but don't think it's an upgrade.

Agreed. I'd hold off a bit if I were you, unless your current battery is completely busted. Might even be worth seeing if you can replace the battery. The S62 is over 2 years old, and considering Cat hasn't updated it past Android 11, they may have something new on the horizon--unless they plan to exit the phone market entirely, of course, which I guess is also a possibility.

Every Cat phone I've looked at was on the high end of pricing at the time it came out and on the older end of operating systems. I've been in the market for a serious rugged phone basically the whole time I've had cell phones and Cat has never been justifiable to me.

I lucked out and grabbed a Galaxy Xcover pro when they first came out. It's not really advertised for the consumer market, but it was also way cheaper than things I liked less that had been out for a year longer. I'm not sure if they'll come out with a new model anytime soon. I will say this thing has a removable battery, solid construction, and is plenty fast for me (though I'm not picky on speed). I'm still on the original battery and it will play music for 10 hours through my Bluetooth headphones and still have 30% battery by the time I get home. I really have no complaints.

EDIT: the Xcover does not have an IR camera. I got off on a tangent because I keep getting disappointed every time I look into Cat phones.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#273
post #11

I used the S62 as a daily driver for a couple of years and it was fairly decent. The convenience of having a thermal camera in your pocket at all times was remarkable, and it's one of those things you kind of miss when it's gone (my daily use for it was checking if the coffee was cool enough to drink--yes, I know my tasting organs provide much of the same functionality...) However, the resolution of the thermal camer…

> my daily use for it was checking if the coffee was cool enough to drink My wife has the same issue with hot coffee which drives me a little nuts. She uses a normal mug most of the time. Because she isn't certified in coffee temp detection like I am; she waits and waits, gets distracted, and eventually it becomes too cold. So she reheats it in the microwave, usually to the point where it's too hot, and that cycle co…

I also don't like hot coffee (or anything too hot, soups etc.) which drives my wife mad.

Before making coffee I put a cup into the fridge so the coffee will cool faster, I have not issues with cold coffee, I just don't want to wait that long.

I also used to add ice to coffee, but that was diluting it.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true. "in the last 5 years in NordRhein-Westfalen only once was someone fined 45 euros for destroying a wasps nest" https://correctiv.org/faktencheck/2018/07/24/nein-wer-eine-e... The fines for thousands of euros are the maximum possible fines, which massively differs to how fines are handed out in practice.

So they have a law on the books that isn't really enforced? That's almost worse imo.

Most laws are poorly enforced and only get invoked when you have otherwise pissed the right person off and they’re looking for something to get you on.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#275
Specialized devices based on general purpose devices like these are almost always a poor value proposition.

You're getting a crummy phone nowhere near as good as flagships from Apple, Google, and Samsung, just because you can get a FLIR camera integrated.

Why not just buy one of these? https://industrial-reviews.com/smartphone-thermal-camera/

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#276
$650 160x120 9Hz thermal imager

why bother when Chinese are manufacturing ~$200 _25hz_ 256×192 standard USB3 microbolometers? Look up INFIRAY P2 Pro/T2S+, SNDWAY SW-8256 etc

mikeselectricstuff: Infiray P2 Pro smartphone thermal camera review & teardown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMQeXq1ujn0

STS Telecom: Infiray T2S+ Thermal Camera Review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt1JBA4W6n8

The 25hz part is important because microbolometers are under ITAR restrictions meaning no US/allied manufacturer offers anything over 9Hz to ordinary consumers.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A silly question then: why there are no AA/AAA rechargeable batteries that are Li-Ion/Li-Poly/whatever chemistry is used in smartphone batteries? Seems like a no-brainer to me: use the apparently better, more advanced, more energy-dense chemistry, but in a standard AA/AAA format. Pack whatever control electronics you need for safety too. Not only my remote controls would have half a decade of battery life, an iPhone…

You’d need a buck converter for discharging the battery, and they aren’t much better than NiMH batteries at it. So it’s cheaper to just buy Eneloops if you want AA/AAA batteries

I have some such AAA batteries. Not for the extra capacity - I'm not convinced they actually have any better capacity than the NiMH I was using before, but because they hold 1.5V for the duration of their charge, and for some reason my headphone can't cope with less than 1.5V.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Infuriating to see such a garbage video for a very promising technology. Either it is beyond fake, or they are just hiding the fact the tech they are working on doesn't work.

Why are you so mad it's literally just a product video with bad ESL English for something that's an active field of serious study Look up cell phone raman spectroscope and there's many done over the past decade I think people's readyness to slap "fake" on everything these days is the only travesty here

In fact they act like there is a product. Not about English language, just hold the product and show the features for 1 minute. That's it. The video is just stock videos with random effects. 3rd world or not, people come up with good product videos by reviewing what they have.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#280
post #276

$650 160x120 9Hz thermal imager why bother when Chinese are manufacturing ~$200 _25hz_ 256×192 standard USB3 microbolometers? Look up INFIRAY P2 Pro/T2S+, SNDWAY SW-8256 etc mikeselectricstuff: Infiray P2 Pro smartphone thermal camera review & teardown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMQeXq1ujn0 STS Telecom: Infiray T2S+ Thermal Camera Review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt1JBA4W6n8 The 25hz part is important beca…

What does the frequency you mention affect?
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