As the third time in my life, I saw a thermal imager and held it in my hands for the first time.

Hi, Habr! At first I will tell about the previous times.

I first saw a thermal imager in 2010. In size and layout, he resembled a screwdriver. And it was an “alcoholic” device, completely refusing to work, if not “treat” it with liquid nitrogen. As it warmed up, the picture became increasingly noisy, until finally it disappeared completely. But once the device was “drunk” again, he again acquired a long-wave infrared “vision”.
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Second time...

... occurred in 2015, and it was already a miniature device, although also a screwdriver-like layout. But the main thing is that it was “coded” and no longer required consumables, costing it to work with electricity alone. I could only read about the next generations of thermal imagers. I remember how I was surprised at the very tiny devices connected to the smartphone via USB host. They did not require the cooling of the matrix - no, not even the Peltier elements, and consumed very little power. But such a device threatened to damage the connector - both a smartphone and its own. Of course, if used carefully, there is no such danger.

And then came the third time, which differs from the previous two in that it was possible not only to look at the imager alive, but also to hold it in your hands and press the buttons. She provided me with this, called Seek Thermal Shot Pro, for testing, the company “Dadzhet”, and the device turned out to be a form factor unfamiliar to me: like a digital camera. It turns out that such exist. And from the side of the display it looks like a smartphone at all, just not frameless. On the contrary, it is very, very framed, thick and rather weighty, like an old PDA. In general, here would be such smartphones. Hopefully, Energizer's experiments in this area have been driven by other manufacturers as well.

In addition, the thermal imager-prefix does not make sense to do IP54, because then the smartphone should be the same. And here - please.



On the camera side there are two lenses: for long-wave infrared rays and for visible light. And the flashlight is a flashlight, not a flash. If it is on, it glows continuously, regardless of whether shooting is currently being conducted.



Bottom - a tripod socket (thickness allows) and a Type C connector.



Above - two buttons, their functions:

|  |  |  |  ---------------+-------------+-------------  | / | / |  |  ---------------+-------------+-------------  |  |  | ; |  |  | |  | 

Thermal imagers in the digital camera form factor have significantly better characteristics than those made in the form of attachments to the smartphone. So, for a device provided to me for testing, the resolution is 320x240, the frame rate is 9 Hz, the temperature measurement accuracy is 0.5 degrees. Do not be surprised, for a thermal imager, this resolution is considered to be simply amazing. It happens and 80x60.

Turn on the imager. It is loaded in an example faster than a smartphone. Compared to phones on the Nucleos RTOS, perhaps there it is.



The device is ready for operation immediately after loading. Let's try to shoot something. Extension chargers included:



Charging 4-inch smartphone, the warmest - plug:



5-inch smartphone, which made all the photos in the article. When the Camera application is running, the backlight brightness automatically switches to a maximum, and the power consumption increases:



Charging laptop:



He is working:



Charging razor. The Panasonic logo is applied with silver paint shielding long-wave infrared radiation on the principle of a thermos:



LED hand warmed watches:



Friend of human. With a very efficient air intake cooling system:



The imager itself, reflected in the mirror. As you can see, it is also not cold, but the long-wave infrared mirror reflects not very much.



The menu allows you to switch palettes, view and edit the captured image, select the thermal image with visible mode, turn on the lamp and access point, specify the emission factor of the material from which the subject is made, select automatic or manual movement of the temperature scale relative to the palette, etc. The lamp can also be switched on and off as indicated in the table above.











If something is not clear, there is a "help hall":



Let's try the combination. Near it is imperfect:



But you can customize it, as well as the ratio of the brightness of the visible and thermal images:



From a distance, the combination turns out to be the perfect self:



If the radical extension of people's lives is a matter of the near, but future, then with massive LED lamps, you can try to do this now. I have repeatedly suggested in the comments to try to use a fan for this. Of course, silent is better for production, but this is also suitable for experience:



But how do you know how the temperature of the LEDs has decreased? Feel impossible, there is a capacitor power supply. Here the thermal imager will come to the rescue.

In the lamp that I repaired in the previous release, the LEDs are now of two kinds. Established, which have not yet burned out, are installed on a special board with high thermal conductivity. And the new ones, installed instead of those that have burned out, are located on pieces of a ruler - in fact, an ordinary board, which does not differ in good thermal conductivity. I had to take measures to reduce the current through them.

The standard LED consists of two crystals connected in series:

 -->|-->|-- 

Instead of each of the blown standard LEDs soldered on this design of the two pieces of the line:

 -o-->|-->|--o- | | +-->|-->|--+ 

Thus, on the one hand there is no heat sink, on the other - the current through each crystal is half that of the original. Let's see what is heated. This is how it looks immediately after powering up - it is clear that the first diodes on the pieces of the line heat up:



As they warm up, the rest, as well as the board and the case, are tightened. Notice how the temperature scale automatically moves relative to the palette.













What happens after the fan is turned on:











As you can see, this method is quite effective, especially for diodes without heat sink. But the fan - and what fan? Three minutes are already off, and ...



Many complaints cause budgetary lights, where the LEDs are used not illuminating, and the indicator. Often they turn out to be “overclocked”, and the current through each of the diodes exceeds the permitted 20 mA, sometimes significantly. And here is an example of a correct lantern, moreover, not altered:





Here, the current through each of the four diodes is negligible, even when the battery (4 V gel) is fully charged. Lantern worked a few minutes, take a picture, speaking for itself:



Of course, there are other thermal imagers in the form factor like a digital camera. Interesting, for example, Flir C3 (photo from here ), having exactly the same layout. But it is more expensive, and its resolution is like that of a thermal imager attachment to a smartphone: 80x60. There is interpolation up to 320x240, but this is not at all like that. And the temperature scale is not so convenient - without divisions, only the current minimum and maximum are shown.



As before, any competent blogger with a fairly large portfolio can participate in testing products from the “Dadzhet” company assortment. SeekThermal Shot is a line of monoblock thermal imagers, independent professional devices that do not require connection to a smartphone or computer. It consists of the younger Shot model with a matrix of 206x156 pixels, a viewing angle of 36 degrees, a detection range of up to 300 m; and the older model ShotPRO (320x240 px, viewing angle 57 degrees and range up to 500m). Readers can get a 10% discount on both thermal imagers on the SHOTPRO promo code, here are links to both models: SeekThermal Shot , SeekThermal Shot Pro . For cooperation with legal entities and bulk purchases, write to retail@dadget.ru and receive special conditions.