torstai 14. tammikuuta 2016

Thermal camera hack


Some time ago I got Flir E4 camera. I was aware of the hack that could upgrade its resolution (link/discussion on eevblog here, a bit more detailed instructions here) but for some time I didn't bother. Until now.

Apparently the upgrade needs 32-bit operating system, XP or Windows 7. This was a bit of a problem as none of my main machines have 32-bit systems anymore. Fortunately I still have one 15-year old test machine running XP (yes, it's unconnected and reallly slow but does its job for now) so I could try this out.

Also, newer cameras apparently come with newer (2.8.0) firmware on which the hack does not work. Mine fortunately still had older 2.3.0 version.

Just installing the tools needed for the hack to this ancient machine took several hours, but eventually I got everything done. And the change is astonishing.

Low-resolution dog.

High-resolution dog.

It might be difficult to see but dog got five years younger too! ...Jokes aside, photos were taken year apart in different places and the dog isn't the same - the other dog wasn't very photogenic at the moment, sleeping with legs up, so I chose other one to pose on high-res pic. And I used different color spectrum too, d'oh.

So how about some PCB shots?

Hot, failing PCB, low res.

STM32 Discovery board, high res.

Again, pictures taken almost a year apart and of different board, but change should be fairly clear nevertheless. I really should've upgraded sooner...

I also really like the multispectral system this camera uses; it takes heat picture and adds emboss-like details from normal camera on top of that to allow details to be seem better. Taking picture too close adds some offset on that, though, and you can see the effect on both pictures.



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