Flir E4 Thermal imaging camera teardown

[daves]

I've noticed there always seems to be aleast 10 degrees between the min and max.

If the palette has 224 values and sensitivity of camera is 0.06°C, then it takes 13.44°C to fill the palette itself.

You can change Tmin and Tmax in software (Flir.php or BFIC.exe) to spread some small difference over the palette or use FlirTools to do it per image.

[Fraser]

@andy1read

This is the reason that I am so grateful for the new manual mode that Taucher introduced for us.

I often work with temperature spans of 2 or 4 Degees Celsius when using an industrial TIC, I found that the E4 was regularly setting a wide span of 10 Degrees or greater, no matter what the target FOV temperature range (as you have found). I have the feeling that FLIR set the Ex auto ranging to provide the 'prettiest', rather than most useful, picture on the users screen. There can be a large difference between what looks like a 'nice picture' with low noise and soft transitions, and a true thermographic measurement image where thermal resolution is important, and noise less so. My PM695 produces quite a noisy image at 2 Degrees C Span but it is the dogs dodads for spotting tempertaure differential in these small spans. When using the E4 I use Manual mode often and prefer that mode when monitoring PCB's etc.

[daves]

I use Manual mode often and prefer that mode when monitoring PCB's etc.

When doing building thermography while sky is clear, temp always fall down to -40°C at the sky. So manual mode is very useful also here to avoid this.

[amyk]

I did more testing on the battery and laptop connection...
first, like I said before, the +5 from the laptop MUST be connected to the E4 for the USB connection to work.
sooooo...
With a partially discharged battery, I measured the battery current and the +5 USB current with the camera on.  (I took the battery compartment apart and broke into the -V side of the battery and inserted an ammeter).

With the camera on:  110mA to the battery and 611mA from the laptop.

 The current does jump around and doesn't seem to reduce after time like Mike mentioned MIGHT happen due to the heater... rats!  Also, when the shutter operates the current increases to about 815mA for about 1 second.  Also i had the brightness on the backlight on high for worst case.

The sampling rate on my dvm isn't quite fast enough but I did do several manual cals and get the highest reading several times.  I also used the 10 amp scale for the lowest burden voltage I could, otherwise the E4 would shut off.

With the camera off and the backlight on to display the battery charge (left/right joystick buttons pressed): 407mA to the battery (it had already partially charged) and 590mA from the laptop.

With the backlight off: 357mA to the battery (charged up a little more) and 440mA from the laptop.

The charging seemed to quit at about 110mA into the battery and the E4 went into OFF (0 current).

One other thing I noticed is the displayed charge current and the actual current into the battery is quite a bit off..... IE... 416mA indicated and 370mA actual and 163mA indicated and 110mA actual.
I would have thought that it would be more accurate than this.

I might make up an external battery box for the camera when using portable because this would really reduce the run time of a laptop/phone/tablet since the E4 would be getting it's power from the device!

Interesting numbers. Standard USB only allows up to 500mA even with negotiation...

[mrflibble]

Interesting numbers. Standard USB only allows up to 500mA even with negotiation...

5 Volt in + buck converter + 3.6 Volt out == interesting numbers?

[Fraser]

On PCB work I noticed that auto mode made a mess of spans when the FOV contained a hot component as it was trying to cover the full range of temperatures present (understandable) I often want to 'ignore' the major heat sounce like a heatsinked regulataor and look in detail at the smaller components nearby, like SMD transistors etc. Manual mode makes that easy. Without a close-up lens and manual mode, the E4 produces a very pretty , but also pretty useless, view of a PCB that has legitimate hot components on it. I had this very issue when looking at my lathe speed controller yesterday. A resistor running at 140 C totally dominated the scene and caused a very wide span on the camera.

[menthurae]

Hey guys,

I am a bit worried. I left my E4 charging for about 2.5hrs whilst I watched a movie (battery was flashing as low when I went to plug it in). I now have the battery charging symbol "burnt" into the LCD screen. I've tried turning it on/off, taking battery out, running a pure white screen/pure black screen for a few minutes... I can still see it (especially on the grey menu items).

Any ideas if this will persist forever or do I just have to wait it out? I've since lowered my screen brightness to minimum to avoid it happening again/with other things... but yeah, not cool man!

[andy1read]

Has the sensitivty of a hacked E4 changed from 0.15 to the E8 0.06 ?

@dave
 I dont know how to change tmin and tmax,   would changing these let you have a smaller temp span when theres only a few degrees difference in the display, but the span will still change relative to larger temp differences ?( in the auto temp )

[scientist]

Hey guys,

I am a bit worried. I left my E4 charging for about 2.5hrs whilst I watched a movie (battery was flashing as low when I went to plug it in). I now have the battery charging symbol "burnt" into the LCD screen. I've tried turning it on/off, taking battery out, running a pure white screen/pure black screen for a few minutes... I can still see it (especially on the grey menu items).

Any ideas if this will persist forever or do I just have to wait it out? I've since lowered my screen brightness to minimum to avoid it happening again/with other things... but yeah, not cool man!

It'll go away after a while, perhaps you can complain to FLIR about their crappy LCD sourcing. Lowering your brightness won't do anything anyway since the liquid crystals are the problem, not the backlight.

[menthurae]

Hey guys,

I am a bit worried. I left my E4 charging for about 2.5hrs whilst I watched a movie (battery was flashing as low when I went to plug it in). I now have the battery charging symbol "burnt" into the LCD screen. I've tried turning it on/off, taking battery out, running a pure white screen/pure black screen for a few minutes... I can still see it (especially on the grey menu items).

Any ideas if this will persist forever or do I just have to wait it out? I've since lowered my screen brightness to minimum to avoid it happening again/with other things... but yeah, not cool man!

It'll go away after a while, perhaps you can complain to FLIR about their crappy LCD sourcing. Lowering your brightness won't do anything anyway since the liquid crystals are the problem, not the backlight.

Hrm OK I will keep an eye on it. It is not a deal breaker for me but it is mildly annoying. I am one of those OCD type people that wants their gear in A1 condition all the time. It is pretty annoying that this thing has such a crap LCD and the bad design of the USB port not being reinforced/having the flap apply pressure to the charging cable.

Oh well, at least it wasn't $8,000! =P

[daves]

would changing these let you have a smaller temp span when theres only a few degrees difference in the display

Yes, for photos use your flirtools to do that for one picture, or script/bfic to convert many images.
Or for live video you can use VirtualDub, camera as input and apply filters to make your own palette settings

[hgg]

Just received a price quote from instrumart and they said that the new batch of cameras
they will receive next week will have firmware version 2.0 or higher.

Anybody with a hacked v2.0 E4 ??

[fairuse]

Anyone know if a similar hack can be done to a FLIR E40? I'm assuming the sensor is the same as the E4-E8 and E50-E60

[daves]

Anybody with a hacked v2.0 E4 ??

No and version 2.0 seems mostly like turkey. Just calm down and wait till it comes, if you are afraid, buy from local dealer.

Or simply wait, if 2.0 is true. I doubt, since month ago 1.1 came with software not over 1.19. So... 2.0 ? Does not sound real.

[hgg]

* * * Extra! Extra! Read all about it! * * *   

I am afraid I have bad news...
Fresh quote from an online retailer:

"I haven't seen the new firmware notation but do know they have addressed
the ability to hack the unit.   The cameras we are waiting on will be the latest version."

...and I did not ask if the firmware was hackable...
Good while it lasted.

Mike get prepared for hack v2.0...   

[Fraser]

@hgg

As daves said, Panic Slowly.

We have been through this once before with a claimed 1.2x firmware. It turned out to be bogus info.

As others have said, if concerned, either buy across the counter or from a supplier who guarantees V1.19 firmware.

If FLIR have carried out a countermeasure via new firmware then so be it. They have 'allowed' the purchase of an E4 that can be enhanced for 3 months though, so many potential buyers will have received their units already. New firmware (if it exists) will present the issue of how the 'brains' on this forum can consider its content when they do not own such a new firmware unit.

[hgg]

More retailers told me that FLIR is working on locking the firmware but they are not telling
them what firmware they will receive... 

It looks like that the new batch will be v1.20 though.

Murphy is always one step ahead! 

[mrflibble]

More retailers told me that FLIR is working on locking the firmware but they are not telling them what firmware they will receive... 

Retailers tell people all manner of things. As Aurora said that daves said, panic slowly. Vewy vewy slowly.

[Navynuke]

For my next trick I went been digging around and resizing things on my screen however the one thing I really am looking to do is make the background colors for the temperature in top right and temperatures on scale transparent (this was discussed earlier by taucher i think) so I can still see the numbers just not in the big square box around them (too much work went into giving us those pixels). I have tried changing the colors in design_ui_z3.xml  as I thought that would be where this would be specified in "<qml_context_property name="colors">" but am not having any luck. E4 seems to hang and generally misbehave. Has anyone succeeded in doing this? I did some googling and "discovered" that when no color is given that transparent was the default but of course that didn't work (as the tip came from the internet I was pretty sure it wouldn't  So if anyone has any ideas please feel free to throw them my way.
I realize that they can be removed after the fact just was wanting to remove them from the on camera screen

Thanks!

[pomonabill221]

I did more testing on the battery and laptop connection...
first, like I said before, the +5 from the laptop MUST be connected to the E4 for the USB connection to work.
sooooo...
With a partially discharged battery, I measured the battery current and the +5 USB current with the camera on.  (I took the battery compartment apart and broke into the -V side of the battery and inserted an ammeter).

With the camera on:  110mA to the battery and 611mA from the laptop.

 The current does jump around and doesn't seem to reduce after time like Mike mentioned MIGHT happen due to the heater... rats!  Also, when the shutter operates the current increases to about 815mA for about 1 second.  Also i had the brightness on the backlight on high for worst case.

The sampling rate on my dvm isn't quite fast enough but I did do several manual cals and get the highest reading several times.  I also used the 10 amp scale for the lowest burden voltage I could, otherwise the E4 would shut off.

With the camera off and the backlight on to display the battery charge (left/right joystick buttons pressed): 407mA to the battery (it had already partially charged) and 590mA from the laptop.

With the backlight off: 357mA to the battery (charged up a little more) and 440mA from the laptop.

The charging seemed to quit at about 110mA into the battery and the E4 went into OFF (0 current).

One other thing I noticed is the displayed charge current and the actual current into the battery is quite a bit off..... IE... 416mA indicated and 370mA actual and 163mA indicated and 110mA actual.
I would have thought that it would be more accurate than this.

I might make up an external battery box for the camera when using portable because this would really reduce the run time of a laptop/phone/tablet since the E4 would be getting it's power from the device!

Interesting numbers. Standard USB only allows up to 500mA even with negotiation...

I was surprised to see over 500 mA from the usb port as well!  I did recheck my meter and it is correct, so I don't know why it was drawing over 500.... and didn't blow the usb fuse if my laptop has one for each port (it is a Dell E6500).
Any way, kind of proves that the host device will be delivering power when connected.... I will build a "splitter" that passes gnd/D-/D+ and connects the +5 to a battery so I don't load my laptop/tablet(when I get one)/etc.

[pomonabill221]

More retailers told me that FLIR is working on locking the firmware but they are not telling them what firmware they will receive... 

Retailers tell people all manner of things. As Aurora said that daves said, panic slowly. Vewy vewy slowly.

I agree... panic ssslllooowwwlllyyyy.... time will tell and NOTHING is impossible.
BUT
Why would retailers tell people that Flir is trying to lock the firmware?  Wouldn't that discourage people from buying the Ex line?  Of course that could also "make" people think about buying the pricier TIC's that already have the E4( features... at a MUCH higher price of course...

Interesting...  we will just have to wait and see!  (another mystery... just don't chew your fingernails too far!)

[hgg]

ok, ok,  I am panicking slowly and I am placing an order right now!   
Fingers crossed.   

[daves]

...I really am looking to do is make the background colors for the temperature in top right and temperatures on scale transparent...

I do prefer to do this on PC. Resize, do own palette, etc... You can choose position and in/out. More is coming.

[pomonabill221]

ok, ok,  I am panicking slowly and I am placing an order right now!   
Fingers crossed.   

Well of course you will let us know what FW version you have?!?!?!
Yes fingers (toes/legs/arms) crossed!  Good Luck!

[hgg]

ok, ok,  I am panicking slowly and I am placing an order right now!   
Fingers crossed.   

Well of course you will let us know what FW version you have?!?!?!
Yes fingers (toes/legs/arms) crossed!  Good Luck!

Thanks.

That was it.  I bought it. 

Tomas123 lets hope that they will not make it harder this time.