Flir E4 Thermal imaging camera teardown

[mikeselectricstuff]

Just a few quick questions regarding the E4 after mucho hacking success:

Is it possible - with the most recent hack - to manually select Temperature Level in camera?

Is it possible to select - in camera - Temperature Span? And, if so, what is the minimum span? 2.5 degrees C or less is good.

With Taucher's hack, yes, but it's still in beta test.
You can't exactly set span around a centre value, but you can set the high and low ends of the scale seperately, and also together to set the centre while keeping the same span.
From memory minimum span is not as low as 2.5 - don't have it to hand but I think somewhere between 5 and 10

[zapta]

Post 1000
That is all.

Some threads are just long, this one is also extremely useful.

[ixfd64]

And I actually read each and every one of them. :O

[aargee]

It's the velocity of this thread that's quite amazing! Still waiting for the Tequipment order to arrive at the "agent" in the US. Well, I guess it had to go from one side of the US to the other on free shipping.

[nixxon]

Is the Thermal Sensitivity (or Minimum Detectable Temperature Difference (MDTD)) affected by the M&M hack? If we are talking <0.06°C, like the E6 and E8, it would be pretty impressive.

This is of course of no importance to electronics troubleshooting.

Flir E-series specs source: http://www.flir.com/thermography/americas/us/view/?id=61194&collectionid=830&col=61196 )

Enclosed is a picture of my Yanmar 1GM10 sea water cooled engine as I did the winter conservation procedure in late October.

[OrBy]

Add me to the list of E4 buyers due to this thread. Now the question is how many toys do I need to sell to break even on this purchase? Hope it ships today or Tue.

[Taucher]

At least with the new UI hacks there now isn't really any reason to ever update firmware on current units - I can't think of anything they could add that would make it really worth the risk.

Full ack 

This also reminds me to do a diff in order to check what got touched between the FW releases 

EDIT: Btw. - the .rcc format supports both: embedded and... that won't work - mixed up .rcc with .qrc

[Taucher]

Is it possible to select - in camera - Temperature Span? And, if so, what is the minimum span?

With Taucher's hack, yes, but it's still in beta test.
You can't exactly set span around a centre value, but you can set the high and low ends of the scale seperately, and also together to set the centre while keeping the same span.
From memory minimum span is not as low as 2.5 - don't have it to hand but I think somewhere between 5 and 10

It's 4°C minimum span between Min and Max

[m4rkiz]

if anyone is still afraid to permanently hack his\her i3\i5 here is simple step by step guide

read post #524 https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-imaging-camera-teardown/msg321956/#msg321956

1. power on camera

2. press menu button once

3. press play (gallery) button for 5 seconds

4. switch to RNDIS usb mode

5. install flir drivers on your pc

6. connect camera to pc, give it a minute to install and start

7. connect to camera's ftp server at 192.168.0.2 user:flir password:3vlig with ftp client capable of passive mode i.e. total commander

8. make full backup of filesystem to a secure location

9. download mike's crc01 tool from this https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-imaging-camera-teardown/msg321956/#msg321956 post

10. install some proper text editor i.e. notepad++ (and enable showing all characters in view \ show symbols)

11. open backup\FlashFS\system\appcore.d\config.d\conf.cfg

12. remove last line that says

Code: [Select]

# CRC01 ????????

13. replace number at the end of   ||.caps.config.image.settings.resIR int32 X||   with value from   ||.caps.config.image.settings.fpgaResolution.resIR int32 X||*

14. save changes as new file

15. use crc01 to calculate checksum of this file

16. open backup\FlashFS\system\appcore.d\config.d\conf.cfg file again, do the same resolution modification and replace checksum with calculated one

17. save changes as new file that you will upload to camera (in extra step i have changed attributes and date & time of new file to be the same as old one, but this is most likely unnecesary)

18. connect to ftp again, and upload created file overwriting one that sits in \FlashFS\system\appcore.d\config.d\conf.cfg (or check mike's post just under this one and let us know)

19. unmount & disconnect camera, use reset button in battery compartment to reboot it

it worked for me, i don't take any responsibility for anything but merely sharing what i did described as good as i could, do it at your own risk


*

Code: [Select]

* Z-cam has a detector with 80x80, 120x120 or 144x144 pixels.

[lewis]

Are the FLIR drivers/software (as in everything necessary for the hack) provided on disk with the camera? If not, better get downloading soon before they have a chance to change them online.

[mikeselectricstuff]

18. connect to ftp again, and upload created file overwriting one that sits in \FlashFS\system\appcore.d\config.d\conf.cfg

If it's like the E4, you don't need to overwrite the old file, just give it a name that's higher alphabetically - the later file will override the normal one.

[Pinkus]

Just installed Beta2 Hack.
THIS IS AWESOME. THANK YOU to all!!!!!!!
I am grinning  all the time!


I created a new edited startup logo. As the E4 now became a E8 but with even more features I thought, I should call it E8+ which now appears in the logo. Just replace if you like. Of course it will violate the Flir CI/CD rules, but who cares. At least their logo is still present. Their logo should stay as they own respect for what they are offering for such a low price including all the open doors for hacking. If you read this Flir-managers: I thank you. At least from my side you just made extra revenue and you did not loose any money, as I would not have purchased a 80x60 IR camera for $1000 and neither a 320x240 for $5000. But 320x240 for $1000 was reasonable for me. With the extended features I am totally happy now.

[Taucher]

Just did the diff what changed during the last firmware update:

FlashBFS\system\web\inc\camtype.inc
-   

Code: [Select]

var CamType   = "Z3";
var CamFamily = "FLIR Astra";
var CamImage  = "Z3_Astra.jpg";+ 

Code: [Select]

var CamType   = "P";
var CamFamily = "ThermaCAM";
var CamImage  = "flirtrans.gif";FlashBFS\system\web\service\ppr.asp
-

Code: [Select]

<body id="PPRLog">+  (did they really add a bug/typo?!)

Code: [Select]

<body id="PPRLog"">
-

Code: [Select]

2013-09-19 14:20:51 Production problem report started 
2013-09-19 14:20:51 Information Torrent: End of operations, program complete  <a href="PPRI.htm#999">more info</a>+

Code: [Select]

No problems reported here( yet ), maybe you can find some info in file "/FlashFS/tmp/prod.log"   

 

[mikeselectricstuff]

Just did the diff what changed during the last firmware update:

By latest do you mean 1.19.8 ?

[Taucher]

Just did the diff what changed during the last firmware update:

By latest do you mean 1.19.8 ?

good point - I compared my camera which @menu reports 1.18.7 to the contents of
flir_ex_pn639_v1.18.7_update_pack / Z3comb_v1.18.7.fif
Didn't see any 1.19.8 links/packs online yet.

the above file leaves the kits untouched:
appkit.rev - VERSION 1.0.13 DATE 14-Aug-2013
prodkit.rev - VERSION 1.0.0.7 DATE 20-Aug-2013

PS: couldn't compare NK files/contents yet - just FlashBFS

[mikeselectricstuff]

Yes there is space in the battery base for a tripod mount - this is s 3/8" adapter ground down to 8mm and epoxied into a hole drilled in the base.
One minor issue is that as the lens is angled, to get a horizontal view you need to tilt the tripod head.

[Mark_O]

The USB ID's for the various modes:

Code: [Select]

RNDIS and UVC        : 09cb:1005
...
RNDIS, UVC and MSD   : 09cb:1005


So, how does that work?

[Taucher]

I did some screenshots (VLC -> direct show capture) showing the camera's BETA1 menu/features - examples how it looks here (might vary depending on your caps settings) .. there are some minor issues like when selecting hot/cold spot then the palette gets set to gray (might be related to order of menu items).
I've also noticed that my cam loses lang-settings when cold starting... but no deal-breakers

ATTENTION: AVOID FIRMWARE 1.21.0 or higher!

Attachment: zips contain everything (following postings due to size limits)
Images: peek preview/examples for the zip contents

Follow this link to get the current menu-hack:
>>>click-here>>> Additional menu-items / ADDMENU-BETA 3

EZCRC01 - https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-imaging-camera-teardown/msg332090/#msg332090

How to extract RCC
How to repack RCC

[Taucher]

Attachment 1/4
Attachment 2/4

[Taucher]

Attachment 3/4
Attachment 4/4

[Taucher]

The USB ID's for the various modes:

Code: [Select]

RNDIS and UVC        : 09cb:1005
...
RNDIS, UVC and MSD   : 09cb:1005


So, how does that work?

That are just USB ID's in case somebody wants to investigate into the USB stack
UVC will add a windows direct show imaging device (Video Capture)
MSD will add a Mass Storage Device - like a USB stick
RNDIS will provide a Network interface

Combinations of those modes will provide a combined device with subdevices

Note: the mode where all three are together does NOT work reliably - known limitation/failure

[SPRX]

Thanks to Mike and all the others folks in this Awesome thread !!!!

Has anyone ordered/bought Flir E4 from Australia ? or any ausi source?

[mikeselectricstuff]

Note: the mode where all three are together does NOT work reliably - known limitation/failure

I wonder if this may be a problem with  T3Mon - the util that gets installed with the Flir RNDIS drivers to provide a virtual drive over RNDIS. ISTR a bit of a punch-up going on when it is running and MSD is enabled.

However if you do have T3Mon there is no need for MSD as it provides the same functionality. Just means you can't plug into a PC without RNDIS driver.
But now we know how to get to the secret menu it's no big deal

[Taucher]

Just installed Beta2 Hack.
THIS IS AWESOME. THANK YOU to all!!!!!!!
I am grinning  all the time!

I created a new edited startup logo. As the E4 now became a E8 but with even more features I thought, I should call it E8+ which now appears in the logo. Just replace if you like. Of course it will violate the Flir CI/CD rules, but who cares. At least their logo is still present. Their logo should stay as they own respect for what they are offering for such a low price including all the open doors for hacking. If you read this Flir-managers: I thank you. At least from my side you just made extra revenue and you did not loose any money, as I would not have purchased a 80x60 IR camera for $1000 and neither a 320x240 for $5000. But 320x240 for $1000 was reasonable for me. With the extended features I am totally happy now.

Don't know where you got a Beta2 (it's still 1)  ... but you're welcome

I totally agree that Flir most likely hasn't lost any revenue due to the E4-E8 hack - it's understandable that someone in their marketing department developed some ingenious idea how to milk the market by artificially spoiling the product (obviously they did not learn from Steve Jobs - make ONE product (per segment), but make it really really great).

Milking schemes have one negative issue: every customer ends up thinking "ouch, that really hurt ... bloody bastards ripping me/us off".
Even the E4 isn't a cheap product - but I can guarantee that nobody here was going to buy an E8 ... and from what I count there were already 50+ E4 sold...

Lesson learnt: if you milk the market, ensure that the cow is happy with it!

[Taucher]

Note: the mode where all three are together does NOT work reliably - known limitation/failure

I wonder if this may be a problem with  T3Mon - the util that gets installed with the Flir RNDIS drivers to provide a virtual drive over RNDIS. ISTR a bit of a punch-up going on when it is running and MSD is enabled.

However if you do have T3Mon there is no need for MSD as it provides the same functionality. Just means you can't plug into a PC without RNDIS driver.
But now we know how to get to the secret menu it's no big deal

Not to forget that RNDIS itselt already provides a SMB share that's kind of to MSD ... with the improvement that one can take snapshots while the drive is mounted over USB