Flir E4 Thermal imaging camera teardown

[Pinkus]

Exiftool does have access to the raw data, and all sorts of meta-data. I use precisely that to extract raw image + embedded digicam pic. Think I even posted some of those waaaay back...

Thank you. I did not know that it could extract these data too. 
Here is a site showing the usable commands for Flir: http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/TagNames/FLIR.html

I do have a question to Mrflibble. If you use the command line interface: can you please give us the flags needed to output a coloured thermal picture?
I tried out
exiftool test.jpg -rawthermalimage -b >thermal.png
exiftool test.jpg -EmbeddedImage -b >digicam.png
First line gives a black and white thermal image, second gives the digicam pic.
Probably for the coloured thermal pic some usage of the palette is needed - but what parameter are needed here? If you have them ready, you may save us some time for trying out. Thanks

[bookaboo]

I spoke to a Flir Agent today, all out of stock until Tuesday.
The word is Flir have fixed the "bug" in the existing firmware with a 2.0 revision on new stock   
I'll be in contact with them on Tuesday to see if they will check the incoming stock firmware version.

In the meantime if anyone knows of a seller with old firmware E4 in stock please let me know.

[mrflibble]

Probably for the coloured thermal pic some usage of the palette is needed - but what parameter are needed here? If you have them ready, you may save us some time for trying out. Thanks

Haven't needed it so far. If I have some time later on I'll take a look at it. Any solution I might come up with will probably involve using ImageMagick, so if you don't have that already you may want to take a look at it. If only because it is a pretty damn awesome image processing tool.

[Petrlib]

In the meantime if anyone knows of a seller with old firmware E4 in stock please let me know.

Here in Czech Republic lots of E4 in stock with 1.18 - 1.19 version firmware

[MrSquirrel]

Here's my story from the UK.

Ordered an E4 from PASS 11th Nov - was supposed to be in stock and with me next day...

Last update from PASS was on the 20th. I was told Flir keeps knocking them back on delivery dates. It was supposed to be 15th, 18th, then 19th and on 20th admitted that they don't really know what's happening - not heard anything since. Discussion in the background suggested their back order is rather large so perhaps smaller resellers ordering 1-2 at a time are getting fulfilled quicker?

Felt uneasy with PASS so decided to try elsewhere. Called 10+ companies end of last week and stumbled across a small supplier on the 14th and managed to find one in stock - result. Called back 15 mins later to do the deal and it had gone! However, they already had one on order to replenish a sale earlier in the week. Placed my order on the 15th and it arrived yesterday.

Calibration  19th Nov
Arrival        21st Nov
Model         E4 1.0
Firmware    1.19.8

I am very impressed, now looking at the world in a totally new way. Have already found lots of interesting things around the house - heat leaking all over the place and missing insulation. Superb build quality, feels great to use and the Pelican case is bomb-proof. MSX is a killer feature and apparently patented too.

By the way, Rapid Electronics in the UK appear to have some available though their website shows 1-2 weeks. I called anyway and according to the girl on the phone they get them from Conrad Electronics warehouse in Germany so take 4-5 days to the UK. Never dealt with Conrad direct but their Facebook feedback is a horror show so be careful! You should be safe with Rapid, have dealt with them for many years. Conrad's website was showing some stock on Thursday and Rapid they confimed they could see this stock available to them, but it would be 4-5 days shipping to the UK. Obviously you should double check this yourself.

[mrflibble]

By the way, Rapid Electronics in the UK appear to have some available though their website shows 1-2 weeks. I called anyway and according to the girl on the phone they get them from Conrad Electronics warehouse in Germany so take 4-5 days to the UK. Never dealt with Conrad direct but their Facebook feedback is a horror show so be careful! You should be safe with Rapid, have dealt with them for many years. Conrad's website was showing some stock on Thursday and Rapid they confimed they could see this stock available to them, but it would be 4-5 days shipping to the UK. Obviously you should double check this yourself.

Word of caution re: Conrad. I bought mine there, but only because at the time they had a 10% discount + I was on time. Normally I don't buy there because 1) overpriced and 2) after-sales sucks!!(!) And you can be sure that given the current stock situation they will list it as "oh sure, we have stock", but in reality they might very well not have any actual stock. It just looks like that in the upstream supplier webservice. As far as I could trace it the warehouse in Germany gets their fill fresh out of Estonia, and the supply line is short.

I think you will have better luck with smaller outfits that are definitely NOT Conrad. I suspect with conrad what will happen is .. they tell you "yes, we have stock", followed by you paying your money followed by an agonizingly long wait because oh lookey, no stock. Or just take your chances.  You'll eventually get one anyways. 

So if you have a reputable seller ensuring you they will have stock because they have good info, go for it! If the information is from some random conrad phone person I would take that information with a large formation of rock salt.

[MrSquirrel]

I think you will have better luck with smaller outfits

Yep, the smaller guys were helpful and company i got mine from didn't even want payment until they shipped it out! Does not happen often these days.

[cuisinart]

I ordered one today, apparently it will be one from a recent batch from the factory, made sometime last week.  Hopefully it's still a good one, will keep in touch.  What is the possibility of downgrading a firmware?

[olsenn]

I ordered one today, apparently it will be one from a recent batch from the factory, made sometime last week.  Hopefully it's still a good one, will keep in touch.  What is the possibility of downgrading a firmware?

Slim I imagine. If the sole purpose of this new firmware is to eliminate hacking, I think the engineers at FLIR would block downgrading to a lower firmware -- that would be all too easy. Unlike Rigol, FLIR doesn't seem to me like an incompetent bunch.

[amv]

Hi all
This is my first post here
I have been watching this tread for about 3 weeks (found it because i was following the ill faited MU camera)
And for the last two weeks i have been trying to find an E4 somewhere in Europe. But i quess that you Guys, and
this tread has really drained the Continent 
Well i will keep looking 
But let me just say that i am really impressed by the Work you Guys have done with this really cool  toy 

[max-bit]

Welcome
I have the same problem with the company CONRAD.DE (CONRAD.PL)
Also bought a 10% discount.
Cam they send, on Wednesday, then on Thursday, last Friday .... of course not sent.
......  explain the problems they have in stock
Now I got from the President (representative office in Poland) to ensure that the camera is sent to me on Monday.

But no company has these cameras actually out of stock.

[aargee]

Something off topic a little...

I note that the Flir can read sky temperature (how accurately, I'm not sure).

We are well into thunderstorm season here and was wondering if a thermal camera can be used to indicate the presence of sub-zero temperatures in thunderheads that will lead to hail? There's probably heaps of variables affecting this though.

[SeanB]

Open clear sky with a cheap IR thermometer reads -40 or so on a clear night, clouds measure between ambient and -5C.

[Clint]

The gimbals have built in liquid references and can read the cloud temps much better, even more impressive is tracking of birds that you cant see in the sky !

[mikeselectricstuff]

The gimbals have built in liquid references and can read the cloud temps much better, even more impressive is tracking of birds that you cant see in the sky !

I'd guess water/couds have pretty low emissivity, and over such a long distance, attenuation through the atmosphere may also affect accuracy, however you can very clearly see clouds at night.

[jlr134]

Hi Guys.Ive been reading with great fascination so I took the plunge and got an E4. Just came yesterday SW# 1.17.7
My problem is when I browse to the .fif flile i(I created) in flirtnetinstall I get this message.

(ids_illegal-file)

Heres what Im doing.(Im trying to use mikes creation from page 33)
I add my serial number to the E8.cfg at the end of  his given file and save it.
I run CRC01 E8.cfg and get the generated crc and add it exactly as it was generated under the serial number in the e8.cfg file and using the system tree he provided   
    [ flashfs\system\appcore.d\config.d\e8.cfg }i  put the new e8,cfg and the camera.cmd in the last folder.
I make it into a zip file using win zip and change it to a .fif  .( I have it on a lash drive.) I follow the rest of the procedure and get this error

A CASE OF BEER TO THE KIND SOUL WHO PUTS ME ON THE ROAD TO THERMAL IMAGING  HAPPINESS

[mrflibble]

Right, been mucking about with raw data + applying palette. Not perfect, but reasonable enough for now.

Maybe the center of the span is not exactly as it should be. Right now I use the median, since that's available from the meta-data. But maybe something else is used by Flir.  Colors are a bit different too, but that's likely due to the 324234 different YUV->RGB "standards" one can choose from. Looks like Flir uses the how-to-get-washed-out-colors YUV to RGB conversion, while I use the non-clipped range aka non-washed out colors version.

Added feature is that you not only get rid of the clutter in the original image, but you can also select different ranges and spans. Or apply a different palette. But no doubt Flir Tools does that too.

[stefbeer]

Hey jlr134!

I run CRC01 E8.cfg and get the generated crc and add it exactly as it was generated under the serial number in the e8.cfg file and using the system tree he provided   
    [ flashfs\system\appcore.d\config.d\e8.cfg }i  put the new e8,cfg and the camera.cmd in the last folder.

The "camera.cmd" must be in the root directory of the zip file. So when you open the created zip file, you must see the "camera.cmd" and the folder "flashfs". That's all.
Good luck and have fun with your E8! 

Greetings
stefbeer

EDIT: @ mrfibble below me: I would have been even faster but I have to proof-read everything 2-15 times before I post it.

[mrflibble]

    [ flashfs\system\appcore.d\config.d\e8.cfg }i  put the new e8,cfg and the camera.cmd in the last folder.
I make it into a zip file using win zip and change it to a .fif  .( I have it on a lash drive.) I follow the rest of the procedure and get this error

The file camera.cmd should be in the ROOT directory, so NOT in the same dir as where you put e8.cfg.

[mrflibble]

Darn you and your 23 seconds. 

[Taucher]

Seems like EzCRC01 does not get enough attention since not linked from 1. post

EDIT: post 1700

[jlr134]

Guys Im running late for work and cant try it till I get home...but Im real serious about any offer of beer.
Im send a message when Im up and running and Ill get you (both) your suds.
thanks

( and I know you would have helped a guy out out regardless...but beer is beer)

[eliocor]

please also check your CRC is written in UPPERCASE letters: I got caught in...

[PA0PBZ]

I have been looking at the 9 Hz image refresh rate and found the following stuff, looks like another dead end but maybe anyone else can find something.

In FlashFS\tmp\prod.log:

10 Preparation:All tasks reporting ready
11 Preparation:Image frequency 9
Using .image.flow.detector.TFpa to check tempstable

This is coming from ProdApp.exe:

0008F494                 LDR     R1, =aAllTasksReport ; "All tasks reporting ready"
0008F498                 BL      sub_Log
0008F49C                 LDR     R1, =a_image_sysi_12 ; ".image.sysimg.basicImgData.distrData.imageFreq"
0008F4A0                 ADD     R2, SP, #0x64+var_60
0008F4A4                 ADD     R0, SP, #0x64+var_24
0008F4A8                 BL      sub_Getresource
0008F4AC                 LDR     R2, [SP,#0x64+var_60]
0008F4B0                 LDR     R1, =aImageFrequency ; "Image frequency %d"
0008F4B4                 MOV     R0, R5
0008F4B8                 BL      sub_Log

which obviously reads the .image.sysimg.basicImgData.distrData.imageFreq resource:

>rls .image.sysimg.basicImgData.distrData.imageFreq
imageFreq                      9

It's even writable:

>rset .image.sysimg.basicImgData.distrData.imageFreq 1

>rls .image.sysimg.basicImgData.distrData.imageFreq
imageFreq                     1

Tried with one because that would be easier to notice than 30, but nothing changed and after a cold boot the 9 is in there again.
I could find one other reference to imageFreq, in appcore_dll.dll but this is just a const structure, so I have no idea where it is used and where it is written...

[bernroth]

@PA0PBZ: Have you tried to compare your findings with the software from the Exx models? Maybe the software does internally check the camera model number and overwrites the dynamic configured frame rate with the constant in appcore_dll.dll
What is the constant value in this DLL? Can this be modified and set to one?