Flir E4 Thermal imaging camera teardown

[Fraser]

OK no worries    I don't log owners details and I have a mind like a sieve at the moment !

I want to keep an eye on unusual events in case they occur to a certain serial number range or hardware version. The more data I have the better    Thank you for providing the information on your camera.

We have at least one other report of a persistent image issue and another of the battery charge icon causing a ghost image on the screen after a charge cycle. It is unusual and both are unexplained at the moment. I do not believe this effect to be connected with any 'improvements' made to the camera as there would have been more reports of such.

If you thoroughly test the camera and the issue does not re-occur, it is likely a random event that will hopefully not re-occur.

[nacke]

"I want to keep an eye on unusual events in case they occur to a certain serial number range or hardware version. The more data I have the better"

That's a good practice. I'll be in contact if there's any other issues.

[G0HZU]

Has anyone seen such a behaviour on the screen like on picture 1?

Yes, mine went a bit mad once last week and the display filled with patterned junk a bit like yours.

I think I may have caused it when fitting and removing the cable for the badly designed USB interface. Once it did it, a normal on/off cycle caused it to fail to reboot and it would give random junk or a blank screen. However, it would sometimes reboot OK with the USB connected. It definitely was NOT caused by a tired battery as it had been charged the night before and showed full charge.

But even when rebooted with the cable it would go a bit mad and showed strange scaling. It was instantly cured with a battery removal/reset and has been fine since. So I think these cameras can crash and they need a full reset now and again. It was as if some critical data in RAM had been corrupted and the only cure was a hard reset.

I've not seen any image retention/burn issues though...

[junktronix]

Full details

SN: 6390 88xx
Cal date: 2-Dec-2013
Firmware: 1.19.8
Model: E4 1.1

I've only been using it for a day, but it seems to be working well.  No crashes, noise or distorted images to report.

I'm sure this will be lost in the noise, but I wanted to say that I got an E4 delivered from Amazon today which has firmware 1.19.8 and upgraded to 320x200 with 5 minutes effort.  THANK YOU for the information and _excellent_ video(s)

can you give the calibration date, that is of great use to the people in this thread.

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

[Fraser]

I have not seen many reports of E4's crashing even when 'improved' by owners so it seems to be a pretty stable platform, for which I am grateful. For info, I am running the slightly modified 'Taucher BETA2' (BETA2a) menu that had some additional syntax corrections and it has yet to crash when in use or selecting functions. There are also some changes to the Menu lists in this version. If any one else wants to try the same version of the Menu, take a look here:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-imaging-camera-teardown/msg334399/#msg334399

The changes to Tauchers excellent Menu file were carried out by Uup, but I have seen little comment on this version. It works well for me and Uup spotted some issues and corrected them for us. Cheers Uup.

[QuadESL63]

I also installed the BETA2a menu and it seems to work very stable so far.

A question:
when you look into the FlashBFS\system folder, there are the files bootlogo.bmp and bootlogo_legal.bmp.
I adapted both to my own taste (and made both identical), but the bootlogo does not seem to be in use anywhere. Is that correct?
The original FLIR boot-up screen picture keeps coming up, and that is not the picture that is now in this location. Is it located somewhere else (and was I mislead by the file name...)?
The changed bootlogo_legal picture works well by the way.

Thanks.
J.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I also installed the BETA2a menu and it seems to work very stable so far.

A question:
when you look into the FlashBFS\system folder, there are the files bootlogo.bmp and bootlogo_legal.bmp.
I adapted both to my own taste (and made both identical), but the bootlogo does not seem to be in use anywhere. Is that correct?
The original FLIR boot-up screen picture keeps coming up, and that is not the picture that is now in this location. Is it located somewhere else (and was I mislead by the file name...)?
The changed bootlogo_legal picture works well by the way.

Thanks.
J.

Yes - I think there is another bootlogo embedded in the bootloader or somewhere else obscure - I don't think bootlogo.bmp is ever displayed in normal operation

[mrflibble]

I have not seen many reports of E4's crashing even when 'improved' by owners so it seems to be a pretty stable platform, for which I am grateful.

When using the E4 just through the button pressey menu I haven't experienced any issues either. When mucking about with the usb connection I do experience some issues. For example when testing streaming recently I noticed that when you send certain ioctls to the uvc video device it barfs every now and then, resulting in unusable video. But so far most curious behaviour has been fixed by issuing a restartapp command over telnet, no powercycles required.

[QuadESL63]

Yes - I think there is another bootlogo embedded in the bootloader or somewhere else obscure - I don't think bootlogo.bmp is ever displayed in normal operation

Thanks Mike.
I could not find any accessible FLIR-logo picture anywhere (at least not at locations I was able to peek...)

Jac

[pomonabill221]

I've done the resolution hack but even after reading the thread from beginning to end, can't quite build up the confidence to do the menu hack.

If any of you guys have the time could you please post up a brief step by step guide. I don't quite need a 'baby walk' but a step by step on setting up the modes / connectivity prior to copying the files across with filezilla would really help in my case.

Install FLIR RNDIS driver
Select USB RNDIS mode via keypad
Use Filezilla to FTP to 192.168.0.2, login flir, password 3vlig

I, too have added the beta2a "upgrade" and it works GREAT!!!
FIRST though I copied all the files in the camera to a local folder just in case.
Then used filezilla to overwrite the new folder tree.
BUT the IP for my camera was 192.168.250.2
Guess the camera has DHCP?

Great work Mike and Taucher on the "updates"!!!!!  VERY nice camera now!

BTW...
E4 v 1.0
sn 639076xx
cal 11/21/13
and the big question...
firmware 1.19.8
purchased 12/5
$895

[Taucher]

@Bootlogo - there's a dedicated app for showing the bootup screens
note that the camera does display an animation, then followed by static images - legal notice one only on hard boot

@Menu BETA2 vs BETA2a
The really important patch for stability was the one to the .pal file - which is identical in both menu versions.
What UUP did change were mostly cosmetics like re-hiding the hidden menu and moving USB mode selection back there.

He also disabled an inactive (never shown) block on the main menu which I already had marked to be removed

Code: [Select]

  <!--HACK - probably useless-->
  <ui_model type="AddOnLensSettingsModel" name="addOnLensSettingsModel"/>

No syntax errors or something like that... anyway I still want to try to get the humidity settings menu somehow - and a lens correction menu could be handy for the addon lens users

But please keep in mind - BETA2 is not "stable" in regard to my quality standards as there are anomalies:
- when using advanced color palettes in combination with advanced measurement modes - especially the delta modes seem to be not the best code (depend on preset files, work with temp-files etc) and I've noticed some strange jumps of last selected element when using those modes. But since PAL fix no lockups

[Taucher]

BTW - a good file and folder comparison tool is essential when playing with stuff like this and comparing huge sets of data with unknown changes - that's where I'm REALLY happy with Examdiff Pro from Prestosoft - if anybody knows similar, better (or free) software with file and directory comparison mode (other than unix "diff") then please feel free to contribute your knowledge

[Fraser]

Hi Taucher,

The 'syntax' comment related to the following from Uup:

"However, I did have an issue with the UI crashing, or locking-up, intermittently when switching between measurement modes. Did anyone else encounter this issue?

Couldn't find the exact cause but I found some errors in the file "design_ui_z3.xml", which I corrected."

I used BETA2a because of this, as it appeared it helped with instability in measurement modes which, as you say, had/still have issues.

[QuadESL63]

Not sure if this is interesting and/or mentioned before:

The IR-sensor temp indeed seems to be around 30 C.
Astra Service Web indicates the following values for the Temperature Sensors:

Name                  Raw     Corrected [°C]
TSBoard              302.57 29.42
TSFpa                  301.46 28.31
TShutterDigFilt1  304.42 31.27

J

[Taucher]

Hi Taucher,

The 'syntax' comment related to the following from Uup:

"However, I did have an issue with the UI crashing, or locking-up, intermittently when switching between measurement modes. Did anyone else encounter this issue?

Couldn't find the exact cause but I found some errors in the file "design_ui_z3.xml", which I corrected."
I used BETA2a because of this, as it appeared it helped with instability in measurements modes which, as you had/still has issues.

well, "errors" sounds like "crappy work" - just take a look yourself - diff the files and watch out that most stuff is comment editing anyway

only two changes were: a) USB mode menu deduplicated b) removed addOnLensSettingsModel entry
I'm still running my BETA2 and failed to "crash" the camera yet ... but maybe I'm just using it differently than others.

Any step-by-step guide to reproduce an error would be greatly appreciated

[Taucher]

Just found: new firmware (T6xx series, November 29, 2013) online:
http://cdn.cloud.flir.se/swdownload/assets/cameradownload/flir_t6xx_v2.37c.20_update_pack.zip

[unicorn5]

purchased 12/5
$895

Could you share with the team where you buy at that price?
It's a very important price. Thanks.

[mrflibble]

... if anybody knows similar, better (or free) software with file and directory comparison mode (other than unix "diff") ...

Depending on your preferences and the job at hand: meld, kompare, vimdiff.

[Mr-Beamer]

I was looking inside some system files and found a list of camera's inside the  gethwtype.exe file.
Maybe this is interesting for some one.
Do these cameras almost use the same hardware setup so they can reuse the software?


"E1A- T-Cam, BACE rev 04-07 AND SB0401 9Hz"
"E1B- T-Cam, BACE rev 04-07 AND SB0401 3Hz"
"E2A- T-Cam, BACT AND SB0601 9 Hz detector"
"E2B- T-Cam, BACT AND SB0601 30 Hz detector"
"E3A- T-Cam, BACT2 AND SB0601 9 Hz detecor"
"E3B- T-Cam, BACT2 AND SB0601 30 Hz detecor"
"E4 - T-Cam, BACT2 AND ULIS detector"
"Ex - T-Cam, unknown subtype (remote)"
"A1A- A-Cam S, AHCO AND SB0401 9 Hz detecor"
"A1B- A-Cam S, AHCO AND SB0401 30 Hz detecor"
"A2A- A-Cam R, AHCO AND SB0401 9 Hz detecor"
"A2B- A-Cam R, AHCO AND SB0401 30 Hz detecor"
"A3A- A-Cam S, AHCO AND SB0601 9 Hz detecor"
"A3B- A-Cam S, AHCO AND SB0601 30 Hz detecor"
"A4A- A-Cam R, AHCO AND SB0601 9 Hz detecor"
"A4B- A-Cam R, AHCO AND SB0601 30 Hz detecor"
"A5A- A-Cam S, AHCO3 AND SB0601 9 Hz detecor"
"A5B- A-Cam S, AHCO3 AND SB0601 30 Hz detecor"
"P1A- P-Cam,   BACP rev 07"
"P1B- P-Cam,   BACP rev >=08, UIP rev 03/04"
"P1C- P-Cam,   BACP rev >=08, UIP rev>=05"
"P2 - P-Cam,   BACP2"
"G1 - GF"
"X1 - Ixx"
"R1 - A2 camera "
"T1 - PT camera "
"F1 - Liston camera "
"S1 - SART camera"
"Z1 - ZOCO camera"
"Z2 - IVCO or ZOCO_BLUE camera"
"Z3 - ASCO camera"
"Y1 - T-MkII (Ylva) camera"
"H1 - Fire camera"
"Qx - unknown HW"

ps has anyone played with fvd.exe?
As I can see now this app can tests the entire camera and maybe spit out some interesting stuff.

[pomonabill221]

purchased 12/5
$895

Could you share with the team where you buy at that price?
It's a very important price. Thanks.

Yes, I thought the price was GREAT!

I bought it from thermalimagercamera (dot) com.

There is a button when looking at the E4 page that is "request quote".
you fill out a small form with your name and email address, and they send you an email with the quote price of 895.50 and a reference number.

This is for phone orders only (the web price is not affected as far as I know).  FREE SHIPPING too!

The same business has another website as well (same place/phone number), but there isn't a quote request.  There is a "call for quote" though, but I don't know if the same price is offered  (kinda strange).
They are located in Arizona.

As of today (12/14) they seem to have stock... when I ordered I was told mid December, but I noticed their stock "indicator" had 2 out of 5 bars on the 11th, and I received a call asking if I was still interested in the E4... why YES I was!!!!
I received it on 12/13 (of all days!) via UPS ground.

Also, do NOT forget about filling out the form for the FREE Flir gifts!!!!  This is from Flir and NOT the seller as you need your order number and serial number... still worth it!!!

This makes the E4 even MORE attractive!!!  the price and the free stuff!!!

I have "upgraded" mine  ( and the menu mods.... WONDERFUL!!!!  Couldn't ask for MORE!!!

Now we just need to see if we can get better than 9fps!!!!

[pomonabill221]

Here is a strange one!  I have read that others have had similar problems like this.
These were taken with the AC adapter plugged in.
The lens cover was on and off... didn't seem to make a difference, and these problems seldom occurred and didn't seem to happen with a particular combination of lens cover/power button press, just when the AC adapter was plugged in.
It seems like when running on batteries, these problems do not occur.
This also occurred even before ANY "updating" was done (stock E4), so it doesn't appear to be due to the mod.
These images were taken with a DSLR and NOT the usb output of the camera (obviously... AC adapter).
The fringing was due to the dslr's resolution/image sensor and the E4 lcd creating an interference pattern.

I was also able to use a browser and actually log into the web interface in the camera!!!  Has anyone tried this?
The user and password is what we have all seen here and you CAN modify the EEPROM and calibration of the camera IF you are clumbsy enough to do so.

Getting into the "service mode" does require a password even after logging into the web interface, but I didn't try it.
E4 v1.0
sn 63907xxx
FW 1.19.8
cal 11/21

[Taucher]

Here is a strange one!  I have read that others have had similar problems like this...

Those screenshots show the camera UI restarting - can be reproduced by restartapp - no need to worry
(if noise persists: cold boot (remove battery) the camera)

[jlr134]

purchased 12/5
$895

Could you share with the team where you buy at that price?
It's a very important price. Thanks.

You can get the same deal by requesting a quote from Tequiptment.net ( dont forget the promotional gift from Flir)

[pomonabill221]

Here is a strange one!  I have read that others have had similar problems like this...

Those screenshots show the camera UI restarting - can be reproduced by restartapp - no need to worry
(if noise persists: cold boot (remove battery) the camera)

Great!  Thanks for the "reassuring" info!
I though I might have a flaky camera, but it worked fine on battery so I thought it might just be an AC adapter problem, or the power supply inside the camera having problem while running the battery management section and the camera.

Also wanted to thank you for the menu upgrade (beta2a)!  I copied the folder to the camera and now I have MANY more options!!!  VERY useful!

Bill

[pomonabill221]

purchased 12/5
$895

Could you share with the team where you buy at that price?
It's a very important price. Thanks.

You can get the same deal by requesting a quote from Tequiptment.net ( dont forget the promotional gift from Flir)

Are they in Europe?  Another great source for a good price!