Compix 222 / Meditherm MED2000 Iris/ Tes2

[tinkergit]

Hello all!

One late night on Ebay I received a suggestion that was a MED2000Iris camera that nobody was bidding on and had a buy it now price of £150 plus shipping for the camera, carry case, 2 batteries and a laptop with the software for running it. I checked the internet and this forum and found out that the sticker on the camera saying thermal-eye inside was accurate and that there is a hope of accessing that core directly for a feed. This forum had some product briefs and manuals regarding the Thermal-Eye 3600 I believe and a diagram of the image processing chain.

I got the camera and the software running, the software seems to be a bit dumbed down, and it supposedly only goes up to 50 degrees, but testing with a freshly boiled cup of water it definitely goes beyong that and has a fair bit of dynamic range as well and it is possible to type in values in the TES2 program for range that allow me to see that dynamic range.

Taking stills is nice, and the software works pretty well for its intented use, but I would love to find a way of getting access to a good quality video feed. I can make the Tes2 take continuous images in Tiff at 160x120, 360x240 and read the folder and make my own low framerate video, but wondering if there is a better way, especially since I don't have the install disks, just the laptop with the software installed and would rather keep that safe.

Also, is putting a Sigrok compatible device on the 15/20 pin connector going to help at all with figuring out what commands the Compix module is sending the Thermal-Eye core to initialise it? As the shutter only works when the software is on, so I suspect I need to send those commands as well before being able to get the video/data back.

For details I also found this: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/thermal-eye-4500-3600as/ and https://www.opticsplanet.com/thermal-eye-3600-series-infrared-thermal-imaging-camera-core.html .

I have very little expertise in anything really, but curiosity is usually enough for me to at least attempt the experiments and I use it as a way to at least understand how much I don't know.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for any suggestions on how to free up the Thermal-Eye module used inside the Compix222/Meditherm Med2000 Iris.

[Bill W]

Have you got the 85 page manual from the forum ?

You'd likely need the original L3-Raytheon GUI to set the core back to normal stand-alone operation.
The behaviour sounds like Compix/Meditherm have saved their desired startup behaviour to the core, eg not running the shutter.

It should still do shutter events with the manual command on the main connector, ground pin 13 of 20.

I've got the manual but not the software

Bill

[Kosmic]

With the Tes2 version I have here, there's always a black and white live feed of my camera. Then, I can use something like OBS to grab the feed and save it to a video file (mpeg4 or anything else). A bit clunky but I don't mind.

[Kosmic]

Also, on the cd I got with my camera, there's a SDK containing some labview .vi to get a realtime feed. I never really tried to use it. If your camera is compatible with the Compix 222 it might work.

[tinkergit]

Hello Bill and Kosmic, thank you for the replies.

Bill:

I have a 71 page Interface Control Requirements Pdf and I am slowly going through it I will keep looking for the larger one if it exists.

That's why I was thinking of sniffing the commands sent by the compix board and see if I can replicate them with a different board to initialise the Thermal Eye core.

Kosmic:

The camera is detected as a Compix 222 in the windows device manager, so I think that's what it is with a different sticker stuck to it by Meditherm.

The version of WinTes2 I have seems to have been dumbed down as in the attached image. The SDK sounds very intriguing indeed sadly mine didn't come with the installation media, just the installed software on the laptop.

About the OBS capture, I assume you're doing a screen capture, so it would be a 8bit video feed while the module should be able to go to 12/16 bit? But if it works it works, much better than what I have now.

[Kosmic]

Kosmic:

The camera is detected as a Compix 222 in the windows device manager, so I think that's what it is with a different sticker stuck to it by Meditherm.

The version of WinTes2 I have seems to have been dumbed down as in the attached image. The SDK sounds very intriguing indeed sadly mine didn't come with the installation media, just the installed software on the laptop.

About the OBS capture, I assume you're doing a screen capture, so it would be a 8bit video feed while the module should be able to go to 12/16 bit? But if it works it works, much better than what I have now.

Yes from the specs (from Compix) it look like real time feed is always 8bit grayscale.



I'll put the CD content somewhere to allow you to d/l it. I'll send a link in PM when it's ready.

[tinkergit]

Kosmic, thank you, will patiently await the message.

[Kosmic]

Kosmic, thank you, will patiently await the message.

Check your private messages.

[tinkergit]

Thank you Kosmic, got it.

[Kosmic]