Keysight U5855A TrueIR thermal imager

[TheSteve]

Keysight has been selling off a bunch of U5855A used/demo machines on ebay. I negotiated what I think was a great price for one and received it the other day.
They have various combo's, mine included the hardcase, a new battery, AC charger/power cord, USB cable and the manual. The only things missing from my set compared to a new/complete kit was the RCA video cable and the SDcard. The RCA cable is worth nothing and I have lots of SDcards kicking around.

All of the ones being sold are from 2014 or so and were Agilent branded originally.
The units are all made in Japan and appear to be made by Testo. NEC/Avio
The image sensor is 160x120 but uses movement and multiple samples to give you a 320x240 image.
It offers a visual camera overlay, has a laser pointer and regular white LED flashlight builtin.
You can stream images to a PC via USB using free Keysight software that offers data logging etc.
It will focus as close as 10cm from an object.

Here are some sample shots.

First are some edge mounted through-hole PCBs in an HP 5340A 18 GHz frequency counter
Second, third, and 4th are cat related - you gotta love the residual paw prints
5th is my Rubidium standard which is mounted in a finned aluminum case
6th is my Trimble GPSDO which is mounted in a plastic box and sitting on a 10 MHz distribution amp
7th is my Keysight 3000T series scope which has not been powered on - this just shows the wasted power when off
8th is the same shot with the visual camera overlay enabled - sometimes the parallax error is pretty bad, other times it is fine

[TheSteve]

Some pics of the kit:

[TheSteve]

A few more shots

First is showing the LM399(or similar) reference in a Keithley 2700 6.5 digit DMM

Second is the entire PCB
Third is the same shot with the camera overlay(30% transparency)

[Fraser]

As a side note, you got a great deal as I offered the same money as you for a unit without any accessories or battery and they declined and made a counter offer which was more than I wanted to spend on an incomplete unit.

I think you got yourself a really great deal there.

Fraser

[Fraser]

Well I now have one of these cameras on the way to me now   

I got into some negotiations with Keysight and they are shipping a camera to me, without accessories, for no shipping charge. They could not match the price that 'The Steve' paid but I got close enough to be happy.

Now I need to collect together some accessories for the camera. Most are generic but some are going to be a bit harder to source, namely the Lithium Battery. I suspect the battery is very similar to those used in camcorders. It looks close to the design of a JVC Li-Ion battery.

I will need to provide the following to compete the kit......

1. Battery
2. Battery Charger/AC adapter
3. USB A to Mini lead
4. RCA video lead
5. SD card
6. Carry case

As can be seen, most of the above are easy to source and I already have most of the list in my spares stock.

Now I need the help of 'The Steve'

It would be great to have some pictures of the Li-Ion battery from all sides
+
The dimensions of battery and locations of its contacts that mate inside the camera
+
The details written on the AC adapter + the size and polarity of the AC adapter plug. 

Why did I buy this particular camera ?

1. It is a decent quality unit carrying the Keysight brand name.
2. Decent specifications
3. The Super Resolution mode is included as standard
4. The Super Resolution increases displayed detail and reduces noise content
5. The lens is manual focus down to 10cm
6. The free software provided for it looks excellent with facilities that I do not already have on my other cameras.
7. The camera offers USB video streaming + composite video output
8. It was relatively cheap, and delivery to the UK is free 

My thanks to 'The Steve' for bringing these cameras to my attention last week.

Fraser

[TheSteve]

Great to hear Fraser - it is always worth negotiating a little. I suspect the best price they can offer takes into account what it will cost them to ship the item. I assume they get a very good discount to North America because of the volume they do. I also negotiate pretty aggressively(or maybe it's just that I whine a lot) 

I'm happy to get you the details needed on the battery. I can already tell you it is made of two 18650 Li cells in series. I'll gather further info shortly and post the details.

So far I'm very happy with the camera, and I admit it - I'm a sucker for HP/Agilent/Keysight branded gear.

Someday you need to take a picture of your entire thermal camera collection.

[Fraser]

@'TheSteve'

I think you are right about shipping cost coming into the equation when considering offers. They originally offered me the camera at $599 inc shipping but I declined. Today I paid $525.

They have sold quite a few of the cameras with no accessories....... In my past experience these are likely the units that are sent out to customers to replace failed cameras. I bought some HP LogicDart's a few years ago and they were all new and sealed, yet carried a label saying "Refurbished". I checked and found out that they were in fact brand new and the "Refurbished" label was just standard exchange practice as they did not guarantee a new for old exchange.

I suspect this camera model may be about to be replaced with a new one so they are clearing out the spares holding. 

I already own a nice TESTO 880-1 camera and shall compare them once the unit arrives. Interestingly, IIRC the Super Resolution firmware upgrade for my Testo 880 cost around $1200. So double what I just paid for a camera with the capability operational as standard    The 880 may be rehomed 

Fraser

[Fraser]

This is the JVC format of battery that I am hoping to modify to fit the U5855A.

The Keysight battery costs around £100 here so a cheaper, more common battery type would be better if I can modify one to fit.

I also attach one of the few images I could find of the Keysight battery.

Fraser

[loxodes]

Keysight accepted my $450.55 offer for a shipped U5855A with no accessories, I'm expecting the camera to arrive on Tuesday 

It didn't include a power adapter or battery. I think the Keysight power brick is 2.1 mm center positive 12 V, 3 A. I'm going to try using a spare 12 V brick.

I picked up a U5752A battery from Allied Electronics ($120 shipped...), here are a few pictures for anyone trying to source a cheaper alternative:

[TheSteve]

The adapter is simply a Keysight qualified part(they don't make it) - it is a DVE DSA-42D-12 12 volt 3 amp supply, center positive jack.
The battery sure looks like it is used on other products. It has the side shoe type locking tabs which are not used in the U5855A.

The battery is exactly 70x39x22mm. As can be seen in the battery compartment the battery needs to have contacts on the end to make contact with the pogo pins in the camera.

The "S" sense pin appears to be tied to the positive output through a 7.7 K resistor.
The "T" temperature pin is connected to negative through a NTC thermistor which has 11.5K at around 20 degrees C.

[TheSteve]

The battery door and charger.

[Fraser]

@Loxodes,

Many thanks for the pictures. Sadly the battery does look to be a custom format and not one 'borrowed' from the camcorder world. A pity but not necessarily a show stopper on adapting one to suit. The battery in the will cost me about the same as you paid. I may yet buy the OEM battery.

You message kind of confirms my suspicions. To ship the camera from Malaysia to the UK via FEDEX or UPS is not cheap, but obviously Keysight have an account and get discount. $450 is a good price. That was what I originally offered and the counter offer was $599 ! Glad I did not accept on that occasion. These cameras offer excellent value for money in the current market. It is not always about the resolution figure, much depends upon the quality of the microbolometer and optics  A good quality 160 x 120 pixel camera can outperform a poor quality 320 x 240 pixel camera. A marginal quality or poorly constructed lens can ruin a microbolometers ability to produce a good image. The U5855A has the 'Fine Resolution' AKA Super Resolution mode to assist in providing greater detail when hand held. It will be interesting to play with that mode and see how well it performs.
 
Fraser

[Fraser]

@TheSteve,

Thank you for the pictures and information.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the battery bay. It looks similar to that used on my NEC AVIO cameras ! I was so pleased to see that the battery holder was a simple shape that does not dip into the hollow in the rear of the battery.

I originally thought this camera was from TESTO but another well known Japanese high quality TIC OEM is NEC/AVIO. I found a web page that mentioned the U5855A in the same heading as NEC/AVIO.

https://thermal-imaging-camera.irpod.net/produkte/portable-infrared-thermal-imaging-cameras/agilent-keysight-u5855a-trueir-avio-nec-ir-cam/

Could it be that this camera is a product of NEC/AVIO I wonder ? They have nothing similar in their product range though.

If it is from NEC/AVIO, it will be a very high quality product.

Fraser

[Fraser]

The NEC/AVIO battery used in several of their cameras

[TheSteve]

Here is a nice reference to NEC:

[loxodes]

Here is an AgilentKeysight press release mentioning their collaboration with NEC Avio:
http://about.keysight.com/en/newsroom/pr/2014/09jun-em14065.shtml?myAgilentEmail=&cc=DE&lc=ger

[Fraser]

This just gets better and better. NEC/AVIO use high quality microbolometers and lenses.

I am very chuffed to get an NEC/AVIO product.

Great camera 

Fraser

[TheSteve]

Any thoughts how this fits in with Testo?

[Fraser]

@'The Steve'

I thought the camera came from TESTO as it uses the 'Super Resolution' mode that TESTO came up with for their camera range. The camera also shared a resemblance to the TESTO layout. There may be no connection to TESTO at all. Just my mistaken deductions. NEC / AVIO do not offer a camera that even resembles the U5855A so I thought it unlikely that they would have been the OEM.

Fraser

[TheSteve]

Makes you wonder if one company licensed the "super resolution" technology from the other.

[sam1275]

This camera looks good.
I wonder if anyone can hack it to 30fps?(guess not)
I found the picture overlay is more dumb than Flir MSX, it's just overlay, MSX will find the outline from the visible camera and add it the the thermal image. However I'm not a fan of MSX either, I enjoy pure thermal photos 

[Fraser]

Frame rate will be locked into FPGA code and is not modifiable. NEC/AVIO have military connections and do the frame rate lock-down properly

Fraser

[TheSteve]

I pondered hacks to the U5855A before I bought it. There are two higher models(U5856A,U5857A) that measure to higher temps. I am quite sure they are the same hardware and it is simply a configured model number (and a matching calibration of course). I had even considered they were all calibrated over the entire range and then limited based on model number but the higher end models weren't released until after mine had been made. So the odds of mine having any cal data for higher ranges is very unlikely. I also pondered the frame rate and did have a peak in the firmware to see if there was anything super obvious. I can see some ascii references to frame rates but nothing over 9 Hz. If someone wants to have a real go at hacking it though I wouldn't complain.

[Fraser]

The price on these has now dropped to $454 !

(It has a broken strap mount)

How low will these cameras go I wonder ?

At these prices they should be flying out the door.

Fraser

[TheSteve]

Shame we can't find a cheaper source of batteries - although one could be constructed, and a case 3D printed.