Repair or let die

[MadeForThat]

Fired up a ratheon camera from the 90's and after getting the chopper wheel freed up and spinning, it makes a nice image! Issue is there is a large gray block in the display, and I am pretty inexperienced to know if this is something on the detector side or the display side of this device, I have attached some images of the boards, I suspect there could be damage in any number of the ribbon cables, but not sure how to know without probing each line of each ribbon. First post, very long time lurker! Thanks for any input

[Fraser]

Sadly only one image is visible and you need to reduce image size to around 1024 x 768 pixels for optimum forum compatibility 

Fraser

[MadeForThat]

Wow a horrible display of technical posting!

[MadeForThat]

Board on bottom of device

[MadeForThat]

Board on right side

[MadeForThat]

Left side

[MadeForThat]

Top down

[MadeForThat]

Lil microwave transmitter that I removed, so far as I can tell it would have just broadcasted the video feed to a ground station. Replacing doesn't alter image.

[MadeForThat]

So when the device is pointed at a candle, in the "dark gray" box in the lower left hand of the display, a few pixles will light at the heart of the flame. It almost seems as if the "gain" on this patch of pixles is set way low. Again, no idea if that is a detector or display issue. Please excuse that I have the camera focused for about 10 feet and it isn't very clear on this flame haha

[ArsenioDev]

that may be a bad RAM chip, sector failure of the framebuffer

[MadeForThat]

Do you think that is something that could be diagnosed? I am assuming that the ram would be related to the display overlay? I really have no clue haha. Wondering if there is a way to independently verify the detector systems are fine. I wouldn't mind running this to an external (or modern) display, assuming there is a place to tie into composite. But I am pretty un-knowledgeable about what that signal even consists of, let alone where to find it, so I may need to disassemble and see if any pins are labled

[MadeForThat]

Guess I should have given it a closer look before posting, but there is a "vid" pin haha. Anyone want to weigh in on how to check this feed?

[MadeForThat]

This camera was branded under a firefighting company-FRC. Company still exists and after a few emails I am told these cameras were only sold in the 90's and were sourced from "electrophysics." Doing a few searches didn't return much to help me find documentation on this core, or any of their product line. That said, the "bottom board" says Raytheon, so I don't know who was actually making what. Only image I can find of the thing is a fellow in China's PLA using it haha

[Bill W]

The sales brochures....

(too big to attach)

http://www.fire-tics.co.uk/others/FR-LSS.pdf

http://www.fire-tics.co.uk/others/FR-LSP.pdf

Oddly for a Raytheon BST, the 'Survivor' brochure claims to provide spot temperature measurement from the sensor.  Maybe the brochure is for a later model with say the BAE/Lockheed VOX in there instead ?

An image of the Raytheon processing board would be useful too.

Now to the system....

The Raytheon core was common to Argus2 and Argus3 so teardowns on here and my fire-tics website may be of use.
It output as both BW video analogue and as 10 bit digital data.

Looks like FRC took the digital, added false colour and graphics, again much like Argus3.  Finding and viewing the raw Raytheon analogue might be instructive, but I do not know if that is what is on that pin.

The bad news is that that the Raytheon 'ready' rectangle is visible bottom left,  suggesting this is a Raytheon core failure, as the 'ready' is overlaid on the dead grey block.  If it was the FRC overlay at fault, that would cover the Raytheon graphic

Bill

[Bill W]

that may be a bad RAM chip, sector failure of the framebuffer

I have seen dead sides, dead columns, dead top half etc, but never a dead rectangle like this on a BST.
The fact a hot object shows suggests a missing chunk of calibration data, rather than sensor fault.

As above, I am suspecting the Raytheon side though, not the overlay/buffer

Bill

[MadeForThat]

So this unit certainly does have a temp readout that can be activated in the UI. Seems to be pretty accurate. I went ahead and tested the "vid" pin, and what do you know it works, but the rectangle is still there  after seeing that I went ahead and tore it all apart. Nothing obviously wrong, some hokey wiring in places though. Got it all put back together and I am noticing a new detail that I didn't have or notice before. When the detector has a hot object in front of it (hand) the rectangle color darkens. Sorry excuse these shots, my only analog input device in the house is an old ctr viewfinder.

Bill W.- are there any options to recalibrate the device. Thinking it would be nice to clear it and calibrate on a cold steel plate or something like that. Maybe that is wishful hahaha.

[MadeForThat]

Pics of the Raytheon board

[MadeForThat]

Bar darkens, and the plot thickens

[MadeForThat]

Setup for testing

[MadeForThat]

Well if anyone has any off the wall ideas for things to try, I'm all in. It looks more and more like this is a "let die" kind of moment. Bill, you mention the small bright corner is a "ready" signal for the device? Do the BSTs all have this when operating? Seems odd that it is all the pixels around that indicator, so I wonder if there is some kind of bleed to nearby pixles. Wondering if you have ever gone down the rabbit hole to disable that indicator.

[Bill W]

The image of the Raytheon board confirms it is a '200A' series 'analog' board.  Indeed it must be very early given the bodgery in place to make the crystal run.
There is no recal available for that one that I know of.

Obviously there must be some way to get the calibration into the PCB, but it may be off-camera and loaded in, or via the edge connector.

The 'ready' is part of a set of overlays for [redacted] use, so late on in the processing.  It is not bleeding out.
I do not think there was any way to deal with the smaller white 'ready' rectangle, that is why battery indicators were always put in the left !

The only fix I can think of is to get another 200A core, maybe from a camera with a different set of faults.  I cannot help - I do not have an export license UK to USA.

[MadeForThat]

Thank you for the great information, shame to scrap this in a semi functional state. For my understanding, when you say core, you mean the main Raytheon board as well as the detector assembly?

[Bill W]

Thank you for the great information, shame to scrap this in a semi functional state. For my understanding, when you say core, you mean the main Raytheon board as well as the detector assembly?

Yes, the detector and the processing board were matched pairs ('the core'), as the calibration specific to the detector is stored in the processing PCB (generally known as SECCA).
The detector board itself is not part of the matching, but was often sold as part of the kit of parts to camera manufacturers.

I would be fairly certain that if say you got hold of an early Argus2 (MSA by EEV) that say had been dropped and smashed the CRT you could simply extract the detector and SECCA.

I have not (yet) tried running an unmatched detector / SECCA to see how bad the image is. 
That might be an option as it is the detectors that are controlled, not the SECCA, so I could send you a known good SECCA.

[Logan]

I have not (yet) tried running an unmatched detector / SECCA to see how bad the image is.

I tried that in person and it's not bad at all, only a few bad pixels that's not mapped, nothing worse.
Unlike some VOx sensors, which would result unusable picture due to wrong bias/calibration, etc.

[MadeForThat]

I guess the question I would pose, if this was your camera, would you bother finding replacement components, or just buy a similar vintage argus/Scott for 200$? I think it's a cool form factor in the box, but not sure it was ever better than the competition in terms of durability. Wondering if there any parts off of this unit that I could sell to you good folks to recoup a few of my bucks haha. You mentioned the detector is the only export controlled item?