Thermal Eye 17-640 NUC problem

[Andreas_Thermal]

I have recently bought a L3 Thermal Eye 640 x 480 Core which seems to have an issue with either the NUC or the sensor at all.

The problem is that most of the time there is a weird spot shown in the center of the image and the image noise is bad at all. But sometimes (very rare though), it's works like a charm.

I made 3 videos to show the problem. Luckily on video 2 it did the "bad" NUC and I was able to capture the difference.

Just to mention: there is nothing in the optical path and the sensor itself is shiny clean. Altough there was a problem: as the core arrived, the shutter was stuck closed which I manged to solve by just touching it gently with a plastic tip. It was sold as "new in a factory sealed" box which also seemes to be right according to it's condition.

1 - Low temperature difference scene with good NUC:


2 - The scene where the NUC happens and messes up the image:


3- Same low temperature difference scene as in the first video but after the bad NUC:


I also made some videos during day time where it actually works pretty good in my opinion:
https://youtu.be/U7powwCXYRs
https://youtu.be/g63ySfgZFhI

Sorry for the shaky videos but this core has a lens whih a lot of zoom on it. Also the video quality is rather low as the USB capture device doesn't do a very nice job.

Maybe some of you has an idea what could be wrong with this core.

[Vipitis]

Take off the lens and see if the flag works correctly or if there is any debris on the sensor itself

[Andreas_Thermal]

The shutter flag was stuck in closed position when I got the core but this has been fixed by just slightly touching it with a plastic tip. Now the flag fully closes and opens as it should. Maybe the flag was stuck because it was sitting on the shelf since year in closed position.

So the shutter flag shouldn't be the cause. But while texting it just came to my mind that there might be dust on the other side of the flag towards the sensor - will disassemble that whole thing and check that.

The sensor is clean and there's no dust or other debris on it.

[Fraser]

First impressions of the images produced..... your microbolometer has a burn at the centre. I have seen this exact situation before on a Thermal Eye 4500AS core that had been abused. The evidence is the shape of the burn and the fact that it is semi operational with image detail visible within the burn area.

From a manufacturers point of view, there is no repair possible except replacement of the microbolometer. From a hobbyist point of view, it might be possible to recover use of the microbolometer by creating a fresh NUC table in the firmware. Sadly I do not think I have the correct software tools for that so cannot help.

Why the weird issue with the FFC event ? Well sadly the camera firmware uses the centre of the image as part of thecFFC process to read the flags temperature. The damage to the microbolometer is confusing the FFC system and gain is being incorrectly set across the whole Microbolometer If the camera has a Radiometric measurement mode, I suspect that it would also show incorrect centre point temperatures.

So if you can return this ‘new’ core to the seller, I suggest you do so. Such a fault would not have been present when this core left the factory so make of that what you will.

Fraser

[Logan]

What a pity, that image quality looks good!
BTW, the only models I knew was something like 160x120, not even QVGA.
Is Raytheon still adding new models to Thermal-eye series?

[Fraser]

L3HARRIS are the current holders of the rights to what were the Raytheon Thermal Eye cores. They are a company focussed on professional use thermal imaging and other high end technologies. You can be certain that they continue to develop next generation thermal imaging technology but it may only be available in finished products if they have moved away from suppling cores to 3rd parties.

https://www.l3harris.com/all-capabilities?size=n_10_n&sort-field%5Bname%5D=Most%20Popular&sort-field%5Bvalue%5D=ga_counter&sort-field%5Bdirection%5D=desc&sort-direction=

https://www.l3harris.com/all-capabilities/light-weapon-thermal-sight-lwts-an-pas-13gv1

Fraser