Yet another cheap thermal imager incoming.. Seek Thermal

[rjardina]

@rjardina,

If your lens mount broke free from the pcb, the sensor is likely toast. The bond wires are literally a millimeter from the left inside wall of the lens holder. Any slight movement and they get jammed up and short the sensor. I've done it twice and was able to repair it using a microscope. I did it a third time and broke 3 bond wires. Needless to say, it's now a $200 write off. I'm waiting  on the new flir one now, and watching development here of what I could have had, had I not jacked with my camera in the first place.

I do not believe this is the case on mine, I order a 10x magnifying glass and all the bond wires are in good shape from what I can see. Flir does make good stuff but after learning about the whole fireware on the I and E series, and not able to turn off their logo in the pictures. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

PM sent to mike

[Uho]

The program sees the device? If not damaged plume USB. I closed the wires connecting the sensor. Was also a black screen. Seen only under a microscope.
I did not get the PM.

[mikeselectricstuff]

With the old SW the camera got a little warm after some minutes. With the new SW I could not feel  the temperature rising. Even after 10 minutes. Has anybody the same observation? As the firmware was not changed I not sure about my oberservations.

I checked the power draw with old and new version - no different at 57mA - I doubt this is enough to make it get noticeably warm.

[Seeker]

Well i got my SeeK this morning and it seems to work nicely, will do for what i want it for, very glad the gradient is not there any more.
I take it back about not intending to drop it...very fiddly to hold, without pressing the volume button etc. I need a flap phone case with a wrist lanyard, methinks, before i have a mishap.

Surprised at how small it is in hand! I think SeeK have tried to be a bit too clever with the size, it could be twice the size (with bigger pixels and lens) and still be a cute, pocketable phone dongle.

[Sorry to you guys for cluttering up your thread with lay dross, this isn't a SeeK owners forum. Will try to keep my input to a minimum before retiring. But will keep an eye on the thread, interesting stuff.]

[Fraser]

I have no problem with people talking about the SEEK in general terms....this forum is a friendly place for on topic conversation so anything regarding the SEEK camera is fine with me. I don't know about others feelings on this though.

Aurora

[frenky]

I agree.
There is no need for separate threads on Seek module since there is only a post or two per day...

[Lurchbox]

using the sliders on the seeker app

a couple pics of an outdoor steaming kettle at a local starbucks, along with a regular shot of the kettle i found from google.

https://dazeofculture.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/starbucks-kettle.jpg

[WS-PI]

With the old SW the camera got a little warm after some minutes. With the new SW I could not feel  the temperature rising. Even after 10 minutes. Has anybody the same observation? As the firmware was not changed I not sure about my oberservations.

I checked the power draw with old and new version - no different at 57mA - I doubt this is enough to make it get noticeably warm.

I did a short measurement with a thermocouple glued to the backside of the SEEK. I measured a rise of the temperature of 5 degree Celsius after 10 minutes. I could do that only with the new version. What I do not know is if the temperature is generated within the SEEK or transfered from my galaxy S4 via the usb connector to the SEEK.

[-jeffB]

I did a short measurement with a thermocouple glued to the backside of the SEEK. I measured a rise of the temperature of 5 degree Celsius after 10 minutes. I could do that only with the new version. What I do not know is if the temperature is generated within the SEEK or transfered from my galaxy S4 via the usb connector to the SEEK.

I'd wager that it's nearly all internally generated, but a quick check with an extension cable would confirm that.

I'm losing track of who's disassembling SEEK units -- did you glue your thermocouple to the exterior of the SEEK case, or to something inside it?

[WS-PI]

I did a short measurement with a thermocouple glued to the backside of the SEEK. I measured a rise of the temperature of 5 degree Celsius after 10 minutes. I could do that only with the new version. What I do not know is if the temperature is generated within the SEEK or transfered from my galaxy S4 via the usb connector to the SEEK.

I'd wager that it's nearly all internally generated, but a quick check with an extension cable would confirm that.

I'm losing track of who's disassembling SEEK units -- did you glue your thermocouple to the exterior of the SEEK case, or to something inside it?

It was just glued external on the round part of the backside where the sensor is located.

[efahrenholz]

The gradient correction isn't physical. There was no changes to the hardware to make it operate cooler or anything. It's not likely they even have a way to make those corrections. The correction was done via post processing. Since mine was damaged (under the microscope the die is actually chipped badly in a corner), the correction only works at higher temperatures. At lower tempersrures, it didn't work at all. I noticed it seemed to gradually shift the gradient out of the running image when I changed from cold to hot. Another clue is the way the flat field looks, it isn't perfectly flat. There might be some math, in terms of the shutter action, and possibly one of the initial frames at power on. Maybe each unit has a calibrated black body frame stored, and it adds the flat field to that frame, then subtracts from the field.

[encryptededdy]

Some interesting images on Engadget's article on Seek at CES this year, including a picture of a wafer of presumably seek sensors.

[Uho]

efahrenholz
Without the tube on my device is the gradient. Moreover, the gradient appears after a few seconds. When you turn it is not. When I put a tube and a lens with a short focal point of the gradient is not. This is true for the room temperature. At low gradient appears strange. I broke the original lens and now I can not say exactly why.

[frenky]

IF the gradient is the same on the all units (not sure that it is) they could record the gradient intensity through time on one test module.
Then take this data and incorporate it into software which would measure how long the camera is turned on and then fix image values with the corresponding gradient values for each frame...

[tom66]

It's different between each unit. Some units had a very mild gradient from what I can see. Props to Seek for actually fixing it!

[Uho]

I saw the gradient dependence on the position of the tube. This has already been discussed. But no one noticed that the shutter has a limit of travel. It rests on the tube at closing. This restriction of movement speed and modifies the gradient. I think that the gradient created shutter. If you remove it - no gradient. Even in the cold. I just spent the test. On cold objects increases noise. But no gradient. I have an external shutter with Samsung photo. Established after the lens it eliminates the gradient in the cold. I think that the manufacturer has made a correction odds in the program. And it is possible, depending on the temperature sensor.
I'm tired of damage sensor wires at the tests. I filled the wires,that come with matrix, an epoxy resin

[eneuro]

. But no one noticed that the shutter has a limit of travel. It rests on the tube at closing.

As remember I've shown Mikes's photo where it is clear that strange things can happen during this shutter events-it could be very interesting to see Seek oryginal shutter operation in high speed camera slow motion as it enters area over sensor.
If you have broken lens, cut off lens holder above shutter position-leave it open to be able watch shutter and sensor in top view in slow motion

[Uho]

If you remove the tube we see that the shutter is moving on. Moving a little tube we change the place furthest point of the movement. This does not contradict the video.

[WS-PI]

I made a comparison between my Seek and the FLIR I use for my job. To do this I placed a heatsink in an temperature controlled chamber. We use it normaly for reliability investigations on semiconductors. Therefor it is an calibrated one. After temperature stabilization I opend the chamber door and did a quick measurement of the heatsink. First with the FLIR and then with the Seek. Results are shown in the attached graph. It can be seen that for temperatures above 20°C the Seek is sufficiently accurate for simple measurements. In the lower temperature range the Seek measurements give big deviations. But lower temperatures still give lower readings. Maybe that why Seek stated in the specification -40C to 330C detection

[Seeker]

Another amateur interjection again, my apologies...is the SeeK app known to be buggy? I have the 1.7.4, and the unit performed fine yesterday, when I received it. Now today it kept (past tense) repeatedly telling me to attach it again, after a couple of seconds of working normally each time. I've since arranged to send it back to Amazon...and now tonight it's working fine again! Eh?
I prefer stuff that either works or not...intermittent is a pain. Is there a possibility of a buggy app? If it's that, I can be assured and keep the (blameless) camera. Thanks fellows.

[Uho]

After the upgrade, I sometimes immediately after the program is closed. Restarting solves the problem.

[-jeffB]

Another amateur interjection again, my apologies...is the SeeK app known to be buggy? I have the 1.7.4, and the unit performed fine yesterday, when I received it. Now today it kept (past tense) repeatedly telling me to attach it again, after a couple of seconds of working normally each time. I've since arranged to send it back to Amazon...and now tonight it's working fine again! Eh?
I prefer stuff that either works or not...intermittent is a pain. Is there a possibility of a buggy app? If it's that, I can be assured and keep the (blameless) camera. Thanks fellows.

I was seeing similar behavior with mine. I'm using it with a Nexus 5 and an extension cable, and I attributed the problem to a flaky connection between the cable and the Nexus. What kind of device are you using, and are you using an extension cable?

It seems that the unit is extremely sensitive to brief connection problems. I'm sure intermittent connections make the USB protocol a pain to deal with, but I wish the app did a better job of trying to recover.

[Seeker]

Uho, you mean "force stop" to end the program, and then restart? Didn't try that, but I did remove the app and reinstall--no difference. But now (later) it seems to be still working, maybe it's just flaky.

Jeff, I have the Moto G...tried it with the extension cable yesterday, worked OK with or without. If (as it seems) the unit is not faulty then that's gratifying. I can put up with a flaky app, especially if it's likely to be updated again at some point.
I was being specially attentive to the USB connection throughout the issue, didn't seem to be that.
Anyway, if it does it again I'll try the "force stop" and restart.

[heavybarrel]

Mine did the same after the update. I was able to plug the camera in, popup opens asking for permission to use the native camera, app then opens and says "please connect the seek camera". The "fix" i found was to double tap the home button and swipe up on the seek app to close it when i was done using it. Now i plug in the camera, get the popup, app starts right up! Seems that it stumbles a bit when the app was previously open and left in memory. Works great every start up now. I have the IOS version obviously.

[Seeker]

Noted heavybarrel, thanks. I usually use the "back" (to Home) button to Quit the SeeK app...can't see a "Close" option on it.
What do you mean "swipe up" on the app? New to me (as I am to smartphones...).