Author Topic: thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor will it work.  (Read 5327 times)

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Offline jonovidTopic starter

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thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor will it work.
thermal imaging is not cheap. is their a way to make a cheap PIR sensor in to a working thermal imaging unit?
interested to know if PIR sensors have a similar thermal imaging hz as $2000 Thermographic cameras?
if yes? then can thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor work?
with SSTV PC software program or arduino plus DIY software to map the PIR sensors output.
the PIR sensor moves over a map or X, Y, grid, or moving pin hole on a wheel.
can have added PIR sensor cooling too, if its needed?.
before I waste time on this idea.  :-//
your opinions of this. I Challenge Anyone to make a $200 thermal imaging unit.
that works just like the $2000 hand hold units, but a slow scan & a lot larger, But 80 to 90% cheaper.
size of a 3D printer or similar.  your opinions?

image of a mechanical slow scan disc  off the web
« Last Edit: December 05, 2016, 08:26:23 am by jonovid »
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Offline daqq

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Offline wraper

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Re: thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor will it work.
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2016, 08:42:00 am »
Even if you manage make one, it will pretty much suck for $200. Scan disc won't work for IR camera, it will emit huge amount of IR by itself, or, if shiny, reflect IR from everything around. And it's not like you can get a decent resolution with it at all. With recent price drops for entry IR cameras, for $250 you can get a seek thermal or flir one which are real thermal cameras. For $ 500 you can get i3 TE – Q1 which has 384 x 288 resolution and works really well.
 
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Offline jonovidTopic starter

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Re: thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor will it work.
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2016, 08:51:40 am »
Quote
Even if you manage make one, it will pretty much suck for $200. Scan disc won't work for IR camera, it will emit huge amount of IR by itself, or, if shiny, reflect IR from everything around. And it's not like you can get a decent resolution with it at all. With recent price drops for entry IR cameras, for $250 you can get a seek thermal or flir one which are real thermal cameras. For $ 500 you can get i3 TE – Q1 which has 384 x 288 resolution and works really well.
yes getting decent resolution seems to be a problem.    price drops for entry IR cameras will end any saving.  still maybe a fun project . just to see how stuff works.  if i have the time.
- thank you  :)
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Offline Akra

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Re: thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor will it work.
« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2016, 09:03:50 am »
Yes, you can build it: http://www.rapp-instruments.de/foto/Raster/thermography/termo.htm (sorry, the site is in german, but there are also pictures and schematics).

And the thermal pictures doesn't look so bad, you can identify the objects and get an idea of there temperature.

 
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Offline Kaptein QK

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Offline coppice

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Re: thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor will it work.
« Reply #6 on: December 05, 2016, 05:01:35 pm »
Its not so many years since the vast majority of thermal imaging was by mechanically scanning a single pixel.
 
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Offline CatalinaWOW

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Re: thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor will it work.
« Reply #7 on: December 05, 2016, 05:35:13 pm »
Unless you have a really well supplied scrap box there is no way you can put something useable together for under $200.  Yes, a single element detector is cheaper than a bolometer array, but you need to add scanners (you might be able to repurpose a bar code scanning system, though there are serious optical problems involved), position readouts, optics and a bunch of other stuff.  And unless you are talking about a really slow scan you will have serious sensitivity issues.  One of the tremendous advantages of the arrays is that they effective collect and integrate the scene energy over a large fraction of the frame time (even longer for the bolometers in many cases).  If you spend 1/30 of a second or so on each pixel your scan times get very long and you start having issues with even relatively static scenes changing significantly during the frame.  If you scan faster you solve these problems but lose sensitivity.
 
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Offline LaserSteve

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Re: thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor will it work.
« Reply #8 on: December 05, 2016, 05:45:59 pm »
One, if Seek Thermal does their  Christmas sale again this year, there is no point.

So if I go home and set up post objective scanning with a pair of galvanometer scanner driven mirrors and a single point detector, will you give me 200$ for recreating 1970s technology?  Hint, I might have already done this in other wavelengths....

I have a pair of Cambridge Galvos with large metalized  mirrors, this is a non-issue to set up.

The big  issue is the  Pyroelectric  sensor used in  motion sensors needs an AC optical  signal in order to respond, so  you need a optical chopper in front of your four Dollar  sensor to obtain any sort of linearity.  Most of them have two sensor chips wired in  parallel with  opposing polarity ,  so you have a great motion sensor when there is an optical  grating in front of the  sensor.  However this makes a for lousy imaging sensor unless you mask 1/2 of the detector using an aperture.   I can order a discrete sensor, but by the time I pay that much, I might as well buy the Melexis array development kit and scan across that.  The issue then becomes the very slow I2C readout for that sensor.

By the time I get you an image update with a pair of mirrors moving at 60 Hz and 1 Khz or so, there will be a serious change in even a static scene. This is why early thermal viewers used an expensive spinning, mirrored,  polygon, or an expensive  resonant scanner that scanned  at 1/4th or 1/2th  the video line frequency.

For the resonant scanner,  this  means you need a way to sense and linearize the sinusoidal variations in pixel clock. To get the update  up, you need scan bidirectionally as well.
I see the resonant scanner / linearizer board combo on Ebay about twice a year. They are still used in a few Confocal microscopes.

Which is why the mechanical IR video cameras were rare,  and expensive.

You could try a Nipkow disk, if you cooled the disk and had a very hot scene, like a  propane torch or soldering iron in the near field.  Single element lenses with suitable coatings are sold on ebay for replacement focusing lenses for CO2 based Laser Cutters. This is all a long shot because any scanning process really, really, reduces the chance of such a cheap detector working well.

To get good video, I would then need Liquid Nitrogen from work,  for the Mercury Cadmium Telleuride detector I have on my desk.   

The moral of the story is the modern Bolometer pixel is  so much much more sensitive then the ancient TGS Pyroelectric detector, its not even funny.

Besides, My friend Phil Hobbs was working on a better way with his Footprints project....

Scroll down to "A 10$ Thermal Infrared Imager", on his page:

http://electrooptical.net/

http://electrooptical.net/www/footprints/fpspie11.pdf

 Phil would be the first to tell you that he had the resources of IBM Research at his disposal. 

Steve
« Last Edit: December 05, 2016, 06:27:24 pm by LaserSteve »
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Offline PointyOintment

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Online Zero999

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Re: thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor will it work.
« Reply #10 on: December 06, 2016, 01:21:40 pm »
https://publiclab.org/sites/default/files/ThermalFlashlightHowTo%20(1).pdf
Good idea but it could be more clearly drawn. Is it only me who finds dumbed down graphics and a picture of the breadboard layout harder to understand and more confusing than a proper schematic?
 

Offline Cubdriver

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Re: thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor will it work.
« Reply #11 on: December 06, 2016, 03:29:35 pm »
https://publiclab.org/sites/default/files/ThermalFlashlightHowTo%20(1).pdf
Good idea but it could be more clearly drawn. Is it only me who finds dumbed down graphics and a picture of the breadboard layout harder to understand and more confusing than a proper schematic?

No, it's not only you.  It's ridiculous not to include the schematic as well.  They went to the trouble of generating and labeling all those images, how much more effort would it take to put a copy of the schematic in the PDF?  Granted it's a pretty simple circuit and not terribly difficult to reverse engineer and derive the schematic, you shouldn't need to do that.   :palm:

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Offline Galenbo

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Re: thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor will it work.
« Reply #12 on: December 06, 2016, 04:42:29 pm »
if yes? then can thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor work?
with SSTV PC software program or arduino plus DIY software to map the PIR sensors output.
the PIR sensor moves over a map or X, Y, grid, or moving pin hole on a wheel.
can have added PIR sensor cooling too, if its needed?.

All you need is a 8dollar IRgun, a smartphone and some glue or duct tape.

The android camera reads the number on the IRgun display, the inside gyro/compass/Accel gives the inclination and rotation so fills a 2D picture with the data. Your hand decides where the image gets filled.
If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a nonworking cat.
 

Offline CatalinaWOW

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Re: thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor will it work.
« Reply #13 on: December 06, 2016, 06:24:26 pm »
if yes? then can thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor work?
with SSTV PC software program or arduino plus DIY software to map the PIR sensors output.
the PIR sensor moves over a map or X, Y, grid, or moving pin hole on a wheel.
can have added PIR sensor cooling too, if its needed?.

All you need is a 8dollar IRgun, a smartphone and some glue or duct tape.

The android camera reads the number on the IRgun display, the inside gyro/compass/Accel gives the inclination and rotation so fills a 2D picture with the data. Your hand decides where the image gets filled.

I like the general idea.  Cleaned up with a 2-axis scanner done with model airplane servos and some well thought out masking to control the IR gun FOV you might actually get something worthwhile for under $200.  Still would be slow (maybe a couple of pixels/second) so would only work for really static scenes.
 

Offline Galenbo

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Re: thermal imaging by mechanical slow scan of a PIR sensor will it work.
« Reply #14 on: December 12, 2016, 05:04:15 pm »
I like the general idea.  Cleaned up with a 2-axis scanner done with model airplane servos and some well thought out masking to control the IR gun FOV you might actually get something worthwhile for under $200.  Still would be slow (maybe a couple of pixels/second) so would only work for really static scenes.
While everyone has a working old obsolete smartphone these days, you can express the price as 8dollar/pixel/0,5 second, within some linearisation limits :-)
If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a nonworking cat.
 


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