cheap thermal sensors - which sources?

[Hagrid]

Hello everybody,
since I have got a Therm-App I am really interested in playing around with thermal imaging cameras in general, so I had a look where to source them cheaply. The cheapest source seems to be buy a defective Flir One and salvage the lepton module out of them. Do you know any other similar sensor which can be got easily? I have seen the Panasonic Grid-Eye sensor, but a resolution of 8x8 isn't really that great.

Cheers, Hagrid

[Fraser]

Look for modern Ex fire service cameras. I bought a couple of SCOTT Eagle X cameras a few days ago. They contain the excellent BAE MicroIR SCC/MIM500 160 x 120 60fps or 320 x 240 60fps core. I paid £115 each for the two Eagle X units. In the attached second image, have a good think about the shape of the assembly on the right and the word 'Seeker'. These are verycapable cores ! BAE are a military contractor.

Please be aware that with the Lepton, you are talking about a CORE and not the sensor. The sensor is just the microbolometer without all the required support circuitry needed to make it work. A core is often DIY friendly as it contains most of what is needed, including calibration and dead pixel data. Core data outputs can be analogue video, digital data stream or both.

I am reliably informed that many fire fighting thermal camera manufacturers bought a self contained thermal core kit from an OEM like Raytheon or BAE. They bolted the well developed and reliable core into a waterproof rugged case with a display and control electronics. Reasonably modern Ex Fire Fighter cameras are therefore a wonderful source of really nice quality thermal imaging cores. You also get the benefit of having a control and display system that you can investigate. Communication with the core is usually common RS232 or RS422. Sadly command lists are not often available for the cores though.

Fraser

[Hagrid]

Thank you for this really informative post! I was speaking of thermal imaging cores, thanks for correcting me. Having just the sensor would be quite a challenge I guess.
I will keep my eyes open for similar equipment you mentioned. Getting something with >75k pixels would be really awesome. In fact, I thought the best I could get somewhere beside a lepton core would be something with 60x60 pixels, which would be fine also, but the prices seem to vary a lot on ebay.

Cheers, Hagrid

[Bill W]

As a quick guide, in likely eBay fire cameras I believe you'd find:

Raytheon BST 320x240 core in the following:
EEV/Marconi Argus 2, EEV/Marconi Argus 3 (yellow) and ISG K90 but not that easy to split out.
Bullard TI, commander, T4MAX etc (easier to split out)

Raytheon ASi 160x120 in various incarnations
EEV/Marconi Argus 3 (blue) and Bullard T3

Lockheed/BAe cores in various incarnations
Older MSA (eg 4000 series)

FLIR cores
Newer MSA (5000, 6000 series), FLIR

DRS cores
Newer Bullard

Any to add / correct Fraser ?



Bill

[Fraser]

Bill,

You know far more about thermal imaging cameras than me 

Some additions:

Raytheon BST core

ISI Vision 3
ISI Surveyor
Scott Eagle 6


Raytheon A-Si 2000, 3000 and 4000  series core

ISI 2500 (2500AS core)
ISI 3500 (3500AS core)
ISI NVision XT (3500AS core)
ISI NVision XTP (4000AS series core)
SCOTT Eagle 320 (4500AS core - Discovered May 2022)

BAE SCC500 core

SCOTT Eagle 160
SCOTT Eagle 320 (Note Raytheon 4500AS core also fitted - Discovered May 2022)
SCOTT Eagle X
SCOTT Eagle X 320 (Note Raytheon 4500AS core may be fitted)

Fraser

[Hagrid]

Thanks again. I really appreciate your help. Having some names to look up is really useful for me 


Cheers, Hagrid

[Spirit532]

I'd like to also add that Heimann Sensor makes low-resolution, but equally low-cost thermopile array assemblies with optics. A 32x32 TO39 can with a 2.1mm Silicon optic will run you around $50-60 in single quantities, around $35 in 20+
Their higher res offering(80x62) is not so cheap however, with only ending up around $110-130 in 20+ quantities, which makes it almost infeasible compared to the microbolometer FLIR Lepton 2/3 cores.

Beware though, it's distributed from Germany and therefore falls under export controls(Wassenaar and EC).