DIY arduino thermal camera

[captianirish]

looking to build my own thermal camera from an arduino for short detection on motherboards. wondering if anyone has tried and what thermal camera had the best clarity. ive seen a few arduino builds for a thermal camera but i wasnt sure if the camera would be good enough on those, just looking for a nudge in the right direction. im trying to not spend the money on a flir plus i think it would be fun to build my own. thanks for any input/ ideas

[frenky]

I dont think arduino is good fit for this.
Better option is raspberry pi + flir lepton core.

[captianirish]

I dont think arduino is good fit for this.
Better option is raspberry pi + flir lepton core.

not to be cheap, but looking at those the camera is 175 minimum, if im going to spend that on the module i may as well just buy the flir usbc camera for phone thats 200. i dont mind spending like $100 ish on the entire project but if im getting that close to a device that is premade with a warrenty i may as well go that route. now if its just not doable on a budget then its not doable and thats ok. so unless the lepton core is like the camera they put in the $800 then maybe that could be worth it, but i dont think i need it that pretty.  a friend has the usbc flir and it works just fine for what i would need. im just hopping to have fun making one and thought i could get away with it a bit cheaper.

[james_s]

The issue with thermal cameras is that it's the camera sensor and optics that are the expensive part, so there isn't much to be saved by trying to build your own. You have to buy the expensive part either way.

[0xdeadbeef]

The cheapest approach is this one (and yeah, it's only 8x8):
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/mini-project-grid-eye-8x8-infrared-sensor-oled-mini-ir-cam/

I actually tried to get my hands on a cheap Lepton or salvage one from a cheap Flir One but due to Flir's weird product strategy, the old Flir Ones never really got cheap.

[Mr. Scram]

There are cheapish higher resolution sensors available of around 32x32. You need some fairly beefy processing for that though. An Arduino won't cut it or will be very slow.

[captianirish]

The issue with thermal cameras is that it's the camera sensor and optics that are the expensive part, so there isn't much to be saved by trying to build your own. You have to buy the expensive part either way.

mk fair enough, was worth a shot. ty all.