IRCameras L-WAVE (Lumitron LWIR Camera Core)

[stynx]

I have a Lumitron/IRCON 320x240 14bit CameraLink LWIR core that has a very special connector. The connector should contain a camera link interface, the power connector and a RS232/422 interface. I have searched online for a pinout or the breakout box (ECC320A) without luck.

The company Lumitron IR was bought by IRCON which was bought by Fluke. None of these companies could help me and directed me to
http://www.lumitron-ir.com/documentation
where a lot of information about software and software development can be found. But there is no description of the physical interface...

The same Interface was used by the IRCON "Maxline 2" http://www.aciltd.ca/pdf/Maxline2.pdf

-Jonas

[stynx]

The connector is a Fischer 105 Series A102 27 pin connector.
https://www.fischerconnectors.com/sites/default/files/specifications/Technical-Specification_Multipole-105-Series_Rev2_3.pdf
I found a seller in Germany who has a male version of the connector and bought it.

Now I just need to get a pinout...

-Jonas

[mikeselectricstuff]

Shouldn't be too hard to figure out pinouts once you  open it out.
Meter out the grounds.
Power should be fairly obvious - thick tracks, fuses etc. - likely on multiple pins in parallel
RS232/422 - find the transceiver & meter out to the pins.
Camera link pairs should be fairly obvious on the PCB or cabling

[Fraser]

Was it this auction that supplied your camera ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/L-Wave-UnCooled-LWIR-Infrared-Camera-LWAVE-/282346243932?hash=item41bd25c75c%3Ag%3AVMoAAOSwTglYkftR&nma=true&si=0MRt2uFdZfLPFMdK36nRqNgX3D8%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I looked at buying it and did some research on the model. In the end I decided it was not for me as I already own similar cameras.

It has large microbolometer pixels by modern standards and I believed it to likely be an Indigo Alpha or BAE core inside the case. The 51um pixel size dates this as a very early generation microbolometer.

Have you opened the case yet ? When you do, please take some pictures and we may be able to provide more comment on the core that resides inside. You will likely find that the rear panel connector is just an extension of a less robust connector on the rear of the core. If we identify the core, we may also be able to provide further detail on the interface and even control commands and software.

Regards

Fraser

[Fraser]

Take a look at this thread.......

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/does-a-swir-camera-sensitive-to-thermal-energy/msg1035318/

There is certainly some similarity to an Indigo Alpha LW thermal camera

Fraser

[stynx]

The core is a independent development by Lumitron. This camera (IRCameras L-Wave) is just a different case with Lumitron internals and a separate Video-out. The case can be pressurized to prevent moisture to creep in.

The connector resides on a separate PCB (4 layer) with a high density dual row connector to the main core electronics. I could identify two separate GND on the connector and at least one power pin (directly connected to 4 big caps). There is a led on the connector PCB that seems to have common GND with a separate power line coming from the internal dual row connector (5V?). The core itself consists of 3 PCBs (I think). The construction is somewhat crammed and I don't want to completely disassemble the core. The sensor is installed on a movable platform and is motorized. The lens is fixed and cannot be focused. I think the movability of the sensor is for focusing.

I will try to make some pictures in the coming days.

The picture in the attachment shot the mechanical construction. The sensor and shutter look different though.
http://www.lumitron-ir.com/sites/lumitron-ir.com/files/assets/pdf/NIR320_Brochure.pdf

-Jonas

[stynx]

photos :-)

[Fraser]

Hmmmm that is an expensive looking core. Nice motorised focus that does indeed move the microbolometer instead of the lens. This is often done where a camera us sealed and the OEM wants no external moving parts requiring O ring sealing. Sadly it bears no resemblance to any core that I have worked on (no surprise there if it's a Lumitron in-house design) Sorry that I cannot help on this.

Fraser

[stynx]

I have connected first 6V then 9V and finally 12V to the inputs that I identified as power pins.

The camera started with 9V but I could only see a black screen on my NTSC monitor (a signal was detected). At 12V I got a message on a black screen "TEC stabilization" before getting a gray screen. I suspect that I need to access the functions of the camera via RS232 to get it working ...

-Jonas

[Fraser]

At least you are seeing some life in the core. The TEC Stabilisation is also a good sign. The microbolometer may take up to a minute to temperature stabilise via the Peltier TEC. Most cameras are default 'on' and the RS232 is used to set auto or manual modes pulse activating radio metric functions, if fitted. I would normall expect the camera to start up and for there to be a series of FFC flag events as the TEC warmed up the microbolometer. After the TEC gets to temperature, the FFC flag should continue to operate at approx 2 minute intervals. The exception to this is a camera with manual FFC event activation or an external trigger FFC event provided by the Host system.

Have you tried placing a hot flame or soldering iron in the field of view ? The camera may have been set to a manual centre temp well above ambient. A working microbolometer should also produce quite a bit of noise on the screen. A totally 'flat' grey image would indicate the camera is not providing a video signal from its image processing board.

Good luck with this project and please do keep us advised of progress.

Fraser

[stynx]

I have read through some documentation and it seems that the analog video output is deactivated as standard... I have yet to find a listing of available commands or non proprietary library commands. There is a lot of documentation online but nothing that gets me started...

I may have to find a source for the configuration software.

Another test with a lighter has produced no change in the displayed image. I would even say the image is white (I reset the contrast on the monitor to normal setting).

-Jonas

[stynx]

Elliott Rittenberg (VP of IRCameras) was extremely helpful in sending me this files :-)
Included are the pinouts for the 27pin Fischer 105 connector.

-Jonas

[Fraser]

But no serial command set ? 

[stynx]

a bit convoluted since the file references a Motorola SDK for the communication.
http://www.nxp.com/pages/dsc-quick-start-initialization-and-development-tool:DSP56800EQUICKSTART?&tab=Design_Tools_Tab

I will have to look into the PCMaster/FreeMaster Software to communicate with the camera...

[stynx]

Another thing I noticed is that the camera is seemingly set to RS485 communication...
The missing external box must have had a RS485<->RS232 converter inside.

The RS485<->USB converter is ordered and should be here next week :-/

-Jonas

[stynx]

UPDATE: Elliott Ritterberg VP of IRCameras helped me again! He sent me a copy of the interfacing software :-D
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3234339/Wave_Control_setup_v2.1.exe
update 2017-09-27: new file location here (30 days):
https://ufile.io/q2vum

[Fraser]

That is darned decent of him. There are some good people out there. Sadly you often get the "obsolete, no information or support available" response.

I am currently awaiting a response to a RFI to L-3 Communications on my latest purchase, An AMBER (Raytheon) Radiance 1 TIC  from Circa 2000. I have a feeling I will not be as fortunate as you though on information and software !

Fraser

[stynx]

I got it working :-)

The lens can be focused to about 10mm in front of the camera. The resulting magnification is is a interesting bonus :-) There are several color maps available but I have picked to linear b/w for starters. The camera core displays some data. The DAC converts the pixel date into 16384 steps and I have identified that 5750 is about room temperature (25°C). The Software has some configuration that allows setting of several values in correspondence to the displayed image. I have yet to "calibrate" the camera with a reference. Without the software, the camera would be useless if not configured for a special purpose.

[stynx]

I have made some new images of a C64R (icomp).

[stynx]

Right now I have 2 problems:
1. The 16bit digital interface is not cameralink but a 8bit serial based transfer on 2 LVDS lines. I have to either convert this to cameralink or to grab the image manually by a FPGA or fast MCU.

2. The Temperature calibration seems to be bad. I had to change emissivity from 1.0 to 0.75 to get a somewhat passable correspondence to actual °C but the values are offset by about 80°C. I do not have the required software to recalibrate the camera. Im still hoping that Elliott Ritterberg from IRCameras can help me but this software was actually only for development purpose and not for sale. The camera control software does not feature these more elaborate functions.

-Jonas

[Fraser]

Well done for getting the camera up and running. It certainly produces nice images. As you state, this type of 'Industral' camera relies heavily on its host software for configuration and, in some cases, even switching on. You are very fortunate in finding a friendly person in the company who was willing to help you. My Amber (Raytheon) Radiance 1 has arrived and is working. It does no need any host software to operate but I wrote to L-3 asking for any information they had on the camera (Raytheon gave them the archives). Nil response to date, not even a "sorry cannot help". Not unexpected though.

With regard to the large calibration error in your camera, that has me puzzled as if the cameras calibration files were corrupted it would not work as well as it does. No thermal camera suffers that much 'drift' in calibration over time. A problem with the cameras temperature reference is a small possibility, but I would have expected such to effect the cameras ability to produce a decent image.

I will give this some more thought.

Fraser

[Fraser]

I just had a thought....... you are not seeing a Degrees C Vs Degrees F differential are you ? i.e. The camera is reporting Degrees F and you are reading it as Degrees C ?

I do not mean to insult you but have to ask the question.

22 C = 71.6 F

Fraser

[stynx]

The camera shows °C (26°C is shown as around 82°C) and I have figured that the calibration was done as °F while the camera was set to °C.

This is pretty much the Imperial vs. Metric trope all over again :-)

-Jonas

[Fraser]

A-Ha !

At least you know it is not some nasty hardware fault.

What a weird thing to do... calibrate a camera in the wrong units for the selected unit of measure. That is a pretty nasty error to rectify without the calibration software, as you have already indicated. I hope the OEM comes through for you on the utility to carry out calibration.

Fraser

[stynx]

I have made some screenshots. (currently) I use a IDS Falcon video grabber for the image acquisition.

[Fraser]

Slightly off topic but what follows shows how lucky the OP was to get any support from the cameras OEM.

Case1.

I bought an AMBER Radiance 1 camera a while back. The company changed owners a couple or three times over the years. Raytheon put me onto L-3 for support so I asked L-3 whether any documentation was still held by them for the camera.

The response from L-3 ? ....... Nothing, Nada, not even a "sorry can't help"

Case 2.

I bought some compact industrial thermal cameras recently and, like the L-Wave, they are completely remote controlled. I contacted the OEM a few days ago asking for any information that they could share with me. Specifically, the user manual, connector pin-out and any control software (RS232)

The initial response was sort of promising.....  i.e. they responded ! That is a start
I was asked for serial numbers, previous owner details etc and that is to be expected. I provided such as the cameras are totally legitimate.

Today I received another response. Apparently the pin-out for the connector appears in the "Enhanced Information" package that comes with the SDK. I was asked if the original seller has purchased said SDK. If I cannot prove the purchase of such, or buy the SDK myself, they will not not provide me with any information !

Wow! That is customer service for you. Basically, if you have not spent $10K on the SDK we will not even supply a copy of the user manual or connector pin-out.

I should state that the OEM is a European company. Unhelpful but at least they responded to my RFI.

I am now on my own but what the companies CS rep did not know is that I have some suitable software already. I also found the user manual for the camera series on the internet. It took some time but was worth the effort. Just the pin-out to reverse engineer. It will not be difficult to do as the connections are only power-in, video out, S-Video, simple RS232 and Firewire. Not too challenging The software is already running fine in 'no camera present' mode so only the power and data cables needed now.

So be warned, the companies that built these thermal cameras can be unhelpful, or even outright mercinary when it comes to providing even the most basic support. This is not unusual in industry though. They have to pay the support staff salaries after all.

The OP got lucky, very Lucky !

Fraser

[stynx]

Program file 1+2/7 (remove .hex)

[stynx]

Program file 3+4/7 (remove .hex)

[stynx]

Program file 5+6/7 (remove .hex)

[stynx]

Program file 7/7 (remove .hex)

 

was a lot of work ...

[stynx]

The User "El P" has offered me the missing interface (CameraLink).
If everything is going as planed, i will have a complete working system.

Still missing the calibrations software, though.

-Jonas

[Fraser]

Good to see that you are still managing to locate the parts that you need to complete your ‘kit’.

It would be well worth buying the camera link interface if sensibly priced. I am always on the lookout for accessories for my industrial cameras as they can be uncommon but appear on eBay under some obscure description at times. Sadly some interfaces can be very expensive due to rarity and the fact that they are industrial automation related.

I presume you have not managed to obtain the camera calibration software yet ? Sadly such software is normally only held by the factory and official service agents. The calibration utility software is often quite powerful in its capabilities, including unlocking payable options, so it is not usually released into the public domain. I have found companies unwilling to release such software, even when a camera is long obsolete. This could be because later cameras use similar configuration methods or software. Often it is just company policy applied to all factory software, both old and new. Corporate confidentiality and all that such entails !

I am pleased that you are persevering with your thermal camera 

Fraser

[stynx]

I have received the 2 interfaces.
The Serial-box as well as the CameraLink-box were included in the package.

Sadly only the cable for the Serial-box was included and i may have to figure out what the pinout of the MDR26 side of the cable to the adapter-box is :-/

The cameraLink adapter box has a FPGA inside ... a seemingly big one.
It converts the digital data from the camera (16bits) to 14bit CameraLink 50/60hz.

I am pleased that you are persevering with your thermal camera 

:-)

The camera quality seems to have degraded a bit since i last used it... there is a lot more noise than before.
Maybe some components are aging or the PSU i use is getting old.

Jonas