Newly bought Therm-app Hz fails to download calibration files

[Exoc]

Hello everyone!, (My first post on the forum).

So, after alot of thinking, I came to the conclusion that I couldn't justify the cost of a thermal camera just to play with.
Offcourse I did what I usually do, and bought one anyway. And my choice fell on the Therm-App Hz.

Happy as a little kid on Christmas, I picked up the package
Only to be as sad as the same kid discovered that the much needed batteries wasn't included, and the stores are closed. 

I have tried with two different phones (Samsung S6 and S8+).
When i connect the camera to the phones, the app starts. Next I accept the terms. After that it want's to connect to a server to download calibration files.
That is where the road ends. I get an error message saying:

Download Failed!
Your device xxxxxxxxx is unrecognized.
Please contact support.

(xxxxxxxx is my censored serial number)

I have been in contact with their support. But sadly for me, Israel has got national holiday and the tech guys wont be back until thursday.

I just wrote this here to see if anyone else has experienced this before?

Also, does anyone know if i could get hold of a calibration file somewhere else, and manually put it in it's folder?

/Exocet

[Exoc]

Hello again

I'm wondering, the calibration file you are supposed to download from Therm-app's server, is it a generic calibration file for all Therm-app Hz?
If so, could i get a copy from anyone with a similar unit, or is it specific for my unit?
I'm guessing it's not generic, because if it is, why isn't it then just built into the app.

/Exoc
(Or Gustaf irl)

[Vipitis]

Hey,

seems like you are unable to get any help here. Best bet is probably to just wait for Opgal to return to you. My guess is that they want to download the sensor specific calibration files for bias and all. If you see Ultrapurple arround, you may ask him directly as he is an ThermApp ambassador. There are multiple ThermApp users in this forum but none seem to have replied yet.

Have you tried ThermViewer or the desktop SDK to see if you can just bypass the factory calibration data that is needed?

[Exoc]

Thanks for your reply.

I have tried all phone apps, and they all give the same error. Desktop SDK I wasn't aware of of it existing.

I just have to await the tech support response. Sadly, waiting isn't my strong suit. :p

[bap2703]

Can it be that your sensor is faulty, hence cannot communicate its serial number to the app?
The 'calibration file' error would only be a side effect.

[Exoc]

Hi
Well it gives a serial number (which I censored), and the app says it's unrecognised.  Ofc it might be something wrong with the serial number for some reason. But I guess and hope that the support can answer that.

[Exoc]

Support just came back to me.
"Try now"

And it works!

[Vipitis]

Glad they were able to fix it for you. Hope you still have as much fun.

[DaneLaw]

Support just came back to me.
"Try now"

And it works!

Good to hear they fix it for you, but it seems they simply need to open up app-access pr serial-user basis. (wicked)
that does tumble any hope of something I have wondered a little about after numerous players are present and a bunch of apps out there and if any of these different models and apps possibly overlap in some sense or the other and could be valid with other app then native, of course on an OS basis.
Sure there are the windows community made software there makes it possible for some Android models, but on ther other hand a lof o values should align if one app should match another vendors third party-product.

anyway good to see it got sorted, share some wicked thermal shoots with the forum in the gally thread with your new Thermap App HZ.. awesome device.   

[Ultrapurple]

Apologies that I haven't been around for a while, folks. A lot of Real Life^® stuff has been happening.

As with essentially all thermal cameras, the various Therm-App devices require a set of calibration files. Most cameras have this data permanently stored onboard but Opgal, for whatever reason, decided to hold the calibration files on a central server and download them, just once, the first time a camera is used on a particular Android device.

Briefly, no two pixels respond the same - adjacent pixels can have wildly different responses, 'cold' temperatures, non-linearities and so on. The calibration data is effectively a map of all these foibles, for that one specific sensor at one specific frame rate.

If you go looking round the Therm-App folder on your phone you'll find a sub-folder that matches your camera serial number, and inside that are a dozen or so files named things like 1.bin, 2.bin, 3.bin and so on. These hold the calibration data for your particular camera's sensor at its specified frame rate. The only thing that really ever needs changing is the dead pixel map, and that's done via a 'dead pixel repair' utility built into the Therm-App software.

(Better cameras have bigger and better calibration files to cope with a wider range of, for example, ambient temperature, frame rate, particular lens or whatever, but calibration takes time and money which is one reason the Therm-App TH - the 'thermography version' is more expensive than the standard Therm-App).

Whether you think it's a good idea that these files are stored centrally is a matter of opinion. At least in theory, if Opgal's server is switched off you won't be able to install the camera on a new phone - but your existing installation(s) will continue to work just fine. I don't know whether it's possible to fool the software into not running its 'first time, run once' bits, but I expect some clever person will figure it out.

If you upgrade a 9Hz Therm-App camera to 25Hz, all the calibration goes screwy and you don't get a usable picture. However, the amazingly clever Jinhua (of ThermViewer fame) has written a utility that can produce new calibration files from scratch. Broadly, you have to put your camera in a freezer to get it good and cold, then point it at a wall and run the utility whilst the camera returns to room temperature. Then you have to heat it (eg with a hair drier) and again let it return to ambient. All the while, the utility is capturing response data. ThermViewer then re-calculates the calibration files based on the data recorded by the utility and produces new .bin files. However, if you install the camera on another Android device the original calibration files will get downloaded to the new installation, so you have to copy the calibration files from an existing installation and overwrite the downloaded 'stock' data.

Most people will never have to do any of this. Opgal's calibration is fairly good - albeit not on a par with a research-grade FLIR or similar costing ten or a hundred times as much.

Hope this explains what's going on.

I think I should point out that I'm a 'self-appointed' Therm-App 'ambassador': Opgal does not pay me or give me free goodies (with the exception of a couple of spare USB cables that I asked for). However, if someone would like to give me a nice new XGA+ resolution camera and a selection of lenses in exchange for a few nice words, I'm open to offers!

[Exoc]

wow, that was an extensive answer. A little late since I got it up and running, but interesting and I learned something.
Thank you!