diy thermal imaging camera

[p.larner]

Is there any thermal imaging camera moduas on the market cheap to homebrew said camera?.All the thermal imaging cameras i see on the market have prices akin to a telephone number,is it posst to homebrew one on the cheap?.

[Andy Chee]

The big expense is in the glass lens optics.

Basically you can't use normal glass, because normal glass is a heat insulator, thus preventing thermal "light" reaching the imaging sensor.

I don't know of a DIY source of these lenses, but would probably cost the same as a thermal camera anyway!

[Andy Chee]

I did a google and found some IR lenses:

https://www.edmundoptics.com/c/ir-lenses/655/#

But like I said, the prices are comparable with a complete thermal camera unit.

[LinuxHata]

There is absolutely no need to pay huge fees for lenses.
You can use readily available lenses for CO2 laser cutters - they can be bought under $20 each.
Basically, you need two of these with different focal distance.
Say, one with 75mm and another with say, 50mm focal distance.
This will give you 1.5x magnification.
I've experimented with cheapest, 12mm ones and they were quite good.

The main issue is the sensor itself.
You can use single sensor, like that used in IR thermometers, mount it on gimbal and do X-Y scan mechanically, while accumulating data.

Extreme resolutions can be obtained, but almost unusable for anything that might move or change it's temperature.

[JXstaystonight]

Not sure what you are trying to use it for. But actually, many cell phone thermal cameras are not that expensive these days. They are very small inserts, and if the measurement requirements are not high, I think they are perfectly adequate.

I recently got one, it's not expensive, over 200 bucks, and it still works great.

I'm personally too lazy to bother with it myself though.