What thermal imaging camera to use

[Jane]

Can you please recommend a good thermal  camera for repairing laptops and TVs?
I use Flir E4 Thermal imaging camera but it seems to me not good because of small sensitivity,

[Jane]

You are correct I do not use any lens but I think a thermo camera must show a spot with a higher temperature.
If you say sensitivity is great, what temperature gradient it can show?
E.g. if  a being repaired PCB has  common temperature 27C degrees and there will be a short causing 2C difference, can it be marked by the camera?

[Terry Bites]

That'll be the one you can afford.
Start with a price your prepared to pay and read the spec.
I played with a Teledyne FLIR ONE Gen 3 and I was impressed. It connects to a smartphone, though I'd use a link cable rather than stuff it straight into the phone to reduce the risk of damage to both. $200ish

[Solder_Junkie]

Having spent most of my working life in the service/repair of electronic equipment, I am surprised that anyone would look for a short circuit using a thermal imaging camera. I have used a bench multimeter to find the lowest resistance, then cut one or two tracks to isolate the fault.

I do check components for temperature in my home built projects, mostly Voltage regulators and current sense resistors. I use a modified infrared ear thermometer, it has a very narrow opening and reads up to 100 deg C. It is quick and easy to use, and inexpensive. A thermal imaging camera looks like an expensive tool for such a simple task.

SJ

[tooki]

Can you please recommend a good thermal  camera for repairing laptops and TVs?
I use Flir E4 Thermal imaging camera but it seems to me not good because of small sensitivity,

You don’t need a different camera. You need training on how to use the one you’ve already got.

[Jane]

@quince:

E4 NETD is <0.15°C (0.27°F) / <150 mK. 2C should easily be observable with the right gain control setting.

Can you please teach me how to set up ( an use ) the right gain so that even 2C degrees will be observable?

[Bud]

Are you using a stock camera or a liberated one? With the liberated E4 you turn manual temperature scale mode on and set lower and upper temperature scale limits. You can set temperature span just a few degrees C that way.

[Bud]

Having spent most of my working life in the service/repair of electronic equipment, I am surprised that anyone would look for a short circuit using a thermal imaging camera. I have used a bench multimeter to find the lowest resistance, then cut one or two tracks to isolate the fault.

I did that several times and my thermal camera was very useful, especially on large boards. Instead of pocking the multimeter 100 times to different locations you can see the fault immediately. No cutting tracks. A short circuit may be inside an IC and you see that IC glowing. Not sure how you can find that using a dmm.

[Muxr]

Having spent most of my working life in the service/repair of electronic equipment, I am surprised that anyone would look for a short circuit using a thermal imaging camera. I have used a bench multimeter to find the lowest resistance, then cut one or two tracks to isolate the fault.

This is how I was thought to troubleshoot as well before the thermal cameras. But people are getting creative with thermal cameras.

For instance this guy repairs quite a bit of modern electronics and he injects a current limited rail into the circuit he thinks is shorting and then uses the thermal camera to find the short.

It seems a bit intrusive but I can't knock the results.

https://youtu.be/7BkFUgRVlvk?t=154

[Solder_Junkie]

Just how many faulty, overheating, ICs are you guys finding? Almost all “dead shorts” I have encountered have been tantalum caps in older equipment, they are well known for going short circuit and are the first thing to check/replace if there is a short.

Other than that, the only other short I can remember was the expansion board on a Radio Shack TRS-80 computer around 1980.

I have repaired/aligned thousands of pieces of equipment over the years, yet never felt the need for a thermal camera as a repair aid. Have you guys discovered a new breed of unreliable IC?

SJ

[Gyro]

I agree with SJ that dead shorts are virtually impossible to find with a thermal camera. That is unless the short is on the output of an active device (in which case it will help to localize from the last overheating part upstream, but not the actual short), or, if you are very lucky, the shorted component is connected via very thin traces. A dead short, by definition, will dissipate no power and generate no heat.

Thermal imaging and 4-wire resistance measurement are entirely complementary fault location methods. A thermal camera may help to quickly localize the fault area, but then 4-wire resistance measurement will allow localization down to the actual short point.

4-wire measurement is as simple as putting a constant current (bench PSU in current limit mode) across the shorted rails / signals and then probing (with an, as sensitive as possible, mV range meter) to locate the lowest potential difference, making sure that you do not share current and sense connections. It's a very easy, and relatively quick method with a little practice.

In the absence of one or other measurement capability, the 4-wire method wins. It can do what a thermal camera in isolation cannot do, but not vice-versa.

I am intrigued by your naivety, quince.  [Ed:combative]

[Jane]

@Bud: Thank you for your advice.I use  liberated E4. On Monday I will check if it is possible with my E4. I bought it already few years ago and, I think , it was sold as a special edition E4.

[Jane]

I do not have Manual temperature scale mode available.
My  camera shows : Model E4 1.2L
Software:2.11.0

Few years ago I hacked the Flir E4 based on the procedure described in this forum.
But now I realized  the hack was not made ( probably) perfect and Manual temperature scale mode  is missing?
And maybe  because of that (not perfect) hack I considered Flir E4 not suitable enough.
Can anyone let me know what steps I must take so that Manual temperature scale mode  will be available?
Thank you

[Psi]

I do not have Manual temperature scale mode available.
My  camera shows : Model E4 1.2L
Software:2.11.0

Few years ago I hacked the Flir E4 based on the procedure described in this forum.
But now I realized  the hack was not made ( probably) perfect and Manual temperature scale mode  is missing?
And maybe  because of that (not perfect) hack I considered Flir E4 not suitable enough.
Can anyone let me know what steps I must take so that Manual temperature scale mode available will be available?
Thank you

There are a few extra hack packages you can apply after doing the basic hack. They add extra features and color palettes.
So it's possible you only did an early/basic hack for more resolution and didn't get the extra stuff.
I did the basic hack and then the advanced package but NOT the Chrismass pack. I got the Manual temperature scale, so my guess is you didn't do the advanced package.
(From memory the chrismass pack only gives you different user profiles, so not all that useful, but check the thread to be sure)

If you plan to apply it be sure to check the thread carefully and make sure you have the right version for your firmware, or you might brick your cam.
Also, there's more info in the readme text file inside the download zips. Info about what they do and what FW version they are for.
I wasted ages trying to figure out what I needed from just reading the thread when I should have just downloaded files and checked what the readme said,

it was sold as a special edition E4.

Maybe search the thread for that first, to be sure its compatible.