Yet another cheap thermal imager incoming.. Seek Thermal

[Seeker]

You probably could find heat loss points reasonably well by feel, but you'd have to stick your flesh in every suspect cranny...the SeeK (and similar) can tell you instantly whether or not you actually have a leak, and (if so) where it is, from one wide angle view. No contest.
Facile argument, is my opinion.

[efahrenholz]

@Seek,

If you still read the thread, do you have any plans to work on the pixel drift compensation? It works as advertised, but it needs refinement. It heavily affects any scene lower than the sensors temperature. I was getting horrible noise. Surely this isn't read noise? Perhaps you would implement a quality mode, low quality being 4 frames averaged, medium being 8 and high being 16. I'm sure a lot of people could give up the refresh for finer quality. Even at 16, it's still about 2.5 fps. I would believe 8 would be a happy middle for most people. That would help eliminate a lot of drift noise, while still providing a useful framerate. It might even be useful to capture a NUC of the same number of frames, so in medium quality mode, a NUC frame should be 8 averaged frames. I think this would allow your product to compete with the smoother image the new flir one will produce.

[WS-PI]

does someone know if it would help to cool the case of the SeeK to reduce the noise? I am thinking about attaching an peltier element to the case and lower the temperature about 10 or 15 degree. But if someone knows already that it would't help I do not want to wase time and money trying it.

[efahrenholz]

Nobody has publicly posted results. In scientific thermal imaging, the temperature is stabilized. Either by cryogenic, Stirling or peltier. Give it a shot, shouldn't be too hard. Just make sure it's controlled. You can't stick a peltier on without a control circuit. A simple arduino, mosfet, thermocouple and resistor should be the hardware to drive it, and a simple sketch to pwm drive the fet. Might need a PID approach.

[frenky]

I have a small peltier module in the "future projects drawer".
Might give it a try with seek module.

[feral2]

Here's a tutorial video (not mine) that was just posted on a DIY post-processing MSX-style visual/thermal video overlay technique:

For anyone wondering, the visual video was captured by a separate handheld camera (iPhone 4).

[Uho]

After the failure of the original lens, I tried to replace it. That's what I did. A camera with a lens of 25 degrees. And the photo that I did. Members who have broken their SeeK, don't throw it away the lens. I need it. I can change it to a lens for the macro photos with a focus 50mm. Or buy from you.

[Uho]

This photo was taken 12 degrees lens. It has a diameter greater. Sensitivity above. Picture taken from 2m.

[levi47]

Has anyone worked on a linux driver for the Seek? i would like to combine the UV-NIR camera of the raspberry pi as an overlay with the thermal images... maybe sweep the full field of view of the camera module or use a zoom lens that approximately matches that of the seek.

Also, can anyone point me to latest version of the compiled seeker windows program?

[Uho]

Today saw the error of the program. Incorrectly saves the photo. No heat on the display image. Mode Imager + photo.

[Lurchbox]

http://www.miguelvp.com/ForMike/Seek/ latest version of seeker i know of, make sure you download the DLLS and download ZAdiag to setup the drivers for the seek.

Has anyone worked on a linux driver for the Seek? i would like to combine the UV-NIR camera of the raspberry pi as an overlay with the thermal images... maybe sweep the full field of view of the camera module or use a zoom lens that approximately matches that of the seek.

Also, can anyone point me to latest version of the compiled seeker windows program?

[eneuro]

Has anyone worked on a linux driver for the Seek?

Do you mean Linux kernel module?
Look many posts ago-someone showed... decompiled Java source code of Seek before attempt to correct gradient and there are Java routines to talk with Seek MPU via USB, so even Python Linux code can easy catch Seek thermal image frames, but I prefere C/C++ code while working with small ARM Linux distros talking to Seek devices.
However, no rush to release any code for the moment-I think Seek should do it and pay for this someone...

[rjardina]

Today saw the error of the program. Incorrectly saves the photo. No heat on the display image. Mode Imager + photo.

When you take a photo like this, it actually takes two images, and no thermal data is lost. One just becomes an over lap. But I noticed both images are taken at slightly different time due to the temperatures are off from one another. Which can be seen on the high measurement on the kitty-cat and the low on the VFD.

[Lurchbox]

Just got an Nvidia Shield tablet, waiting on a Micro USB extension cord to arrive.


Miguelvp did you get the Jetson board yet? I am tempted to get one, being able to hook up any LVDS display would be nice.  O0

[miguelvp]

I did get it, but I don't have enough time to jump into it yet.

[bsliv]

gizmodo.com is announcing the Seek XR, a mechanical upgrade the original Seek allowing zoom with detection out to 2,000'. 

The units are on thermal.com for $299.  No lens by itself tho.

[miguelvp]

Nice move by them, $100 for almost no parts
It's like the difference between a 16GB tablet or a 32GB one or a 64 GB one

[encryptededdy]

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/43006/seek-unveils-new-thermal-camera-phone-xr/index.html

Seek XR

[Uho]

I saw a photo of a thermal imager with a zoom. The diameter of the lens is not changed. Means that at maximum zoom - sensitivity decreases 3 times.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I saw a photo of a thermal imager with a zoom. The diameter of the lens is not changed. Means that at maximum zoom - sensitivity decreases 3 times.

Would be good if it will also do close-ups, but still looking less attractive now Flir have announced a 160x120 Lepton.

I do wonder if this development is a side-effect of them having to change the lens holder design due to the gradient issue
 

[Seeker]

Re: the reduced accuracy of the SeeK below 20^oC...
Some snow on the ground here...snowfield reads 6^oC, as opposed to 0^oC given by my cheap Chinese IR thermometer. Be nice if that can be fixed on the next SeeK update.

Re: the zoom lens version--it looks then that the zoom image would just be a glorified blowup of the standard image? Useful maybe for picking out a hot blob in the distance...

[-jeffB]

Re: the zoom lens version--it looks then that the zoom image would just be a glorified blowup of the standard image? Useful maybe for picking out a hot blob in the distance...

No, it's apparently an "optical zoom", not a "digital zoom" -- you still get real 206x156 resolution across the entire zoom range. It's not like blowing up the middle of the zoomed-out image; it's more like moving three times closer to your target. Photographers call that "zooming with your feet", and that's fine for some subjects; I'd rather not try it when imaging an intruder, or an alligator, or something on the other side of a busy highway.

I don't know how the image quality (focus, sensitivity) will vary as the zoom changes. I'd love to see -- heck, I'd love to do -- the kinds of image benchmarking that you see in reviews of conventional optical zoom lenses.

[Seeker]

Yep that's what I meant by "glorified"...with the lens being no wider than before there's less IR entering on zoom, so giving a degraded--albeit larger--image.

[Fraser]

It will be interesting to know how the zoom feature has been created. It normally required three lenses, with the middle one moving. It is possible to create a zoom function using two lenses with one (front) moving in and out of the seconds (rear) optical axis to create a variable zoom effect. Zoom with a single lens would be 'interesting'.

The lens also needs to remain focus free (fixed focus)...... quite a challenge !

Hopefully we will find out in due course.

I hope Seek are putting effort into improving the electronic and software design, as well as the optical path.

Aurora

[efahrenholz]

My bet is on a three Lens system. The extra $100 gets you the two additional elements and the modified lens housing. The lenses being the majority of the cost. R&D was probably complete before Seek ever released the original module, retooling probably began after initial release of the module. They had to retool to be able to handle two formfactors. Might explain some of the delays they experienced initially. Parts are being manufactured now, and they are likely building a small inventory, but the non zoom module will still outsell. My best guess is the zoom model will produce very blurry images, terrible temperature accuracy and low contrast, thanks to seek limiting the smaller temperature spans. At 1x, it will be noisier than the fixed lens model.