Flir E4 Thermal imaging camera teardown

[dmurray14]

Hi guys,

I just got a new E4 today and it came with 1.21. I've read through most of the thread and followed the guidance (here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-imaging-camera-teardown/msg403480/#msg403480) for the hack. Everything went fine, it boots up with "special edition" but the resolution looks the same and I get LESS menu items (MSX is gone). Any ideas?

[Sofia]

Hi guys,

I just got a new E4 today and it came with 1.21. I've read through most of the thread and followed the guidance (here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-imaging-camera-teardown/msg403480/#msg403480) for the hack. Everything went fine, it boots up with "special edition" but the resolution looks the same and I get LESS menu items (MSX is gone). Any ideas?

As he wrote Taucher - You should have read this forum.  The solution for your question is inside.

[tomas123]

Hello guys, have any of you tried using Flir Tools+ with the hacked E4 yet? Im using the 30 day trial and can get the live video feed, but it doesnt give me the option to record the stream or do any analysis on the live feed (graphs, etc). is there any way to enable this content or perhaps to trick Flir tools that a E60, etc is attached?

see my posts about *.seq video (RAW video) with E4
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-imaging-camera-teardown/msg377140/#msg377140
record with Flir camera player
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-imaging-camera-teardown/msg378926/#msg378926

[dmurray14]

Hi guys,

I just got a new E4 today and it came with 1.21. I've read through most of the thread and followed the guidance (here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-imaging-camera-teardown/msg403480/#msg403480) for the hack. Everything went fine, it boots up with "special edition" but the resolution looks the same and I get LESS menu items (MSX is gone). Any ideas?

As he wrote Taucher - You should have read this forum.  The solution for your question is inside.

I've read almost 50 pages of this thread. Why the need to be like that? Can't you point us in the right direction?

It's extremely hard to filter out the relevant info from such a huge thread.

[Taucher]

Hi guys,

I just got a new E4 today and it came with 1.21. I've read through most of the thread and followed the guidance (here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-imaging-camera-teardown/msg403480/#msg403480) for the hack. Everything went fine, it boots up with "special edition" but the resolution looks the same and I get LESS menu items (MSX is gone). Any ideas?

As he wrote Taucher - You should have read this forum.  The solution for your question is inside.

I've read almost 50 pages of this thread. Why the need to be like that? Can't you point us in the right direction?

It's extremely hard to filter out the relevant info from such a huge thread.

Start from the end, your prob's solution is quite recent.

[Sofia]

Hi guys,

I just got a new E4 today and it came with 1.21. I've read through most of the thread and followed the guidance (here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-imaging-camera-teardown/msg403480/#msg403480) for the hack. Everything went fine, it boots up with "special edition" but the resolution looks the same and I get LESS menu items (MSX is gone). Any ideas?

As he wrote Taucher - You should have read this forum.  The solution for your question is inside.

I've read almost 50 pages of this thread. Why the need to be like that? Can't you point us in the right direction?

It's extremely hard to filter out the relevant info from such a huge thread.

If you followed the instructions and have sufficient knowledge, should not be a problem.
Beware if you do not have sufficient knowledge, you can make the camera a brick!

[Fraser]

Newbies Please Read

The upgrade of the E4 thermal camera has been a very popular topic on this forum and as a result this thread has grown to mammoth proportions. There has been a lot of discussion on how the E4 may be reconfigured and plently of other very useful information relating to the camera design and improvement.

There are several very clever people who have created the capability to upgrade the Ex series, both prior to, and after, FLIR tried to stop the upgrade path. Theses people have provided their time free of charge and have documented the process in the thread. The first page contains many links to directly access the required information.

As has been stated several times in this thread, the upgrade of Menus is for the experienceduser  only and is NOT a simple operation for those unfamiliar with FTP transfer tools.  It IS possible to brick your E4 if you get the process very wrong. Since FLIR released Firmware 1.21.0 and 1.22.0, the upgrade process has become more complicated as the user is effectively carrying out a hack againat an encryption countermeasure. Failure to get the 'hack' right appears to result in a camera that does not give the higher resolution and loses the MSX functionality. Panic not...... this appears to be a 'default' condition when an invalid configuration file is found. The correctly encrypted configuration and CRC is all that is needed to correct the situation. This issue and the process to correct it is contained in more recent Posts. Please read them.

Why are people getting annoyed when Newbies ask for help ? Well we were all newbies at one time or another but my view is as follows........ If given the opportunity to significantly upgrade a product for free due to the very hard work of very generous people, I would accept that I might have to 'pay' for that upgrade by carefully reading ALL available information prior to asking questions about the upgrade process or issues with such. I would also back-up all my files to prevent loss, and I would ensure that I was competetent to carry out the required tasks before attempting a hack. Failure to take these basic steps can lead to a pretty chilly response from forum members....that is just life. We are not unfriendly but many of us regularly receive requests to 'spoon feed' people with information on how to hack the E4 or other items that we have posted messages about.

I hope newbies can appreciate that this is not a personal attack when they ask for help but it does get a bit tiring to see the same "my hack went wrong" or "how do I do it" questions again and again, just adding to noise in thread.

May I make a suggestion.....those who are having trouble with the hack process should start a separate thread and effectively form a self-help group to aid eachother in the process. One of the more knowledgeable members of this thread MAY be willing to assist that group on a one-off basis and the process may then be documented in that groups thread for other Newbies to follow. This may avoid the upset that some newbies feel when they get a sharp response to a request for help ? Just a thought.

Also please be very aware that when the new countermeasure firmware was released by FLIR, some persons, including at least one member of this forum, chose to exploit the situation for financial gain. They took an upgrade process that was freely given to the wider community and sold upgraded FW 1.19.8 E4 cameras via e*ay for significant profit as the marketplace panicked when news of the FW 1.21.0 countermeasure became known. This action has been considered poor form by many members of this thread as no information was provided in the auctions stating that the upgrade was freely available on this forum, and no attibution was made to EEVBLOG or the creators of the upgrade. The sales may also have irritated FLIR more than woudl have been the case if the upgrade was being done for personal ise only.

It is known that some persons joining this forum have done so only in order to obtain help in upgrading E4 cameras so that they may sell them for profit on auction sites to persons without the knowledge to do the hack themselves, or who are not aware of the free nature of the hack process.  Sadly this means that many Newbies will be treated with suspicion. Especially if you come from the Czech Republic !      

Fraser (aka Aurora)
 

[dmurray14]

Hi guys,

I just got a new E4 today and it came with 1.21. I've read through most of the thread and followed the guidance (here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/flir-e4-thermal-imaging-camera-teardown/msg403480/#msg403480) for the hack. Everything went fine, it boots up with "special edition" but the resolution looks the same and I get LESS menu items (MSX is gone). Any ideas?

As he wrote Taucher - You should have read this forum.  The solution for your question is inside.

I've read almost 50 pages of this thread. Why the need to be like that? Can't you point us in the right direction?

It's extremely hard to filter out the relevant info from such a huge thread.

If you followed the instructions and have sufficient knowledge, should not be a problem.
Beware if you do not have sufficient knowledge, you can make the camera a brick!

Well, I got it to work, but I have no idea why. I used stefbeer's utility and it worked on the first try. For some reason, that utility came up with a different CRC checksum than the one I got. Diff'ing the files, absolutely nothing is different, so I'm very confused - but happy it is working.

[Fraser]

On the topic of new E4 owners visiting this thread.......

Has anyone else noticed the dramatic slow down in camera serial No., FW version and cal date submissions to my Useful information thread ?

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/flir-e4-the-useful-information-thread/msg332428/#msg332428

The early 'Pioneers' of E4 upgrades were very generous with this data to benefit the community. Partial serial numbers avoided warranty issues etc. Since the countermeasured firmware release, I have had very little data sent to me. So either very few people are carrying out the upgrade since the countermeasure, or they are a different sort of person to the 'Pioneers'. The world is full of givers and takers and I would have hoped that persons benefitting from the upgrade infpormation would have considered the provivion of their cameras pertinent data fair exchanger for the benefits achieved. The data is only being collected in order to help other future purchasers of the E4. The information enables users to know which camera serial numbers and firmwares they are about to buy and the implications of such. It is likley that FLIR will release more firmware revisions with different challenges to the upgrade. It would be good to track such events and serial number sequences.

My contribution to this little E4 community was the 'E4 Useful Information' thread as a little 'thank you' to all who contributed and those who will contribute in the future.

Badly paraphrasing an old statement:

Ask not what this forum can do for you, but rather, what you can do for this forum 

Fraser

[Nemonic]

I can only speak for myself, i tend to keep information that may possibly come back to bite me under close wraps, but i'm the paranoid type. I will share the following

Mode: E4 1.1L
Serial: 6391 7XXX
Software: 1.22.0
Location: UK
Shop: testers.co.uk
Purchased Date: March 2014.
Calibration Date: March 2014.

It came with v1.22 installed.

[dmurray14]

Newbies Please Read

The upgrade of the E4 thermal camera has been a very popular topic on this forum and as a result this thread has grown to mammoth proportions. There has been a lot of discussion on how the E4 may be reconfigured and plently of other very useful information relating to the camera design and improvement.

...

Completely understand. In fact, I think in general most of the folks in this thread have been very good at organizing the information and making it easier for newbies. I am glad to have found this community in general, and I'm glad the E4 led me here.

I just always get frustrated when the very people who were once newbies themselves clutter the thread with "you should have read" instead of either keeping their mouth shut or helping.

Regarding the last part - ironically, in most of these hacking communities the eastern bloc are usually the ones you have to worry about soaking up all the info you have to give and reselling it without giving anything back. Same in the auto technology hacking community.

Anyway, thanks for all the help here - its a great forum and great resource.

[Gallymimus]

Well, I got it to work, but I have no idea why. I used stefbeer's utility and it worked on the first try. For some reason, that utility came up with a different CRC checksum than the one I got. Diff'ing the files, absolutely nothing is different, so I'm very confused - but happy it is working.

Most likely it was the CR/LF at the end of the file that you had wrong.  This might now show up in a diff if the diff tool doesn't look for white space or control characters.

[Fraser]

@Nemonic,

Fully agree with your stance on posting information on the internet. That is why I only ask for a partial serial number as a full serial could potentially have warranty implications, though personally I doubt such.  I have previously warned about Metadata in images for this reason. The .jpg fies that the E4 produces are not your average jpg in that they contain a lot of camera related data, including the full serial number  If posting images on a forum, and not wishing to reveal your cameras serial number, a check should be made with FLIR Tools to see what it can still extract from the files metadata. Many sanitisation applications do not remove the embedded serial number data. Also, please be aware that FLIR Tools regularly phones home with your camera data 

I do understand that the new upgrade route for firmware 1.21.0 & 1.22.0 may be considered more of a true 'Black Hat' hack than the previous upgrade method as it deliberately defeats the manufacturers specific countermeasures that were intended to prevent such upgrades. As such I also understand that some users will be very cautious about releasing information on their upgraded camera, for fear of FLIR action against them. I am aware of the legal position on the first upgrade path (totally legal) but do not know the legal position on the latest upgrade using true hacking methodology. As such I have reconsidered my position. If users do not wish to provide a serial number or any other data, fair enough, I do understand your position. BUT please note my comments above as well.

To all Newbies to the forum, please do not take my coments as being a view of you all.....it is the few who sometimes ruin things for the many. As has been stated, every one of us was a Newbie in some area, at some time. Most on this EEVBlog forum are very patient and friendly persons. Long may that be the case. Welcome 

Fraser

[Gallymimus]

I think the best solution that could make everyone happy is, as has been suggested, to separate the technical development thread from the Q/A and new user thread.  That would be easy enough for everyone to control and would simply require diligence in not answering questions in the technical thread, and veterans spending time answering questions in the Q/A thread.  Some forum moderation to keep it in check would be nice but probably not required.

Really though it shouldn't be too much to ask for people to read the whole thread.  Yeah it takes HOURS but it saves THOUSANDS and most importantly you learn a TON.  I think that is what puts off a lot of people who have figured this out without asking questions.  When someone says "I read 3 pages and it was to much, tell me how to do it" that's annoying when you've read 300 pages.  It comes across as "I want something for free AND I want someone to do the thinking and work for me".

Granted this stuff requires a decent amount of technical knowledge.  Not understanding command lines, basic linux, basic networking, FTP and other technical but common tools and domains can make it very hard, but the technical development thread really isn't the place to ask or learn about those things.  EEVBLOG forums is a great place to ask these questions but they should be in separate threads.

Just my take on it....

[ixfd64]

On the topic of new E4 owners visiting this thread.......

Has anyone else noticed the dramatic slow down in camera serial No., FW version and cal date submissions to my Useful information thread ?

I think one likely explanation is that most people aren't aware of the updated hack yet. Plenty of other websites acknowledge that the original hack doesn't work on newer cameras, but so far none of them mention the new 1.21.0 hack.

[Rainer]

When i was a newbie, the Thread was already at 260-270 pages. So if newbies want to get knowledge about hacking the 1.21.0 or 1.22.0, they just have read the last pages. And if they do so, they will get a quick programmed but good working tool for the job.

So i feel with taucher or tomas123, when they want to have the next good challenge. it is frustrating to answer the same questions all the time, espacially when there are good working tools exists. So for this users: why you didn´t buy a ready-hacked TIC?

and @mike: Can you link direkt to the page with the Hacking Tool? And as a fallback,( if there goes something wrong ) to the instructions for recover the SUID with the alternative cfc-Files?

@Aurora: At me, i just quickly buy my TIC (a few weeks ago) with hope to get one of the last 1.19.8. In reallity, i wanted to buy Fluke or a cheaper Infrared-Tool and take the E4 because of their good potential for future use. Now this thought is obsolete because the 1.21.0 is hackable too (and the last "hacked"1.19.8-E4 in ebay are sold out.)

[heavybarrel]

@Aurora

Sorry! I really should have given this to you much earlier, i have been on pain meds for a bum knee for a month or so and i tend to forget things here and there. You have been very helpful so its the least i can do.

E4 1.1
sn. 63912XXX
v. 1.19.8
purchased march of 2014.
I can't really say who it was purchased through! I had my purchasing guy at work source it for me but i will ask him and give you an update if you'd like.

Thanks for all the help!!

[Fraser]

Thanks for the data 

No need for retailer information.

Fraser

[Mutha101]

Hi,
 
Model:          E4 1.1L
Serial:          63917xxx
Software:     1.22.0
Location:      UK
Purchased :  March 2014
Calibration:  March 2014

[pomonabill221]

@Aurora...
I got a chuckle out of.... "It IS possible to brick your E4 if you get the process very wrong. "  Although the same could be said for process even a LITTLE wrong!
It only takes a fat fingered entry to brick the camera sometimes!

[harry h]

I have to be honest, I joined this forum to learn how to upgrade my E4 but as a newbie, I did read every page before asking what I did wrong and since have been following this thread among other threads to expand my very limited knowledge in what is a new language to me.  I find it a challagne to face new territories and have started to know just enough to be dangerous..  There may be some who swoop in, grab what they need and disappear but I will be tagging on for a while to learn from some very talented people.

Harry

[DaveWB]

If you guys just block out the last number instead of the last 3(thats a range of 1000 units which could span over a good amount of time) that would be alot more effective for Aurora and seeing the production process at FLIR. If you just block out your last number it still leaves 10 different possibilities and it would be illegal for FLIR to use that information.

[cuda12]

I read every page of this thread while I waited for my e4 to arrive. Three additional things happened from this thread 1: I had been a linux user since 1998 but had stopped a few years back because of my business and have since added a linux box to my home again. 2: I was reading in other threads here on multi meters and was in the market for a sturdy one and found out about Klein Meters and ordered one. 3: I read a thread on hacked Oscilloscopes and bought a new Rigol. I love my E4 and have talked two friends into buying one before the newest firmware came out.

[tomas123]

Best way would probably be to start a wiki page.
...
But linking to a single url for the wiki page is less work than finding an old post in this rather large thread. 2600+ bloody hell.

[tjb1]

Got my tracking today, camera will be here tomorrow!