Flir E4 Thermal imaging camera teardown

[janekivi]

I just ran the resolution upgrade on a 1.1L 2.3. e4.  I have lost the spot meter and thermal blending functions but do have improved resolution.  I can revert to the original conf and .dll files and both functions return, is this the expected outcome? 

I got this problem when hacked menu and delta s delta t caused this. Camera changed conf.cfc file and this was shorter,
not 6608, I changed it to modified 6608 cfc, dll was not affected.

[ixfd64]

I was interested to read Mikron's comments on the Mikroshot 'B'. It was stated that though reduced in temperature range it has enhanced temperature differential sensitivity to suit the role for which it was intended. Such could be an advantage for some users over temperature range. If in electronics I see a component running at over 100C I would normally have reason to be concerned 

Aurora

It's likely those cameras are tailored for building inspections, hence the "B" designation. From what I've heard, building inspectors generally care more about thermal sensitivity than temperature range.

[XynxNet]

Thank you very much for this hack!

My E4 has some orange dots in the menus. They look like pixel defects but vary their position.
Anyone with the same problem?

[sofisticated]

Yes,

I have seen such orange dots on menu graphic borders when I first purchased the device. It is not about hack. Still have similar defects on borders of menu graphics after hack. I think it is about coding of program. Menu is overlayed on cam's live feed, it should be the reason.

[yogort1]

I have a rather strange question to ask Has anyone tried to use hacked E4 at long range thermal imaging? With the 320x240 bolometer resolution it basically has the same hardware as Flir PS32, which is used only for observation purposes (and it gives quite nice results). I wonder if E4 is capable of doing similar job at 1/4 price Maybe anyone has some photos at distances approx. 30-60 meters?
And one more question: is this camera capable of displaying thermal image in blak-hot/white-hot mode?

[OrBy]

I have a rather strange question to ask Has anyone tried to use hacked E4 at long range thermal imaging? With the 320x240 bolometer resolution it basically has the same hardware as Flir PS32, which is used only for observation purposes (and it gives quite nice results). I wonder if E4 is capable of doing similar job at 1/4 price Maybe anyone has some photos at distances approx. 30-60 meters?
And one more question: is this camera capable of displaying thermal image in blak-hot/white-hot mode?

Once modded with the menu hack mine can do black-hot and white-hot modes (E4 hardware 1.0 software 1.18.7). As for long distance observation you would need to augment or replace the lens. There was some talk about doing that in this thread a while back but I don't recall ever seeing any results so it could of not turned out. I would say it's definitely possible - but it could also be cumbersome and very costly since larger optics are not cheap.

[dr_when]

Wow! I have been lurking here for a little while. I have been reading this topic for about a day, on and off. I am at post 1260 of 5829. This whole thing "Flir E4 Thermal imaging camera teardown" could actually be a book!! At message 1260, the suspense is killing me... Did Flir wreck Mike's hack to the E4?? Don't tell me... spoilers!! I am going to enjoy reading the 4600 or so messages left on this topic to get to the conclusion. Kudos to the EEVBLOG and it's contributors!! Now the question is.... do I even consider purchasing an E4?? I guess I must read on!! 

Cheers!!

[Navynuke]

Has anyone actually seen a camera with the new FLIR Ultramax technology. I wonder if some of the code could be utilized in the original Ex series (thinking pre-2.x series equipment). Upgrading to a 640x480 resolution natively in the camera might be worth getting some of the "original" enhancement team excited again. If I missed this already being discussed elsewhere please forgive me.

[copineau]

yogort1

I got 3 pictures at different distances using my E4 with the new resolution.
5 meters, a skater on a skate board.
10 meters, my cat behind my car, you can also see my neighbor car that is still warm
at about 50 meters, two persons walking.
I can see somebody at a distance of about 300 to 400 meters, after that, I need a zoom, the dot is too small.

[yogort1]

@copineau, @OrBy
Thank you very much I think it's worth a shot, now it's time to spend some money

[warcow]

Starting to consider to buy an E4 for myself just for FPV purposes at night on a quadcopter..  Would require some serious modding to make the thing lighter though...

[bookaboo]

Ive had one apart, the functioning electronics are very light indeed, if you can run from your own power source it's all very light and easy to work with.

[comanche3]

I´m flying one E4 on a HexaCopter. Normally you should disassemble E4 and reduce weight. I didn´t disassemble.
I can mount my E4 on my Hexacopter in 10 seconds and can move it via a servo horizontaly.
Of course you need a raspberry PC for live picture.

[warcow]

Is the video feed flyable for you? And how do you use the raspberry, connect the e4 through usb? I take it you have an e4 before 2.3 firmware then? I believe it is a bit more difficult to get a nice video feed from the 2.3 E4's.

[comanche3]

I use raspberry on a 2.3 E4 without problems.
It is flyable, but don´t expect to see many things at night. Houses, streets, trees all look black and it´s hard to navigate on the few things that have temperature. For searching people or animals at night it´s of course great.

[tomas123]

sorry for the double posting, but I think, this is also interesting for the E4 owners

For comparing the quality of the flir lepton sensor with the Flir Ex / Exx I shot sample images from a (uncooled) beer crate and two bottles of champagne with the same FOV.

Knowingly I shot a image with minimal temperature differences (only 1 Kelvin).
Please note the different temperature scales!

All screenshots from FlirTools after pressing the Auto-Range Button. (without MSX)

Flir E40 (hacked 320x240)


Flir E4 (hacked 320x240)


Flir One => Lens FOL 2 (80x60)

the difference between E4 and E40 is smaller by greater temperature differences
see my old post here (a hot coffee maker)

E40


E4

[janekivi]

Picture of bottles... this is not so much sensor compare, this is JPG compare. You can see it from file sizes. For E4 you can insert command from telnet: [rset .image.services.store.quality 100], after that you can save better images.

[tomas123]

Picture of bottles... this is not so much sensor compare, this is JPG compare.

trust me, these differences in screenshots are not jpg compression artifacts
I'm the hacker, who reverse engineered the embedded RAW datas in flir EXIF headers -  see exiftool (thanks to Phil)

[kuna]

janekivi, you know more hacks like the jpeg-quality, telnet command to make the cam better?

[ixfd64]

I believe the Ex0 cameras have better optics, hence the difference in image quality.

[tomas123]

this is correct

see my old post

a compare of Noise Measuring in Service Menu
....
the old E40 makes really cleaner images with their large good lens (good f-stop)
but the sensor noise is large (30 mK)

Flir combines in the cheap E4 a better sensor (20 mK Noise) with a really bad lens (unsharp)
...

lens of Flir E4
Field Of View                   : 45.0 deg

Code: [Select]

\> .calib.lens.leExFOL7
descr                     "FOL7"
fNumber                      1.5

and lens of Flir E40
Field Of View                   : 25.0 deg

Code: [Select]

rdescr                    "FOL18"
fNumber                      1.3


[gemrough]

After watching the teardown video I am wondering if you could add a wifi chip to an e4.... would be nice. 

Picture of bottles... this is not so much sensor compare, this is JPG compare. You can see it from file sizes. For E4 you can insert command from telnet: [rset .image.services.store.quality 100], after that you can save better images.

Will this work on a 2.3? I havent done anything to my E4 yet as I am considering returning it... especially if (cant remember the site's name) has them on sale for 30% off again.

[ixfd64]

Zoro?

[gemrough]

Yep thats it. Zoro... wish I had seen this tread before when they had the 30% off....

[puppycrack]

I recently purchased a Flir One, and came across this thread shortly after ordering.  I've not yet opened the Flir One, and am considering returning it if I can get a new Flir E4 to do 320x240 resolution.  I've read through most of the later posts in this thread, and it seems the newer units have countermeasures that would prevent this hack from being applied.  Is this correct?  Is there a list of hardware models / firmware versions that are and are not hackable?  If no such list exists, is 1.2L hackable?  How about FW2.3.0?

I've seen E4 units on ebay that have the older 1.22 firmware, but they're asking almost $2k for them, which is a bit out of my price range. 

Thanks!