Thermal Camera - Raytheon / L3 / SPi 300A or 300D information ?

[Fraser]

Hiya,

I have just taken delivery of a Raytheon / L3 300 thermal camera module.

It is a little project unit as it presently does not work. I repair and collect thermal camera technology.

Sadly this is the first of these Raytheon cameras that I have worked on so I do not have any connection data for it. The ID of the camera is S300A and the cable coming from it is 7 core.

I have seen these cameras running from just a 12V supply and outputting standard NTSC video. The additional wires are for manual control brightness and contrast.

Does anyone have any technical details on these 300D  or 2000D cameras that may assist me in connecting it up and/or accessing the manual control of it please ?

I attach a picture of the 300D for reference.

Thanks in advance

Aurora

[FrankenPC]

Soo...is it a 300A?  Or a 300D?  A's have pretty bad noise handling hardware.  And they only have NTSC out with MAYBE a manual calibration trigger.  I can't remember exactly.  The 300D is what you want.  I'll see if I can dig up what I had before.

[Fraser]

Sorry, my error the camera looks to be a 300A as the rear label is S300A.

I have only seen the D version so was unsure whether another version existed. Thanks for the info on noise. Any information that you are able to share would be much appreciated even if for a later model.

Thank you

Aurora

[FrankenPC]

I got this from another web site.  It sounds correct.

 Just provide 12VDC to the red and black (+,-) and you get a standard video signal on the white and green pins

[sam1275]

Hiya,

I have just taken delivery of a Raytheon / L3 300 thermal camera module.

It is a little project unit as it presently does not work. I repair and collect thermal camera technology.

Sadly this is the first of these Raytheon cameras that I have worked on so I do not have any connection data for it. The ID of the camera is S300A and the cable coming from it is 7 core.

I have seen these cameras running from just a 12V supply and outputting standard NTSC video. The additional wires are for manual control brightness and contrast.

Does anyone have any technical details on these 300D  or 2000D cameras that may assist me in connecting it up and/or accessing the manual control of it please ?

I attach a picture of the 300D for reference.

Thanks in advance

Aurora

I have a Scott Eagle TIC which have S300A as the core, if you really need, I can take it apart and measure the pins for you.

[Fraser]

@Sam1275

Thanks for the very interesting comment on the Eagle. My S300A has had its case modified to allow use of an external lens assembly. The front has been cut off ! It may well be that my camera module came from an Eagle. I cannot ask you to dismantle your camera as that risks it and would take your time. Thank you very much for the offer though.

Best Wishes for 2015

Aurora

[Fraser]

@Frankenpc,

Thank you very much for the power and video information.

I shall Google 300A instead of 300D to see what infomation is on the WWW.

Best Wishes for 2015

Aurora

[sam1275]

@Sam1275

Thanks for the very interesting comment on the Eagle. My S300A has had its case modified to allow use of an external lens assembly. The front has been cut off ! It may well be that my camera module came from an Eagle. I cannot ask you to dismantle your camera as that risks it and would take your time. Thank you very much for the offer though.

Best Wishes for 2015

Aurora

Thank you for your Best Wishes and you too.
In fact, I took the whole camera apart in the first month I got it from Ebay so it won't be a risk for me , but I didn't measure anything because I haven't even got a working meter on that day   I can disassemble it again if that really helps you, but I cannot dismantle the S300A core because I don't have a screw driver that fits, sorry, at least I can measure the pins OUTSIDE the core, and I can provide the original circuit photo if you want.
Sam

[Fraser]

@Sam1275,

Hiya,

If you have the time I would love to know the purpose of the wires coming from the core. My unit has 7 wires. We know two are for supply and 2 are for video, but I wonder what the other 3 are for and what voltages should be present on them during normal operation. Any voltage and photos would be great help 

With regard to opening your core, no problem at all. I would not recommend unneccessary dismantling of the core as that can lead to dust contamination of the BST FPA.

Many thanks

Aurora (Fraser)

[FrankenPC]

With regard to opening your core, no problem at all. I would not recommend unneccessary dismantling of the core as that can lead to dust contamination of the BST FPA.

FYI: With the 300A I had, the lens had a mechanical iris with a lever.  Looking at the lens assembly I realized that the internals of the unit were not actually sealed.  So, I removed the lens entirely and was able to look at the main board through the opening.  The actual case though is glued together with some kind of industrial epoxy.  I was unable to separate the two halves. 

[Fraser]

@FrankenPC,

Interesting stuff.

I bought the camera in what I thought was a partially dismantled state. I asked the seller to include the front of the case, if available but when it arrived, I realised that the front of the case had been modified,  but not in an amateur fashion.

I attach some pictures of the camera.

My unit has a case that is not glued together. The rear and modified front sections are easily separated to reveal a wide neoprene multi ridge seal between the male and female profiles of the joint.

I also bought a small lens from the same seller and have added it to my collection of Germanium lenses. The lens is without an iris but could have been from an iris equipped camera that used the 300A core. I do have a genuine Raytheon 250 lens that includes an iris and this is what I intend to use with the 300 series camera.

Aurora

[FrankenPC]

I wish I could have separated my case!  Also, my wire harness was different.  I only had 4 wires coming out of the case. 

[LaserSteve]

I had one of the 300D at my former employer. At Raytheon's option, the other three wires could be configured for various options. On our unit,  RED-BLK was VDC, GRN-WHT was Video and the other three had bias voltages on them but would do nothing, nor change with the scene viewed.. At that time, Raytheon did not wish to disclose further details about the other leads..

The camera would power up and function just fine without further input on the "mystery" wires.

We were lucky to get one, at the time, those were state of the art in low cost cameras. Ours was the better part of 4,000$ with lens..

One rule, do not view large, excessively bright objects if you have stock high gain lens with no iris.  One of the grad students attempted to view the uniformity of a warming up,  hot 550'C oven from less then a meter away. 4 pixels were permanently white before I found the situation. A silicon wafer makes a decent attenuator.

Make sure the spiral chopper disk inside spins freely.

Expect about a 15-30 second time period for video to appear.

If it helps, our sales rep referred to ours as the "Tank Commander's Thermal Viewer".

Steve

[Fraser]

Thanks Steve 

I'll be happy to get the unit going with 12V and not worry about the other three wires 

I was wondering whether these units could operate without an IRIS fitted. All my other fire fighting BST cameras have and auto iris but that may be due to the huge temperature range that they have to cope with.

The chopper wheel motor is fine. I have an ISG Talisman (Raytheon) core with a seized wheel motor and have procured three new OEM precision Faulhaber motors if required 

Many Thanks again

Aurora

[sam1275]

I had one of the 300D at my former employer. At Raytheon's option, the other three wires could be configured for various options. On our unit,  RED-BLK was VDC, GRN-WHT was Video and the other three had bias voltages on them but would do nothing, nor change with the scene viewed.. At that time, Raytheon did not wish to disclose further details about the other leads..

The camera would power up and function just fine without further input on the "mystery" wires.

We were lucky to get one, at the time, those were state of the art in low cost cameras. Ours was the better part of 4,000$ with lens..

One rule, do not view large, excessively bright objects if you have stock high gain lens with no iris.  One of the grad students attempted to view the uniformity of a warming up,  hot 550'C oven from less then a meter away. 4 pixels were permanently white before I found the situation. A silicon wafer makes a decent attenuator.

Make sure the spiral chopper disk inside spins freely.

Expect about a 15-30 second time period for video to appear.

If it helps, our sales rep referred to ours as the "Tank Commander's Thermal Viewer".

Steve

So these cameras will damage on too hot scenes? I don't even know that, some website said BST won't damage like old EEV cameras, but you remind me to be careful for this, thank you.

[sam1275]

Thanks Steve 

I'll be happy to get the unit going with 12V and not worry about the other three wires 

I was wondering whether these units could operate without an IRIS fitted. All my other fire fighting BST cameras have and auto iris but that may be due to the huge temperature range that they have to cope with.

The chopper wheel motor is fine. I have an ISG Talisman (Raytheon) core with a seized wheel motor and have procured three new OEM precision Faulhaber motors if required 

Many Thanks again

Aurora

I remember my S300A have only 4 wires, not the same to yours, so you already got the power and video working? Then I cannot help you with the 3 more wires... sorry.

[Fraser]

Sam1275,

No worries at all. Thank you for your help to date.

The camera starts and then shuts down without producing an image, so I will need to repair it. I needed the connection information to ensure that during testing I had it correctly wired. Its easy when you know the camera is fully operational, but working out connections on a known faulty camera raises lots of questions about what the camera normally needs by way of inputs to turn it on etc.

Thanks to all who have helped me and provided comment. It is much appreciated and I will feed back to this thread the results of the repair process, as and when I get time to work on the unit.

Best Wishes for 2015

Aurora

[LaserSteve]

I used to view Propane Torch flames from one meter away with NO damage, nor even the slightest hint of a problem. Damage was only incurred looking into the lab furnace of half meter size.  They are tough compared to pyroelectric videcons, which are disfigured or desensitized if you sneeze.

Steve

[Xenon_fusion]

hey there?don't know if you have got your camera working or not, but I saw your post yesterday while I was searching for the wiring of my 300d, so I have just taken it apart and here's the correct wiring you can get it working right away: pin1 7-15v input, pin2 ground, pin5 video out, pin6 ground. checking the picture of your camera, pin1 is black, pin2 is orange, pin5 is white, pin6 is purple