For as long as I have done electronics, I have dreamed about owning a thermal camera. Actually from my time in the army many years back I have dreamed about the huge thermal camera with cryo-cooled optics that we used for some anti-vehicle systems. Many times have I checked ebay and skipped the idea again, due to price.
My research showed me that there is a huge difference from the very cheap 8x8 pixel thermal cameras bare PCB modules, to the 32x32 handheld and up to the 160x120++ versions. The price seems to quadruple with the pixel count. I skipped looking at the smartphone versions as I wanted a stand alone model that was not dependant on a certain app and smartphone firmware to work.
In this video I am testing the HTi HT02D Thermal camera that I was able to get at 100$ on offer. This is not a paid/non-paid advertisement, my own money, test and conclusion.
Best bet to find these at a decent price is to run through ebay and send off a lot of "make offer" of 100$ on the 150-200$ auctions. But is it worth it? Lets find out!
Conclusion: You get thermal imaging with a fairly good temperature range that indicates precise enough to find the hottest chip on a PCB. Resolution and focal distance is not suited for small electronics, future improvements with a ZnSe laser lens for 4" focal distance will be an idea. Mis-alignment of thermal and normal camera is kind of a minor thing with the low resolution, but it is still a nuisance.
A future video will feature a teardown of the unit to see what sensor and electronics is used in this unit.
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