EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Products => Thermal Imaging => Topic started by: cezar on December 27, 2017, 08:58:40 pm
-
I was wondering if anyone uses this for fault finding. I'm planning to buy one for this purpose as well as for checking thermal insulation of houses.
https://www.banggood.com/HT02-Handheld-Thermograph-Camera-Infrared-Thermal-Camera-Digital-Infrared-Imager-Temperature-Tester-p-1102527.html (https://www.banggood.com/HT02-Handheld-Thermograph-Camera-Infrared-Thermal-Camera-Digital-Infrared-Imager-Temperature-Tester-p-1102527.html)
Flir one has slightly better sensor but it's ridiculously expensive in Europe
Any thoughts?
-
No, it's not, at all.
You can get one of the Seek's products for around as much money(~$200), some even brand new on sales.
The HT-02 and HT-175 use thermopile arrays, I believe from Heimann. I am certain the HT-175 uses a Heimann HTPA32x32d(of which I have a tube) - even the product photo has a photoshopped image from the brochure on it.
These are basically people counting devices, and they're really not great for thermal imaging(although the datasheet does provide temperature calculation formulas), not to mention inertia-prone and slow.
You certainly won't see much detail in insulation and almost none in low thermal gradients.
Not to mention it's useless for electronics fault finding, since it can't focus up close.
-
+1 to Spirit532's comments.
The Seek, with all its limitations, is a class above the 'phaser' style low resolution devices. (I struggle even to call them 'imagers'). I'm far from a Seek fanboi but often recommend picking up one used on eBay (etc) and learning from it whilst saving up for a 'real' thermal imaging camera. You'll sell the Seek for roughly what you paid for it.
An alternative of course is one of the much higher resolution (but clunky) ex fire service or similar cameras. Most give around 320x240 at 30Hz and only cost about twice as much for way better performance. But it depends on whether you're looking at it for hobbyist or professional use. And the fire service type imagers will need a cheap auxiliary lens to focus up close (or you can usually go inside and adjust the focus but it's a 'factory set' type option that you won't want to adjust very often because it's a pain to strip and rebuild the camera each time).