EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Products => Thermal Imaging => Topic started by: hap2001 on August 23, 2023, 03:42:51 pm
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I just got one of these:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/155733651853? (https://www.ebay.com/itm/155733651853?)
Boson 640 60hz 50mk grade for $140, not bad to me.
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Okay... It's sold out just now.
Is the buyer here?
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Those look like the Boson cores fitted to some vehicles.
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DAMN, would have loved to have snagged two for my thermal vision project:( Oh well gg to the buyers
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The question is….. are they standard BOSON’s or the custom firmware commercial use models ? The seller stated that they work, but that could apply to their original deployment only. Remember the NV2, NV3 and NV4 (Boson) cores ?
I wish luck to those who bought them, but commiserations if they are running custom firmware.
Fraser
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The question is….. are they standard BOSON’s or the custom firmware commercial use models ? The seller stated that they work, but that could apply to their original deployment only. Remember the NV2, NV3 and NV4 (Boson) cores ?
Fraser
I think it could POSSIBLY be NV4s
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If they are NV4’s they are intended to be hard to redeploy :(
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Thank you guys!
I found your NV4 mentioned here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/flir-boson-640-variant-teardown/ (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/flir-boson-640-variant-teardown/)
They don't look the same?
What are the restrictions for the NV4 version?
I'll keep it anyway, the lens itself worth the price.
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I found a Boson P/N decoder from Flir's manual, attached as picture.
The ebay one is 20640AS95-6PAAX.
As the manual says, OEM version should change the "AAX" part? Or could anyone show their NV4 part number?
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You might be Fine with this core and it is standard. I have seen that same core and lens used in both vehicle and CCTV applications where they used custom firmware. As you say, the only NV4 that we have seen looks different, but there are other vehicle applications that employ these cores, such as driverless cars. If it is a protected model to make export easier, it will employ custom firmware that prevents its use in another application.
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Haha a friend and I also grabbed the remaining two - quite a steal! Will be interesting to see how these perform, great that a fellow forum member got one also.
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One arrived! It appears to have been bonded in place for some application, as there are traces of grey substance all over the rear of the core body. The shutter assembly is also bonded closed. But the front and lens look very clean! This core is so diminutive: pictured here next to some others (mini256, tamarisk320, as3600, scc500L). I'll test it soon once a vpc arrives. On that note, does anybody know which VPC modules are capable of 60hz output? It seems as though some are limited to 30hz.
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Lucky us!
I won't be at my home(the shipping address) recently, so it's up to you to show if the cores work well ;)
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It works!!!!!! Very happy.. This is taken with the FLIR VPC via USB video. Still much more experimenting left to do, but 640 cores are hard to do wrong. There is much more fixed pattern noise than I expected, and there are a few areas that appear to be damage on the window? (appear similar to a spec of dust on the window but also change with movement of point sources) Having done some side by side with a 17um 640 core (tamarisk) and from memory (BAE 17um 640) this is generally much noisier and a bit softer. The image really takes a hit when moving to f1.2 or f1.4 - really f/0.75 to f/1.1 is best it seems.
Will try to post more photos later, one of the major issues now will be getting lenses calibrated- the default 4.9mm fisheye lens has a great deal of uneven illumination that is calibrated into the core, so other lenses display major hot/cold spots - but calibration seems to be straightforward.
The reason it was sold at such a low price seems to be the shutter - it was not fully retracting after each nuc, meaning that a large portion of the screen was blocked. I was terrified at first that this was sensor burn-in, but thankfully, just a stuck shutter. A small amount of glue-like substance on the underside of the shutter flag was the culprit - a quick clean later, and everything was fully operational once more.
Overall, just ecstatic to have such a high performance and compact core available - even if the image suffers a bit as a trade off for the emphasis on SWAP.
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If I recall correctly. The Boson can hold exactly two lens profiles (bias calibration). Not more. And you can't easily switch between them. For zoom lenses you would also have just a single correction. This was one of the reasons I didn't proceed with getting one a few years ago. But at the listed price I would have easily taken them.
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I'm also very happy to hear that, which means they are not locked down version. :-+
Try to change the parameters via GUI, my tweaked TAU have a huge difference between default and custom settings, must be the same case for Boson.
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Excellent news :-+ These cores were a great buy at the price paid :) But then again, it required your skills to repair a fault in it so well done for repairing it.
Regarding the image quality….. this was the reason that I was disappointed with the BOSON when it was first released. I had expected far cleaner images as these cores use an advanced video processor. The BOSON is a nice form factor and would be a great building block for many thermal imaging devices…. If only they could sort out its imaging performance.
Have fun with your BOSON and I am pleased that it is not one of the custom firmware versions :-+
Fraser
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and there are a few areas that appear to be damage on the window? (appear similar to a spec of dust on the window but also change with movement of point sources)
See my 2 attached screenshots from Boson manual, are they look like these?
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By the way, I don't understand why this was never a problem in pre-Boson series, such as TAU, Photon, etc.
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After long time busy with other things, I finally have time to play with my Boson recently.
Yes, dirt caused INUs are more of a problem in Boson, I guess that's why Flir says they "must be disassambled in a clean room"...
Like any thermal camera, Boson's setting are also too conservative, I finally found a good combination in GUI "AGC" section, attached as picture below.
(Do note that if your PN is different, you may not want to just copy my settings.)
[attachimg=1]
Some notes for these settings here, because Flir's documents are terribly wrong: :palm:
* ACE is completely broken as FW 2.0.
* Detail headroom almost has nothing to do with details.
* DDE 1.0 is not neutral.
* Smoothing factor is not working as documented, but this bug is actually an advantage for us tweakers, due to different DDE behavior in Boson vs TAU.