Flir Exx 490xxx MK1 (Non MSX) - Presets and palettes? *SOLVED*

[defplayr]

** EDIT **
Worked it out. See later post


Does anyone know how to get presets and extra palettes working?

Re Presets,
I have enabled the menu item (see photo) but it is not populated with choices. I have a folder of presets from a later model and have tried putting this folder in all possible folders/subfolders to see if the unit recognises it, but with no luck. I have tried with a different number of presets in the folder and renaming the folder. I've also tried putting the preset files in various folders, again without sucess. Anyone had better luck?

Re extra Palettes,
I found that the individual files need to be placed in the '/FlashFS/system' folder, where they will be recognised by the unit and displayed as a choice in the palette menu. (see photo) HOWEVER Althought the Palette can be chosen and will display correctly, the name of the Palette in the menu is always prefixed by '$' and suffixed by '.pal'. Also, the menu box expands to the number of Palettes it finds, but should you add more than 3 palettes, you cannot force the display to scroll down to the 'out of sight' palettes at the bottom of the list (or to the 'Invert palette' option). I think that maybe there is a programatic limit on palettes?

Any help will be gratefully received. I believe the various Ex series hack(s) involve files not present on the Exx series.

**EDIT**
I'm on an old software: 1.24.16, so without any good suggestions, I'm thinking of upgrading to 2.27.16 (The latest for MK1s) which will hopefully offer more functionality. That software is reported not to affect any user changes to files.
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/flir-e60-to-e60/msg3946942/#msg3946942

[cuda12]

Here go to page 8 of the e60 upgrade thread
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/flir-e40-upgrade-configuration/175/
The files you want to use (if you modify them to your camera) or just read and copy them to your modified files are Fraser's 2nd entry with his finalized files as he tried turning things on but if they simply did not work he turned them back off. Perhaps read page 7-8 and maybe 10.

[defplayr]

>cuda12

Thank you. I did read and follow what other people have done, but I couldn't find anyone with an Exx MK1 who explicitly said they had presets and extra palletes working, so I appreciate this is a pushing the envelope kind of question. (I recall Fraser didn't get presets working)

To try and work it out, I went through the forum and downloaded about 5 sets of files that people had used (including Fraser's), bulk 'compared' them and made a 'master file' with all possible settings. Most files were not very different, except for one that I think maybe wasn't for the MK1 Exx series. I haven't got a disassembler for WinCE, so I also resorted to extracting text strings from the system .exe and .dll files to see if there were any clues. I then true/falsed, non zero valued various entries, eventually renaming files and directories to values hinted by the system files (hopefully in an organised way!). That's what I've done so far without success. Its entirely possible however I've missed something obvious !

I'm thinking that there's maybe a non-intuitive setting I've not got right, or a 'if you have this you can't have that' setting I've not understood... However, I also noticed a text string in common_dll.dll: 'Requested feature was omitted at compile time', which is why I think I might just need a later software. Have you got either working in a MK1?

[cuda12]

I had a couple MK1's for a few years but sold all of them and only kept a MK2

[defplayr]

Progress!

recap:  New Palette files need to be placed in the '\FlashFS\system' folder

To get the extra pallete files to show the correct name in the Menu/Palettes option, you need to:

EDIT: \Flashfs\system\ui.d\tml\languages\strings.en.xml (Not CRC protected)

ADD:   <data id="FILENAME_OF_ADDED_PALETTE_FILE.pal">
           <value>NAME OF ADDED PALETTE</value>
           </data>         

NOTE: There are ten spaces and a Line Feed after </data>.

Example:

Code: [Select]

<data id="rainhc.pal">
<value>Rainbow HC</value>
</data>         
This persists over a cold boot.

*** BE AWARE ***
I just updated my firmware (1.24.16 > 1.43.23) and strings.en.xml was replaced. Not a problem, but I had to re-edit the file. Couldn't drag and drop the old one back in, as the new file contained quite a few new entries.

[defplayr]

** Presets done **

recap: Presets menu option needs to be turned on in the ui conf.cfg file:

Code: [Select]

/FlashFS/system/ui.d/config.d/conf.cfg

by including the lines:

Code: [Select]

.caps.config.menu entry
.caps.config.menu.enabled bool true
.caps.config.menu.presets bool true
To enable Preset entries in the menu:

You need to create a folder named 'profile.d' in /FlashFS/system

Code: [Select]

/FlashFS/system/profile.d
In that folder (profile.d), create a folder for each of your presets. The name of the folder you create, will be shown in the Preset menu as an option.

Put each preset file into its named folder, so you end up with a profile.d folder containing a number of other folders, each of which has a single preset file in it.

NOTE: Any .rsc file (not in its own folder) in the profile.d folder, will be loaded during the unit's boot process. This can be... interesting.

Cold boot to load the new Preset menu option.

Next step is to see what else can be 'loaded' by this method...

Preset files from later Exx attached.

[defplayr]

**Update**

Based on information found in this thread: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/flir-t440bx-hacking-firmware-investigation-possible-ultramax-support-for-exx/ regarding a T440bx... a preset with instructions to change system parameters, also works on my pre MSX Exx MK1 (at least).

The presets seem quite powerful ?!?.

This preset (any file name) with the file content:

Code: [Select]

#
# Save images at Max Quality - 29-1-23 - JGM
#
.image entry
.image.services entry
.image.services.store entry
.image.services.store.quality int32 100
# CRC32 238cda9
Changes the compression used when saving a .jpg to the memory card, from 85% to 100% when invoked, for both ir and dc images.

The change lasts until the camera is rebooted.

[Bud]

The way to do it is to add those lines to every preset. Then selecting any preset will trigger higher quality jpg.

[agiorgitis]

Why on earth a company desides to hinder their products by offering 85% instead or 100% of picture quality?
We're not in 1980 were kilobytes were expenssive... Trying to save some kb from the images is like turning off your radio in the car to save fuel while driving! 

[Bud]

I'd think because the stock camera resolution and artificial noise is poor, compressed jpg would not make any difference.

[agiorgitis]

I'd think because the stock camera resolution and artificial noise is poor, compressed jpg would not make any difference.

Do you think it influences the ultramax's end quality?
I mean storing individual frames at 85vs100 quality

[defplayr]

JPEG discussion can get very technical. Does a more compressed file carry less image information? Yes. Would you notice just by looking at it? Maybe not. Does it matter if you are extracting information from, or image editing on, the .jpg file? Probably...

If you want to check the compression of your .jpg files you can feed them to this website:

https://www.imgonline.com.ua/eng/determine-jpeg-quality.php

It's the one I used to check my preset was working.