Products > Thermal Imaging

FLIR HS324 Commander / HM324 thermal camera teardown by Fraser

(1/10) > >>

Fraser:
I have given a good home to a FLIR HS324 Commander thermal camera. It is faulty and in need of my care  :)

The unit was incorrectly described as an HM324b XP+ in the auction but I can understand this error as they are a very similar specification.
The scope contains a TAU core providing the full 320 x 240 pixels resolution into a QVGA electronic viewfinder. Power is provided by four AA 2700mAh Sanyo Ni-MH cells mounted in the underside. Video output is made available via bottom mounted contacts and a dedicated 'hot shoe' that bolts on. The hot shoe also provides the battery charger function. A standard SD flash card is used to stores pictures and MP4 videos recorded with the thermal camera. A nice facility to have when observing wildlife.

The FLIR blurb claims that this unit was designed in co-operation with the police and security sector to ensure that it met their needs. The S in the HS designation means it is the security version. The M in the HM variant means it is the Maritime (Marine) version. there are minor differences between the two version firmware but they are both effectively the same unit.

FLIR made these cameras available in several version. There were lens options and the enablement of the SD card recording option. It was never a cheap camera and some users felt that the $1000 extra to enable the SD card port was greedy of FLIR.  My HS camera comes in the standard PATROL non SD card version and the Commander SD Card enabled version. I have the latter  :)

So what is wrong with my HS324 Commander ? Well it does power on and display it usual colour bar test screen but then it halts. Having researched the camera with FLIR, it is possible that teh TAU has crashed and needs to be reset. It is then loaded with a newer firmware that fixes the issue. If this is the case, the camera will be an easy repair as FLIR provide a special utility to reset the TAU to factory defaults.

These cameras are basically a TAU complete camera core that is controlled using RS232 from a controller board. The output of the TAU is available in analogue and digital formats and these are used to produce the EVF image and SD Card recordings via the controller board. The TAU has a colour bar mode that is deliberately selected at boot. If the TAU freezes at this point, the controller cannot instruct it to present the thermal image. This is possibly what my camera is doing. If the TAU has a more serious problem, it may not be viable to repair it and so the whole HS324 becomes an expensive paperweight.

I shall first provide some pictures of the HS324 Commander and then add the internal images when i have opened her up. Access into teh case appears to be via four screws in the bottom of the case.

Watch this space  :)

Fraser:
Auxilliary lens mount. Note the classic TAU lens barrel is visible.

Chanc3:
Looking great Fraser, let me know if you need to borrow my VPC module.

Fraser:
OK its teardown time  :)

There are some surprises inside the HS324. It is a very different design to the PS/MS/LS series scopes.

Getting into the camera was more complex than expected. There are four machine screws in the bottom of the unit and four at each end of the camera securing the end plates. The end cap screws are covered by the rubber over boot that is held in place by waterproof double sided tape.

On with the show.........

Fraser:
More pictures

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page