The term “E8+” came about as a way to describe any Ex series camera that had been updated to a specification that exceeded that of the original E8. This includes, but is not limited to, the disablement of the artificial noise generator, additional palettes, additional zoom level and additional measurement functions. The upgrade effectively created a “Super E8” or “Enhanced E8” but “E8+” is shorthand for such. The same applies to the Exx series where fully upgraded cameras achieve an E60 enhanced status and are called E60+ in the community.
In case confusion exists... the configuration files in the Ex, Exx, Bxxx and Txxx cameras contains a number of functions that are either enabled or disabled. Depending upon FLIR’s marketing strategy, functionality is enabled or left disabled to create differences between Camera series and even between models within a particular series. As such there was functionality within the Ex series configuration file that was disabled and some remained disabled in the E8 despite its position at the top of the series. That was because FLIR Reserved that additional functionality for the more expensive Exx, Bxxx and Txxx series cameras. The members of this forum who know how to update the E4 experimented with the additional functionality to determine what the Ex series could make use of without the touch screen etc. We then enabled everything that was compatible with the Ex hardware.
OK, now a hard lesson in updating for you Calel.....
Way back in 2013 a number of forum members investigated the E4 and its firmware. With some specialist knowledge and a little luck, the (Dirty little) secret of the Ex series was revealed and a method devised to unlock the series full potential. This work took time and effort but was initially quite a simple task to execute on the camera. Once the upgrade path became public, interest in this forums E4 Teardown thread increased massively causing the thread to grow to the monster size that is today.
People were able to buy a sub $1000 80x60 pixel FLIR camera and upgrade it to the much more expensive E8 spec and beyond, for just a little effort reading the posts describing how to do it. A bargain QVGA thermal camera was born !
Since that great day FLIR have tried to make the upgrade more difficult with various changes to the firmware. Every time they did so, the “countermeasures” were overcome by knowledgeable people on the forum. The most recent countermeasure was a tough nut to crack but was circumvented by Bud I believe. He put a lot of work into making the latest E4 Wi-Fi model the best it could be and we are all grateful for his determination and effort to achieve this
Now the painful bit to hear....... every now and again someone pops up wanting to upgrade their E4 and asks for a step by step guide to carrying out the task. Then many questions follow regarding whether their particular version of the camera will work with a particular upgrade method. As stated, some of the early firmware versions were very much easier to update than more recent releases. In the early versions of the upgrade some members created the simple automated upgrade batch file approach where the person upgrading did not really have to understand what they were doing. It all “just happened” and they were happy to have an upgraded camera for very little effort on their part. Then came the problems... people trying the simple upgrades hit issues and wanted answers to why their camera had not upgraded for them. This was usually user error. Then there were those, like you Calel, who upgraded using a simple automated process but then started to question what the new configuration that had been created in their camera actually changed. Well that is where some effort is needed on your part and likely why you never received an answer to your question on the noise generator.......
All of the information needed to understand and carry out the Upgrade is present in the original E4 Teardown thread, the Ex Wi-Fi thread and some other Ex upgrade related postings. The process is well described and details of the later countermeasures appear, along with the solutions. This forum contains the most comprehensive documentation on the Ex series upgrade in the World as it is the home of said upgrade development. Yes the relevant threads are long but a little effort reading them is not too much to ask considering the effort put into producing the upgrade. The threads even contain summaries of how to upgrade and the content of the configuration files that are modified (they are just plain text files !). I carried out the upgrade on several Ex and Exx cameras totally manually without any automated processes. As such I fully understand what I have done to my cameras configurations, the installed functionality and settings for the noise generator etc. I recommend any person considering carrying out the upgrade learn about the manual method of achieving it so that they understand what is being changed and how. I highly recommend the manual upgrade approach as it permits you to make the changes you desire to the configuration as not all functionality is required by some users and additional functions can push the cameras processor a little hard at times and make it slow to respond. For those who just want the upgrade and do not care about exactly how it was achieved or what was changed, the automated approach meets their needs but they will remain “in the dark’ regarding what has changed in their camera and are unlikely to be able to reverse the upgrade in the future if desired for any reason.
Calel, I am honestly not trying to pick on you but we see questions about the upgrade and the performance of the E4 camera so often and the information is already well documented on this forum if people would just search for it and take time to study the post contents. Even if you use Google to search for answers, you will often be given links to posts on this forum as this particular forum is a goldmine of useful thermal imaging camera information
Fraser