Hello,
EDIT: Firmware is 1.22.
No firmware upgrades / software, resolution,menu, etc hacks have been attempted on this camera. I have a very strange issue with a FLIR E4 - about 2 minutes from startup, after the camera heats up, it starts displaying a circular thermal gradient. After 10 minutes the gradient becomes really pronounced (see pic at end of post, taken with the lens cover on, same happens if pointed at a wall)
Eventually it will become really pronounced with about 7-10C gradient when looking at a uniform temperature wall.
Here is my understanding of how the camera should get rid of these types of anomalys: Every ~30sec the camera auto-calibrates, by putting a shutter in front of the sensor. When the shutter is in front of the sensor, the camera assumes the sensor sees a completely uniform heated image with the same temperature as the frame of the camera ( which is sensed via a sensor inside of the camera ). It then uses this baseline to apply corrections to each pixel after the calibration shutter has been removed. Any gradients present on the sensor / any pixels that are more / less sensitive than others will be adjusted correspondingly using the baseline that was taken during calibration.
Here is what I've observed in the case of the defective camera:
- If the calibration shutter is forced to stay always on, then the gradient goes away (of course now you can't use the camera for anything else other than looking at the inside of the calibration shutter ).
- If during calibration, a uniformly heated object is placed in front of the sensor(the calibration shutter is removed from the sensor), then the camera functions as expected, the gradient goes away, and the camera gives good images of the environment.
- This happens even with no lens present, just sensor -> shutter -> uniform-heated wall / paper
This makes me think that somehow the calibration shutter is not uniformly heated, however looking at it through another 320x240 E4 shows no temperature gradient on it.
Anyone has seen this before / have any idea what the issue can be / how to fix it ?
Thanks!
