Looking for software to interface an ISI Ir-Insight

[oddbondboris]

I've got a broken IrInsight from everyone's favorite online auction site, it works and has heavy sensor damage, but it will not access the menus, when powering on while holding the trigger it freezes instead of going to the menus.  for my purposes the sensor damage might not be a full dealbreaker, already had the thing apart and the onboard battery appears to not have corroded anything, it still even keeps time

modern smartview does not work
i think flexview will
sightview or sightview pro will definitely work

tried digging around web archive but can't find anything useful

[Fraser]

I own an Infrared Systems Snapshot 525 camera and looked for the Sightview software some time ago. Sadly I have had no luck at all. Good luck in your search.
Think very carefully about keeping a thermal camera that has severe microbolometer damage. Prices of used cameras have dropped and there are some excellent deals available on eBay. A damaged microbolometer can really mess up a cameras auto ranging and hottest/coldest spot detection.

Sadly information and software for Infrared Solutions Inc products can be very hard to find these days.

Fraser

[oddbondboris]

If you don't have it i doubt i'm going to find it.
i'm not entirely convinced the sensor is actually damaged, the firmware is obviously corrupt and i think it's not applying the factory correction properly and reading some random data as the correction map.
I figured out a lot of the interface it's pretty intuitive
none of this is case sensitive
A - displays serial ack on the screen
S - Takes a snapshot and stores it in the camera
J[XX] - shows the info from stored picture XX in hex
L[XX] - downloads stored picture XX via xmodem, the resulting file is 160x120 monochrome bitmap that gimp will autodetect and open
O recalibrates
X averages 30 frames then pauses output on that frame
Z takes one frame and pauses output
U returns to normal processing
[ closes shutter
] opens shutter
( enables something called "FINE" no visible effect
) disables "FINE"
don't do this if you don't have menu access | changes palette but only through a range of fixed palettes with no way to get back to autoranging that i can find
Y - goes into viewer mode on the device's display
while in Y mode:
-N and P go to the next and previous images
-A shows all images in rapid sequence
-D i think it should delete the current image but freezes my camera

I tried fuzzing the rest of the possible codes but nothing else seems to respond

[Fraser]

There is an IR Insight camera for sale in the USA on eBay. If you offer to make a donation to the sellers beer fund they might send you a copy of the files on the CD ? The seller is more likely to respond to such a request from a fellow American citizen.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Infrared-Solutions-IR-InSight-Thermal-Imaging-Camera-complete-W-Software-case/174575180772?hash=item28a57ddbe4:g:1C8AAOSw2x5f6h0C

Thank you for detailing the commands that you have found

Fraser

[oddbondboris]

found it
http://web.archive.org/web/20060311105057/http://www.infraredsolutions.com/resources/SightView2.0.7/setup.exe

[Fraser]

Excellent work 

I always check the internet archive so must have missed this software archive page.

Many Thanks for sharing the URL 

Fraser

[Fraser]

Ah, I now know why I did not find "IR sightview" ...... I was not looking for it ! I was actually looking for ISI IR Snapview 

Sadly my ISI Snapshot 525 needs IR Snapview. It sounds a little like IR Sightview but sadly is very different 

The search continues......

Fraser

[oddbondboris]

http://web.archive.org/web/20060311103449/http://www.infraredsolutions.com:80/resources/SnapViewV210.exe

[oddbondboris]

also to add to the commands found now that i have the software,
::: gets you a prompt
:::get returns
:get
average = 0x001E
background = 0x00FA
baud = 0x01
bias_target = 0x0847
bin_limit = 0x0040
bin_offset = 0x0000
black_hot = 0
brightness = 0x0000
build = 'Nov 16 2004 12:37:54'
button = 0x0600
command_mask = 0x0006
contrast = 0x0010
date = '210110124235'
deadpix_bg = 1
deadpix_save = 1
drift_factor = 0x0080
edge_thresh = 0x10
emissivity = 0x03B6
err = 0x029E
err_step = 0x0010
fine_ad0_trig = 0x3F
fine_ad1_trig = 0x40
fine_ad2_trig = 0xFF
fine_flags = 0x009F
fine_frames = 0x001E
fine_timer_delta = 0x0003
fine_timer_end = 0x003C
fine_timer_start = 0x000A
fix_vddr = 1
fixed_mode = 0x05
fixed_offset = 0x07DB
fixed_span = 0x0200
flow = 0
frame = 0x000070F5
image_count = 0x01
image_time = 0x00
interp = 1
lag = 0x02
min_span = 0x0080
osd_flags = 0x7F
overlay = 0
palette = 0x01
shutter_close = 0x06
shutter_open = 0x06
sn = 'IST20050137'
tec_timeout = 0x0F
type = 'IR-InSight T100'
vbias = 0x0DDD
vddr = 0x0EEA
verbose_init = 0
version = 'v1.3.4'
xfer_1k = 1
xfer_crc = 1


set allows you to set those things

[Fraser]

Oddbondboris,

Thank you for taking the time to look for the Snapview software for me. I downloaded it and tried to install the software but ISI have password protected the archive I have a faint memory that I came across this issue previously and wrote to Infrared Systems asking for the password. You had to provide your cameras serial number to get it but I never heard back from them 

I really appreciate you providing the URL though 

Fraser

[oddbondboris]

password is "fortune" without quotes
it needs a 32 bit install to run though

[Fraser]

 

How on earth did you find out the password ?

I was thinking of using some form of brute force ZIP cracker but did not think it would work. Please do tell me your secret 

You have been an absolute star. Thank you 

Fraser

[oddbondboris]

I wouldn't trust any of this software outside of a virtual machine
https://github.com/thewd-hub/source
specifically
https://github.com/thewd-hub/source/tree/master/InstallShield%20Self-Extracting%20Executable%20Password%20Cracker/v1.00
also you probably really want this
http://web.archive.org/web/20060311103152/http://www.infraredsolutions.com/resources/SnapViewProV210.exe
password is vulcan

as for finding the software
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://infraredsolutions.com/* will give you every page under infraredsolutions.com takes a min to load but works
put exe in the search box and you'll find what you want

[Fraser]

Oddbondboris,

Thanks to you I now know a completely different way to search for software using the Wayback machine. I normally just go to the index page of the company and work my way through the web sites different areas that would hold the data I need. Thank you 

Fraser

[oddbondboris]

One last thing fraser, since you seem to love lenses and cameras, these things have a 20mm f0.8 lens on them with very close macro manual focus  and an image circle big enough (i think) for at least an old BST sensor, might be worth picking one up if you see it really cheap just for the lens

[Fraser]

I already have such a lens from an ISI-Fluke cameras 

As you say.... nice lenses and useful 

Fraser

[cejoba]

Anyone have a tear down for this? It would be interesting to know what sensor/core inside.

[cejoba]

Anyone have a tear down for this? It would be interesting to know what sensor/core inside.

I'm here to answer it myself.
I took 2 simple photos, attached.
Mine is with red plastic, made in 2006. Not the common yellow plastic version.

BTW, any way to remap bad pixels on this?

[Fraser]

Thanks for sharing the pictures 

Sadly the dead pixel map on this type of camera is created during the factory calibration process when the NUC tables are created and there is not a separate software sub-routine that can be accessed to update the dead pixel map if more pixels have failed. I regret I do not own the factory calibration software for these cameras so cannot help you.

Fraser

[cejoba]

Thank you Fraser.
They do appear to increase overtime, as I saw the saved pictures inside, some early photos have 2 dead pixels instead of 3 now...

[Fraser]

I have often thought that the dead pixel map should be accessible and manually editable in a thermal cameras memory, but I am not as knowledgeable about the software side of these cameras as I am the hardware. I suspect the NUC and dead pixel tables are parity checked in some way so changes might require changes to any checksums within the file. I wish I was more knowledgeable on the coding side of things but I am a bit old to learn that now.

Fraser

[cejoba]

Oh man I can't thank you enough for discover those serial commands!

I'm adding some thing here you didn't mention.

The RS232 parameter should 115200-8-N-1, flow control doesn't matter.

Here's my original :get returns:
average = 0x001E
background = 0x00FA
baud = 0x01
bias_target = 0xF495
bin_limit = 0x0040
bin_offset = 0x0400
black_hot = 0
brightness = 0x0000
build = 'Mar 29 2006'
button = 0x0600
color = 0x00
color1 = 0x00
color2 = 0x04
command_mask = 0x0006
contrast = 0x0010
date = '221129061733'
deadpix_bg = 1
deadpix_save = 1
drift_factor = 0x0100
edge_thresh = 0x10
emissivity = 0x03B6
err1 = 0xFC85
err_step1 = 0x0010
fine_ad0_trig = 0x1F
fine_ad1_trig = 0x7F
fine_ad2_trig = 0x7F
fine_flags = 0x00DE
fine_frames = 0x001E
fine_timer_delta = 0x003C
fine_timer_end = 0x003C
fine_timer_start = 0x003C
fix_vddr = 1
fixed_mode = 0x04
fixed_offset = 0x0000
fixed_span = 0x0200
flow = 1
fpga_rev = 0x8001
frame = 0x00000892
frame_rate = 0x001E
image_count = 0x02
image_time = 0x00
interp = 1
lag = 0x02
min_span = 0x0080
netd = 43.6044
noise = 4.6884
osd_flags = 0x020F
palette = 0x02
shutter_close = 0x06
shutter_open = 0x06
skip = 0x00
sn = 'ISXS20060410'
tec_timeout = 0x0F
type = 'IR-InSight'
vbias = 0x0F66
vddr = 0x0B2E
verbose_init = 0
version = 'v2.0.1'

Here's my mods and other comments:
bin_limit = 0x0100  ---  This is the most important mod, it allows you to see much more details! Don't over-do, or you loss dynamic range.
fine_frames = 0x000F  ---  Shorten NUC time from 1s to 0.5s, with no bad effect. You can choose a even shorter one, just make sure it do not produce noise pattern.
lag = 0x04  ---  Eliminate screen flicker due to AGC. This value too big or too small both will flicker.
verbose_init = 1  ---  Show log when boot up.
osd_flags = 0x0000  ---  Optional, disable all annoying overlay. Other values have different combination, try yourself.

Other lines  ---  They have no useful effect, or read only, or set automatically.

:::reset  ---  Allows you to gracefully reboot the camera.

BTW, This camera performs really well, not like it's advertised "100mk" sensitivity.
Even with f1 lens instead of the original f0.8 one, it shows low delta details well. (With my tweak above)

[Fraser]

Cejoba,

Thanks for this interesting and useful post 

Fraser

[cejoba]

I just did a compare, and the Insight have the same level of sensitivity (ability to resolve low-delta details) as TAU2.
It seems VOX technology stucks for at least 15 years...

[Bill W]

I just did a compare, and the Insight have the same level of sensitivity (ability to resolve low-delta details) as TAU2.
It seems VOX technology stucks for at least 15 years...

More that what was achieved with 50um pixels and f/1 lenses 15 years ago is now being achieved with 12um pixels and f/1.6 lenses.

Technology improves, costs can be cut, same 'adequate' outcome

Bill