Author Topic: Specification of a thermal camera for PCB repairs - some thoughts  (Read 8519 times)

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Offline hiei27

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Re: Specification of a thermal camera for PCB repairs - some thoughts
« Reply #50 on: January 08, 2025, 02:20:16 pm »
hi fraser, i wanted to ask, given your experience in this field, what's the absolute least one can spend on a thermal imaging solution? i mean, for a "just hobby, used maybe once a month" thing? main objective would be finding shorted components on pcbs with discrete components, really rarely smd stuff.

can you recommend me a product for this specific use case please?  (on a side note, i'm in italy, if it's needed for things like import tax calculations and such)

thanks  :)
 

Offline tszaboo

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Re: Specification of a thermal camera for PCB repairs - some thoughts
« Reply #51 on: January 08, 2025, 02:29:24 pm »
Fuho,

If you add a cheap $15 ZnSe close-up lens to your camera, it will transform its PCB inspection abilities. I recommend that you buy a ~20mm diameter ZnSe laser focus lens with a focus distance of 50mm for your 120x90 pixel camera. This will make the best use of your pixels over a relatively small area of the PCB. For greater field of view, you could use a 100mm focus distance lens but some component detail will be lost. You can make a holder for the lens out of anything really, even cardboard ! Some users even tape the lens to the front of the camera when needing it for PCB work.

Fraser
Fraser, I have the GW256 camera that I bough last year.
I bough one of these CO2 laser lens for it, and it works quite well upside down. But I have no way of attaching it to the camera. Do you have any recommendation? Below is how the camera looks like. I though the front (with those concentric circles) will be very useful at keeping the lens in place, but it actually made it more difficult to mount it.
 


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