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Products => Thermal Imaging => Topic started by: Ultrapurple on March 03, 2021, 08:59:22 am

Title: OK, how dis possible?
Post by: Ultrapurple on March 03, 2021, 08:59:22 am
Either my thermal camera has discovered a whole new set of temperatures *way* below Absolute Zero :scared: or the correction algorithm has (temporarily) crashed.

(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/ok-how-dis-possible/?action=dlattach;attach=1185264;image)

Discuss! Extra points will be awarded for humour and/or definitively re-writing established laws of physics.
Title: Re: OK, how dis possible?
Post by: Nominal Animal on March 03, 2021, 09:26:22 am
Interestingly, -514.3°C + 273.15°C + 273.15°C = +32.0°C .

It really looks like a temperature scale conversion bug.  Celsius and Kelvin scales only differ by the zero point, 0°C = 273.15 K.
Title: Re: OK, how dis possible?
Post by: Ultrapurple on March 03, 2021, 10:08:24 am
Smart thinking, Nominal Animal!

I do know that there was something resembling an inverted high-end bit in the algorithm (or NUC data or data or comms or...), which is why there is a fairly large, fixed-pattern swathe of 'bad data'.

That particular camera has a chequered history (though I've had it from new). With the right driver software it produces perfectly good pictures; it's only a specific set of (repeatable) circumstances when the picture gets munged like the example above.
Title: Re: OK, how dis possible?
Post by: Vipitis on March 03, 2021, 11:16:09 am
Cosmic rays, CIA spy radio towers.

It's not something in your control.
Title: Re: OK, how dis possible?
Post by: tszaboo on March 03, 2021, 11:17:19 am
Does your lady tell you, that you have very cold hands?
Title: Re: OK, how dis possible?
Post by: Ultrapurple on March 03, 2021, 12:29:58 pm
Cosmic rays, CIA spy radio towers.

You mean like Operation Easy Chair (https://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/cases/nl/ra1958.htm)?
Title: Re: OK, how dis possible?
Post by: Vipitis on March 03, 2021, 12:51:20 pm
Not specifically, but a long time ago you posted something where a radio tower or cell phone one interfered with the imaging.
Title: Re: OK, how dis possible?
Post by: Ultrapurple on March 03, 2021, 03:02:28 pm
Well remembered! If I recall correctly, I was using an early Therm-App to watch a loading coil at the base of a ham radio transmitting antenna running about a hundred watts. The Therm-App was on the end of a very long USB active extension cable and whenever the transmitter was keyed above a certain power, the Therm-App stopped. At lower powers, there was interference on the thermal image.

The electric field strengths close (50cm) to a transmitting antenna of any kind can be high (and essentially depend mainly on the transmitter power). The UK telecoms regulator is presently rolling out a requirement to evaluate field strengths and concomitant safety zones for all transmitters of 10W or more, irrespective of frequency or purpose. (I say 'all'; I'm not sure if non-fixed transmitters are included). Even radio hams, who have traditionally been exempt from just about everything, are included (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/manage-your-licence/emf), much to their consternation. The national society for radio amateurs has published guidance (https://rsgb.org/main/technical/emc/emf-exposure/).

But I digress! The upshot of looking at the loading coil with the thermal camera was to determine that it was quite lossy - getting warm - and so it was replaced with a lower-loss design.