Used ISG Infrasys Elite XRHR Firefighting Thermal Camera on Ebay

[Fraser]

Sadly I understand that these cores are a software configuration based design. That is to say, no hardware jumpers for configuring functionality. Such configuration is done via a factory utility software that is not in the public domain

My E380 has most of the functionality enabled and you may find that the composite video output is just waiting to be connected. I do not recall the purpose of the USB connectivity but doubt that it will give you anything as a user. It is more likely the firmware upgrade port. The DVR functionality does not reside in the camera head. It was built into the optional handle fir the E380. As such, it may be that the USB port is for accessing the optional DVR ? I would need to check my notes on the E380. I will dig them out and post anything useful here.

Fraser

[Fraser]

I just checked my notes on the E380 and sadly I did not reverse engineer the pin outs of the multi-pole connector or the contacts for the DVR. I might have looked at these but did not find anything of interest so did not record them in my note books.

I did find the hidden menu options and these are limited to what I previously stated….

Degrees C or Degrees F selection

Zoom (X2/X4) Enable

Hotseek Enable

Freeze Enable

Note that the Zoom and Freeze functions cannot both be enabled at the same time. My E380 is set for Degrees C, Zoom enabled and Hotseeking enabled.

No other configuration is possible through the hidden menu as it was intended for dealers to control just the chargeable options.

Sorry I cannot help more

Fraser

[cynfab]

Thanks Fraser, you have helped a lot. I'll probe around the boards and see what I can find, and maybe whip up a 3D printed battery case.
Knowing that there is a hidden menu on the E380, I'll poke at the buttons and see if I can find one on the XRHR.

[Fraser]

The E380 needs all three of its buttons to be pressed at the same time but your cameras do not have three buttons so you may need to work out how your versions access the menu or even add the missing third button ?

Fraser

[cynfab]

I'll review your E380 teardown & notes and see if I can figure anything out.
I did some probing of the various connector pins and test points, the analog video appears on several pins and test points and there are a lot of "digital video" looking signals on the black connector. Also several signals at 50hz. I'll see if I can jumper one of the analog video signals onto an external monitor.

TP20 (J1-3) and TP21 have analog video TP20 drives my analog monitor just fine.

[ArsenioDev]

The black samtec is ABSOLUTELY a parallel video output bus, I've poked it out and it makes sense for the DVR capturing functionality. I'll be running my logic analyzer in capture mode once I finish the breakout cable to cap the startup sequence, will upload it here.
Another project of mine is to make a better FPA downlead cable, the default one is kinda meh and I'd rather it be straight on instead of doglegging slightly.

[basecase]

The E380 needs all three of its buttons to be pressed at the same time but your cameras do not have three buttons so you may need to work out how your versions access the menu or even add the missing third button ?

Fraser

That's interesting. The XRHR has the Power and Zoom functionality combined into 1 button. Hot spot tracker still has its own button.
I managed to get the spot temperature overlay to glitch out by pressing the hot spot tracker button after the screen started displaying "RELEASE TO TURN OFF" (see attached).
This could be undone by restarting the camera.

Other than that, assuming the configuration menu existed on this model, I have tried the following and was unable to get to it:
_Hold down both Power and Tracker buttons during start-up.
_Hold down Power, rapidly tap Tracker during start-up.
_Press Power once, rapidly tap Tracker during start-up.
_Press Power once, rapidly tap both Power and Tracker during start-up.
_After start-up, press both Power and Tracker once. Nothing happened, looked like the controller board can only handle 1 button press at a time.
_After start-up, rapidly tap both Power and Tracker in sync. Zoom and hot spot tracking engaged, but not simultaneously, thereby reinforcing the preceding point.
_After start-up, in X1 viewing mode, hold down Tracker button for about 10s then release. Hot spot tracking engaged after releasing button.
_After start-up, in X2 viewing mode, hold down Tracker button for about 10s then release. Same outcome as previous.
_After start-up, in X4 viewing mode, hold down Tracker button for about 10s then release. Same outcome as previous.
_After start-up, in X1 viewing mode, hold down Tracker button for about 30s then release. Same outcome as previous.
_After start-up, in X2 viewing mode, hold down Tracker button for about 30s then release. Same outcome as previous.
_After start-up, in X4 viewing mode, hold down Tracker button for about 30s then release. Same outcome as previous.
_After start-up, press and hold Power button until "TURN OFF ABORTED" is displayed, then quickly press Tracker button. Glitched the overlay.

Things to be tested:
_While camera is off, press and hold Power and/or Tracker button(s), then plug in the power source. I have gut feelings that this one wouldn't be safe to try.
_Hold down Power and/or Tracker button(s) in X1/X2/X4 viewing mode for longer than 30s.

Based on Scott Safety's XRHR available options, in the event that we gained access to the configuration menu, it looked like the options available will be configuring the temperature scale and enable DVR/Transmit functionality minus the necessary hardware. This would be great since I'm guessing some pins of unused connectors will start outputting data.

The black samtec is ABSOLUTELY a parallel video output bus, I've poked it out and it makes sense for the DVR capturing functionality. I'll be running my logic analyzer in capture mode once I finish the breakout cable to cap the startup sequence, will upload it here.
Another project of mine is to make a better FPA downlead cable, the default one is kinda meh and I'd rather it be straight on instead of doglegging slightly.

Very nice discovery (I finally understood that Samtec is the connector, not some sort of chip that does DVR). Please keep us updated.
I think the DVR/Transmit-enabled XRHR and X380 models would have an extra circuit board mating with the Samtec connector and also be on the same stack as the FPGA board and the connector-laden board. This is pretty much the only way to stuff more into the already cramped case. From the SD1000/K1000's manual, any XRHR unit with DVR enabled would be pretty janky to use given that it only has 2 buttons (see attached SD1000 K1000 manual sections 5 and 6). Of note is that data output is handled by some sort of BNC to USB connector, and data transfer is handled by a separate miniUSB port that is only accessible when the battery is removed. This ISG Thermal Systems 320 K1000 Elite  is definitely a DVR-enabled model, but it's definitely pricy. Correction: the port may be there, but it might lack the storage hardware.

[Fraser]

I have a K series camera in my collection that contains the DVR module. From memory it was positioned behind the Display PCB. It was a modified COTs product. DVR’s in Fire Fighting thermal cameras that I have worked on take composite video, Ethernet or a digital data bus as their input. Many use a COTs Linux based module. The DVR facility is often used for training purposes, rather than on active deployments. The Transmitter option is the one that Fire Fighting Commanders may use to make decisions upon. The DVR can be used as a sort of ‘black box’ in case something goes wrong, but I am not aware of fire fighters using it as such. The DVR often offers still or moving image recording options in its setup.

Fraser

[Bill W]

The DVR can be used as a sort of ‘black box’ in case something goes wrong, but I am not aware of fire fighters using it as such.

That is why it is not used.  Ultimately fire fighting / rescue is done on a best efforts basis, heat of the moment etc.

A DVR would simply be inviting ambulance chasing lawyer types to pick over things at leisure in a wholly unrealistic manner.

[ArsenioDev]

Good news; I've got some time to do some capturing later this week. I am pretty sure I found the pixel clock, Hsync, vsync and data lines so far.
As for the regular K series (Non-HR), there's some VERY interesting signals on the samtec on there, will also get a cap on those as well.

[basecase]

Good news; I've got some time to do some capturing later this week. I am pretty sure I found the pixel clock, Hsync, vsync and data lines so far.
As for the regular K series (Non-HR), there's some VERY interesting signals on the samtec on there, will also get a cap on those as well.

That's indeed good news. Looked like the data output is there, just that only on the specialty DVR/Transmit variants would have the hardware to do something with it in the device.

[cynfab]

For those playing along at home, here is a first rough interconnect diagram.
for the XR & XRHR the 2 lower buttons with red wires are one.
I tried separating them on my camera and didn't have much luck getting anything useful to happen.
I did get into an interesting mode (after re-connecting the buttons) by pressing the Red & Yellow buttons simultaneously for 7 seconds.
I also got a 3D printed battery box started.

[basecase]

My 2nd order finally arrived. Both units were XR, so I guess the seller ran out of the XRHR model. This is a shame since I wanted another XRHR to tinker with, but the one I have will have to do.
One of the cameras was made 2009, and the other was from 2016. S/N of the 2009 one was K80-266-XR, and I'm not sure if this meant the unit shared assembly-line with the K-80 at the time. The 2016 unit had S/N K1K-WP30XR.
Despite being over a decade old, the 2009 unit was in OK cosmetic condition save for a small patch of charred Radel. The 2016 unit was as close to pristine as a moderately-used firefighting thermal could possibly get.
Per cynfab's recommendation, I decided to open up both units to inspect the internal components before powering anything.

Partial disassembly album.

Interestingly enough, the 2009 unit had a bunch of desiccant packets in the slot that the insulation foam halves make when they are surrounding the core. Neither the 2013 XRHR nor the 2016 XR had any.
I guess ISG at the time was concerned about condensation inside the unit, but then realized it was not an issue later on, or they started sealing up the cameras in a dedicated low-humidity room/container. Regardless I'll probably put in a few desiccant packets of my own once I'm done tinkering with these cameras and have them sealed up. Other than that, the core assembly looked exactly like the one Fraser identified in 2019.
Both units used the same core too, which made sense. The microcontrollers on the PCB with connectors were slightly different (2009: Winbond W78E058B40DL, 2016: Nuvoton W78E058D), but everything else appeared to be the same.
Of note is that the PCB with the BNC connector had a cable running to the main board. I haven't probe the output quite yet, but I do hope something nice will show up.

In terms of functionality, both cameras took 12V just fine (same polarity as the XRHR too) though "BATTERY LOW" would always be displayed. I guess the expected battery voltage would be closer to 15V-16V given the mention of alternative 10-Alkaline-AA-cells battery in the operating manual. 2009 XR had a lot of flickering pixels on the top right side of the sensor, but these went away shortly. The 2016 camera had this too, but only a few pixels were affected. The newer one had better image quality too (could also be due to the display being newer), so I'll definitely be keeping this one as intact as possible. When turned on, the shutters of both cameras rapidly engaged/disengaged for a good 10-20 seconds before stabilizing. Not sure if this is something particular to sensors with flickering pixels or not since my FastFrame Seek Compact Pro has this behavior too. Sometimes the shutters would do this out of nowhere, so if anyone knew the cause, I'd appreciate you sharing. Other than that, the cameras behaved normally. Intensity automatically adjusted when pointing at hot/cold objects, and that's pretty it for the Elite XR. Power button doesn't do anything other than turning on and off the unit. Long-pressing the TX button yielded a message saying the wireless transmitter module was not fitted. These cameras were not as fancy as the XRHR, but they are still very neat to own.

More tinkering to come once I have time to poke at things with an oscilloscope.

[cynfab]

Wow!, the core and display PCBs are very different from the XRHR models, shows what a little R&D can do.
Here are a couple of higher res images of the NFPS Interface board and a rendering of the next evolution of my battery box 3D model.
The earlier 3D printed version fits nicely in the battery compartment and the next will have latches and a door to put stuff inside. This is an iterative process for me as I am re-learning OpenSCAD as well as trying to reverse engineer the NFPA board. I have a partial schematic so far but it is a multi layer board and tracing signals is a PITA. I have identified all the chips and have datasheets.

Fraser, do you have any more internal pictures of your similar ISG cameras? It would be interesting to see where the wires from J1 and J5 on the NFPA board go.
Do you know who is the connector manufacturer for the white connectors J1-J5 on the NFPS Interface board.

I was able to get into what Fraser called the hidden menu by pressing both the Red and Yellow buttons for 7 seconds, then pressing the yellow and red buttons will cycle through 5 different fields with various characters changing values. Not doing anything for several seconds makes the camera reboot or reset, the FFC clicks a lot and it finally goes back to normal mode.
I'll try and record a video of all that when I get the camera back together after the reverse engineering effort.
My XRHR does not have zoom (maybe it is just not enabled).

[ArsenioDev]

Oh that looks exactly like the X380 units, mine have zoom on em via switch on J1, I'll be doing some captures with LA and posting images of the pin mapping later tonight.
Got slammed with a bunch of stuff at work and it ate my time up, was too tired when i got home to do much.

[Fraser]

The hidden menu is protected with a password that is entered via button presses. I do not recall how many characters were required but thought it was 4 but you have 5 to enter ?

I may have more images of the E380. I will take a look later.

Fraser

[Bill W]

Although superficially marketed as 'ISG Elite' there were two quite different cameras and production lines involved.

ISG UK (Basildon) made the ULIS A-Si based cameras and used the full 384x288 with (partly) matching PAL-based display.

Meanwhile ISG had been 'taken over' by a US based investor and started up a parallel facility in the US, with access to US controlled sensors.  So there are Elites using ITC VOx 320x240 (?) sensors,  I think the back end (micro etc) were kept common (ish). 
The UK build were sold into the US (kit built ?) until the ITC came on supply, so may explain some build changes.  ISG never had a 'dry room', and ultimately all forms of dessicant are only postponing the inevitable as the plastics are slightly porous.
Major repairs might also explain some hybrids

Relations across the pond were fairly amicable I am told, certainly not how it panned out with Scott-ISG.  3M-Scott now only offer the V320 US build and Lepton 'Sight'  - maybe cannot make in the UK X380 now ?

Bill

[Fraser]

These images from my E380 may assist in identifying the use of J1 and J5

From a brief look at my notes, the connectors feed the following on the E380

J1

Yellow : Yellow Button
Yellow : Yellow Button
Red : Red Button
Red : Red Button
Blue : Contact on bottom of camera (optional handle DVR)
Yellow : Contact on bottom of camera (optional handle DVR)
Mauve : Contact on bottom of camera (optional handle DVR)
White : Contact on bottom of camera (optional handle DVR)
Black : Contact on bottom of camera (optional handle DVR)
Red : Contact on bottom of camera (optional handle DVR)


J2 : To the I/O connector on side of camera (capabilities not known)

White
Black
Red
Orange
Yellow
Black
Blue
Green
Grey
Brown
Black
Mauve


J5

Green: Green push button
Green: Green push button
Black: Battery Bay (0V)
Black: Battery Bay (0V)
NC
NC
Red : Battery bay (+7.4V Li-Ion)
Red : Battery bay (+7.4V Li-Ion)

In case anyone is wondering.....

On the rear of the battery bay, the Orange, White, Yellow and Blue wires go down to the battery charging dock contacts on the bottom of the camera. These are used in the charging control process.

On the E380 the button colours have the following functions in the hidden menu:

Yellow : UP
Red : Down
Green: Select

Button debouncing was virtually non existent !

[Fraser]

The user manual for the E380 states that the optional DVR handle offers the following:

Red Button
Yellow Button
Blue Button
LED indicator for DVR
Laser pointer
USB I/O port
Built in DVR

Blue button activates the laser as long as it is pressed (handle needs to be attached to camera)
Red Button activated DVR electronics (on/off toggle) LED lights Orange when on.
Yellow Button short press captures a still image and LED flashes Red Briefly to show capture has occurred.
Yellow Button press for longer that 3 Seconds starts video recording. LED flashed alternately Red and Yellow
Yellow Button press to stop video recording

DVR download is via the Mini USB connector on the handle.

If the RF transmitter option is fitted (in the handle ?) the Red Button switched teh transmitter on and off.

Fraser

[cynfab]

Thanks Fraser, your depth of knowledge and resources astound!
After a bit of research, the white connectors are JST ZE series, and the contacts are SZE002T-P0.3
Digikey has no stock, but does have jumpers:
455-4204-ND‎
‎ASZESZE26K254‎
JUMPER SZE-002T-P0.3 X2 10"
I just ordered 10, so 20 contacts with 5" leads.

[cynfab]

To your pin list I can add numbers and some functions:

J1

10 Yellow : Yellow Button --> GND
9   Yellow : Yellow Button
8   Red : Red Button __ GND
7   Red : Red Button
6   Blue : Contact on bottom of camera (optional handle DVR)
5   Yellow : Contact on bottom of camera (optional handle DVR) --> TP23
4   Mauve : Contact on bottom of camera (optional handle DVR) --> GND
3   White : Contact on bottom of camera (optional handle DVR) --> analog video
2   Black : Contact on bottom of camera (optional handle DVR)
1   Red : Contact on bottom of camera (optional handle DVR)   --> TP104 and a pin on J6


J2 : To the I/O connector on side of camera (capabilities not known)

U4 & U5 are dual analog switches with outputs (D1 & D2) going to J2, an inputs coming from J6

12  White --> U4-1, 5, U5-1, 9 Control
11  Black --> U5-11 D2
10  Red --> U5-3 D1
9    Orange  --> U4-6 D2
8    Yellow --> U4-10 D1
7    Black --> 3.3V
6    Blue --> GND
5   Green --> NC
4   Grey --> NC
3   Brown --> NC
2   Black --> GND
1   Mauve --> analog video

J5

8  Green: Green push button --> GND
7  Green: Green push button
6  Black: Battery Bay (0V) --> GND
5  Black: Battery Bay (0V) --> GND
4  NC
3  NC
2 Red : Battery bay (+7.4V Li-Ion) ( +12V for XR/XRHR)
1 Red : Battery bay (+7.4V Li-Ion) ( +12V for XR/XRHR)

[cynfab]

Beginnings... no guarantees of accuracy yet ;>))

[cynfab]

A little more progress on the schematic. I'm pretty sure I have all the reference designators correct, and am 80% confident in the inter-connectivity so far. Still a bit to go and I'm not happy with the symbols for the analog switches so I'll probably have to build them myself. Values are not correct yet.
Real life (tm) is also interfering with the efforts so won't get to do any more for a few days

[cynfab]

This time the schematic might even be useful  .
Sheets 1 & 3 are pretty much done and verified, Sheet 2 still needs lots of work, TP's need to be added too.
Enjoy...

...Oh yeah, the black Samtec connector as well 

[cynfab]

Pretty much done with the schematic for the interface board.
Any corrections or comments welcome.
I replaced the BNC on the front with a 4 pin Fischer connector and wired it up to the J1 video output and a small DC-DC to convert the +BATT to 5V for the external RunCam FPV DVR. Works OK on the bench. Produces .avi files. The DC-DC is necessary as its internal DC-DC can only take 5.5V max. and I didn't want to load the ISG's 3.3V. BTW the +5V test point goes to J2 and nowhere else.