Vevor SC240N / TopDon TC004 / InfiRay C200 / Hisilicon HI3516DV300

[Honusnap]

Ok seen the J16, do you have the specs of the connector ?





EDIT : Ok i think i found it : JST SH1.0 6pin



Found a PL2303 : But have a question, i've read some pages on the subject and seems there are ... REAL RS232 levels (like 12V/5V), RS232 levels (like 5/3.3V).. i'm kind lost here, the PL2303 seems to be ok to connect to the C200 right ? It got RS232 levels at 3.3V or 5.5V, which voltage is the good one for the C200 board ?



Or maybe this one which is able to do far more : CP2102

[jetpad]

My solution was to solder one of these

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PDQKHJ2/

to a little scrap connector I had. Then connecting that to

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BG2BPVXV/

That connects to

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074VN9ZG4/

Which plugs into my MacBook. Just a temporary setup while it is disassembled.

[Honusnap]

Hello Jet,

Good, SH1.0 connector confirmed  , i would like to avoid the DB9 connector cause i haven't got any  , i bought the PL2303 and the CP2102 (which will help in my RS485 projects anyway), and a bunch of SH1.0 connectors .. should be ok...

[jetpad]

Ok, I was able to get the firmware loaded back on the SC240N thanks to Manawyrm. Lots of things tripped me up since this was a little out of my norm. The two main ones were: 1) The RX connection on the serial cable wasn't working so I thought the camera was ignoring me and 2) I wasn't pressing the spacebar fast enough to interrupt U-boot.

Now, after I put it all back together, I realized it wasn't displaying the correct hi, low and center temperatures correctly. It's displaying -273.1 C for all three. The thermal image looks right, it's just that the temperatures never change.

Do I need to do some sort of calibration? Has anyone else encounter this?

[Honusnap]

Hello,

I think i've read something about calibration being specific to each device (obviously), isn't there a menu to calibrate ..? I searched but did not find infomation while i think i've seen something about this...
About the reviving of your device, what did you flashed ..? The whole firmware through the firmware script, or just some files ?
Cause nobody seems to have the firmware i have on my device .. (chinese one) and so i got no source, appart from what seems to be a partial firmware (4 or 5 files).

[povlhp]

I can see that there is a solder free way to copy files to the Infiray C210, do anybody know if this works for this series as well ?
I have the Vevor SC240M aka C200 Pro (video recording and normal cam as well) - And if so, does somebody have an original usbdisksettings.sh or whatever I am going to replace ?
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/infiray-c210-thermal-camera-review/msg4368193/#msg4368193

[Honusnap]

Hello Jet,
Did you suceed calibrating your device ?
I'm in contact with Infiray and for my device the guy said i ned to send it back for flashing firmware again .. AND recalibrate the device, they also added that they need something called a dark mater to calibrate, it's something the temperature is well known.
But i suppose we can calibrate it with something else if we do not need extreme precision afterall.

About your SC240N, how did you flash the firmware ? What tools and procedure did you follow ?

I need to flash my C200 Pro (aka SC240M), if someone got a SC240M OR a C200 Pro firmware .. i would love to have it.

Thanks ..

[jetpad]

No it's still not back to the original state because I guess it needs to be recalibrated and I don't know if that is possible without sending it back. You've probably gotten farther along on that aspect since I haven't contacted Vevor about it yet. But it does display a thermal image, just without all the nice temperatures on it (and probably not in a calibrated way). Sorry, I don't have a copy of the SC240M firmware, just the SC240N. I don't remember the exact commands I used to get the firmware back on but it was something like this. Please verify each one before using them as I'm sure they need to be each customized for your setup. These were run on my MacBook after getting the serial cable working between the SC240N and the MacBook.

cd sbin
fdisk -l /dev/mmcblk0

diskutil list

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk4

sudo dd if=/Users/jetpad/Downloads/vevor-sc240n-firmware/vevor-sc240n-emmc.img of=/dev/rdisk4 bs=1m

; This command took about 10 minutes for me.
sudo dd if=path_to_image.img of=/dev/rdiskX bs=1m

diskutil eject /dev/disk4

/dev/mmcblk1

dd if=/dev/mmcblk1 of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=4M

[Honusnap]

I checked both Topdon TC004 and TC005 firmware, they are identical BUT 2 files :

iray-hisi-camera-new
iraytek_softer_01_new

S90start seems different at first but is in fact differently organised.

Those 2 firmwares got different numbers :
TC004 : V1.4.7.8(109)
TC005 :  V1.4.7.8(105)

I also got a C200 PRo V1.3.8(131), S90start is the same as TC004 and TC005, iray-hisi-camera-new and iraytek_softer_01_new are also present and diferent then the TC004 or TC005.

Nobody got a Vevor firmware ?

[Gridstop]

I picked up one of these and am pretty happy with it so far, haven't opened it up yet though. I wanted to do it all at once when I put together the macro lens.

If anybody has used one of those 18mm CO2 laser lenses with it (such as the 3D print tsys posted on the first page) what focal length did you use? I'm not  sure if it's as simple as 'use a 5cm FL to get a 5cm minimum focal length' since I have no idea what optics are inside the camera otherwise. And the lenses are $25 each or so, so I'd prefer not to guess several times.

[cat99]

No it's still not back to the original state because I guess it needs to be recalibrated and I don't know if that is possible without sending it back.

not sure if it's relevant to your situation, but this amazon review mentions a possible calibration menu (I didn't try it)

I might have accidentally found the calibration menu, try this with your own risk, the menu is in simplified chinese for the most part:
1. hit "Back", hold "up" for one second, wait for one second, then hold "down" for roughly 3 sec, the calibration menu should appear, exit any time with the "Back" button.
2. hit "Back", hold "right" for one second, wait for one second, then hold "left" for roughly 3 sec, some kind of factory menu will show up, maybe for firmware update?

[cat99]

Does anyone know if there is a trick to updating the firmware on a unit that is running an older firmware?

I bought a topdon tc004 recently, when comparing it to videos online, my device is missing the "usb mode" menu entry, always running in mass storage mode.
The device is running firmware 1.2.1(1110), which seems older than the 1.4.x most people are running.
I tried updating to the current 1.4.7.8(109) but have not been able to get it to work.

I followed these steps:
put sdcard in device
tell it to format the sdcard
download the firmware rar file, unpack the contents including a zip file, unpack the zip file
connect the device to a computer
copy the folder that was contained in the zip file and rename it to "update"
disconnect from computer
hold right for 10sec, then while still holding right begin holding left, update screen appears

this is where I get stuck, instead of a list beginning with "update" and "update_dat", "update" is missing and it only has "update_dat"
if I select "update_dat" it responds in chinese:

sd card detected, updated started
no update file detected

I also found a link on archive.org for the older firmware, 1.4.7.3, but this failed in the same way.

I'm thinking the problem is most likely one of these:
option1- they have some older units that can't function in webcam mode, maybe can't be updated, and wanted to dump them on black friday
option2- the update process on older firmwares was different than on the newer ones, and the older process isn't documented anywhere
option3- I'm doing something wrong

[federigo]

Does someone with this device have this problem?

I know some kind of vignetting is considered normal, but it was my impression that the vignette is "colder". What I noticed during use is that I have some kind of "warm halo" on left/bottom side of the image. This is less noticable depending on NUC/range of what I have in view (though it is still noticeable by rotating the camera), but when pointing to a uniform surface is quite evident (picture attached of the camera pointed at a paper sheet).

The hottest point is always in the bottom-left side corner and the temperature difference between that spot and the coldest spot is always in the range of 1.8-2.2 °C



Can this considered "normal" or do I have a defective unit?

Also, the unit didn't come with any emissivity table in any form, it's set at 0.95 / 25 °C ambient temp / 0.5 m distance, how important is it to set these parameters if I don't care (too much) about absolute temperature measurements? I'm more interested in temperature differences and a rough indication of the actual temperature (if it's 30 °C instead of 35 °C is not important).

Thanks.

[jetpad]

not sure if it's relevant to your situation, but this amazon review mentions a possible calibration menu (I didn't try it)

Thanks. That does look very promising! I messed around with it but I was having trouble translating those menu options and wasn't able to figure it out. I'm going to keep trying.

[Honusnap]

Use google translate camera mode on your android phone .. easy to translate your IR screen.

[Honusnap]

Allright, after some ... annoying discussions with Infiray, and a stuck boot C200, i was able to install a Frankestein firmware based on a TC005, my device is working nice today and even better ... coming from a Chinese only device i now have a fully international device.

Infiray asked me 100€ to provide me with an international firmware while my device was Chinese only.... what a bunch of scammer.

[bap2703]

Does anyone know if there is a trick to updating the firmware on a unit that is running an older firmware?

I bought a topdon tc004 recently, when comparing it to videos online, my device is missing the "usb mode" menu entry, always running in mass storage mode.
The device is running firmware 1.2.1(1110), which seems older than the 1.4.x most people are running.
I tried updating to the current 1.4.7.8(109) but have not been able to get it to work.

On the software page
https://www.topdon.com/pages/pro-down?fuzzy=TC004
I see two versions. On for devices with four digits (V1.4.7.9) and one for devices with three digits (V1.2.7).

It seems you tried to put a 4 digit on a 3 digit.
Interestingly their version numbers without dots are reversed,
4 digits with dots = 3 digit number, 3 digits with dots = 4 digit number, as highlighted in your post. 

[brc]

If anybody has used one of those 18mm CO2 laser lenses with it (such as the 3D print tsys posted on the first page) what focal length did you use? I'm not  sure if it's as simple as 'use a 5cm FL to get a 5cm minimum focal length' since I have no idea what optics are inside the camera otherwise. And the lenses are $25 each or so, so I'd prefer not to guess several times.

In this post, jairbj said they used a 20 mm diameter, 50.8mm focal length lens: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/infiray-c210-thermal-camera-review/msg3698872/#msg3698872

[cat99]

Does anyone know if there is a trick to updating the firmware on a unit that is running an older firmware?

I bought a topdon tc004 recently, when comparing it to videos online, my device is missing the "usb mode" menu entry, always running in mass storage mode.
The device is running firmware 1.2.1(1110), which seems older than the 1.4.x most people are running.
I tried updating to the current 1.4.7.8(109) but have not been able to get it to work.

On the software page
https://www.topdon.com/pages/pro-down?fuzzy=TC004
I see two versions. On for devices with four digits (V1.4.7.9) and one for devices with three digits (V1.2.7).

It seems you tried to put a 4 digit on a 3 digit.
Interestingly their version numbers without dots are reversed,
4 digits with dots = 3 digit number, 3 digits with dots = 4 digit number, as highlighted in your post. 

Interesting, I checked archive.org to confirm none of the 3-digit vs 4-digit info was on that page last time I checked it.
A friend of mine who has the same device emailed Topdon asking about this and they replied saying units that run four-digit firmwares are the old hardware revision, three-digit firmwares are for the newer hardware revision.

I just installed 1.2.7 and it still doesn't have a "usb mode" to toggle between mass storage mode and webcam mode.

However after updating it I ran cheese (webcam tester) and was able to get video from the camera for around 5 seconds or so before it glitched out, which is encouraging, so maybe it just appears both as a mass storage device and a slightly non-standard webcam at the same time on these "newer" hardware revision models.

There is also a "super-resolution" option now, I looked at it briefly it appears to try and remove some of the macroblock style artifacts, and may be doing a sharpening filter of some sort.
Still images using "super-resolution" do generally look more asthetically appealing, I can't tell yet if it's a net positive when looking at the live video.

[brc]

In this post, jairbj said they used a 20 mm diameter, 50.8mm focal length lens: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/infiray-c210-thermal-camera-review/msg3698872/#msg3698872

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6051118 mentions using an 18 mm lens. Here's one option: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832054759353.html

[Mrnilcs]

Dear thermal imaging enthusiast and hobbyists!!

I’m in middle of the process of evaluating this device’s capabilities so I’m reaching out: Could someone DM me some raw, uncompressed photos taken with SC240M? Especially interested in photos taken with the model with camera module.

Photos of interest to me are those taken from inside of apartment buildings, documenting temperature differences near window, vents, doors and bathroom floor/drains. Also curious to see how the apartment buildings look from outside-in. In this case, more is more so if you can provide multiple photos, I would greatly appreciate it!

My goal is to better understand the capabilities of the device: resolution and sensitivity in apartment and building context.

Here is my e-mail for image delivery: mazurka_spinach.0@icloud.com


Br,
Max

[Evolver]

Hi all!

Looks like my C200 Pro on Hisilicon HI3516DV300 platform is dead.

The thermal image looks very noisy and there are a lot of lines. And this is not a problem with the screen - the picture from the video camera and a menu are absolutely normal.

The camera was used for amateur purposes for about 2 years, about once a month. I guess not more than 3 full battery charges.
What's confusing me, is that the problem first appeared after two months. I wanted to use the warranty, but the camera is self fixed after the battery was completely discharged and then recharged. And then it worked perfectly. Until a few days ago, the problem arose again and it can no longer be solved with simple methods.

FFC events (shutter sound) occur frequently at powering on, but after a while everything goes to once per one/two minutes - looks normal for me.
I disassembled the camera, checked and cleaned all ribbon cables - no luck. 
All voltages on both boards are OK, the oscilloscope shows no noise on the capacitors.
The RTC battery is completely dead, it doesn't even charge, although 3.2v present, when the camera is on.

Judging by the attached log and numerous messages
"[1970-01-01 00:00:12][LIB]: HisImageProcess error."
unit experiencing problems communicating with ELF1 (thermal module) image processor.
I guess troubles even not with the connection itself, but processing of the received data.

But thermal image is alive, i can see the outline of my hand, the center point showing like the right temperature. But there is a lot of noise from the min to max values of the measurement range at the same time.

Masking different lines in S90start I found out that "HisImageProcess error" occurs when launching /iray_app/iray-hisi-camera, which initializes the communication with the thermal module and eventually displays the thermal image on the screen. The problem is exactly in this place. And only after that /iray_app/iray_softer_01 - the user shell - is launched, but this does not change anything in the corrupted image.

Fraser, can your wealth of experience tell - if this is a hardware or software problem? I think it's faulty thermal module/integrated image processor...

By the way, there are 8Gb eMMC disk and 512M RAM inside - quite a powerful thing.

[Fraser]

Evolver,

That looks like a nasty fault. As to whether it is hardware or software that is causing it, I cannot be certain. This fault would need some detailed investigation of the signals coming out of the microbolometer module.

Fraser

[Evolver]

Thank you.
I suspected that there is no easy solution here. So I bought another one full clone of that camera Mileseey TR256B. It can be included it in the topic title. The only difference from C200Pro is a body color, even measured weight is same. At least if it breaks too, I can assemble one frankenstein from parts of two ones  .