Thermal imaging camera

[joth]

Goodness how useful are these little beasts!

Not the cheapest tool in the box, but I bought a Hti-Xintai HT-201 and really happy with it.  Obviously will be useful for checking insulation detailing (although, best used on a cold night in winter), but my immediate use case was to figure out the source of an intermittent low level plastic melting smell coming from my AV cupbaord. Source turns out to be the 48V PSU for some spot lights -- internal temp getting to 110ºC but the majority of the case remained cool to touch. Pointing the camera in the cabinet and turning everything on, it lit up bright - instant diagnosis.

For anyone doing a DIY home automation / tech / electronics install it seems a great idea to check for weak connections or other hotspots.

Also highlights which of the little plug in wall warts run hot etc, can highlight any cables getting warm due to being near over current, trace out heating  pipes, UFH loops etc.  Nice little tool.

 

 

Edited July 1, 2021 by joth

[joth]

Sorry bad link above. This one: 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07Y2V3SGG

(no vested interest in it, just a happy customer) 

[Vijay]

Don't Flir do the same thing for quite a bit cheaper?

[Dan F]

 

9 minutes ago, Vijay said:

Don't Flir do the same thing for quite a bit cheaper?

 

Seems so, £216 here https://www.flir.co.uk/products/flir-one-gen-3/?model=435-0005-02 .  I'm sure the FLIR ones were much more expensive when I looked at potentially getting one of these a couple of months ago.

[jack]

1 hour ago, Dan F said:

Seems so, £216 here https://www.flir.co.uk/products/flir-one-gen-3/?model=435-0005-02 .  I'm sure the FLIR ones were much more expensive when I looked at potentially getting one of these a couple of months ago.

 

I definitely thought they were a lot more expensive, but it's been over a year since I last looked.

 

That said, I don't think this is true:

 

1 hour ago, Vijay said:

Don't Flir do the same thing for quite a bit cheaper?

 

The cheaper Flir one is only 80 x 60 resolution, compared with 320 x 400 for the one linked by @joth 

[joth]

 

 

9 minutes ago, jack said:

1 hour ago, Vijay said:

Don't Flir do the same thing for quite a bit cheaper?

 

The cheaper Flir one is only 80 x 60 resolution, compared with 320 x 400 for the one linked by @joth 

Exactly. The nearest I could find to this resolution from a "bigger name" manufacturer is the Seek CompactPro, which is 320 x 240 at £600. So getting almost double the pixels (320 x 400)  for half that price seemed a bargain

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seek-Thermal-Compact-Resolution-Imaging-Black/dp/B01NBU1AVN 

 

80 x 60 seemed totally pointless to me.

 

Edited July 1, 2021 by joth

[Wil]

I bought a Blackview phone with FLIR built in. It's awesome. Think it was this one, but might have been the 8800. I've barely used it since going and exploring how terrible my house is leaking, but it's a full rugged backup Android phone as well. Wouldn't want to carry it around the whole time because it's actually a brick but the FLIR seems to work well and was the cheapest way I could find to get proper FLIR images.

 

https://store.blackview.hk/products/blackview-bv9800-pro-thermal-imaging-4g-rugged-phone?gclid=CjwKCAjwlYCHBhAQEiwA4K21m8AgDRKYkZJo494dMYj6DYq4PwqFIoDAUsOJv9PG7-Dbz_vH3qqfzxoCeDwQAvD_BwE