The second caveat is shared by all IR-based
thermal cameras – the need for careful handling
and pre-imaging treatment of the part on test.
Placing a common single-board computer
beneath the ETS320’s thermal lens and
focusing brings up an incredibly detailed picture,
where each individual component stands out
in stark contrast. However, it’s all false detail –
the ‘hot’ areas of the board are polished metal,
reflecting the sensor’s heat back on itself – these
parts are in fact the same temperature as every
other part at the time of capture.The solution is to coat the board in a less
reflective material – a suspended powder
used for crack detection in metal works
well, as does matt-finish paint if you don’t
care about cleaning it off afterwards. Once
painted, though, most of those fine details
are lost. Plus, unlike the C2, there’s no sign
of FLIR’s MSX image blending, where the
thermal data is overlaid on a visible-light
image to bring out otherwise invisible details.
Once a part has been properly treated,
the image may look less impressive, butthe data is a lot more useful. Connecting the
ETS320 to a Linux desktop to capture a live
video feed from the sensor, and booting a
Raspberry Pi Zero, not only revealed how the
system-on-chip spreads its heat throughout
the board, but the image was even detailed
enough to spot the cadence in the read
operations on the connected microSD card,
which were visible as pulses of heat. Raw
thermal data can also be captured live, but
only using the exclusively Windows and
macOS FLIR Tools+ software bundled with
the camera.
The ETS320 is an impressive device,
and a specialised one. It’s cheaper than
more general-purpose FLIR cameras of a
similar resolution, but more limited. It offers
considerable detail, but only over a very
small physical space. Plus, if you want to use
the automatic hot/cold spot measurement
system, that space becomes smaller still.
It’s also priced well out of the reach of
hobbyists, at least for now. The camera,
including the FLIR Tools+ licence, which allows
for post-capture analysis, live radiometric
data streaming and detail report generation,
is priced at £3,119 inc VAT, with a two-year
device and ten-year sensor warranty. With the
admittedly lower-resolution FLIR C2 costing
around £480 inc VAT, that’s a hard sell for
any but the most dedicated thermal imaging
enthusiast. More information on the FLIR
ETS320 is available at custompc.co.uk/FLIRCopyandpastepioneer dies aged 74
Computer scientist Larry Tesler, who with colleague
Tim Mott developed the concepts of cut, copy, and
paste in computing, has passed away aged 74. Tesler
migrated from the Stanford Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory (SAIL) to Xerox’s infamous Palo Alto
Research Centre (PARC) in 1973. Here, work on a word
processor and the Smalltalk programming language
would give rise to the ability to cut and copy chunks of
text or program code and paste them elsewhere in a
file. This was a common task in physical print layout,
but at the time unheard of in computing. Tesler was a
key proponent for ease of use, and his contribution to the field cannot be understated.Image credit: YAHOO! BLOG, CC-BY 2.NEWS IN BRIEF
Captured directly from the device,
images show plenty of detailWithout pre-treatment, components will show false
detail; everything in this pic is room temperatureAttempting to ‘zoom out’ shows the
thermal sensor’s narrow depth of field