Finding Short Circuits With A Thermal Camera.

[@solarhope]

25 years ago when I worked in a repair shop, I would use freezer spray and heat guns for certain faults, also used an analogue ammeter in circuit to watch for any abnormal current draw. I did ask my boss to buy an infra red camera but they were way too dear at the time. However the back of my hand got to be quite sensitive for sensing a couple of degrees above ambient :-) Another tool I used for s/c that were too low to generate heat was called a toneohm, which measured down to mili ohms and altered the pitch of a tone in sympathy of the resistance, very useful kit.

[@GrantsPassTVRepair]

The hair dryer can be extremely useful in helping you discover if there is a bad capacitor on a PC board. If you hook a weak capacitor to an ESR capacitor tester you can actually see the resistance go lower as your warming it.

[@lucbeauvais1847]

@@GrantsPassTVRepair i think i know the answer but just to be 100 percent sure. I good capacitor would not deviate its ESR under temperature changes, correct? while a weak one would show deviation in ESR. Thanks ! Your video are amazing!!!

[@GrantsPassTVRepair]

@@lucbeauvais1847 When a capacitor is heated up with a hair dryer it's ESR reading will improve a great deal. Of course the improvment is only temporary until I cools down again, but sometimes it can be a useful troubleshooting technique to warm them up.

[@lucbeauvais1847]

@@GrantsPassTVRepair thanks

[@GrantsPassTVRepair]

@@lucbeauvais1847 Your welcome. Happy New year.

[@gcmd5852]

The thermal imagers have become very popular in the automotive repair industry. I recently bought my first imager. Model HT-19.

[@Airman..]

Smart stuff Matter of fact infrared technology is the future of many industries diagnostic work

[@joserafa03]

When you use a Laser Pointer Temperature Probe it works correctly if you point the laser straight down vertically or horizontally so that the Laser Probe can receive back the reflection of the laser and then you get a correct reading ! You were actually pointing the laser at an angle where the Probe could not read the reflection ! It works just as radar does. It measures the rebound signal and determines the temperature ( in the radar case it measures the distance by determining the time it took the signal to come back)!

[@TampaTec]

Good info 👍

[@frankowalker4662]

I bought the cheap and cheerful, (£130), KKmoon HT-02D Thermal Imaging Camera back in may last year. Same design as yours. I've found it so useful in diagnostics and as a fun toy. :)

[@GrantsPassTVRepair]

For sure. A potential money maker as well.

[@AShaw-bd4fy]

Would you recommend it? I’m looking at a phone with a thermal imager or possibly the one you recommended.

[@frankowalker4662]

@@AShaw-bd4fy Yes, I would definately recomend it. It has'nt let me down, it uses SD cards and I've only changed the batteries once..

[@Electronzap]

Yeah, thermal camera is definitely worth the money! Lots of things are damaged or adversely affected by heat and there's no better way to find hot spots. Unfortunately when I make videos like this one, it takes a fair amount of effort to get a good image of my hand held camera like yours, and the video doesn't get many views.

[@GrantsPassTVRepair]

Sometimes excellent videos don't always get noticed. You channel looks informative so I just subscribed.

[@gordslater]

yeah I subscribed also - amazing what comes out of the woodwork in comments :) Both of you should try to encourage more comments on your videos, getting people to ask questions or asking people to confirm the info in the video helped them or for any tips and tricks - interaction with viewers certainly helps the youtube recommendation algorithm a lot.

[@GrantsPassTVRepair]

@@gordslater Thanks for the suggestion.

[@hullinstruments]

My name is Grant. Half of my business is dealing with musical instruments but the other half is industrial electronics troubleshooting and repair. I’ve needed a thermal camera for a few years. I almost purchased a “Flir one Pro” … But decided to wait and see what new developments hit the market this year. Technology changes so quickly I’m not sure what the best option would be. But there are so many good high-quality options available for under $500… I’m not sure if the flir one pro is still the best and highest resolution option under $500… I Would love any input or advice..... as always, love your channel!

[@hullinstruments]

Also the Flir one pro has 19,200 pixel resolution compared to 3,600 for the camera you show in your video. Resolution really is the most important thing when troubleshooting surface mount boards… From what I’ve seen the Flir one pro and a few other cameras have unbelievably high resolution for under $500. Soldering it has four times greater resolution… And is the same price as the camera shown here… I think it might give a clearer picture and be more usable. But I could be wrong. I plan to use an old retired iPhone to permanently mount my flir camera… I’ll be able to easily record video, slow motion, take photographs… and I can do it all with a $2 Bluetooth remote control. This way the camera can be permanently mounted over the bench on an articulated worklight arm... and everything can be recorded For later diagnostics. And it will be completely hands-free because I’ll be able to adjust the camera where I want it and use the Bluetooth remote to click photos or videos on and off..

[@GrantsPassTVRepair]

This is the first thermal camera I've ever owned, so I can't give you good comparison to other models. This model is pretty low end unit, and the video resolution is poor, but I still found it useful when looking for a short circuit which overheated one of my circuit boards. Sorry I can't tell you more.

[@Gringo_In_Chile]

Infrared (IR) thermometers suffer from parallax errors when the laser is used for targeting while measuring temperatures at various distances. Also with increased distance from target, the IR sensor tends to average the reading over the larger field of view.

[@GrantsPassTVRepair]

It also made a big difference when I pulled either of the Two devices further away from the heat source.

[@gordslater]

Try gluing (with hot glue so you can remove it later with alcohol) a short length of tube over the thermometer sensor to see if it shields off the field of view a bit? Maybe a short length of shiny aluminium or stainless tube (scrap) will act as a reflective lightguide to concentrate the angle? You could also try a small magnifying glass lens, though bear in mind that the longwave-IR radiation will focus at a different point than visible light so you may have to fiddle with lens spacing to the sensor. Physics is strange like that ! It wll basically make it into a close-up-lens-on-a-camera-lens-kinda-thing, so the distance to the object becomes closer and more critical, the plane of focus will be very shallow (maybe too shallow). You may have to use a set spacing determined by a short rod attached to the thermometer to make the distance the same each time. Now I think about it this lens thing may be a little too complicated haham but the basic shiny tube may help narrow it down as is much simpler

[@norcal715]

Hi Dave, I have the FLIR one pro and it is great for finding thermal problems. Maybe I will make a video with it one day. Thanks for the great content.

[@GrantsPassTVRepair]

Thanks Steve, My only complaint about the one I was given is the picture quality. I'd love to see how well the one you purchased performs.

[@Yoritomo3800]

Myself i learnt the troubleshoot method of Sorin from "Electronic Repair School" youtube channel he is an amazing guy, this method is especially interesting for smd component on the board, he uses Zippo lighters petrol, to see it moves or evaporate when turning hot, this is very cheap and good enough, freeze spray ares mad expensive for such usage .

[@AxelWerner]

please see Ken Cosi's comment about parallax errors. its a misconception that these IR thermometers sense temp where the laser dot is. this is true ONLY for a specific range/distance from the target. anything further or closer will shift from the laser target point.

[@ThroughAScannerInfrared]

Very true. Also they usually have an emissivity setting, looking up the emissivity of the material being measured and adjusting accordingly improves accuracy

[@BjornV78]

3:03 The reason that the laser temperature probe reads higher temperature on the paper below, then on the diode itself, is because these meters only work correct on a non reflective surface , most electronic electronic parts have a smooth surface wich give some reflections and wrong values.

[@GrantsPassTVRepair]

Yes. They also seem to have a problem with small components.

[@gordslater]

Yeah, all about the emissivity of the target object. Sometimes you can tick a piece of very dark gray or black tape on larger objects or darken them with Sharpie ink to be more consistent. I've found that strong close-in ambient light reflections can confuse cheap thermomenters so I susect they use very cheap sensors or filters. Better ones (and older cheap ones) are unaffected. I wonder if the newer cheap ones don't use a proper IR thermal sensor and use some kind of cheap IR motion detector sensor loosely calibrated for output voltage instead

[@ThroughAScannerInfrared]

How did I never think to darken with a sharpie! Thank you thank

[@stuartstuart866]

Off topic to your current video, but have you experimented making your own TV antennas for the specific frequencies of the local stations in your area? I live in the Las Vegas area and all of the primary stations are VHF so I’m curious. Thanks for any feedback you might offer.

[@dennisqwertyuiop]

good gift,lucky you

[@davidconiglio7577]

I did buy seek pro and I looking for use on my pc and home use I did go my sister condominium and do a survey on doors and windows and I was talking pictures and notice a spot on kitchen wall .the temperature reads 80 degrees F it looks like a pipe with heat .Any suggesting.

[@diskdoctorprague]

A Hikvision B20 would be just a bit more pricy but offers you 256x192 IR resolution instead of 60x60! Or a InfiRay C200 would offer also a much better value for money. At this price point 100-150 USD more will give you a much better camera. If you want to stick with well known brands you would get a Flir C3-x (128x90px) or C5 (160x120px) for 500-600 USD in the US.

[@rectify2003]

👍

[@antigen4]

100f is HARDLY hot for a diode - i wouldn't expect it to be 'bad' from the temperature alone

[@williamzoom]

I use the Seek Thermal camera, it's a usb setup for smartphones!

[@GrantsPassTVRepair]

Are you impressed with its performance?

[@williamzoom]

@@GrantsPassTVRepair Yes they work good but are delicate!