Thermal imaging camera for electronic fault finding. TopDon TC004 is a game changer.

Thermal imaging cameras are super useful for electronic repair but have been prohibitively expensive. Now the TopDon TC004 changes everything, at last an affordable high performance Thermal Imaging Camera. FLIR must be terrified of competition like this.
Here's the eBay link:
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2660769708...
CODE:SAVE30GBPTC004(£30 off)
Audio and video transfers: www.video99.co.uk/
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Music “Let It Run” with permission, copyright Cristie/MacFarlane.
Sorry I do not offer an audio or video equipment repair service.
TOP LEVEL SCREEN
Measurement
Centre Spot
Hot Spot
Cold Spot
Close
Palette
White Hot
Black Hot
Iron
Rainbow
Setting
Measure Parameter
Emissivity
Temperature
Distance
Temperature Scale
-20~150C
100~350C
Hi/Lo alert
Hi On/Off
Lo On/Off
LED alert
Photo setting
Photo auto save On/Off
Temperature unit
C/F/K
Date and Time
Display Time On/Off
Set date and time
Language
English
Russian
Polish
German
French
Korean
Portuguese
Spanish
Hungarian
Italian
Traditional Chinese
Turkish
Japanese
Display Brightness
High/Medium/Low
Auto Power Off
5/10/20 minutes or Off
System Setting
Device Information
Model
Version
Capacity
Free
Serial Number
Factory Reset
Continue Yes/No
Format SDcard
Continue Yes/No
USB Mode
USB disk (for standalone operation and offline analysis)
USB camera (for online analysis with Windows PC)
00:00 Introduction
01:45 Unbox
05:14 Set up test board
10:15 Demonstrate defective component locating
16:31 Observations by Scott aged 13
26:26 Soldering iron temperatures
29:15 Conclusion and more details. TC005.

[@SuperBoobaloo]

Smart young lad you've got there. Good to see you enjoying the new toy together.

[@JacGoudsmit]

Great to see there's finally a thermal imaging camera that has enough resolution that it doesn't need a second camera image overlay (with parallax problems making it difficult to troubleshoot electronics). And without the non-removable FLIR logo in the picture.

[@video99couk]

And a super price too.

[@Sevalecan]

I actually just fixed a laptop after buying the same thermal imager (prior to ever seeing this video, it was on sale after a Matthias Wandel video). The main power bus was being shorted and I verified this condition with an external power supply and a multimeter. The power brick was doing an overcurrent reset repeatedly, but still pumping energy into a few components. I could of course increase this energy with a bench power supply but wasn't really necessary. Found 2 MOSFETs that were getting warm and replaced them with some hot air rework, and now it works. Definitely handy and an easier process to identify the affected component(s) in this failure mode.

[@Thepaddster]

Oh wow, we use devices like this at work, but they're more expensive and lower resolution. What a fab little piece of tech

[@more.power.]

Great video guys. Nice to see your son becoming involved in the repair of the older generation electronics. Much of today's training involves the replacement of the the entire board or unit. Thank you

[@z9ski690]

Very interesting and informative video. I just ordered the TC 004 today, and noticed your video on line. Great explanation of the features of the TC 004 VS TC 005, it was not very clearly stated on the on line descriptions. Your descriptions made the differences very clear. Also, your son is very intelligent and engaging. I can see the pleasure you take in working and learning with him. He must be a chip off the old block. 😄. Cheers

[@markhod1960]

You have a smart young man there you must be proud 😊

[@richrootes]

Nice. We used FLIR and Dalsa thermal cameras where I used to work (these were expensive relatively high resolution cameras). I seem to remember there being an issue with where these things could be sent, as the US considered the technology to be a security risk. Miscreants use this type of device to help guess your PIN with the residual heat left on a keypad….

[@zx8401ztv]

I can see that being handy for electronic use and tracking down the loss of heat around the house windows. Your son is as sharp as a razor. Yes i think fluke is crapping bricks in fright lol. That would have been really nice for the zenner overheat, but you fixed it without special tools. Did you burn your finger tracing the hot diode ha ha :-D

[@snap_oversteer]

Very useful tool, i now have some older FLIR camera which while having abysmal resolution is still quite helpful. Before that I just poked live boards with my fingers, not a good idea on something with high voltage :D

[@overnightdelivery]

Something I rarely see people mention about Thermal Cameras is that they are the best stud finders ever. You can literally see exactly where the studs are, to eliminate guess work with stud finders that are not always accurate.

[@video99couk]

Are we talking about studs in walls? I could try that.

[@frankowalker4662]

This is far more capable than mine. But I only paid £75 off ebay for it from China. It runs off 4 AA batteries and does'nt have a USB port. But it works well. I've used it to fix 3 computers. 2 had overheating memory chips and the other had an open transistor in the PSU, so it was'nt getting hot.

[@letmelooktv]

i was just thinking about these this morning as my motherboard of 10 years old is starting to reset on the usb bus randomly.

[@colinmeredith7114]

Email from them...not for micro work, when asked. TC004/TC005.

[@pierrejeanf.dupuis4150]

Funny, I have something similar but with the camera on the end of an endoscope type of extension, so you can more easily look inside electronics without (fully) taking them appart. It's an older model, so besides looking at the fairly small screen you can only record in 720p Mpeg4 (I'm pretty sure it's just an older model 720p webcam sensor). Does appear to have High Dynamic Range as it does great with very low light. It does have an infrared setting as well as a thermal one - not sure what the difference is. Pretty sure that's done with an additional sensor (probably low resolution) and then that information is overlayed on the 720p image. You can sure see what you're looking at though. Works from across the room (several metres) and in extreme closeup (say 2cm away from the component you're looking at). It's a jolly good toy, now somewhere in the bottom of one of my many crates of unused/ spare electronics. I just remembered I have it from seeing this video. As I recall it was an expensive item when new, probable more than 1000. But I'm sure I got it in the 20-30 Euro price range second hand (don't tend to pay more for gadgets) due to the battery being dead (so requiring the power adapter to be connected). Mine has none of the software features though.

[@video99couk]

Sounds like you bagged a bargain. I would have a go at changing the battery.

[@pierrejeanf.dupuis4150]

@@video99couk Thanks for the heart ❤️. It was just a cool thing I hadn't seen before, so I bought it. As an electronics enthousiast I don't consider dead batteries to be a defect, just a fact of life. The last time I replaced a battery was for my Panasonic (rebranded as Philips) shoulder pack (full-sized) VHS camera in the early 90's. About the size of half a brick, lasted about a year. If I had to get every piece of tech I own working as new, I'd have to work to the ripe old age of 242 just to cover this years expenses. You have to prioritize I guess. I'd like to get my N1500 in good condition, I'd like to get my (mint in box - I don't dare plug it in) Telefunken TED working, I'd like to get the audio circuitry of my mechanically perfect Akai reel2reel GX-630D repaired (plugged it in once, smoke came out after a few minutes). If I were to get stuff fixed, that's what I'd like to fix. But try finding someone able to...

[@Extermideath]

Sorry to ask this on here but i searched around and could not find anything on it. I purchased this a couple months ago and have only really used it a handful of times no longer then a couple mins. Today i went to go use it and it seems to have developed a "Ticking" noise every once in awhile. Just curious if you have had the same noise? I read somewhere most Thermal Imagers do this but i just wanted to see if you had the same problem or not. thank you!

[@video99couk]

They do tick, I mentioned that in my review and I believe it's normal.

[@Extermideath]

thank you for the reply. i must of missed it. but it was a great job on the video thank you again! @@video99couk

[@guayabito6946]

Can that software work with any gun? this identical gun seems to come in many different brands (with cheaper price) Infiray, Vevor, Mileseey, etc. But they come without software.

[@video99couk]

Would be worth a try.

[@guayabito6946]

@@video99couk I bought the TopDon unfortunately, no I will never know. The Vevor was $55 cheaper but had no software.

[@IU3EVR]

I have it.The shutter action is very annoying in the video recording.The pc software has some quirks.

[@video99couk]

Yes I mention that it sometimes stalls, either due to calibration (the FLIR ones do that) or due to lack of processor speed perhaps. I had two quirky problems with the software but neither of them could be replicated. Anyway, that can improve over time. What I'm not sure about yet is whether the device firmware can be updated.