Indeed, the predecessor of the DIY-Thermocam was called Cheap-Thermocam and built on the MLX90614. If you want to have a look, it is still available via the Wayback Time Machine (has been released 10 years ago): https://web.archive.org/web/20121128040746/http://www.cheap-...
Agree. I think it depends on the use-case (and a personal interest in open-source and DIY stuff) which solution is the best.
For example with the open serial protocol of the DIY-Thermocam, you can build your own software applications in Python, Typescript, etc. to cover use-cases that are not part of any standalone solution (https://www.diy-thermocam.net/docs/serial/).
I think that it is where this project shines; the accessibility. After building and setting it up it can work stand-alone, but also integrated with any project you are already familiar with (within reason).
Kudos for this project though. It is important to have well documented open source hardware in a as many field applications as possible.
This is still a great project for a lot of educational use cases e.g. thinking of universities and high schools who want to envolve students in the build process.
You are right, there are cheaper solutions like smartphone addons, but as a standalone thermal imager including display, storage, etc., there are not many options that are less expensive and provide the same flexibility in terms of open-source software and hardware. This is a comparable all-in-one device from FLIR itself: https://www.amazon.de/FLIR-89401-0202-C5-Kompakt-W%C3%A4rmeb...
The DIY-Thermocam V3 is a low-cost, do-it-yourself thermal imager, based on the popular radiometric FLIR Lepton sensor and an open-source ecosystem.
It gives private persons, educational institutes and companies access to a portable, affordable and customizable thermal imaging platform that is based on open-source software and hardware. It is constructed as a self-assembly solution, that can be build at home by only using some standard tools.
There are various applications like finding heat leaks in the insulation of buildings, the analysis of electrical or mechanical components, the detection of persons / animals or even mounting it on a drone and recording continuous or time-lapse images.
The device has a large ecosystem of software around it, that allows to extend the functionalities of the device beyond the firmware itself. You can use the Thermal Analysis Software to edit raw data files on your PC and save them in various file formats. In addition to that, the Thermal Live Viewer can stream live thermal images to your PC, change settings on the fly and record images or videos. The Thermal Data Viewer provides another way of editing raw files, and with the Video Converter you can convert series of captures images to movie files.
The Device Firmware provides a lot of functionalities, that can be accessed over the 3.2" TFT LCD touch screen. Flashing the firmware is easy and can be done without any programming knowledge on any operating system over the command line interface. Once the Thermocam is connected to the PC, it will show up as a mass storage device and allows you to transfer thermal images from or to the device.
The DIY-Thermocam offers a wide range of features, like adding temperature points, changing temperature range limits, displaying hot or cold temperatures only, saving single images or a series of images (video or timelapse) to the integrated storage, changing the color scheme, etc. It can also communicate to the PC over the USB serial protocol, in order to stream thermal images or change settings remotely.
In case you want to extend the existing featureset with your own functionality, that's possible too. The firmware of the DIY-Thermocam is completely open-source and written in C/C++. Just download Visual Studio Code and the PlatformIO extension, and you are ready to go!
The very first line of the "Building" page states:
> The DIY-Thermocam V3 Kit from GroupGets contains all required parts to build the device:
One has to scroll below the image to see a suggestion that the FLIR sensor and breakout board are not included in the kit.
The groupgets page is more clear, but even there one has to scroll to very far down before one finds:
> The DIY-Thermocam V3 self-assembly KIT contains all required components excluding the FLIR Lepton 2.5/3.5 and the Lepton Breakout Board V2.
When I started reading the "Building" page, my interpretation of "all required parts to build the device" is that all (meaning every last one) parts necessary are contained in the kit. Finding the wording just after the large photo of "in case you do not already have ..." seemed odd, as it was hinting at "all" not really meaning "all", but not making such meaning clear. Only the groupgets page clarified that "all" did not in fact mean all, and even then took some scrolling to find that clarification.
I suggest you reword the first sentence of the "Building" page to read:
> The DIY-Thermocam V3 Kit from GroupGets contains all required parts excluding the FLIR Lepton 2.5/3.5 and the Lepton Breakout Board V2 to build the device:
Thanks for the feedback, it was indeed missleading to write it like that. I have improved the text as you have proposed it, so it is much clearer now what is required :)
Thank you, yes, your improved text is now explicitly clear as to what is and is not included in the kit. No one should become confused over the improved version of the text.
Your parts list is missing the actual Lepton imager, https://www.diy-thermocam.net/docs/partlist/ I know it is on the other group gets page. I was not able to find the BOM in the GH repo. This would be a useful addition.
It looks like in an earlier version you had a visible camera as well, what was the choice in removing it?
I take it the device does not present itself as a web cam?
Thanks for mentioning the missing parts. It was so obvious that I missed it, they are now added ;)
You are right, Version 2 had a visual camera. However, the alignment between LWIR sensor and visual camera was never perfect and most people only used the thermal image feature OR they took photos with a smartphone and combined it in the Thermal Analysis Software (ThermoVision) on the PC later on. That's why I decided to remove the visual camera for V3 to reduce building complexity and costs.
The power of thermal imaging - now affordable for everyone!
The DIY-Thermocam V3 is a low-cost, do-it-yourself thermal imager, based on the popular radiometric FLIR Lepton sensor and an open-source ecosystem.
The device gives private persons, educational institutes and companies access to a portable, affordable and customizable thermal imaging platform that is based on open-source software and hardware. It is constructed as a self-assembly solution, that can be build at home by only using some standard tools. It's like LEGO, but for grown-ups!
There are various applications like finding heat leaks in the insulation of buildings, the analysis of electrical or mechanical components, the detection of persons / animals or even mounting it on a drone and recording continuous or time-lapse images.
