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diy solar

Thermal cam, best purchase I've ever made....

Your Welcome.
Never really gave that a thought but this product has been around now for several years and I do not see Flir abandoning it. They will most likely just adapt any future App to handle older devices. The Pro is an upgrade and I think third in the line and the software works with all three. Worst case is using older iPhone that I have lying around. I have an my old iPhone 6S and my wife's old iPhone 8 that I charge every 4 months and then throw in a drawer, maybe it would be a good idea to load the App on those while it is still compatible.

Not sure what your talking about with 2 years and 5 updates and a "Goner for sure".
I still personally use an iPhone 8 and it is updated to the latest iOs Ver 15.4.1 and I got that 5 years ago. The iPhone 6S I have is also running Ver 15.4.1 and that one is 7 Years old. I think you got things backward, it is Android that keeps on dropping older devices. They use to guarantee two updates after purchase but due to the complaints they recently (2021) changed it to four updates on phones bought after 2019. That means a 2018 Galaxy S9 is no longer getting updates. While my 2015 iPhone 6S still is.
All fair points. My comments were from personal experiences years ago and it has been a while now that I think about.

Some were minor. like knock off ear buds not working but another example I can recall is a car stereo that wouldn't connect to my iPhone after a few upgrades. It's been a while since I've had similar problems but still I'm in the "once bitten twice shy" place Albeit less now thanks to your write up. Thank you!
 
Any comments on the KleinTI250? HomeDepot is having "pro appreciation event" which gets them down to $240. Check it out here.
 
They had a batch of them at some point that had battery problems.
Since about mid 2021 they seem to have sorted out the battery issue. Mine will hold a charge for several months when put in storage, I have no idea how long it will last while in use because I have never used it long enough to go below 50%.

I see you "upgraded" yours to the E8. Does it have all the same functionality including resolution of the E8 now?
That would be a huge $$ savings!
Yup. I upgraded my E4 to the E8.

Has same resolution and Functionality.

When I saw the hack I went to Amazon and bought one.

It’s very cool.
 
With regard to the HT 19 I just received: I do not see way to replace battery. I've sent an email to their support to ask. There is no removable SD card so you have to connect to your computer to pull images out. It does take video simply by holding down trigger for few seconds then pulling trigger again to stop. Here's sample image from the HT 19 looking at Victron charge controllers.
20220411-220744.jpg
 
I would mention that the thermal imaging sensor is only 120x90 and no real image camera.
If I was mostly going to use it to try to find lose connections or other hot spots in electrical application would it be worth $240? A quick googling revealed the E4 is a ~$1000 and that's out of my budget.
 
If I was mostly going to use it to try to find lose connections or other hot spots in electrical application would it be worth $240? A quick googling revealed the E4 is a ~$1000 and that's out of my budget.
Hopefully someone else can chime in. I simply don't know if it is the best bang for buck but would think it would work for simply seeing if there is an issue.
 
Hopefully someone else can chime in. I simply don't know if it is the best bang for buck but would think it would work for simply seeing if there is an issue.
I would stick with Flir. Whatever model you can afford.
The Flir One Pro has a lot of features and is cheaper because it uses your phone screen and GPU.
All of them are fine for detecting a single hot spot but you might also want to find thermal leaks in your insulation and this is where a Flir really works well.
 
Hmmm one change in 10 Years :rolleyes:
The biggest problem you will have with any of these IR devices is when the Internal battery goes bad and you find out that the manufacturer no longer has replacements in stock! Then your looking at eBay for cheap Chinese replacements and those typically don't hold a charge.
Easy to change...
4 minute mark
 
It's not the changing I have problems with, it's finding the battery. Even now I have a Roomba S9+ at home and I cannot get a battery for it.
I have ordered it from Roomba and it's on Back order. Keep in Mind the S9 is there current top of line model
 
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I don't have a Flir to compare it to. The Uni-T has had no problems finding hot spots for me, worth every penny.
 
If I was mostly going to use it to try to find lose connections or other hot spots in electrical application would it be worth $240? A quick googling revealed the E4 is a ~$1000 and that's out of my budget.
It truly is you get what you pay for..

Buy once Cry once..
 
I was going to stay out of this post but since it popped up again I am just going to say that anybody thinking of getting a Thermal Camera made in China should think again. I have tried three different models and they all suffer from the same issue, which is low dynamic range.

Flir had the market pretty much sewn up, they make their cameras in America but then they went into a partnership with DJI in China to make thermal cameras for DJI Drones with the manufacturing for DJI drone Cameras done in China. Within about two years the typical thing was happening. DJI was evidently making Cameras and selling them on the grey market to other companies. When Flir found out about it they broke off the deal and DJI started to make the Cameras without Flirs help. Evidently there is some secret sauce in the way Flir makes their sensors that DJI and the other Chinese companies it partnered with could not figure out. All three of the Chinese Versions that I tested had the same Dynamic Range issue.

Here is the most expensive one i tried and I put it up head to head against the iPhone Flir One Pro Camera.
HiKMicro B20 (Price $550) (Resolution 256 x 192)

Flir One Pro ($399) (Resolution 160 x 120)

Almost all the Chinese cameras I tried had much more resolution than the Flir, so they should have beat it easily in image quality but they didn't. Add that to the Dynamic Range issue and it makes things a lot worst.


So here is an example with the Visual Light Camera Turned off and all you are seeing is the Thermal Camera image of my Work bench soldering Iron.

HikMicro B20
View attachment 90643

Same Image on the Flir One Pro
View attachment 90645

As you can see the Chinese IR sensor is able to easily pickup the heat at the hottest spots but it cannot detect heat that is radiating nearby. One would say the sensor is blinded by the heat but that is really not the case. I did extensive comparisons on all four models and it is just a case of low dynamic range. It can only see within a limited range at one time.

The Flir not only see's the hottest objects but it can see the heat reflected off of objects nearby as well as the heat going down the handle of the soldering Iron into the stand etc.


Here is the Photos with the Visual Camera Turned on in Overlay Mode.

Flir One Pro
View attachment 90647

HikMicro B20
View attachment 90649

These pictures pretty much speak for themselves.
The HikMicro produced Images that were ever just slightly better than the other two Chinese cameras I used.
All of the Chinese Thermal cams in this Sub $600 Price range seemed to use the same sensor and had exactly the same issue. I even tried a Knock off version of the Flir Pro one that fits under the Phone and it was even worst than the Hikmicro and had the same Dynamic Range Issue.

If you don't believe these Picture I have ones of AC Duct work where you cannot even see half of the cold leaks with Chinese versions but you can see them all with the Flir.

As for those cherry picked review comments. If you look the vast majority of people had no issues. I just push on the Flir to my phone and I know its there so I don't bang around the Phone while it's attached. When i am done taking thermal pictures I take it off and slip it in my pocket.

If your really paranoid then buy one of these and the problem is solved: Lightning Cable Extender
I bought one after reading those breaking off posts but in the end I never really used it.

I was told that the Water Marks in the Flir are there because the Chinese companies are using Flir Images and then layering their GUI into the picture with Photoshop and then use it when doing adverts for their products.
So it's basically copyright protection by Flir.
Typical Chinese IP theft.

That is why it’s so hard to design and manufacture anything here in the states.

You can’t get it made here so you have to turn to China or some other Asian country which uses slave labor.

The first thing they do is reverse engineer it then blast out clones and kill the company they partnered with.

Or better yet install Spychips in them that sends everything back to the CCP.

Try to sue them and suddenly it’s a Chinese Government back company. Can’t sue a country.

If we had Tarrifs on the incoming stuff then people would lose their minds.
“What do you mean I can’t buy cheap Chinese stuff anymore ?”

They don’t realize they are perpetuating the problem.

Everything we buy from China directly affects what’s left of our manufacturing base.
 
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Typical Chinese IP theft.

That is why it’s so hard to design and manufacture anything here in the states.

You can’t get it made here so you have to turn to China or some other Asian country which uses slave labor.

The first thing they do is reverse engineer it then blast out clones and kill the company they partnered with.

Or better yet install Spychips in them that sends everything back to the CCP.
That is exactly the problem and it amazes me that we have some people in other threads that seem to believe that most consumer stuff is actually designed in China :ROFLMAO:. I can tell you from first hand experience that they have very little interest in designing anything if they don't have to. It's much easier to lure American and European companies in and just take the IP than waste a few years trying to perfect their own design.

This is why leading edge companies like ASLM keep the Chinese far away from their tech. They will sell them first and second generation machines because they are outdated but anything past that cannot even go near to China.
It's also one of the reasons they are so rabid to get their hands on Taiwan, because anybody that controls TSMC pretty much controls the majority of high tech chip manufacturing for the whole planet including the worlds military tech supply line.

As for the Spyware stuff, has anybody recently bought a Chinese Security Camera System? If you have, you will notice that these devices do not work unless you let their App have access to your phones GPS system during the setup phase. So basically they not only have access to the video but they also know it's location.
This might seem trivial but when you have hundreds of thousands of these devices in an adversarial country you can literally use the ones that are positioned down drive ways towards the streets to track the movements of vehicles and people. It's not difficult to compile a database of cameras on a map and then use the right ones to watch the movement of a surveillance target like a convoy of troops being recalled to a military base. With luck they can monitor every road that leads in and out of a military base in the US.
 
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While I'm all for buying something made in the U.S.A. when it's available, there is no way I was paying 3x the price for an inferior camera.
I've had the FLIR One Pro, and I've worked with several others but the Uni-T 260B is a great tool.
 
Where are the Flir cameras made?
Per BH Photo:
"FLIR products are primarily manufactured in the USA from globally sourced materials." (2017 date)


I don't own one, so can't say for sure.
Apparently, some are also manufactured in Estonia.

 
The FLIR gets better contrast due to software enhancement (perfectly legitimate and normal).

80 x 60 resolution FLIR (cheapest I could find on Amazon) $229 :


256 x 192 resolution (I wanted the higher resolution, but their software is not as advanced) $292 :


120 x 90 resolution (a highly recommended model on eevblog) $173 :


Only you can decide if you wish the higher resolution or better enhancement/contrast.
How much are you going to use it?

I recommend doing some research (eevblog linked above is a great place to start). Uni-T is one of the better Chinese brands.

Edit to make the eevblog link to the thermal camera section of their forum.
 
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