Free Open Source Thermal Imaging Software

[G20]

I don't know if this is the most appropriate forum for this. Feel free to move to the more appropriate forum if needed.

FWIW, there has been a rash of ChiCom thermal cameras flooding the market that all appear to use the same core. Vendors use different color/shaped housings (possibly a different lens) and then sell them under different brand names and prices.

The camera runs at 25FPS and has a resolution of 2 sub-frames @ 256x192 pixels each. Software scaling with interpolation is provided by the application to give a more readable image. The images below are using 4X, 6X, 5X and 4X scale respectively.

Here is the free Open Source software app that provides much more functionality over that of the OEM supplied software. It runs on Linux, preferably Debian variants and recent RaspPi distros. It requires NO privileges unlike the OEM smart phone apps and the source is free to inspect/modify as desired to verify there is no nefarious code.

Thermal Camera Redux

I am using it with a Topdon TC001 (made for Android devices that I bought on sale) on various electronics projects and home thermal audits to find problem areas.

It maybe helpful to identify/fix/document issues with solar installations, service panels etc.

The github link gives a list of features including an offline post processing mode which allows you to analyze thermal snapshots on a PC with a larger display using any of the applications filters, colormaps, interpolation, etc. as if you were on the job site recreating the same thermal conditions at the time of the audit.

It has found many issues in my house and I wish I had it before I bought any property. Using the proper filters, it can see framing behind drywall, nail and screw heads under plaster, HVAC leaks in walls and ceilings, etc.

It has user selectable temp locations, scrolling horizontal and vertical plotting rulers (horizontal ruler displayed in the picts).

Each frame contains just under 50,000 discrete temps (256x192). Horizontal rulers plot 256 temps and vertical rulers plot 192 temps in landscape mode. Swap those for portrait mode. It provides much more information than an IR temperature gun. I was able to use it to adjust the fan-out of my supply registers to get a more even air supply distribution within my rooms. Couldn't do that with an IR gun, or not very efficiently.

Hopefully, this can be of some help to someone to verify the condition of their solar installs. Can't beat it for the price.




Before / After insulation repair resulting in 5 degree cooler temps:




Example of User Defined temp locations so you can tell when your coffee is getting too cold:

 

[BartonB]

Great info, thanks!

 

[profesor79]

Honestly for me images from my camera are good as they are.
The tooling need some user friendly interface and then it will be more usable (now it is in "for nerds state").
Below we can easily see that the screw connector is screwed up :D

 

[HRTKD]

I have a Flir One Pro that I recently started using. The Flir app is OK, but that coffee cup image is very interesting.

I don't run any recent Linux O/S here at home, so I don't see me trying out the Thermal Camera Redux software.

 

[G20]

...
The tooling need some user friendly interface and then it will be more usable (now it is in "for nerds state").
...

Can you elaborate on your comment ?

If you are referring about the Redux app, it starts in default basic display mode that shows:

- center of screen temp (like most any other app)
- min temp location on screen (like your app, but shows the location + temp)
- max temp on the screen screen (like your app, but shows the location + temp)
- average temp for all 49,152 temps on the screen
- graduated color gradient widget (showing min, max, average and center temp)

That pretty much gives you all the basic information with or without having to center the camera over your single point of interest by just starting the app. No other settings required.

The other modes cover multiple points of interest (multiple user defined individual points or horizontal and/or vertical lines of temps across the screen).

It also has optional OSD key/mouse bindings menu.

TIA

Basic startup mode (Center, Min, Max, Screen Average):

 

[G20]

I have a Flir One Pro that I recently started using. The Flir app is OK, but that coffee cup image is very interesting.

...

I don't think the app would work with the FLIR One Pro.

The webpage indicates the FLIR has 19,200 pixels (160x120) vs 49,152 pixels (256x192), thus the frame buffers are not the same.

The specs also say it has a "visual resolution" of 1440x1080 which indicates there is probably 9X scaling going on from the 160x120 thermal resolution.

FWIW, for the coffee cup view, just start the app and start clicking where you want to see temps displayed. Doesn't get much easier than that.

...

I don't run any recent Linux O/S here at home, so I don't see me trying out the Thermal Camera Redux software.

Linux is CrowdStrike/Microsoft safe (no BSOD).

 

[HRTKD]

Linux is CrowdStrike/Microsoft safe (no BSOD).

Didn't say I'm unfamiliar with Linux. Started out as a SCO Unix admin many years ago and have to deal with Linux at work because my database software runs on it.

 

[G20]

Didn't say I'm unfamiliar with Linux. Started out as a SCO Unix admin many years ago and have to deal with Linux at work because my database software runs on it.

Sorry, the comment was a poke at the ubiquitous virus distribution vector and one of the greatest IT debacles to date. Not a comment on if you were familiar with Linux or not.

Also started out with numerous Unix variants (workstations, mainframes and super computers) / QNX (PCs) in the early/mid 80's. Then Linux (embedded systems, consumer electronic devices, broadcasting and PCs) ever since (with a few RTOS's thrown in for good measure).

[U/Li]nix for engineering, Microsoft for office. Now, Linux for both. Got rid of the telemetry machines.

 

[profesor79]

Can you elaborate on your comment ?

If you are referring about the Redux app, it starts in default basic display mode that shows:

sure, looks like I did not put the focus on a proper item which is installation, no package, no flatpack no docker.
nowadays a Linux user != nerd that complies every prog it uses.

 

[HRTKD]

sure, looks like I did not put the focus on a proper item which is installation, no package, no flatpack no docker.
nowadays a Linux user != nerd that complies every prog it uses.

I would probably be classified as one of those users now. My github account expired quite a while ago.

 

[G20]

sure, looks like I did not put the focus on a proper item which is installation, no package, no flatpack no docker.
nowadays a Linux user != nerd that complies every prog it uses.

So you are looking for a pre-compiled binary.

Thanks for the clarification.

The main reason it is not supplied as a pre-compiled binary is to ensure people there is no nefarious code in the binary. Open source, so people are free/encouraged to inspect the code before installing something from an unknown source pulled from the web.

The ChiCom OEM apps are at the other extreme. They are pre-built, closed source, no inspections, want to run on smart phones and want privileges to access areas of the smart phone that they have no technical requirements to have access to. Not to mention the EULA making the actions "legal". Many of these camera users have complained about the obvious security concerns (where their personal and financial information is kept).

Also, the build script optimizes the resulting binary to your specific native hardware/chipset since it is a realtime application @ 25FPS and scales functionality up or down accordingly. Binaries built for one set of chip optimizations will crash on a machines that don't have those hardware optimizations.

Providing a prebuilt would then imply supplying/maintaining numerous versions or a generic binary with no hardware accelerations. Generic languages such as Python are too slow to run the functionality in realtime. The frame rate and response time would drop significantly.

Downloading and building requires 1 command to download the source, 1 command to download the requisite libraries, 1 command to run the build script. Pretty straight forward.

No accounts/logins are required to pull source from Github.

 

[profesor79]

Downloading and building requires 1 command to download the source, 1 command to download the requisite libraries, 1 command to run the build script. Pretty straight forward.

haha -> this is your problem here.
I am over 20 years in IT, running my first RedHat in 1997, I tell you, most folks are not as experienced as you think.
Just a quick questions: which command?, what if it will give an error response? So having a nice software is a first thing, but enable users to enjoy it is more important in my opinion. Creating a flatpac is as easy as putting all files in one directory and pack it, same with a docker container.
Someone want to have not only academic users - then in requires some more effort on the development and deployment process.

As i said - having/using Linux is not equal to being a nerd nowadays.

 

[G20]

...
Just a quick questions: which command?, ...

That is documented in the Github page, but to summarize here:

git clone https://github.com/92es/Thermal-Camera-Redux.git
sudo apt update && sudo apt install libopencv-dev
./build_redux_rpi

For the rest, see the security concerns again.

Also, I would argue that today's computer savy population (with PCs being ubiquitous in homes and schools for decades, internet queries, voice queries, etc.) isn't as helpless as you imply. The days of requiring a corporate librarian to conduct a document search is long gone. I remember when our division secretary was laid off in 87 because employees could actually type for themselves.

Lazy, maybe, but not helpless.

And this being a DIY forum.

 

[profesor79]

That is documented in the Github page, but to summarize here:

git clone https://github.com/92es/Thermal-Camera-Redux.git
sudo apt update && sudo apt install libopencv-dev
./build_redux_rpi

For the rest, see the security concerns again.

Also, I would argue that today's computer savy population (with PCs being ubiquitous in homes and schools for decades, internet queries, voice queries, etc.) isn't as helpless as you imply. The days of requiring a corporate librarian to conduct a document search is long gone. I remember when our division secretary was laid off in 87 because employees could actually type for themselves.

Lazy, maybe, but not helpless.

And this being a DIY forum.

This is my last comment: not all peoples are skilled as you - so there will be always a entry level barrier for most of us. What is today easy for you - it is "a magic" for many of other guys - and here you have an software architect world, that wrote his first program in around 1995/6.
DIY is a magic word that has a different meaning upon a context. Here we do wires, breakers, sparks and fires , so software is a bit off for this forum, but a bunch of us committed some arduino, yaml and other small stuff that is explained in many ways, so even (sorry for that) a monkey can follow.

Have a good day (and if you have some time for DIY build a flatpack so others can benefit from that)

 

[G20]

This is my last comment: not all peoples are skilled as you - so there will be always a entry level barrier for most of us. What is today easy for you - it is "a magic" for many of other guys - and here you have an software architect world, that wrote his first program in around 1995/6.
DIY is a magic word that has a different meaning upon a context. Here we do wires, breakers, sparks and fires , so software is a bit off for this forum, but a bunch of us committed some arduino, yaml and other small stuff that is explained in many ways, so even (sorry for that) a monkey can follow.

Have a good day (and if you have some time for DIY build a flatpack so others can benefit from that)

I hear what you are saying, but again, I argue, even sparkies, EE's, juveniles and adults understand how to read instructions and cut-n-paste.

Don't belittle people's ability, they are smarter than that. They can always read and ask questions like any other DIY project. Even Github provisions for those exchanges.

As a child, I always asked my mother how to spell words (when spell checkers were human). Her canned response, "LOOK IT UP". No Seri, no Alexa, no search engines, just a huge hard copy of Webster's. She taught me DIY before DIY was a thing.

Look at the role model set by the owner of this forum.

Every one on this board figured out how to post to it without a flat pack to cut-n-paste 3 lines or use the quoting feature.

Every time they buy a new all in one, separate or meter, they have to read the manual and learn yet another user interface to program the unit.

In short, people are smart, but as you imply, some times lazy. Not only expecting free stuff, but expecting someone else to do it for them instead of learning something for themselves.

FWIW, I never knew that video library existed. I never touched a thermal camera before. I never knew about the various filters in that application. I never worked with their video formats before or their GUI API. I have still yet to touch a RaspPi, but yet it was written over year end and all of that exists because of DIY, RTFM and contributors working together to test on their specific hardware environments on both sides of the pond.

So yes, there has been a lot done in DIY for others to benifit from for free (no tin donation cups). It is more feature rich than any other OEM thermal camera app I have seen to date and verifiably contains no telemetry, viruses nor malware for anyone who is truly interested.

Good day to you too sir.

 

[Ohms_Cousin]

Is the T2Pro compatible with the software, "Thermal Camera Redux" ?

Advantage of T2Pro is that it reads temps up to 550c