Cant believe I spent $9K on my latest camera!

EphTwoEight

But its so cool!



Heres some pics around the neighborhood in the dark of night.



How about this cactus? Why the heat in it? Crazy.







It was pitch black out there.



I could hear this dog...



Side of my house. In the middle are two closets, and usually cold. (Fence is in the way sorry)



My wifes feet. She has been complaining about her right foot.



And yes, it will detect breast cancer several years before it can become too late, and at least a year before a mammogram will detect anything. But thats not why I got it. I want to just further provide an added value to our HVAC company, and with our new insulation machine, it will be great.

ziggy53

Congratulations on the thermal imaging camera.

Yes, your wife should be concerned about that foot and circulation to that toe.

vintagemxr

As it happens thermography was my specialty before I retired. It's huge amounts of fun to walk around with a good IR camera an "see" the world from an IR standpoint. I wish I could have taken my FLIR system with me when I retired but the company had other plans for it, I guess.

I don't know what your background is in thermography (you may have tons of experience already) but I have quite a lot of experience in test and measurement techniques and image interpretation with FLIR cameras and software so feel free to PM if you have a question and I'll be happy to share what I know.

Doug

Seefutlung

$9K seems a lot for a camera ... does it have a flash? (joking) ... Seriously ... what a great tool and camera.

Gary

ian408

Those are pretty cool.

EphTwoEight

Thanks. It's amazing what I can find in a home or building that you just can't see.

EphTwoEight

Thanks Doug, I might have to. I am scheduled for a level 1 training class soon. Because there is things I'm looking and not sure what it is. And looking forward to learn how to read flat roofs and machine bearings and electrical too.

The guys at AC Tool Supply sell the different brands but recommend this new Fluke 32 over the Flir for some reason or another. He said with the features of this new Fluke, it would of been a $20k camera 6 months ago. ? I don't know, but it's sure cool.

EphTwoEight

Seefutlung wrote:

$9K seems a lot for a camera ... does it have a flash? (joking) ... Seriously ... what a great tool and camera.

Gary

funny thing is, it's like 1 megapixel I think. The older ones were a half or less.

And it must have an auto ISO cause the focus is much easier and pics are less noisy in the bright light.

ian408

One thing's for sure and that's the before and after shots for your customers

kingmamaof2

Wow! That is neat! Thanks for sharing.

vintagemxr

EphTwoEight wrote:

funny thing is, it's like 1 megapixel I think. The older ones were a half or less.

And it must have an auto ISO cause the focus is much easier and pics are less noisy in the bright light.

ISO isn't really part of the deal with thermocameras unless they also have a small digital camera built in too. Remember an IR camera is a heat measurement instrument, not a photographic (light measuring) instrument. The image you see is merely a representation of the heat sensor measurement points with a color being assigned to each temperature measured and the color varied based on the temp of the point within the selected scale. There is enough variation in the surface temperature of of almost any object that the 3D shape winds up being described in surprising detail by the temperature variations.

I think you'll find the Level 1 class interesting if it's anything like the FLIR course which is slanted very much towards building maintenance and predictive maintenance. My work was all in the area of vehicle R&D and heat movement through vehicles so I never learned about flat roofs and such after the Level 1 class. You'll discover that it's easy to make color thermograms but making and reading accurate ones is a bit more challenging. The mantra that FLIR beat into me was "Think thermally!" as opposed to thinking visually which is what photographers do.

Anyway, best of luck with your business. You may find some resistance by traditionalists to using IR for predictive maintenance but when you've got your command of the IR system down it's easy to make your case.

Doug

EphTwoEight

True, I am now thinking thermally. Just scanned a few more homes tonight, wow, especially after one just had more insulation blow in. They was missing so many spots in the ceiling. Walls were also full of cold air drafts too. Just crazy.

And yes the Fluke has the IR Fusion built in with a small digital camera. So even as Im capturing the images on the walk through, I can go back in the software, and do picture-in-picture with the digital image and the thermal image in the center. Course I like the laser pointer in the Flir.

I do want to offer predictive maintenance on some big commercial buildings I already service. Hope to get a level 2 cert by summer.

mutti_wilson

We use the B40 at work http://www.flirb40.com/ along with moisture meters for finding water in damaged homes/buildings as part of our drying process. Pretty crazy technology and it's paid off multiple times over in the 6 months or so we've had it.

tijoseph

Awesome, come shoot my house. My heating bills are crazy!

EphTwoEight

OK, here are some house scans.

Here's my house, after I had an insulation company come and do their typical 'blow-n-go' job. This wasnt even the worst spot.



Water damage. Concealed with new paint.



My friends house, yes this is a finished basement, duct under drywall.



Same house,



We found 3 covered floor registers.



Missing insulation



More,



This is another friends house, just had it added onto, and this is what we found in the walls.







His front room downstairs, on an outside wall, and the garage wall. Not much insulation in the attic either.



Still waiting for my Ti32 to come in, it takes 320x240 images. I have a loaner right now, Ti25 shoots 120x120

vintagemxr

Good stuff and a great example of how the thermocamera sees what nothing short of x-ray or physical exam could find. When I got my first thermocamera in 2002 the first thing I did was drag it home and go over all the rooms in my house. No big problems but it was really useful just to see where the window headers, studs, etc. were placed and to reassure myself that the builder didn't short the insulation.

For what it's worth, here's a 2006 image from one of my projects:



Notice how the "cold spots" are really bright metal reflecting the cold sky. The metal itself was probably 100°F but because of the low emissivity it reflects the background temp.

Doug

dangin

so cool! i want one now! wife would probably kill me though.

EphTwoEight

Dang, is that your car!?

Yes, I need to learn and remember the emissivity stuff.

vintagemxr

EphTwoEight wrote:

Dang, is that your car!?

Yes, I need to learn and remember the emissivity stuff.

Nope, not mine. I did some heat measurement work on it for Bugatti in 2006. Before I retired I was an engineering specialist and thermalcamera stuff was my specialty. There's not much I miss about my job except playing with the thermocamera and getting to drive cars I could never afford.

Doug

EphTwoEight

Oh I bet, I would love to just have a seat in that car for a few minutes!

cr8ingwaves

this thread was a really interesting read. I think before and after shots when having any work done on your home would be a great selling point. Only if the contractors actually did a good job though..lol. Every home inspector should have this tool.

thanks for sharing.

my cousin is a Chiropractor and has been using thermal scans for a long time to detect impingments.

phillybikeboy

vintagemxr wrote:

For what it's worth, here's a 2006 image from one of my projects:



Notice how the "cold spots" are really bright metal reflecting the cold sky. The metal itself was probably 100°F but because of the low emissivity it reflects the background temp.

I thought all the heat in that thing came from the rear. At least the Veyron puts the cost of the camera in perspective,,,,there's expensive, and then there's EXPEN$IVE!

vintagemxr

phillybikeboy wrote:

I thought all the heat in that thing came from the rear. At least the Veyron puts the cost of the camera in perspective,,,,there's expensive, and then there's EXPEN$IVE!

Actually, the car was just sitting in the sun and not running. "Heat" in a thermal image is relative to the temperature range set in the camera. In the Veyron image the surface of the bonnet is hot relative to the fenders because of the several factors. If the car was running, the truly hot areas would be appear nearly white (depending on the color display palette chosen) while everything else would look blue (cold) even if they were 150°F. Set correctly and depending on the circumstances a thermocamera can make an ice cube look "hot" relative to it's surrounding.

"Expensive" is relative just like heat. For us ordinary folks the Veyron is stratospherically expensive but I know of people who have purchased three of them. If I sold all my camera gear and my motorcycle I wouldn't have enough to pay for a Veyron steering wheel. However, in the world I live in the camera gear and motorcycle are more useful plus I can afford them!

Doug

Bear Dale

Would that find termites in the walls?

EphTwoEight

Yep!
http://www.ecohomeinspectors.com/thermal01.php