Using Flir android thermal camera to track down short
So I have an MCR board set which roasted the inductor on the +12v rail. Swapped the inductor for a fuse holder temporarily, instantly popped a .5A fuse, and then a 1A fuse. Pulled the sound board off the set (only thing that actually uses the +12). Hooked it up to my bench supply which can do constant current or constant voltage. Set it the voltage at 12 and dialed the current down to 0. Started turning up the current while watching the board with my phone using a FLIR One Pro camera attachment. The voltage stayed < 1v as the CC was kicking in. At .5A I could start to see the +12v and Analog ground traces light up. And one cap in particular was showing. Brought it up to 1A and that cap was definitely glowing. But not even warm to the touch. CP20 a 10MF 25V Axial Tantalum cap. Turned off the power supply and cut the cap leg. Turned on power supply and current was negligible and voltage was at 12V. Total time to find it, 15 minutes and most of that was setup. I had tried using the HP current tracer on this board but wasn’t getting very good feedback and after an hour or so I gave up with it. This camera is kind of expensive ($300 on amazon). And I was skeptical about how effective it would be. I was AMAZED at how well it was showing the current path through the traces at even a low current level. And you can use the software to take pictures & video of the work for later review. I had borrowed this unit from someone at work and was talking to the wife (aka the finance committee) about this and showed her the pictures. Then mentioned there was a $200 non pro unit and a $300 pro unit (which I was using). She said “Spend the extra $100, it’s a tool not a toy”. I knew I married the right woman 😊 David _______________________________________________ Techtoolslist mailing list Techtoolslist@flippers.com https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/techtoolslist FTP site is: ftp://ttl.arcadetech.org/TTL/Test_Equipment Archive site: http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/techtoolslist/
Standard procedure since the '80's except the camera. Used an AgA Thermovision 750 with it's inconvenient loose liquid nitrogen. On 9/9/2019 7:02 PM, davids@oz.net wrote:
So I have an MCR board set which roasted the inductor on the +12v rail.
- - snip - -
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On 2019/09/10 2:59 a.m., Dave Riddle (Technical Dept.) wrote:
Standard procedure since the '80's except the camera. Used an AgA Thermovision 750 with it's inconvenient loose liquid nitrogen.
On 9/9/2019 7:02 PM, davids@oz.net wrote:
So I have an MCR board set which roasted the inductor on the +12v rail.
- - snip - -
A friend has lent me a dedicated Flir camera and I thought it would be great for doing exactly the above. The problem is it is an older one that takes up to five minutes to stabilize and by then I've usually found the problem...
It was nice trying it on an Atari pinball MPU that some idiot had plugged in the solenoid connector to the switch jack. The fifteen or so blown ICs stood out easily against the background! What is interesting is that a number of digital cameras will work in the IR range, so I've thought of getting a visible light filter whenever I again order some lens from Edmonds to play with some of my cameras to see how far they actually see. I have used camera phones for checking IR diodes (including laser diodes on CD players) and the older iPhones worked for that - which was handy for troubleshooting trough optos. John ;-#)# -- How to subscribe or unsubscribe from TTL http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/techtoolslist _______________________________________________ Techtoolslist mailing list Techtoolslist@flippers.com https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/techtoolslist FTP site is: ftp://ttl.arcadetech.org/TTL/Test_Equipment Archive site: http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/techtoolslist/
Had a couple of nice Flukes at my last job. Made quick work of a lot of troubleshooting - both for work and also to borrow to use on game boards. They were also popular as it started getting cold outside for people to borrow over the weekend to see where they needed to insulate :) When our site was closing those were among the things from the lab that other sites were fighting over. For those of us without a big lab budget anymore (and even on ebay used Fluke imagers cost a fortune) what are people using that they like? And also any "stay away from" units? There are a few Android imagers out there (DavidS mentioned the FLIR One Pro).. On 9/10/19 8:58 AM, John Robertson wrote:
On 2019/09/10 2:59 a.m., Dave Riddle (Technical Dept.) wrote:
Standard procedure since the '80's except the camera. Used an AgA Thermovision 750 with it's inconvenient loose liquid nitrogen.
On 9/9/2019 7:02 PM, davids@oz.net wrote:
So I have an MCR board set which roasted the inductor on the +12v rail.
- - snip - -
A friend has lent me a dedicated Flir camera and I thought it would be great for doing exactly the above. The problem is it is an older one that takes up to five minutes to stabilize and by then I've usually found the problem...
It was nice trying it on an Atari pinball MPU that some idiot had plugged in the solenoid connector to the switch jack. The fifteen or so blown ICs stood out easily against the background!
What is interesting is that a number of digital cameras will work in the IR range, so I've thought of getting a visible light filter whenever I again order some lens from Edmonds to play with some of my cameras to see how far they actually see. I have used camera phones for checking IR diodes (including laser diodes on CD players) and the older iPhones worked for that - which was handy for troubleshooting trough optos.
John ;-#)#
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On 9/10/19 11:21 AM, Kurt Mahan wrote:
Had a couple of nice Flukes at my last job. Made quick work of a lot of troubleshooting - both for work and also to borrow to use on game boards. They were also popular as it started getting cold outside for people to borrow over the weekend to see where they needed to insulate :) When our site was closing those were among the things from the lab that other sites were fighting over.
For those of us without a big lab budget anymore (and even on ebay used Fluke imagers cost a fortune) what are people using that they like? And also any "stay away from" units?
There are a few Android imagers out there (DavidS mentioned the FLIR One Pro)..
I have a Seek Thermal Compact, which is fairly cheap at $239 (Amazon), and I use it to great effect in the lab on my Galaxy S5 Android phone. It came with a really nice and very small hard case, so I ended up carrying it in my pocket everywhere. We have three large commercial buildings with lots and lots of older fluorescent light fixtures, so this came in very handy for locating ballasts that were starting to fry. Then I upgraded to a Galaxy S9, and it doesn't work with that model, despite supporting all of the relevant protocols. A lot of people, myself included, were quite pissed off about that and the Seek people have been pretty quiet about it. Other than that, it's a high-quality device and I like it quite a lot. So my old Galaxy S5, which still works great but has no phone service attached to it, lives in my lab to support the imager, and I no longer carry the imager around with me because I'm not going to also carry the S5 just to support it. This was a bit disappointing. There is some very basic software for Linux that works with this imager, which comes in handy sometimes. -Dave -- Dave McGuire McGuire Scientific Services, LLC New Kensington, PA _______________________________________________ Techtoolslist mailing list Techtoolslist@flippers.com https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/techtoolslist FTP site is: ftp://ttl.arcadetech.org/TTL/Test_Equipment Archive site: http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/techtoolslist/
On 9/10/19 10:58 AM, John Robertson wrote:
What is interesting is that a number of digital cameras will work in the IR range, so I've thought of getting a visible light filter whenever I again order some lens from Edmonds to play with some of my cameras to see how far they actually see. I have used camera phones for checking IR diodes (including laser diodes on CD players) and the older iPhones worked for that - which was handy for troubleshooting trough optos.
While CMOS and CCD imagers can be very handy for visualizing the near-IR output from IR LEDs, LASERs, and such (750-900nm or so), this approach won't get you very far for thermal imaging. The IR response of CMOS and CCD imagers doesn't extend up into the thermal IR wavelength range. The "infrared" spectrum is a broad segment of the EM spectrum, 750nm to 1mm wavelength. This is particularly broad, especially when compared to the width of the human visual spectrum, which ranges from ~375nm to ~740nm for most people. Most consumer-grade Si CMOS and CCD imagers have useful unfiltered response up to about 1050-1100nm (1.05um-1.1um) or so. The type of IR radiation that's useful for passive thermal imaging consists of significantly longer wavelengths, from ~6um to ~15um...starting at ~6x the wavelength at which typical silicon junction photosensitivity drops off. Due to CMOS/CCD sensors' lack of sensitivity in this region, thermal imagers are usually implemented using a 2D array of thermopiles, essentially tiny stacks of thermocouples, one per pixel, with solid germanium optics. -Dave -- Dave McGuire McGuire Scientific Services, LLC New Kensington, PA _______________________________________________ Techtoolslist mailing list Techtoolslist@flippers.com https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/techtoolslist FTP site is: ftp://ttl.arcadetech.org/TTL/Test_Equipment Archive site: http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/techtoolslist/
On 2019/09/10 9:44 a.m., Dave McGuire wrote:
On 9/10/19 10:58 AM, John Robertson wrote:
What is interesting is that a number of digital cameras will work in the IR range, so I've thought of getting a visible light filter whenever I again order some lens from Edmonds to play with some of my cameras to see how far they actually see. I have used camera phones for checking IR diodes (including laser diodes on CD players) and the older iPhones worked for that - which was handy for troubleshooting trough optos. While CMOS and CCD imagers can be very handy for visualizing the near-IR output from IR LEDs, LASERs, and such (750-900nm or so), this approach won't get you very far for thermal imaging. The IR response of CMOS and CCD imagers doesn't extend up into the thermal IR wavelength range. <snip>
Due to CMOS/CCD sensors' lack of sensitivity in this region, thermal imagers are usually implemented using a 2D array of thermopiles, essentially tiny stacks of thermocouples, one per pixel, with solid germanium optics.
-Dave
Thanks Dave! -- How to subscribe or unsubscribe from TTL http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/techtoolslist _______________________________________________ Techtoolslist mailing list Techtoolslist@flippers.com https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/techtoolslist FTP site is: ftp://ttl.arcadetech.org/TTL/Test_Equipment Archive site: http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/techtoolslist/
participants (5)
-
Dave McGuire -
Dave Riddle (Technical Dept.) -
davids＠oz.net -
John Robertson -
Kurt Mahan