Thermal imaging is no longer limited to RoboCop, Predator and modern-day warriors. Intercomp now offers a hand-held thermal imager. The device features a 2.4-inch screen plus storage space for 25,000 images.
Intercomp
intercompracing.com
(800) 328-3336
MSRP: $369.99
I'm not entirely sure how often I'd find a need to use it, but that seems awesome
Isn't there devices that plugin to your phone now also?
So it's not mounted on the tip of a car-to-car missile?...
Jaynen said:Isn't there devices that plugin to your phone now also?
yep, called flir one. Much cheaper ($200), and been around for 3-4 years at least.
https://www.amazon.com/FLIR-Thermal-Imaging-Camera-Android/dp/B071NZRJD6/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1526931947&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=flir+one&psc=1
That's the 3rd gen.
Nice nice nice.
Arduino or Rasberry Pi or somebody like that now has a $40 board with a 16x16 (or something in there) IR sensor array and a cable to connect it to the Arduino or Pi or whichever microprocessor board on a fast bus. AND a coding template to support displaying the output as a color-coded heat map on a video screen. And I'm pretty sure the microprocessor board can record the data.
This has me excited about the possibilities of a DIY on-track real-time tire surface temp recorder for less than the cost of a single corner balance session at the race shop. Unfortunately, the obligations of my daily life keep interfering with my time to explore my hobbies, so it's just a vague notion for now.
That is substantially better priced than the one I saw from Snap On, little surprise. Wonder how sensitive it is? Snap On guy told me that he used it to identify that the windows in his house were in dire need of better caulking. Seemed like a neat use of the thing. I couldn't justify their price, though this Intercomp unit... maybe.
Truly, I just wanna see if my ducting and airbox ideas are working. The ducting seems to do well, but the air box is quite warm, likely due to the compressor outlet pipe running right through it. Perhaps I should redesign that this summer...
Yeah, totally cool (/pun) to have actual temp imaging.
This unit, like the units sold as add-ons for smart phones, have far lower numbers of pixels than the phone's camera. $400 gets you typically 160x120px IR, vs. your phone's visible light sensor being literally 20x sharper in each direction, but they cleverly overlay the pictures over phone cam picture so that you can see what you were thermally looking at. Which is generally good enough! Or it was for the Predator. And why does everyone forget that the effect was used way earlier in Wolfen?
If you need better resolution, just get closer to the thing you were measuring. And up to 575F is enough for most situations. 160F is too hot for autocross tires to be happy, and hotter than you can lay your hand on a piece of metal unless you have welder's callouses. Oh, and JBasham, a couple of Harbor Freight $25 infrared thermometers for your inside/outside tire edges is probably WAY easier to implement than one of these things.
Thanks, we tried the HF IR thermometers for real-time on-track temp recording. But the hamsters we trained to sit by the displays and jot down the heat readings in real-time kept getting bounced loose from the lower control arms in the brake zones, and liquefied by the rear wheels. It's a drag, because the little Nomex suits cost us a fortune to get custom made, and we're paying lifetime disability benefits to their 866 children.
Hopefully someone appreciated the Rush reference.
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