Thermal Imaging with the FLiR Lepton 3.5
Like a lot of people I always wanted a thermal imaging camera. I occasionally have use for one to monitor heat generation in something I've designed, and they are useful for myriad of other applications as well. After borrowing a friend's unit repeatedly, I decided to design my own, aided by the availability of the FLiR Lepton 3.5 from groupgets.com. Over the course of a couple of years I made several different cameras as I learned how to reliability get data from the module. I started with a Teensy 3.2 based camera and was able to get an about 4 frames per second using a single SPI bus for both the camera and display. I played with the Raspberry Pi and found it difficult for a user-space process to reliably keep synced to the camera. That interested me in using the PRUs inside a Beaglebone Black and later a Pocketbeagle to create a video pipeline to offload the real-time chore from the main CPU. I was successful and built my own camera that remains a work in progress.
I documented my experience on hackaday.io.
My code and designs can be found on github.
The video pipeline running on the PRUs is the most interesting contribution. It users the linux remoteproc facility and requires only a few percent of main CPU time to keep a full 9 fps display running.
I documented my experience on hackaday.io.
My code and designs can be found on github.
The video pipeline running on the PRUs is the most interesting contribution. It users the linux remoteproc facility and requires only a few percent of main CPU time to keep a full 9 fps display running.
Teensy Cam
Three stacked shields and a battery
This version displays the temperature at a point in the image
The Teensy platform is great for experimenting with various Lepton features. Here showing the capability of its AGC function to generate better imagery.
Beaglebone Black and Pocketbeagle
Beaglebone Black Platform
Early experiment with an application displaying data on a 7" touch screen. The screen is too large and power hungry for a portable camera.
Pocketbeagle camera using a modified version of my Solar Pi Platter for power management and IO expansion.
3D printed enclosure
FireCAM
FireCAM is a design done for the U.S. Forest service Southern Research Station and released as open-source hardware and software. It is a time-lapse camera recording both visual and radiometric thermal images for later analysis. It has both a local touchscreen control panel and the ability to be controlled remotely via its WiFi interface.
