Seek Thermal Compact - a thermal imager for a smartphone

Builders, fitters, electricians and electronics engineers often have to determine the temperature or heat leakage, this can be done using various thermometers and thermocouples, but in some cases it is either long, or inconvenient, or even impossible. Then a thermal imager comes to the rescue - a device for visual monitoring of the temperature of a body, object or structure.

On its body there is a screen on which information from the bolometric matrix is ​​displayed. The last analogue of the camera’s matrix, only working in the infrared range (wavelength above 740 nM). This allows you to "See" how much the body is heated. An interesting portable representative of such a device is Seek Thermal Compact.

Design solution

Often, thermal imagers resemble a pistol with a short “barrel” and a small screen located to the one who holds it, another analogy in appearance is the radar of traffic police officers. On this screen, a picture is displayed in which the temperature values ​​are displayed in colors from shades of blue to red, they reach white at the peaks, in addition to them there are also text-digital indicators.

In the case of Seek Thermal, the situation is different. In fact, this is a small prefix for a phone the size of a USB flash drive. It is inserted into the connector for charging and exchanging smartphone data, often micro-USB.

Seek Thermal Compact is a portable thermal imager for a smartphone, choosing which the user gets at his disposal a high-tech mobile device for use with iOS or Android.

This small and lightweight device simply connects to a smartphone with an application pre-installed on it, instantly turning the smartphone into a compact thermal imager that can not only detect infrared radiation from objects at a distance of up to 300 meters from you, but also allows you to take thermal photos and even video.

Appearance: a rectangular case with a round extension at one end, perpendicular to the connector is a plug for connections, so that the connected device is along the edge of the smartphone. In the circular extension is the camera eye. It contains the optical system and the diaphragm block.

The diaphragm is real and it clicks while working, adjusting to the working conditions to set the appropriate exposure.

The most expensive in Seek Thermal is a bolometer. This is the heart of the device, a matrix that converts radiation into electric current, while electronics and software process it.

Total: This device differs significantly from thermal imagers in that it is very compact and cannot work as a standalone device. It connects to an Android or iOS device.

Specifications and Functionality

The robust housing of the miniature thermal imager is made of a special magnesium alloy so that even in harsh operating conditions the device would not let its owner down.

Its chalcogenide lenses and VOx microbolometer are capable of receiving infrared radiation in the wavelength range from 7.2 to 13 microns, and the resolution of the infrared sensor of 32,000 thermal pixels will allow you to receive from a thermal imager Seek Thermal Compact a fairly comprehensive amount of data in the form of a color thermal image on the smartphone screen.

The viewing angle of the thermal imager is 36 degrees. These device parameters satisfy most traditional thermal imaging applications.

Table lamp with compact fluorescent lamp:

The measurement range is from -40 to 330 degrees Celsius. The main requirement for the phone is USB-OTG support. With this function, the smartphone can recognize connected USB devices, such as flash drives, keyboards, mice, and others.

Interesting feature:

During operation, problems may occur on Android devices, because the plug in the case is fixed, and on different models of smartphones the micro-USB connector is located in different ways. It may happen that your camera does not look at the subject, but at you, like a selfie camera.

 

Software part

The smartphone works with the thermal imager through a proprietary application that is freely available in both the Appstore and Google Play. The main four modes of operation in them:

• Normal (graphical display of the difference in colors in one of the selected palettes);

• Zone (displays the temperature in the center of the screen);

• High / low (display of points of maximum and low temperatures);

• Threshold value (it is displayed in gray below the selected temperature).

For a comfortable perception, there are 9 options for the color palette to choose from. The results will be recorded as you see on the screen, with all the temperature readings. It is worth noting that during measurements there is a small error of about 5 degrees, but this imperfection is inherent in most thermal imagers.

Gym Lighting:

Seek Thermal Compact in everyday life

The demand for these small appliances today is not at all surprising. After all, heat or its absence is everywhere around us: heat of heating systems, heating of dissimilar equipment, overheating of electrical wiring, cold of air conditioners and refrigerators, etc. Meanwhile, overheating or leakage of heat or even cold sometimes flies us a lot of money, and it’s better stop leakage, but it would be nice not to use an expensive device for this purpose.

So, a peculiar and useful addition for a smartphone comes to the rescue in the form of a Seek Thermal mobile thermal imager, for which the smartphone itself is responsible for processing and displaying temperature data, which is why it is not as expensive as a fully-made thermal imager.

Using a thermal imager, you can quickly detect the place of leakage of warm air in the country or at home, at a construction site or in a water supply system. Pipes with hot water hidden in the wall will give themselves out as thermal strips on the wall, and during the repair you will not damage them. A thermal imager is also useful when hunting - you can see the animal even in the dark.

Professionals of refrigeration systems and builders will appreciate the capabilities of the device - cold or heat leaks can be seen on the smartphone screen, and you do not have to carry a bulky thermal imager with you.

We list a few very specific possible applications for a mobile thermal imager for a Seek Thermal smartphone:

• At the construction site - applicable for detecting heat leaks at the facility (air, hot water, cold from the street, etc.).

• To check pipelines, detect leaking hot or cold water, freezing places, etc.

• In electrical engineering, electronics and electric power industry - local places of overheating will reflect the emergency state of equipment or wiring, help to identify places of poor-quality soldering in electronic units.

• In everyday life - it will help to measure the temperature of the stove, kettle, forehead, battery, air conditioner, etc. Only curiosity can limit the scope of the mobile thermal imager in everyday life.

• On the hunt - helps to see prey in the dark or behind bushes.

• As a very unusual and modern gift, the thermal imager for the Seek Thermal smartphone will be just the perfect solution, and not just for men.

To begin, let's look at household items at home. In the image below, you see how a lamp with fluorescent lamps radiates heat. According to the pyrometer, their temperature at the time of shooting reached about 32 degrees.

And here is the heating battery. So indiscriminately, you can diagnose how well it works. We see that the lower part is much colder, maybe it is clogged.

It looks like a cup of hot tea, the device showed 52 degrees:

Further, the electric kettle, with which this tea was heated, was about 68 degrees.

And the mobile phone charger is warming up:

And then you see a more practical application. This is how the corner of the office looks in college. It always freezes. Thanks to the picture, you can evaluate the heat loss of the cabinet and the place of their leak, for further warming. This will help to avoid additional costs during the repair.

Electricians and locksmiths often have to work with electric motors, take a look at how the coupling is heated on it. In this way, typical faults can be diagnosed. For example, when the bearings are warming up, and it is time to carry out an audit, replace or lubricate.

In addition, you can calculate the inter-turn short circuit without measuring the current, if it is sufficient to cause increased heating of one of the windings. In this case, you avoid injuries from rotating parts, since all measurements are carried out without contact with the measured surface.

In general, the thermal imager is widely used in electrical installations, for example, when one of the automatic machines is heated in the panel, it can be difficult to calculate which one, due to the dense arrangement, is transferred to neighboring devices.

Checking the terminal block in the distribution box showed that the contacts are slightly heated, but 25 degrees is very small, so they are in excellent condition and the wire itself holds the load perfectly.

Another example showed that Wago clamps work well under domestic loads.

In production, it will come in handy even more. It is not always possible to turn off the equipment or remove the transformer, but prevention requires pulling contacts on the tires. Using a thermal imager, we will determine whether a good contact. If the contact is good, it will not heat up and does not need to be crimped.

You can find many more applications, for example, current leakage in a cable due to insulation damage due to heating of a cable section or problematic transformers.

Construction application

Typically, the rooms are completely insulated, but it happens that there is no need to isolate the entire wall, firstly it is expensive, and secondly it will take some time. But to find out the place in the wall where the heat goes is quite difficult. The thermal imager in the cold season clearly demonstrates where the heat from your home disappears.

Here is the heat leak around the chimney:

And so the doors “breathe”:

Well, everyone’s “favorite” multi-storey panels have excellent ventilation at the joints of the plates:

If it seems to you that these are trifles, you should think that you pay for heating not for yourself, but to heat the street. I think immediately superfluous thoughts will disappear. Seek Thermal Compact, despite its size, it will help determine the place where the most heat goes and eliminate the leak.

Conclusion

In professional and even domestic applications, the cost of purchasing this device will pay off very quickly, since in principle it can be carried with you everywhere, because who knows where it will be useful.