A look inside a non contact infrared thermometer.
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- Опубліковано 13 сер 2016
- This was a dead unit, so after a quick check to see if repair was viable I took it to bits.
If you enjoy this channel you can help support it with a dollar for coffee, cookies and gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm - Наука та технологія
When I was a kid I used to take random things apart for no reason other than to see what makes it work. That must be why I like these videos so much, living vicariously through the youtube.
I was the same way, but with these videos I no longer have to.
Never was too good at putting the things back together...
Same here, but never stop...
Me too also :)
@@weylin6 lol! always extra parts! even as we age and get good at putting them back together thru reverse engineering practices we likely will, at least, have two or so extra screws. final thought? think of how much money can be saved on a mass sales of units by excluding unnecessary or overly designed goods? LOL!!!
@@777fiddlekrazy VERY good observation Steve! Yup, from an early age on up to middle 60s, I always LOVED taking things apart too; radios, mechanical/ electrical-tools, lawn-mowers, lights, et al, BUT! My very 1st "take-apart" project was an old wind-up alarm clock (that ran only intermittently at best) that my parents gave me in the early 1960s. Yes, I got it apart, studied the "internals" for a little while, and then managed to successfully re-assemble completely. Well? It ran quite consistently for..... about 2 weeks as I remember? And yes, I always made sure to WIND very CAREFULLY every morning at approx same hour. And then.... it began running intermittently once more! Since I never (and very rarely do even to this day) toss out even broken-stuff, I had this old clock for a number of years - one day a few years after, it just "kinda" disappeared! Ya, I'm absolutely SURE it was my Mom's doing! But, early on I got smart and started the practice of "hiding" a lot of my take-apart projects from my parents, PARTICULARLY my MOM!
Hey Clive, just to say I have no idea about electronics, but I love your channel and you seem like a really cool guy. These work vids are a super insight into your day. thanks for posting them.
I don't know much about electronics but you're voice is very soothing and your videos relax me.
They're also educational.
I watched a few of your videos, they are always very good. Thanks for doing what it is you are doing!
Dedication! Even spitting out video's when at work ;) Keep up the good work!
Thanks for doing this one; I kept meaning to buy one of these and hope that I could find the stream between the sensor and LCD in the hope of wiring it upto a PC, but it all seems to be in one so there doesn't seem much point.
tip for others
to check for hidden screw holes under labels use ur thumb nail run it across the label ull see a hole out line if there is
tbh I could listen to your voice for hours
I got one of these for £6.11 but it uses 2x AAA batteries. it seems pretty accurate too
Have the same one since years, no issues so far.
Perhaps someone tried to shove in the battery with wrong polarity and that killed it.
Thank you 👍👍👍👍
thankyou brother. this video helped me alot. my device is working fine now 😀🙏
Hi Clive, There's a bunch of these on ebay that range from 330 deg C max to 1300 deg C. According to your knowledge, any reason they're different? Is the sensor cheaper on the 330 deg C? Or are they the same and just priced accordingly?
I guess Fanny Flambeaux fluffed one too many times and fried it.
lol
Save that laser diode, Clive! :D Before they're banned, because the media et al believes 5mw lasers can dazzle airline pilots flying a mile up.
The risk (though small) would be blinding the pilot during takeoff or landing
Im just sitting here with my custom 12 watt handheld dpss laser and as long as it is focused properly, it isnt dangerous at a distance of 100m or more. The little chinese 5mw modules are never really 5mw, more like 2 and their optics are not gonna be focused anywhere near good. Its not dangerous from a distance. A proper flashlight would certainly be the bigger threat.
Just bear in mind when you're demonstrating your point, that it won't be the media who'll be knocking on your door asking for an explanation.
Im just sitting outside on my phone watching youtube and pointing two 301 green lasers at the sky :P
The other check I would have done is to test the trigger switch before writing it off.
I tested various things including the switch before it ended up in the bin. The owner already has a proper thermal imaging camera, so it was no great loss.
I thought you would have. The comment was mainly for other viewers. :)
+bigclivedotcom I recently got one for 10 Euros from AliExpress but I'm not sure if its accurate (even on dark nonshiny surfaces) cause what to compare it with :)
John Coops thanks I had done that already but I held it towards the water surface in an open pan when it was boiling. It measured ardound 95 Celsius. I don't have a black pan/kettle but I will try point at the aluminium pan instead.
Shiny surfaces can cause faulty readings
Thanks for the video bigclive! At 3:40, you commented on a metal piece where the IR sensor fits into. Do you know why they would make that cylinder out of expensive and dense metal instead of plastic??
They do make i2c IR thermopiles, but like you said this one just puts out a voltage. but they usually dont have a amplifier built in unless they are i2c. Those that aren't i2c will require an external amplifier with a very high gain.
Did you lick the 9V battery to make sure it works?
I would have at least also measured the voltage after the voltage regulator and checked the trigger switch, like George Applegate already suggested.
There's some porn star with Applegate surmame. Coincidence? I think not! xd
I found one of these in the middle of a parking lot, handy for measuring my VRM's temps on my motherboard of my PC. If you still have the main board, try exposing the bare silicon under that black blob!
Hey Clive, did you try that main micro switch button? Somebody down here mentioned it. According to my experiences with those mass-produced things, there is 70% chance, that it is switch. Of course, just in case, when it cant be woken up with other switches on the back (I have to try mine).
cool I've got one like that its cool to play with
I just bought the exact same guy on Amazon. so far it's working really well.
+Andrew Ballard Things are weird on the isle of man
Cool, I bought Donald Trump for $20000000 on Amazon yesterday, not sure if it was a Chinese ripoff though, or even a mexican ripoff.
+Ralakus check the hair. on the Chinese ones it comes off really easily.
Kenny Downs Still waiting it to arrive, I read the reviews and they seemed normal, nothing about the hair, but I heard something about, it blocking things like a wall, and a strong hate against immigrants.
+Ralakus sounds like the real deal to me.
just a little point, these give the temperature of an area whose size is proportional to the distance from the surface. they do not give the temperature of the point where the laser is pointed. thus you should get as close as possible to the item you need the temp of.
I was thinking that. Surely the laser would be wayyy off being situated to high.
+Prehistoricman not that but it's a common misconception that the laser marks the point of temperature readout. it doesn't. it marks roughly the centre of it. the diagram on the side of the device shows what I mean.
These things are only any good for getting a rough indication of temperature, anyway. The value displayed will depend heavily upon the target surface's emissivity (ie how much IR radiation is emitted relative to its actual thermal energy). The notional value displayed is for a perfect black body (ie magical physics land of spherical cows, no friction and no air resistance), but in practice I believe that most of these devices will be calibrated against a sort-of mid-range-emissivity surface, so that they stand at least some chance of being accurate. But still, it has every chance of being way off, too :)
I imagine one way to fix that is to place some lens in front of the laser so that the beam would expand to represent the area (more or less) it is measuring. By the way, the emissivity value can be set with the buttons.
I'm a bit surprised the thermistor was stuck on the plastic casing instead of the metal? bit surrounding the sensor. I wonder whether that was part of the design or whether it was flubbed during assembly... I was under the impression that the whole point of the metal bit surrounding the sensor was to conduct heat away for cooling & more accurate temperature compensation.
Maybe TO-39 is a common package for these types of sensors, but when you pulled it out it reminded me of the MLX90614.
Could you tell more about the display module? What is part number and any datasheet?
I'd be curious to see what kind of response the sensor puts out. Could you rig it up to a scope perhaps?
I took a look at some TI documentation and it says that the sensr has 4 pins: 2 for the thermocouple to measure the temperature delta and 2 for a thermistor to measure the overall temperature of the sensor.
I would have checked the trigger switch. I have seen a lot of those go bad in other devices.
Clive did you not see the two damaged wires going to the laser module?
Nice video , have you ever taken a vape mod apart ? They seem like they could be a bit "explodey" .
I'd rob that sensor and the laser from it, in the style of The Borg. Adding its distinctiveness to my own.
Did you test the switch to see if it works?
the trigger switches are the first things to go on these about 95% of the time. generally not worth fixing unless you happen to have spares.
Was the switch ok? They sometimes fail as well... just a thought.
Did you check the solders on the tact switch?
see you found the voltage regulator, so what comes in and what comes out of it?
Maybe it was blown by somebody putting the battery the wrong way around, well, should have some diode ...
Snap, got exactly the same one, just my one actually still works.
you could have tried to measure output of that linear regulator, they often fail first when they have reverse polarity on them.
I would have checked the zebra strip / glorified conductive scotch tape to the LCD too. It's of course possible that it is the epoxy blob that failed indeed, but in my experience, tucked away in their enclosures these things are right up there with cockroaches in indestructibility. It's almost always the mechanical parts that fail in this sort of thing that cannot be externally overloaded (unless they did indeed skimp on that diode and someone tried the battery in reverse...)
I am super curious about the header pins on the bottom.... Anyone have any clue about that?
May please u help me to give hint for calibration, I have one (model: yk-irt2 ) it is showing around half of the real temperature, there is nothing mention in the manual for calibration, I open it, the sensor is three wire and seems connected directly to M.processor, on PCB there is and EPROM, and a place for 8pin IC may be opamp but not used. I checked all the resisters and transistors, found Ok. I tried different tricks to go to calibration or setup mode but couldnt. Now days due to COVID-19 the scanners are short in the market and price goes very high > 250USD
hoping to get some help from you, as company is not responding
Unfortunately these units powered with 9v battery do drain the battery very fast. If battery isn't taken out when unit is not in use then will not last long. Probably the step-down converter is not very efficient or the the power button design is probably not good/ well placed.
Big Clive, I love what you do, but you've got to work on getting the volume up. I typically have to use headphones or earbuds to make out what you are saying in your videos.
those switches often break at the pad. this would be one of the few places where mechanical pressure is applied to the board. also, most of the cheaper stuff from China is covered in solder balls.
You must be a fan of tomtop. 😄 me too.
what is that header for? it looks intriguing.
maybe testing/calibration during production
+TheFreezeChill i thought so to but if one looks at the build quality, having such an expensive connector just for that seems like a waste for what is probably a single use.
+SandyStarchild it's probably ¢50 max to produce and solder it.
+Bartosz Olszewski that is a lot.
It's probably how the calibration rig to talks to the module.
I have the same unit, which also failed. I did managed to repair it, the trigger switch went open circuit, replaced it and Bob's your uncle working unit again.
But Bob isn't my uncle though, hes my friends uncle.
Have you changed mics? Sound on your last couple of videos has been REALLY quiet. Cheers
God I've been looking into these as I need one. thanks, clive.
hi clive. Two things. How does an IR beam determine temperture?
Secondly, poundland are flogging motion detectors shaped like frogs. Fancy doing a plastic frog disection ? Please.
I'm not Clive but the non contact thermometer does not emit an IR beam, it measure the intensity of the infrared emitted by the surface of the thing you want to know the temperature of. It computes the temperature from that.
Thanks SlyPearTree, I get it now.
I dont understand them. Do they have to be a set distance form the thing youre measuring because radiation intensity varies with distance, its in energy (or is it power?) per unit area and the further away you are the more it will have spread out
The "beam", the sensitive area, gets bigger with distance, but what depends on the temperature is not the intensity but the frequency spectrum. If it was measuring the energy you'd start getting problems with reading the temperature of something colder than the sensor, because
You can't pass heat from the cooler to the hotter
Try it if you like but you far better notter
The sensor isn't measuring heat. It's measuring something derived from heat. Pick the right frequency, and the change in level will have a near-linear relationship with temperature over a useful range, but how do you tell the difference between big and small sources? Somebody did some careful thinking about how to get good numbers from such a gadget, and when it was a new type of gadget it would have been seriously smart thinking. Now it's an "everyone knows" sort of thing.
can you see what's inside one of those keychain gps 'units'
Hi is it possible to put a promitxy sensor on it and make it completely touchles
picked one up for the shop. i may take it apart >:)
what kind of lens is present, lens material
For me the trigger switch is the first suspect
Am I correct in assuming the red laser does nothing in the function of temperature calculation and is just there to indicate where you are pointing?
I have one of these no-name IR thermometers too, both the unit Clive is showing, and mine have the option to turn the laser dot on or off via one of the buttons underneath the LCD display. You are right, the unit works with or without the laser dot, it is merely to aim the device.
Accuracy of the laser pointer is kinda "meh."
+DashCamAndy
Thanks. Yeah your accuracy comment make sense. The laser seems to be at least a half inch away from the infrared diode. I'm sure for most cases it doesn't matter especially for the price.
Indeed Andy, sometimes the laser is quite off from the actual spot it's measuring.
Yep.
Some of these devices have two lasers to increase accuracy, one on the top and one below the main sensor - the idea being that when the two lasers cross and become one dot on a surface / that is the most accurate place to measure
Would be cool to take the data from the display to a computer- and then you have an automated temperature data logger. Anyone know how or where one could find out how?
Mine failed as well, and i bet all of these fail the same way. There's a 7530-1 SOT voltage regulator from 9v to 3v that ends up shorting. I removed mine and now it powers with 2*1,5V AAA batteries in series.
Great video but I am confused. The device states 380 degrees C max but when I look up the TPS334 it states max operating temperature of 100 degrees C. I must be missing something, can anybody please help?
The IR sensor is similar to the MLX90614
OK, I had an assumption about how these things work, and I was wrong. As we know, hot things glow. While the glow is not a single wavelength of light but rather a mix of many wavelengths, the distribution of these wavelengths is just a function of temperature. So the overall combined color of the glow can tell you the temperature of the thing. We can't see light that has a longer wavelength than red light, but it _is_ there. Things that are not hot enough to visibly glow are, in fact, still glowing with invisible light, subject to the same distribution pattern as a red-hot blob of steel or a yellow-hot light bulb filament. The universe is indifferent to our human-made delineation between visible light, infrared light, radio waves, wi-fi, and x-rays. They're all just different colors of light. So I thought infrared thermometers just detected the overall "hue" of infrared light coming off of an object to determine its temperature.
While I was wrong about how IR thermometers work, I think my assumed method does explain how infrared cameras work. I had assumed IR thermometers were essentially infrared cameras with a very low resolution of 1x1.
I have the same one but it runs off of 3v (2x AAA)
The locating laser is horribly inaccurate. I may try to adjust its positioning. But for $5 it may not be worth the effort.
What temperature sensor are they using?
I have that exact thermometer
The chip blob looked like it had a shiny, discoloured spot on it which would probably mean it cooked itself internally (probably due to a failed somethingorother on the PCB sending current the wrong way)...
One fun note about these infrared thermometers, they used them a lot as engineering props on Star Trek: Enterprise (sprayed a nice shade of satin silver, of course), usually repairing some blown up circuit or performing maintenance on an EPS conduit... :P
Was it on TOS or really ENT (w/ Data)? :D
*****
Enterprise, as in NX-01, the 22nd century Prequel, Captain Archer and all that, the last proper star trek series ever cos the upcoming one is just jjbollocks... :P
*****
Ah, this series is fairly modern compared to the older ones. Interesting that they used such cheap props. :D
Best ST-Series for me is still VOY. I like it even more than TNG and TOS. TNG and DS9 is also good, then there is ENT and the last rank is TOS. (I'm propably too young to appreciate the props and effects, there. It is too unrealistic.)
Showing LOW temperature on display always , what is reason can you explain please?
Just so you know, the laser does not do anything, it is just for aiming :D
that laser needs a shark donor :D
I'd love it if the laser intensity of those devices also told how hot the target is, would make finding cold leaks easier.. =)
Is that thermal sensor LM35?
I like watching these videos and pretending I'm clever.
i bought one and it looks same but is powered with 2x AAA
have you considered replacing your finger with a bionic solder feeder
Lol great idea
For a while there were soldering irons with a thumbwheel solder feeder on them. But they never really took off. Mainly because they were only suited to larger target joints.
Hey Clivey... I really marvel at the dexterity of your fingers while you are soldering !!! Tried it and my hand got all cramped up !
Can they be calibrated?
That came just in time to prevent me from ripping mine apart and screwing up the optics.
is it waterproof??
Trigger switch?
That was my first thought, too. I have a similar cheapie and sometimes the trigger button doesn't work quite right on mine.
I think that's an MLX90614 IR sensor.
I can see AvE channel watching this saying its hooperjooped and he wants to do a BOLTR on it and test it to within a inch of its short life
not joking... mine was dead, and was going to take it apart but gave it a good whack against the floor instead. working again for now...
That fixes lots of stuff.
i expected some fancy I²C mlx90614 sensor,
could you do a backstage vid please im a lighting nerd
Those little circuit board mounted push switches seem to have a very limited life. I have had to take my mouse apart twice to prise the little switches apart and clean the contacts.
What no snow?
What about the switch?
Yuo should have checked the tac buttons I have had many fail.
You don't happen to be in Edinburgh at the moment do you?
Yes I am.
bigclivedotcom I thought I saw you on the high street, presumably you're doing techy stuff for the fringe right?
Lighting at the Tattoo.
Sounds exciting! Please don't fall off the grandstand ;)
i would try to heat gun it , that saved a few electronics on my lab
Perhaps someone put the battery the wrong way around for a short time and that killed it...
should be protected from that with a diode, but you never know...
Key word being "Should be"
It's a 9v battery, it should only fit one-way on the connector
+DANGERTIM112 but it does make contact
+DANGERTIM112 it won't click that way, but you can at least touch the contracts the wrong way. That may be enough if there's no switch protecting the board.
1:03 Must have been struck by a wave.
That seems to be the way that stuff is,if its getting power,well,thats that. Toss it. Sadly,most electronics now days are produced this way. Sure its nice everything is so small and compact,sadly it seems as if it were designed to only work for so long,then go out. Cheaper is better. No quality in those chips I guess. Keeps them in business I suppose.
usually it says bigclive.com on the workface now it says PRG :)
stupid question here, could you hack one of these to produce a thermal image?
I think better optics are needed to do that, there's a reason thermal imaging devices are so much more expensive
It has been done, but you get a very slow scan and pretty poor resolution. Basically you use 2 servo units to scan the head in a pattern across the area and use a computer to generate the resulting blobby thermal image.
I've taken one of those apart it's boring sorry but great video
Sorry mate, time to rip it apart and scavenge it for spare parts!
I need help mine won’t turn on and I changed battery’s on it
Check the batteries are making a good connection and try jiggling the power button in case it's got a bad contact.
how can I send a device to you I want you to explore?
I meant like his p.o. box
That IS the mail bruh
Its on his channel in the about section
Has anyone else tried watching the video with subtitles?
UA-cam seemed to be doing quite well and then just dived into gobbldegook... :D
I guess that Scots isn't a recognised language!