Thermal imaging

Found one of these cheap enough to consider buying. Not as high a resolution as I would like, but seems to do a pretty decent job, regardless. It's a FLIR Scout TK monocular thermal imager.

So I started up the C5Z and let it run for several minutes, then started taking video imaging data with this thing. Started under the hood, then put the car up on the lift and scanned the underside too.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dns_c-AetPw

Not too bad. Sure shows me where the heat is coming from.

Wow, nice toys (both the thermal imager and the corvette...)

Very cool..and that's a seriously clean engine bay.

Very cool.

I'm holding out for something with a reticle that will mount on a Picatinny rail

Originally Posted by E.Shell

Very cool.

I'm holding out for something with a reticle that will mount on a Picatinny rail

Oh, they have them, but they are still pretty pricey.


https://www.flir.com/products/rs64/


How about $5,500 for that one above?

This has given me an interesting idea. Thanks.

Are you allowed to hunt pigs with infrared at night, Rich, like we are in Georgia (on private property anyway)? I think the monocle in combination with an infrared scope would be pretty handy to take out some vermin.

Also, very nice car! Wanna trade a 1999 Honda Accord with a slipping transmission for it? Haha!

Originally Posted by snowgyre

Are you allowed to hunt pigs with infrared at night, Rich, like we are in Georgia (on private property anyway)? I think the monocle in combination with an infrared scope would be pretty handy to take out some vermin.

Also, very nice car! Wanna trade a 1999 Honda Accord with a slipping transmission for it? Haha!

I'm not sure. There seems to be a stark dividing line in Florida between animals arbitrarily considered as "game" and animals considered as "nuisance animals". I'm not sure what laws are on the books concerning night hunting, but I would think in the case of nuisance animals on your own property that there would be a lot of leeway. Or more likely, a "don't ask, don't tell" sort of attitude. In my opinion, the less involvement anyone has with FWCC, the better.

I've looked at the thermal imaging devices set up as rifle scopes, and they are still rather pricey. I guess because they would need to be higher resolution devices so you could recognize your target at distance, plus they need to be designed to survive the recoil impulse of a rifle. I can see a lot of interesting applications for thermal imaging, but can't see buying a separate unit for each of the applications that come to mind. From what I have been able to determine, there doesn't appear to be a single device that can do everything, however. Heck, I would really like to mount a thermal image device to my drone. Something like that would be immensely useful for people to use in search and rescue operations. I have seen some drones available with thermal imaging, but of course, they are rather expensive. Not to mention, the idea of having something that cost you many thousands of dollars up in the air and running the risk of it either crashing or flying away to parts unknown is pretty hard to swallow. Drone technology is getting better and apparently more reliable, but certainly not risk free yet.

Anyway, the thermal imaging device I bought is certainly intriguing, but deficient in several ways once I become more familiar with it. As a general purpose tool, I think it is something that most people inclined to do DIY projects could find a good reason for having in their toolbox. Even the lowest resolution ones (ie: cheapest) can be put to good use if you don't set your expectations too high. You can still see things you couldn't see otherwise.

As for the trade offer, thank you, you are too generous. But I believe I will pass. At least for now. You surely wouldn't want a car with a noisy clutch, now would you?

The other day I was checking out the AC compressor coolant pressures on the C5Z, because I had been hearing the AC compressor clicking on and off at idle when cold, so I had the car running for quite a while while I was checking the gauges. To keep the exhaust fumes out of the garage, I put the contraption I made up out of plastic drain pipe onto the exhaust tips on the car. This helps not only with extracting the exhaust fumes from the garage, but it greatly reduces the noise level too, which is nice when trying to listen for any unusual noises from the engine compartment.

Anyway, I knew the exhaust gases were pretty hot, as shown when I used my FLIR thermal imaging scope.



But I guess I just didn't think about it and that the length of time I was running the engine might have an impact on those plastic tubing pipes I was using.







Didn't melt them to the point where they opened up, so they are still usable. But certainly something I need to keep in mind in the future. Maybe if it weren't so blasted hot in the garage I could have run the engine longer without them heating up quite so fast. Plus I guess revving up the engine a bit while checking the AC pressure gauges certainly had an influence too.

Interesting how only two of the four pipes melted like they did.

In any event, the AC coolant pressures looked OK to me. Maybe a little high on the low pressure side, but nothing bad enough to do anything about. Certainly the AC is pumping out pretty cold air in the passenger compartment so the system as a whole seems to be working pretty well.