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Forum Index : Electronics : An IR camera for piece of mind and diagnosis

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oreo

Senior Member

Joined: 11/12/2020
Location: Canada
Posts: 136

Posted: 04:18am 19 Aug 2026

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I noticed a couple of posts from others showing some IR images, and thought it would be comforting to know how hot everything was running, without having to stick my finger on it.
So I purchased a HK micro camera which plugs into the phone and has a manual focus ring.

After recieving it, I ran the inverter at about 3500w for 10ish minutes and then opened it up to see what would be revealed. (I doubt the unit is fully heat soaked, but this is enough time to get things warmed up)

Here is the transformer. Although I had siliconed the transducer deep as I could into the windings,
the inner windings are about 40F hotter than what the sensor is reading. I knew there was going to be a difference,
so it's good to know what it is.

No issues or hot spots with the wiseguy inverter board itself.

Further scanning of the rear internal panel wiring revealed the following alarming picture.

I know it's hard to see exactly what is going on from the picture, but I am pretty sure
that 1/2 of the 120v split phase circuit breaker is bad and is running quite hot.
The heat then propagates into the surrounding wiring attached to that terminal. I still need to pull it apart to confirm as the wiring is difficult to get to without the rear panel.
Nothing else in my setup is a concern at this point, but I am quite glad I picked one of these cameras.

Greg

phil99

Guru

Joined: 11/02/2018
Location: Australia
Posts: 3355

Posted: 04:58am 19 Aug 2026

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Thermal cameras are good at giving you an idea of relative temperature within the field of view but not so good at accurate measurements of actual temperature.

The lens material emits some heat so its temperature affects the result. Apparently black germanium is best, though expensive. Same applies to the sensor array itself, though that can partly be compensated for. In up market ones the sensor array is refrigerated to reduce the problem.

The other issue is the thermal emissivity of the objects in the field of view.
Eg when doing a training course at the local fire station with our new $9000 thermal camera and pointing it at the kitchen boiling water unit the white insulated body of it correctly showed up warm, but the chrome plated tap that had just been used and was close to 90°C showed up cold. Chrome has a very low thermal emissivity.

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