A thermal imager with your own hands? Simply and easily!

A thermal imager is a device designed to monitor the change in the distribution of temperature on a particular surface. All latched changes are displayed on the device's display in the form of a color field on which a certain color corresponds to a certain temperature value.

The device, specially designed for monitoring the distribution of temperatures, has a large number of advantages that are obvious to all those who have ever encountered using a thermal imager at least once in their life. This device immediately catches the temperature drops and therefore is able to clearly record all the temperature differences.

Modern thermal imagers are divided into stationary and portable (or portable). The first are designed to control a variety of technological processes in industrial plants, the latter are necessary for everyday use in special evaluation work, when mobility and ease of use play a very important role.

Using a thermal imager, you can easily observe under absolutely any weather conditions, make thermograms, check how well the room is warmed, find the warmest or coldest place in the room, determine the source of the draft or the "dew point", that is, the place where the most accumulates Water due to temperature changes. The latter, for example, helps effectively prevent the formation of mold and rotting processes.

Despite the fact that this device is useful and in demand in many areas, most people do not dare to buy a thermal imager, because its cost is quite high. And it is for this reason that a lot of consumers have an idea to make a thermal imager by their own hands, especially since to assemble it It is possible from inexpensive improvised materials. It takes a minimum of time and effort and does not require any special knowledge.

The only thing here, it is important to take into account that such devices are quite complex and multifaceted, and therefore if the consumer decided to make a thermal imager with his own hands, then he should understand that he is unlikely to take advantage of the full functionality of the device. However, the device that copes well with the solution of everyday tasks, it will be very simple.

So, how to make a thermal imager? Where to begin? First of all, in order to assemble the thermal imager with our own hands, It is necessary to take a conventional infrared thermometer - a device that measures the temperature at a particular point at a relatively short distance. Then through a special board - Arduino, you should connect a thermometer to a set of RGB type LEDs (for example, LEDs from a flashlight). After that, the system is programmed in such a way that the color that the lantern will shine depends on the readings displayed on the thermometer. Typically, a low temperature corresponds to a blue color, and a high one corresponds to a red color. Now, by directing the flashlight to a particular surface, depending on the temperature, you can observe the "backlighting" with the appropriate color. The portable thermal imager is ready!

And now the main idea: any digital camera is put in a slow-motion mode, in order to take pictures every two to three seconds and thus fix the lighting from the flashlight. The user only needs to bypass the entire room with the flashlight, and the digital camera will take pictures that will not yield to a factory-made device in anything.

As you can see, making a thermal imager by one's own hands is very easy and simple, and besides, as a set of accessories you only needed a conventional thermometer, Arduino board, LED flashlight and camera.