pic: 121 Thermal Imaging

[Tom Schindler]

Andy;

Tom Frank replying (the guy who borrowed the camera).

Yes, a thermal camera will show bad crimps and connections, but not when it's cold. You run the system for a while, and look for the HOT spots, because the higher resistance results in a voltage drop and overheating at the point of the problem.

This is commonly done in industry - they look at things like electric panels or overhead wires, and the places where there is too much heat are where the problems are. I found a bad chip in a complex circuit board this way...

Occasionally, you'll find a point which is flat out cold, which suggests there is nothing going on (no power at all), but that is a good deal rarer.

It would probably be worth bringing one to the competition for troubleshooting misbehaving bots...but I don't know that my employer would let me take ours. They were hesitant to let me take it, but in the end the magic word "FIRST", plus the fact that it is a weekend (no one is around anyway...), convinced them.

It belongs to facilities, who use it to find steam leaks and leaking roofs (you can see where water is pooling under the sheathing).

I wonder if FIRST could get FLIR (or one of their competitors) to loan them one?

Tom Frank, KA2CDK
Team 121