tCam-Mini
Single-unit price: $49.95 + shipping
Campaign scheduled end date: Wed, 07 Apr 2021 11:06:00 PDT
Backers: 77
Target: 100
Funded: 121
- Campaign Created
- Campaign Reached Goal
- Campaign Closed
- Product Being Manufactured
- Shipping to GroupGets
- GroupGets Received
- GroupGets Testing
- GroupGets Testing Complete
- Shipping to Customers
Product Details
Name
tCam-Mini
Product Description
Now available in store!
Introducing tCam-Mini
tCam-Mini is a small wireless streaming thermal imaging camera designed by Dan Julio to make it easy to get and use radiometric data from a Flir Lepton 3.5 sensor. Radiometric data includes the temperature of every pixel captured by the Lepton allowing all kinds of interesting thermographic analysis. Of course that data can also be turned into the beautiful false-color images everyone associates with thermal imaging.
tCam-Mini comes with a capable desktop application, running on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows, making it easy-to-use, right out of the box. Custom applications running on any platform can easily communicate with tCam-Mini via a socket interface. Commands and data are transferred as easy-to-parse json strings.
Capabilities
- The tCam-Mini camera exposes the full capabilities of the Lepton.
- The camera can operate in either Radiometric/TLinear (each pixel contains temperature data) or AGC modes (no temperature data in each pixel but better images).
- Simple json-based command set with communication of a TCP/IP Socket. Makes interfacing with the camera very simple from a custom application.
- AP or STA (client) Wifi modes (static or DHCP-served IPV4 address).
- Single image or streaming data modes.
- Control over sensor emissivity, gain and spotmeter location.
The companion desktop application makes it easy to use the camera and analyze the data from it.
- Display images or streams with multiple palettes.
- Save and load images or streams in files preserving the radiometric data for use later or by other applications. Two file formats: image and video (described in the github repository).
- Export images as jpg, png or tiff files.
- Copy current image to computer's clipboard.
- Histogram display and analysis of pixel populations.
- Spotmeter and up to four additional markers showing temperature at various points in an image.
- Graphing function to plot spotmeter and marker data over time.
- Graph baseline mode to allow comparing temperatures to a reference point in the scene (for example to compare a temperature to a blackbody constant).
- Export graph data in a text file for analysis by other programs.
- Print graph (or create a PDF on computers that can print to PDF).
Hardware Overview
- Espressif ESP32-WROVER-E Module (ESP32-D0WD0V3, 8 MB PSRAM, 8 MB Flash) with built-in antenna
- Flir Lepton 3.5 (160x120 pixel radiometric LWIR camera with shutter)
- CP2102N-A02 USB to UART bridge with ESP32 boot loader control
- Multi-voltage power supply (3.3V, 3.0V, 2.8V, 1.2V)
- Dual color (Red/Green) status LED
- Factory Wifi Reset button
Open Source
The hardware and firmware design files are available in Dan's Github repository. The firmware is designed to be compiled using Espressif IDF tools and new code can be loaded via the built-in USB Serial port. Precompiled binary files are also provided for easy upgrades.
Development is ongoing with new features and additional software support planned including a python library and web server.
In Operation
Important Note! FLIR Lepton 3.5 is NOT included and is required for this product to work, please add one during checkout if you do not already have one.
Why GroupGets?
This campaign introduces tCam-Mini and leverages Group Gets manufacturing capability to make tCam-Mini available to thermography enthusiasts everywhere.
Purchase Information
Unit Deliverable
One tCam-Mini with no Lepton
Unit Price
$49.95
Campaign Part #
GG-P-919
Availability
Campaign funded, scheduled end date: Wed, 07 Apr 2021 11:06:00 PDT
Factory Lead Time
49 Days
Options and Add-Ons
FLIR Lepton 3.5
$199.00
This accessory is required for tCam-Mini to work.
- Thermal sensitivity: < 50 mK (0.050˚C)
- Spectral Range: 8 - 14 microns (nominal) Long Wave Infrared (LWIR)
- Resolution: 160h x 120v pixels
- Radiometric Accuracy - High Gain Mode: Greater of +/- 5°C or 5% (typical); Low Gain Mode: Greater of +/- 10°C or 10% (typical)
- Scene Dynamic Range - High Gain Mode: -10° to +140°C; Low Gain Mode: -10° to +400°C (at room temperature), -10° to +450°C (typical)
- Pixel Size: 12 micrometers
- Frame Rate: 8.7 Hz (effective)
- Output Format: User-selectable 14-bit, 8-bit (AGC applied), or 24-bit RGB (AGC and colorization applied)
- Horizontal Field of View (HFOV): 57°
- Lens Type: f/1.1Size (w x l x h): 10.50 x 12.70 x 7.14 mm
- Weight: 0.9 grams
- Power Consumption: 150 mW typical, 650 mW during shutter event, 5mW standby
- Optimum Operating Temperature Range: -10˚ to + 80˚C
USB A to Micro B Power Cable
$2.50
300.0 mm (0.98') Micro USB Cable
Campaign discussion forums are intended for questions about the product such as specifications or to share ideas about applications. The campaign initiator or GroupGets may also send out important one-to-many updates on this channel. This is not the place for individual technical support inquiries. For help or questions about an order, please log a ticket here: Support
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justinStitchesHi Andrew, thanks for the feedback. We love and offer Paypal payments over in our store. It was a design decision however not to use it for pre-orders because of the delayed payment aspect of our platform. There was simply not a good way to handle delayed payments with PayPal 7 years ago, although maybe things have changed. We'll take a look.
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woodr@...Is the board compatible with the older 80x60 lepton modules (not the shuttered ones)? I think I recall reading that the newer ones used the same socket/pinout? if its physically and electrically compatible, I think I could manage any software changes.
Reason: I have an older module in addition to a 3.5. I'd rather risk the older one for poking around engines whenever I could get away with it.
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dan@...Hi Woodr. I don't have any experience with Leptons other than the 3.5 but, at least, the Engineering Datasheet shows them having the same pinout. The code I wrote isn't compatible with the older 80x60 pixel leptons. All my work has been focused on their higher resolution radiometric sibling, but if you felt comfortable with ESP32 programming, you could take my code and modify the vospi.c and lep_task.c modules to support your lepton. Basically vospi.c would only have to worry about receiving one segment (instead of four) and in lep_task.c you'd want to pixel double the 80x60 image to 160x120 pixels to feed the rest of the pipeline and external supporting software. Also you could take a look at the schematic for the board. All can be found in my github: https://github.com/danjulio/lepton/tree/master/ESP32/tCam-Mini
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justinStitches
Fair question and thanks for pinging. We were due to get them from our local fab on Jun 8 but didn't. We should get them this coming week but since today in Sunday, I can't confirm. We will put out an update as soon as we know more on Monday. The good news is that we were able to get all of the parts and they are in manufacturing.
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dan@...
Hello. You can download the desktop application from my website (http://danjuliodesigns.com/products/tcam_mini.html) and it, and the entire design are also available in the github repository (https://github.com/danjulio/lepton) in the ESP32 directory.
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