Not a formal calibration check, but playing around in the TrioSmartCal lab testing the accuracy of the Fluke 59 (Raytek MT6) Mini IR Thermometer using an Extech IRC350 (CEM BX-350) IR Calibrator.
Also playing with the Flir E60 IR Camera and Extech IR200 human body IR thermometer
http://www.triosmartcal.com.au
RayTek MT6: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000O80B5M/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ee04-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000O80B5M
Fluke 62 Mini: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MX5Y9C/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ee04-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000MX5Y9C
Extech IR200: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0033A4NBG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ee04-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0033A4NBG
CEM BX350: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AOH81XC/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ee04-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00AOH81XC
Typical Germanium Lenses: http://www.thorlabs.hk/newgrouppage9.cfm?objectgroup_id=1780
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Hi guys I'm at Trio Smart Cal again with Charles I'm in the Cal lab. Hey and um, he's got my my fluke. Um 59 Mini IR thermometer that you saw in the previous video and uh, he's got while I'm here I thought I'd Uh, check it out and calibrate it. He's got one of these Xtec Um IRC 350 black body radiation units.

Can you tell us about it? Charles You've got a very high emissivity area here and uh, it he. This one's set at the moment to get to 50 so we just wait till it warms up when it gets to 50. Um, set your thermometer to about 95 to 98% of aity somewhere in that region. Well, it's a fixed.

This one's a fixed one. It's fixed to 95. So okay. well that's that's that's pretty common at the moment.

The temperature there at the moment is 46. so it's going up and it'll stabilize. So uh, we'll give it a couple of minutes. How do you get this thing traceably cowed? Who do you send it to? How do you, uh, trably calibrate this sucker? Actually, we do it ourselves.

Oh right, we probably I don't know you'd have to. You have to the lab Manor right? You're going to have to leave it to stabilize y I've never driven this before There you. We'll see how good the US look. 1955 was a good year.

Let a 55 55. All right, let's do it. Let's see what happens. I don't know what sort of term controller it's got in there.

One term, two term, three term. That's yeah, it's going up. What are we reading at the moment? 58.8 and it's currently 57.3 So does it make a difference if you move it back and forth? Uh, it'll read low if you move it back right? Okay, so you've got to put well. these these things are a measure.

A point source. Yep, and they've got a lens. Yes, so a bit like with a thermal camera. you're focusing uh, an object onto a basically a plane where you're going to have an image.

and if you the further back you come then yeah, this one's got an 8 to1 ratio. Yeah, it's got an 8 to1 ratio. If you see on the top it's now measuring 55. Now if I come back here.

A lot of people think as long as they get the laser in their output I that's what they're measuring actually saying 35 Now Yeah, no, because it's the average area would be like this big now or something like that. So it's getting so it's averaging over the whole area of that. So 59. So these thermometers usually plus or minus two or 3.

Yeah, this one's spec at plus - 2 and this thing hasn't stabilized yet either. No, we usually leave it for about an hour or so to stabilize, right? Yeah, we just just switched it on then. So what's probably happened is it's got a it'll have a multiterm controller in it so it'll go up. It'll overshoot, it'll come down, it'll get corrected Y And then uh, it'll stabilize.

so we come back in about an hour. it'll be right. Got it? Well, we'll come back. And just as a matter of interest, if you put your finger there, it actually feel air flow L there.

Oh yeah, there's actually air there. Oh okay, so it blows. so it that helps stabilize the front temperature. I Guess if it's going to drop down in temperature, it's going to turn a fan on.
Yeah! I I Think the spec is 2% plus - 2. 2% of 2% of 100 is two. So 50 you're going to be out by one plus your 2. So you you could be 3 at this level you could be certainly.

yeah. Look I'm on because it's it's only a cheap I Mean this is the this one's only sold in China You won't find this on the Fluke American website. This is only for the Chinese market. Probably a rebadged, um, one that's sold by half a dozen other brands as well.

I Suspect or made in the same Factory I Well, I haven't seen another one that's identical to this. There are a lot of rebadge ones out there, but uh, this one. uh, it's I Love the um if you pop out, pop the uh if you push that off, if you can pull that off, that's the battery cover. It's really quite nice.

I Love yeah I Like yeah, how The a it's got a Celsius Celsius de switch on there. It's got some test pads down in there for, uh, that's obviously for testing just in production? Yeah, it's quite a nice unit. It only cost like 50 bucks or something so it is more expensive than your regular um, cheap ones. but it is a fluke so I figured you know it would uh, be a bit better quality and it does feel much better quality than the uh, cheap ones anyway.

So I don't mind it at all. I'll go and get an X Tech and we'll compare them if you like. Why not? All right guys, We're back and uh, it's settled at 55 and we've decided to get the flow E60 and check out the temperature range. Oh, it's going from 27.7 to 56.3 the scale and it's saying it's 55.5 that's in the center.

but if we move, move slightly over to the side 56. Yeah yeah and we move slightly over there you can actually see that is see the Prof a slight change if we have a look across there. So at the bottom, we've got 55.3 Three Y, we've got Uh 55.2 up there. We've got Uh 55.8 over there and 56.1 in that corner.

So the heater must be in that corner. and the Uh flu E60 has a resolution of what 0 or something 08 06 08 a degree? That's what it's capable of detecting difference. In fact, you can even see the slight changes in the surface because of irregularities in the surface. Yeah, and if we move in, we may even be able to get a bigger range.

Well, we're going to be. We're actually at the liit the minimum focal distance at the moment. So although Focus shouldn't matter though, if we we're just going to swamp, we're just we're going to swamp it. But you can see the range change from 56 to 54 now.

so there's only a 2 range. four de oh four. there's a 4 range there. So and so the colors are actually representing.

Yep, 4. So that the the light blue is uh, don't the 54 and the the brighter you can see, there is a difference in, uh, temperature across that surface. That's interesting. Look at that.
it looks like a sun doesn't it? Yeah, it does using this color scheme. Yeah, Yes, yeah, we can change. I think it's on AR I think it's on Arctic or something. But of course, with these thermometers, you're actually not measuring lots and lots of individual points.

You're actually measuring an average temperature across this. yes, across the surface at the focal length. So mine's now saying 55.6 6. That's pretty good.

Yeah, I'm very happy with that. or is this thing and this thing. What have we got here? We've got a Um Xtec. It's a Medical AR Thermometer Medical IR Thermometer So it's designed for a very small range like the you know from 0 to 60 I think is on the box.

So um, it's designed to give instant readings of your body temperature and it does. you want to give it a go on your forehead. We have a a model hand, give it a go and it reads it in like a second. It's great.

Oh, it's in surface mode at the moment I think it is. Yeah, it's in surface mode, yeah, but it's also got a body mode. so if you switch, yeah, there it is. switch body mode on.

Wonder if I can get a new body if I Let's give body mode to try and 36 Well, that's on your hand. Yeah, if you want to try it on your forehead, it's supposed to work on your forehead, isn't it? Move the hair? 36.8 36.8 You're alive. Congratulations! Yeah, and now let's try it on here. Surface Mode: Yeah.

Surface Mode: 55 .2 Check it out. 52 No, because of the lens has to be really Yeah, this one's this one's actually designed to be on the surface of something. It's not I think it's within 100 mm. Oh right, right.

100 mm. Okay, whereas a regular IR thermometer uh designed to work at any distance based on its uh ratio. So we're getting 55.2 on that one. so y That's nice.

Wow. this this palette is called rainbow high Contrast. Okay, so it's a high contrast mode so we should see much better Rainbow High contrast. Yeah.

so what's the total differential temperature across the plate? The hottest point over there is uh, 56.4 According to this very we don't. We haven't checked the calibration of this thermal camera. Um, the coolest area would be probably there. Yeah, and we've got 54.7 that sort of thing.

Yeah, about 54.7 MH So there is actually quite a difference across this now. Whether the surface has been cleaned and or somebody's tried wiping it and changed the imity of the surface. that would also affect it. Yeah, of course.

But and we don't know what the absolute accuracy of the E60 is either. So I'm not sure. Are you have to go and look up this? That's one the high contrast mode. Yeah, that that works really welle.

the first time I've played with that I just saw it I knew it was in there. but I've just never found a reason to use it before. That's terrific I'd Love these Flu E60s! They're the best! Yeah, only $1,000 You know it's got Wireless and Bluetooth as well. it's got Wireless and Bluetooth y I Forgot to mention that in my video.
Actually, there's apps that you can get to run on your Android or your your iPhone Ah, there you go. For those wankers who you want to hook it up to their uh iPad Yeah and we're using this one again to actually check the surface map. Um, to see if it corresponds to the FL E60 it seems to uh do it? uh pretty well that's the cool area over there. and then you go to the hot part and it's 50 and it is actually warm p on here.

Yeah yeah it's seems it correspond warmer. there it was I Think there you go, it corresponds to the map and in the center and the center is We're probably going to get a bit of average in there. 3 5.6 Yeah yeah. so this thermometer is reading slightly high or else the MS is not set.

This thing's probably fixed I mean I Haven't read the instructions but I would suspect it's got it emissivity fixed for human skin. Yes, obviously that's what it's designed for and the emissivity of this is going to be different. This is actually going to have a better emissivity than human skin has. So consequently, um, this will actually be changing the temperature readings to compensate for that.

So and well, this is is going to be near Perfect Isn't it? this is going to be as nearer to it's M. It's matte black. Yeah, yeah so so but but that does seem to map and correspond to the E6 because the emissivity actually Chang the temperature. So if you have a a low over that narrow well see a a low.

Yeah, a low emissivity. um. surface. um will not obviously radiate as much heat.

So consequently to actually get the temperature of it, the scaling actually increases the reading on the thermometer to compensate for the lack of heat coming out. Got it right? So uh, if and if you touch it, it'll be much better. The best demonstration is get an old baked bean can take take the label off, paint half of it matte black and leave the other half shiny. We've got one upstairs actually look at the temperature of both sides with an infrared thermometer and and then with a surface contact thermometer and that's what we do when we show people thermal cameras.

Got it? Yep, so that's why tinted baked bean Can it? Bean Can you just you just put hot water in the baked bean can and you can and you can see the the shiny side and the U Matt matte surface and you know that they're at the same temperature cuz it's hot water inside. So that's what we use as a demo. Brilliant. But that matches nicely with the map.

so I'm I'm pretty impressed with that. but as I say there will be the slight correction for the yep. that's neat. All right.

Charles Give us a breakdown. Okay um before we do my little uh idiots guide to thermal cameras I'm just going to have a quick plug for um a club that I'm a member of which is actually a drinking Club of the running problem it's called The Hash House Harriers and if anybody ever wants to have a bit of fun, go join. The Hash House Harriers. You might end up having to do some exercise, but you get a drink, it's Christmas Okay, uh, what we have is a Flur E60 Thermal Camera.
Uh. Detector array is Um 320x 240 and we we were just comparing this to a lowcost camera that had a much smaller detector array and the images weren't that different now. I Just want to cover something here that that people need to consider when looking at thermal cameras. What a thermal camera is is basically lots and lots and lots of Point thermometers in an array.

So if you can imagine lots and lots and lots in a big Square array of lots of dots, that's how you build up your thermal picture, etc. etc. Now sitting over here is a lens and the lens is made of Germanium so you can't see through it, but the heat can and this this is basically a piece of geranium lens. Now what happens is the infrared comes in and it's focused onto this plane same as you would get with a normal L.

So it's focused in there now depending on what characteristics the lens has, is depending on just what area out here is actually focused onto the array. So when you're choosing a camera, just a quick one. and just to explain why a very lowcost camera at a certain distance could give a a picture equivalent to a more expensive camera is that the lowcost camera has actually got a very small field of view because its lens doesn't have the wider capture range of the lens on this base Mhm. What that does though, is when you have got the wider lens, you can obviously see over a larger area.

So when you're looking at things like switchboards Etc you want to see the whole picture. You don't have to walk way back and then lose all the definition in your image. You can go in more closely and that's the reason that the two cameras, um, with much differing detector sizes can actually give you a similar picture at the distance we were looking at, what was only about M maybe 10 cm. Got it? Brilliant.

Awesome. That's it. Thanks! Dreadful Drawing.

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By YTB

20 thoughts on “Eevblog #403 – ir thermometer calibration testing”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars โšกELECTROxรญgenรต(โ„ง)ฮฉ,. says:

    Exelente… ๐Ÿ”ง

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Sarmad Daoudi says:

    Appreciate it is great help and best support for all

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Sumit Kumar says:

    We have use metravi IR calibrator ,is there distance matter while we calibrate IR thermometer with this calibrator

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars wb5mgr says:

    That is identical to my amprobe unit that I bought for about $75us.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars mrjazzycharon2 says:

    Additionally to selecting the rainbow-palette, you could also set the range manually to something very narrow like 54-58. Then you would have been able to see the irregularities of the surface even better.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Pete McKinlay says:

    I spent a fair bit of time calibrating the Fluke IR thermometers- the cheaper ones (sub $500) are pretty marginal, a lot failed acceptance testing. Yours looks a lot like 62 IR Mini. Same style case and all.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars PKFiiRE says:

    awww

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars MIHU says:

    did you try to change batteries?

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Sean Breheny says:

    The lenses for this series of cameras are about $1000 US each. I think that the majority of the cost of these cameras is the fabrication cost of the focal-plane array microbolometer, which is an integrated-circuit array of amorphous silicon thermal sensors, thermally isolated from the outside environment (I think it is mounted on a vacuum bottle).

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars EEVblog says:

    RayTek is a Fluke company.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars RustyPaint says:

    The one I have is a Raytek, looks exactly the same except for the finger cutouts in the handle, and yes, it says made in china on the bottom of it.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars WVCapsfan says:

    Oooh, the FLIR E60. Found seven of them sold on eBay for $4199 to $6660 brand new with case. Would love to have one for working on cars to visualize engine block cooling and heat distribution. Great video. Thanks again, Dave!!

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars ACA332 says:

    I bought a set of Extech branded multimeters, one is a clamp on and the other a standard style. After some time, the standard meter refused to make any voltage readings. The clamp on continually resets itself seconds after being turned on, and if used in continuity mode will continually reset when it beeps.

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars insonicbloom says:

    don't be such a pussy, for fucks sake.

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Gregg Jaskiewicz says:

    looks like that calibrator is not really that great ?

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Gregg Jaskiewicz says:

    Would you mind David, not calling some of your viewers by the W word, it would be greatly appreciated.

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Foo Haa says:

    No other place in internet to watch something like this. Thnx Dave!

  18. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars ForViewingOnly says:

    Interesting video. Some tasty test gear on display here. I just looked up the price of that FLIR E60, and… ouch!

  19. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars erlendse says:

    And next.. body temperature calibration to a known reference?

  20. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars FrozenHaxor says:

    Yap, WAAAAAAANKERS

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