InfiRay P2 Pro and TOPDON TC001 Thermal Cameras Capsule Review

The buyer thermal digital camera market was opened up within the late 2010s by the launch of Search Thermal’s first providing and FLIR’s FLIR ONE / FLIR ONE Professional. These had comparatively excessive resolutions of 206×156 and 160×120, which allowed the businesses to additional reduce down the price of follow-up merchandise with lower-resolution sensors. US rules forestall these cameras from providing movies with body charges larger than 9 Hz, however that’s usually loads sufficient for all kinds of shopper use-cases resembling residence inspection (each electrical and plumbing), rodent management and so on. The final couple of years have seen a brand new crop of thermal cameras from Asian distributors that aren’t topic to border charge limitations. Two distributors – InfiRay and TOPDON – reached out with assessment samples of their consumer-focused smartphone-attachable thermal cameras. This capsule assessment offers a comparative take a look at the options of the InfiRay P2 Professional and the TOPDON TC001, with a deal with the consumer expertise side.

Introduction and Product Impressions

InfiRay is the model title underneath which merchandise manufactured by IRay Know-how Co. are being marketed. The corporate has been in operation for the final decade and claims many patents associated to thermal imaging. The corporate designs and manufactures its personal thermal imaging sensors utilizing microbolometer infrared focal airplane array know-how. The fundamentals of microbolometer sensors have already been coated in our earlier thermal digital camera opinions, and aren’t being repeated right here.

The P2 Professional is an ultra-compact smartphone-attachable thermal imager with a 256×192 decision. It sports activities a Kind-C male interface, and measures simply 9g in weight. The temperature measurement vary is from -4F to 1112F. It could possibly report movies at as much as 25 Hz. InfiRay claims an operational energy consumption of lower than 400 mW. The product additionally features a magnetic macro lens that enables thermal investigation of minute elements resembling these on a circuit board. An extension cable (Kind-C feminine to Kind-C male) can also be supplied for flexibility in picture seize.

TOPDON is a vendor of automotive gear together with ADAS packages, battery instruments, EV chargers, and diagnostic instruments (together with thermal cameras). It’s a lot bigger than the InfiRay P2 Professional, however has the identical IR decision of 256×192. It weighs 30g, and measures 71mm x 42mm x 14mm. The temperature measurement vary is from -4F to 1022F. Included within the bundle is a 50cm USB cable with a Kind-C feminine port at one finish, and a Kind-C male with an connected Kind-C feminine to Kind-A male adapter.

Whereas each the P2 Professional and the TOPDON TC001 have their very own Android functions, TOPDON additionally offers the Home windows-based TCView software for picture / video seize and evaluation.

The core technical specs of each the InfiRay P2 Professional and the TOPDON TC001 are very related. The desk above presents a comparative view of the P2 Professional and the TC001 towards different cameras focusing on related market segments.

Utility Interfaces and Pattern Photographs

The InfiRay P2 Professional and the TOPDON TC001 determine themselves as USB cameras when related to a PC. The seller and gadget identifiers level to a Realtek bridge chip / microcontroller within the bundle. The items generate 256×384 streams, and the precise picture knowledge is 256×192 (which might be considered by applications like guvcview on Ubuntu). The opposite 256×192 stream is the temperature knowledge.

Open-source software program primarily based on a reverse-engineered model of the picture construction can also be out there for viewing stay feeds from these thermal cameras. We put that to check and located that it managed to supply perception into the information from the cameras with out having to put in any closed-source software program.

We’re at present engaged on extending the software program to have the ability to learn and put out actionable data from pictures and movies recorded utilizing the respective smartphone functions.

The galleries under current some screenshots of the InfiRay P2 Professional and the TOPDON TC001 Android apps

Because the inner platforms for each thermal cameras are the identical, it’s no shock that the completely different menu choices all find yourself configuring the identical facets. Typically, we discovered the TOPDON TC001 app to be extra intuitive, whereas the P2 Professional had most choices hidden away underneath sub-menus. General, each functions allowed clear visualization of temperature gradients.

The picture and video high quality, in addition to temperature readings for a similar scenes, have been related for each the P2 Professional and the TC001. Some pattern photographs are offered within the above galleries. We additionally captured some movies and so they stored up with the marketed body charges, apart from the periodic calibration durations.

The P2 Professional’s macro lens does allow a differentiation – it’s attainable to take close-up photos of PCBs underneath operation much like the one above.

Concluding Remarks

The InfiRay P2 Professional and the TOPDON TC001 use the identical thermal imaging sensor, however goal completely different market segments. The TOPDON TC001 is a little more cumbersome, however comes with a extra versatile extension cable and related software program interface. The provision of a Home windows program to interface with the TC001 is a giant plus for automotive restore outlets, as most of them run different associated software program on that platform. The P2 Professional focuses on the final shopper market and digital restore outlets. Its compact and light-weight nature is a bonus within the former section. The macro lens helps in figuring out areas of shorts or defective elements in small PCBs.

Each cameras use the identical picture sensor and USB bridge / microcontroller. The provision of publicly documented APIs for the TOPDON TC001 leads to the identical being relevant to the InfiRay P2 Professional additionally. Even with out these APIs, the temperature storage format has been reverse-engineered, and a proof-of-concept open-source software program interface is already out there. There isn’t a want to put in closed-source software program so as to entry and analyze the recorded movies and images.

Whereas the picture high quality is superb, and sensor measurement for the worth is kind of good, we’re not fully satisfied by the accuracy of temperature measurements underneath automated calibration. It’s attainable that tweaked emissivity settings could ship higher outcomes, however we noticed the FLIR ONE Professional underneath related default circumstances ship rather more correct outcomes. That is a side that wants additional investigation. That mentioned, most shopper thermal digital camera functions require the commentary of temperature gradients reasonably than absolutely the values. For such use-cases, thermal cameras such because the InfiRay P2 Professional and the TOPDON TC001 present glorious worth for cash within the $200 – $300 worth bracket.

One other side that deserves point out previous to wrap up is the provision of 25 Hz thermal digital camera movies at very inexpensive worth factors for the patron market. US-based producers resembling FLIR and Search Thermal could must work on getting previous the artificially-imposed 9 Hz limitation if they’re to stay aggressive towards the choices from IRay Applied sciences within the international market.