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PiEyeR RaspiThermalCam

Portable Raspberry Pi AMG8833 Grid-Eye IR Thermal Camera

version 0.8.2 - 2017-12-03

Overview

The Adafruit AMG8833 IR Thermal Camera board can provide a “FLIR™”-like imaging camera at about 1/10th the price of previous IR Thermal imaging units. Of course, the resolution and sensitivity are not as high as more advanced cameras, but hey, for $39 it’s a great deal.

Note that IR Thermal Cameras are NOT the same as NOIR cameras. The former uses only the heat given off by the object being imaged, while the latter requires an infrared light source such as IR LEDs to illuminate the object.

With this project, I took the excellent Adafruit tutorial Raspberry Pi Thermal Camera by Dean Miller and added extra functionality to the software and hardware.

The PiTFT display uses Adafruit's custom Linux Kernel. (See below) This project only needs the Jessie Lite-based PiTFT Resitive Image, as it does not use the GUI.

New features:

  • Safely shutdown/power up Raspberry
  • Automatically runs software at powerup
  • Battery Powered for portability
  • Uses PiTFT GPIO buttons
  • Sensitivity controls
  • Screen snapshots
  • Potential for future additions

See Full Instructions in the RaspiThermalCam.pdf document

Zero Owners: A Raspberry Pi Zero can be used instead of a Pi 3, sacrificing speed. See the subdirectory RaspiThermalCam/Zero for details.

Requirements (summary)

NOTE: This project assumes the user has set up their Raspberry Pi using the Adafruit tutorial mentioned above, thus consists of:

  1. Raspberry Pi Thermal Camera
  • Adafruit AMG8833 IR Thermal Camera Breakout ID 3538
  1. It also specifically requires the Adafruit PiTFT Plus 2.8" 320x240 screen to be installed and running.
  1. Currently uses also:
  • Raspberry Pi 3, 4GB or larger micro SD card
  • 5V power supply, wiring, cables, etc.
  1. It DOES NOT require the Cobbler as mentioned, but does need a cable to connect the camera. I suggest:
  • Adafruit 40 Pin GPIO Cable ID 1988
  • Adafruit 2X20 Pin IDC Box Header ID 1993

Extras

  • Faceplate and case for PiTFT and Raspberry Pi 3 ID 2807
  • 5V external USB Battery (such as external cellphone rechargeable) with 2 amp output
  • Box to hold battery, computer and camera

Installation

Pre Raspbian Buster:

You MUST have the Adafruit tutorial version installed and working before using this. This project just replaces the Adafruit thermalcam.py with a new python program. IT WILL NOT WORK OTHERWISE.

Also, it expects the assembled version of the Adafruit 2.8" 320x240 PiTFT Plus screen otherwise the screen layout will NOT ALIGN and the GPIO buttons will NOT FUNCTION as expected. The Raspbian GUI is NOT NEEDED, so uses their custom Jessie Lite.

The camera should be facing forward, like a digital camera: LCD screen towards you and camera towards (hot) object.

  1. Log into the Raspberry Pi with SSH or keyboard (defaults to "pi/raspberry")
  2. Download and install the enhanced thermal program:
git clone https://github.com/rgrokett/RaspiThermalCam.git
cd RaspiThermalCam
./install.sh
sudo reboot

Raspbian Buster Lite:

Wire up the thermal camera sensor and the PiTFT as outlined in the PDF in this repository. Make the necessary changes to raspi-config as outlined in the same PDF.

  1. Log into the Raspberry Pi with SSH or keyboard (defaults to "pi/raspberry")
  2. Download and install the enhanced thermal program:
git clone https://github.com/tenbergen/RaspiThermalCam.git
cd RaspiThermalCam
chmod +x ./buster-install.sh
./buster-install.sh

This will install the PiTFT and thermal sensor driver, if necessary. During PiTFT driver installation, select "4" for 2.8" capacitive PiTFT, then select "1" for 90 degree rotation, then select "no" for console on screen, then select "yes" for mirror HDMI output. Finally, select "no" to reboot.

The installer script will continue with the RaspiThermalCam installation. When complete, type:

sudo reboot

Overlay Kiosk:

In raspi-config, activate camera. Then, install using buster-install.sh. Afterwards, type:

sudo pip3 install picamera
contab -e

and edit crontab to remove old script, and instead point to raspithermalcamoverlaykiosk.sh.

After Installation:

Once rebooted, you should see the new PiEyeR screen. See Troubleshooting if needed.

The 4 buttons on the TFT screen have been re-mapped to GPIO functions as shown:

  1. Safely Shutdown/Start up Raspberry (Does not remove 5V power, must be done usually via the 5V USB battery on/off switch)
  2. Increase Sensitivity (while in Camera Mode)
  3. Decrease Sensitivity (while in Camera Mode)
  4. Start/Stop Camera Mode

Snapshot

Due to a bug in the Python SDL library, the touch screen doesn’t currently work with PyGame software. So I used the tslib and a small custom C program to detect screen touches.

Unfortunately, this broke in Raspbian Buster. Otherwise, to take a screenshot of a thermal image, just touch anywhere on the touch screen. The screen will flash to let you know an image has been taken. Images are saved to the /home/pi/snapshot subdirectory as PNG files. These can be transferred to your PC using:

Mac/Linux: $ scp pi@YOUR_IP_ADDRESS :/home/pi/snapshot/*.png .

Windows: Use WinSCP program https://winscp.net/eng/download.php Connect using SFTP with user name pi and Host name YOUR_IP_ADDRESS Navigate to snapshot folder and select and download to your PC.

3D Print Case (early version)

The stl/ subdirectory contains 3D Printed front case parts for the camera. See the PDF document for details.

Future

  • Switch to using Raspberry Pi Zero W for lower cost & power/smaller size
  • Add new mode button features for middle buttons
  • Get pygame Touch Screen working for PiTFT

Troubleshooting

I don't see any new screen, only the boot messages and login.

Did you run the ./install.sh script? Try running $ crontab -l and see if you see a @reboot line:

@reboot sudo python /home/pi/RaspiThermalCam/raspitherm.py >/dev/null 2>&1

You did set up your Pi Thermal Camera as detailed in the Adafruit tutorial

I get a python error message Most likely there is a missing python package. The last line of the Python error should say what is missing. Try Googling that message. Else, leave an Issue here at Github.

My screen is mangled up, but the buttons seem to work Are you using the PiTFT Plus 2.8" 320x240 screen?

My buttons don't work or are on the bottom not side of the PiTFT You have a different screen. If you have GPIO buttons on botton of TFT, you can try remapping them in the raspitherm.py program.

The Touchscreen doesn't work Bugs in the SDL software used by pygame make for inconsistent operation of the touch screen. We have to wait for a better solution. This program doesn't use the touch, just buttons.

My Camera screen is all BLUE or all RED Press the Sensitivity buttons (middle two) to increase/decrease sensitivity

My Camera doesn't work Try manually running tools/thermal_cam.py program. This is the same program from Adafruit with no modifications. You may need to kill the raspitherm.py program first by editing the crontab:

crontab -e
comment out the @reboot line
#@reboot ...

What can I see with it? Find a cat. They glow hot! So do water heaters!