Pulled the trigger

slvervper99 · Apr 1, 2018

While not really drone related, I have been going back and forth and talking about connecting this to my Iphone and juryrig my iphone to the landing gear of the XSP and flying it while filming on the iphone, I guess I'll see if it is worth it for me.
Expected to arrive tomorrow, my Seek Thermal XR - it was between this or the Flir One and this seems to have better reviews. I'm not picky or technical and I amuse easily. I can always return this within 30 days if this is not what I expected. and I really don't care if I have to register a couple of times to use this. I think I have to register the device in order to use the app but not sure - some people have complained about that though.

Goober · Apr 1, 2018

Interested in seeing your results...

KentA · Apr 1, 2018

Yeah, keep us updated on how that goes.
I used a Flir extensively before I retired for energy audits & electrical inspections. It is astounding what you can discover.

Wildseyed · Apr 2, 2018

For any future adopters of these cameras, I would recommended that you buy the Android version with USB OTG. That is, if you want to hack around with it. The iPhone version of the SeekThermal cannot be used with PC/Raspberry Pi/Android (duh!), which limits what you can do with it out of the box. It might be possible to use a thunderbolt to USB adapter, but I don't know. AFAIK, the iPhone version only works with the Seek app. You might get a little better use by adding the TeamViewer app to the mix, to add remote access to the iPhone, so you can control the camera in-flight. This might require paying for a TeamViewer comercial license. There are other remote apps that are free I'm sure.

The best thermal solution for drone mounting right now would be the SeekThermal, with a Raspberry Pi Zero WiFi. You only need add a 5-6 VDC battery, and you can use the HDMI out from the Pi Zero to send back live video to standard FPV goggles.

Of course I'm oversimplifying all of this. You need to install drivers on the PI to get images from the camera. You also need to run a minimal graphical desktop in order to be able to send video to the HDMI out of the Pi Zero, not to mention you need to also buy an HDMI to analog FPV converter (not very common anymore). Alternative option is to stream video over WiFi using WiFi Broadcast.

slvervper99 · Apr 3, 2018

I received the Thermal camera yesterday, hooked it up to my iphone and worked great at least in my opinion. I was not able to attach it to the drone since I can't fly the drone, currently raining outside here in Plainfield, Illinois. But I did take a very short vid - mind you that my hand is about 2-3 feet away from the camera.
The weird clicking sound if from the thermal camera. Not sure what that is.

skyhiranger · Apr 10, 2018

slvervper99 said:
While not really drone related, I have been going back and forth and talking about connecting this to my Iphone and juryrig my iphone to the landing gear of the XSP and flying it while filming on the iphone, I guess I'll see if it is worth it for me.
Expected to arrive tomorrow, my Seek Thermal XR - it was between this or the Flir One and this seems to have better reviews. I'm not picky or technical and I amuse easily. I can always return this within 30 days if this is not what I expected. and I really don't care if I have to register a couple of times to use this. I think I have to register the device in order to use the app but not sure - some people have complained about that though.

I have one of these for my iphone too. I have not attached my phone to my drone (and don't plan to).
If you haven't figured it out, you do not have to register to use it. Just click on "not now" or "maybe later" or whatever the option is.

skyhiranger · Apr 10, 2018

slvervper99 said:
I received the Thermal camera yesterday, hooked it up to my iphone and worked great at least in my opinion. I was not able to attach it to the drone since I can't fly the drone, currently raining outside here in Plainfield, Illinois. But I did take a very short vid - mind you that my hand is about 2-3 feet away from the camera.

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The weird clicking sound if from the thermal camera. Not sure what that is.