EYE ON NPI - Teledyne FLIR Lepton® 3.1R Pocket-Sized Thermal Camera

Adafruit Industries

This week's EYE ON NPI knows where New York Hottest Club is at, it's the Teledyne FLIR Lepton® 3.1R Pocket-Sized Thermal Camera (https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/t/teledyne-flir/pocket-sized-thermal-camera), a bite-sized full-featured video camera for remote thermal measurements. With a resolution of 160x120 pixels, remote temperature measurements of -40°C to +300°C, and the size of a coin, this camera can be embedded into any kind of product, whether it's running Linux, RTOS or a plain old microcontroller. Thermal cameras are multi-purpose, with usage in medical, industrial, construction, maintenance and security industries. Use them to make sure equipment is running at the right temperature and not overheating, that insulation for a room is performing adequately, locating people or animals, or detecting fevers without touching. FLIR makes the best low-cost, small-size thermal cameras and they're available off-the-shelf at DigiKey for quick integration. Each camera outputs either a simple grayscale-valued frame or one with a false-color RGB888 palette - the palette can be configured over I2C. The Lepton 3.1R is one of a series of cameras available from FLIR, including the Lepton 2 and 3.5. What's great is all have the same physical pinout and shape that can plug into a socket. This is great for manufacturing yield and field repair: the expensive module is placed last in the manufacturing line so earlier yield issues don't affect it. Also you can swap different resolution/FOV modules to customize for the end-user. For example, the Lepton 2 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/flir-lepton/500-0763-01/6250105) is a little less expensive but has only 80x60 pixels. Or you can upgrade to the Lepton 3.5 (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/flir-lepton/500-0771-01/7606616) with similar resolution but a narrower FOV. Note that the FOV will affect the distortion greatly: a wider FOV requires a lens to focus the IR emissions but will fisheye the middle and compress the edges. There's software from Teledyne FLIR (https://www.flir.com/developer/lepton-integration/lepton-3.1r-dewarping-application-note/) that will "de-warp" the 3.1R's output, using Open CV, to give you more realistic imagery. To learn how to work with these modules, we recommend the Lepton engineering integration guide (https://flir.netx.net/file/asset/13333/original/attachment). Unlike the simplest thermal camera modules and sensors, which use only I2C, or the most complex USB-video output devices, the Leptons use a combination on I2C for configuration - called the CCI Command and Control Interface - and SPI for VoSPI - a.k.a. video over SPI. This makes them possible to integrate with a wide range of microcontrollers or microcomputers. As mentioned before, you don't solder the cameras to the PCB. Instead they are plugged into a common Molex 1050281001 socket (https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/molex/1050281001/3045223) which is only $1 at DigiKey and comes on a pick-and-place reel. If you want to get started very quickly, DigiKey and GroupGets (https://www.digikey.com/en/supplier-centers/groupgets) have partnered up to offer a wide range of breakout boards, USB adapters and dev-boards that feature the Teledyne FLIR Leptons (https://www.digikey.com/short/2djrnzpr) GroupGets also published firmware and example code (https://github.com/orgs/groupgets/repositories?type=all) to get you started with their products so you can quickly evaluate the Lepton and make sure it will work and what resolution/FOV is ideal: simply swap the different models in and out of the Molex socket. GroupGets also works with makers to get their prototypes to market, working with DigiKey for part sourcing (https://www.digikey.com/en/blog/digikey-partners-with-groupgets-to-help-startups-getmade) so if you have an idea and need a help making it to production check them out! If you need a high-quality thermal camera that is plug-and-play, easy to integrate and at a great cost, the Teledyne FLIR Lepton 3.1R Pocket-Sized Thermal Camera is hot hot HOT and in stock right now for immediate purchase from DigiKey (https://www.digikey.com/short/0zr8w59q). Order today, pick up an eval board too, and you can be measuring the world around you by tomorrow afternoon. See on DigiKey at https://www.digikey.com/short/0zr8w59q See the manufacturer's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xsDuiq8eZc