FLIR inspection camera or similar

[Andrew Morrow]

Charley is looking for some help with a misbehaving 3D printer.  One outrageously awesome but hellishly expensive device I've used is the FLIR TG165 when diagnosing a large format (2mx2m build area) printer that had a multi-part heated bed where one of the resistive heaters had died.  The thermal spread of the (ONE INCH!!!!) thick aluminum print bed meant it was difficult to identify which PCB had failed.  Luckily, the FLIR saw right through the bed and we were able to identify which of the 6 PCBs had died.   I suspect an issue with uneven heating in this instance, and if anyone has a thermal camera that can make it into the shop Monday the 27th in the evening, it would be very appreciated!

[Charley Jones]

Appreciated Andrew. This Printrbot Simple is PLA metal bed no heat. So very simple. One prints perfectly, the other evil, prints lift. Just trying to figure out why.

[Vanessa Wilbur]

I don't have a thermal camera for assessing, but I run the budget for 3D.  If we know something is broken, send me a link to the product and we can just purchase a new one. 

On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 10:56 AM, Andrew Morrow <amo...@gmail.com> wrote:

Charley is looking for some help with a misbehaving 3D printer.  One outrageously awesome but hellishly expensive device I've used is the FLIR TG165 when diagnosing a large format (2mx2m build area) printer that had a multi-part heated bed where one of the resistive heaters had died.  The thermal spread of the (ONE INCH!!!!) thick aluminum print bed meant it was difficult to identify which PCB had failed.  Luckily, the FLIR saw right through the bed and we were able to identify which of the 6 PCBs had died.   I suspect an issue with uneven heating in this instance, and if anyone has a thermal camera that can make it into the shop Monday the 27th in the evening, it would be very appreciated!

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Vanessa Wilbur
SYN Shop
1075 American Pacific Dr Ste C
Henderson, NV  89074

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[nate t]

I have a Seek Thermal camera, it's not the greatest thermal camera, but it works. I can bring it down to the shop Monday.

@Andrew - What time will you be there?

[Andrew Morrow]

It looks like it won't be helpful in this case, though I really appreciate the offer!  As it turns out, I utterly neglected to read Charley's message properly, and there isn't s heated bed available.    It MIGHT be a solid idea for the shop to buy (and tether to the nearest concrete pillar) a quality FLIR unit like the EX or EXX.  They're dead useful for everything from identifying traces that have been etched too thin and need to be beefed up on a PCB to identifying components that are either failing due to being under spec or perhaps are behind a short that isn't easily located with the old "probe and pray" approach.   I was able to locate a COUNTERFEIT stepper driver chip on a CNC controller that was getting twice as hot as it's genuine neighbors and causing hot stalls with an, admittedly $14,000, FLIR T460.  Anyhoo - thanks Nate, but false alarm, and I'd be interested to hear from anyone who thinks the shop might benefit from a reasonably good IR inspection camera, or who has more experience than I do with them.  

Andrew