Beginner Question: Lepton 3.5 - What board to buy and software to use.

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Magnús Pétur Bjarnason Obinah

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Jul 8, 2018, 7:25:35 PM7/8/18
to Flir Lepton
Hi,

Newbie question here, please bear with me.

I have been working with the FLIR ONE Pro on Android and am now trying to put together a unit based on Lepton 3.5 + Some-kind-of-board (possibly PT2 or other, hope you can help me out) that can stream to an android device.
My initial plan was for the unit to be connected via USB to a raspberry pi, that would 1. control the lepton camera and 2. stream the output to the android device using gstreamer or via VNC.

From what I've read, the PT2 can stream video from the lepton unit as if it were webcam (UVC), but I cannot seem to find any information on what software I can run on the raspberry to actually control the Lepton 3.5, in order to stream the video that I want (need to be able to set and lock temperature range, force re-calibration etc. = the basic functions). Is this at all possible using PT2 board or is it for streaming-only and do I need to look at the classic breakout board instead?

If it is possible using PT2, what software should/could I use to control the unit?

-

Another question that might make the first one unnecessary: Is it possible using PT2 or some other method, to plug the lepton 3.5 directly to an android device via USB, and control the unit via an existing android app?
I realize that it might seem much easier to just use the FLIR ONE with an extension cable, but for my project I really need to minimize the size of the unit being used, and I only need the thermal data (not MSX).

Thank you beforehand!

- Magnús


Pure Engineering

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Jul 9, 2018, 3:58:03 PM7/9/18
to Magnús Pétur Bjarnason Obinah, Flir Lepton
I have done some basic testing with the PT2 and Android. 
the UVC usb driver works on some phones. I have mostly only tested google phones. 

now the got-ya is mostly in the resolution as 80x60 and 160x120 are non native resolutions.  So you will have to have a custom app that knows what to do with them.  Also the phone kernel needs to know about usb UVC cameras.  you can always buy a cheap generic UVC webcam to test out a phone first. then if that works, then the PT2 should work with a custom app as well. 


Also, if you work with the pt2, we have a smaller ptmini version in the works so its going to be tiny.. (less IO and no JTAG) but microUSB for DFU flashing and USB UVC, same binary image as the PT2. 







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Sashi Ono
Principal Embedded Systems Engineer

Pure Engineering

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Jul 9, 2018, 4:01:07 PM7/9/18
to Magnús Pétur Bjarnason Obinah, Flir Lepton
also in terms of side channel communications over the UVC. look at the get thermal app. https://github.com/groupgets/GetThermal
This shows you how do do the non video communications. 
you will need to write this for android though... but the getThermal code should help a bunch. 



Magnús Pétur Bjarnason Obinah

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Jul 23, 2018, 9:53:19 AM7/23/18
to Flir Lepton
Hi Sashi,

Thank you very much for the reply!

A direct USB link to an android device would be perfect for my application, but I was hoping that there was an android app already capable of speaking with the PT2 board to control the settings for the stream, as my programming skills would fall short in regards to developing one myself. Before committing to this and looking for outside help for development, I would like to test the setup first, and as far as I can see the easiest way to do this would be with a Raspberry Pi.

Can you tell me if I use GetThermal with the PT2 + Lepton 3.5 + Raspberry Pi, is there a way to stream the video output only (not the whole interface or desktop) to another device, using (on the host device) some kind of software (either GetThermal app or another program) that allows for basic controls of the output (color palette etc.)?

- Magnús


On Monday, July 9, 2018 at 9:58:03 PM UTC+2, Pure Engineering wrote:
I have done some basic testing with the PT2 and Android. 
the UVC usb driver works on some phones. I have mostly only tested google phones. 

now the got-ya is mostly in the resolution as 80x60 and 160x120 are non native resolutions.  So you will have to have a custom app that knows what to do with them.  Also the phone kernel needs to know about usb UVC cameras.  you can always buy a cheap generic UVC webcam to test out a phone first. then if that works, then the PT2 should work with a custom app as well. 


Also, if you work with the pt2, we have a smaller ptmini version in the works so its going to be tiny.. (less IO and no JTAG) but microUSB for DFU flashing and USB UVC, same binary image as the PT2. 






On Sun, Jul 8, 2018 at 4:25 PM, Magnús Pétur Bjarnason Obinah <magnus.b...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,

Newbie question here, please bear with me.

I have been working with the FLIR ONE Pro on Android and am now trying to put together a unit based on Lepton 3.5 + Some-kind-of-board (possibly PT2 or other, hope you can help me out) that can stream to an android device.
My initial plan was for the unit to be connected via USB to a raspberry pi, that would 1. control the lepton camera and 2. stream the output to the android device using gstreamer or via VNC.

From what I've read, the PT2 can stream video from the lepton unit as if it were webcam (UVC), but I cannot seem to find any information on what software I can run on the raspberry to actually control the Lepton 3.5, in order to stream the video that I want (need to be able to set and lock temperature range, force re-calibration etc. = the basic functions). Is this at all possible using PT2 board or is it for streaming-only and do I need to look at the classic breakout board instead?

If it is possible using PT2, what software should/could I use to control the unit?

-

Another question that might make the first one unnecessary: Is it possible using PT2 or some other method, to plug the lepton 3.5 directly to an android device via USB, and control the unit via an existing android app?
I realize that it might seem much easier to just use the FLIR ONE with an extension cable, but for my project I really need to minimize the size of the unit being used, and I only need the thermal data (not MSX).

Thank you beforehand!

- Magnús


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Magnús Pétur Bjarnason Obinah

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Jul 23, 2018, 9:53:57 AM7/23/18
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ps: do you have an ETA on the ptmini version?


On Monday, July 9, 2018 at 9:58:03 PM UTC+2, Pure Engineering wrote:
I have done some basic testing with the PT2 and Android. 
the UVC usb driver works on some phones. I have mostly only tested google phones. 

now the got-ya is mostly in the resolution as 80x60 and 160x120 are non native resolutions.  So you will have to have a custom app that knows what to do with them.  Also the phone kernel needs to know about usb UVC cameras.  you can always buy a cheap generic UVC webcam to test out a phone first. then if that works, then the PT2 should work with a custom app as well. 


Also, if you work with the pt2, we have a smaller ptmini version in the works so its going to be tiny.. (less IO and no JTAG) but microUSB for DFU flashing and USB UVC, same binary image as the PT2. 






On Sun, Jul 8, 2018 at 4:25 PM, Magnús Pétur Bjarnason Obinah <magnus.b...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,

Newbie question here, please bear with me.

I have been working with the FLIR ONE Pro on Android and am now trying to put together a unit based on Lepton 3.5 + Some-kind-of-board (possibly PT2 or other, hope you can help me out) that can stream to an android device.
My initial plan was for the unit to be connected via USB to a raspberry pi, that would 1. control the lepton camera and 2. stream the output to the android device using gstreamer or via VNC.

From what I've read, the PT2 can stream video from the lepton unit as if it were webcam (UVC), but I cannot seem to find any information on what software I can run on the raspberry to actually control the Lepton 3.5, in order to stream the video that I want (need to be able to set and lock temperature range, force re-calibration etc. = the basic functions). Is this at all possible using PT2 board or is it for streaming-only and do I need to look at the classic breakout board instead?

If it is possible using PT2, what software should/could I use to control the unit?

-

Another question that might make the first one unnecessary: Is it possible using PT2 or some other method, to plug the lepton 3.5 directly to an android device via USB, and control the unit via an existing android app?
I realize that it might seem much easier to just use the FLIR ONE with an extension cable, but for my project I really need to minimize the size of the unit being used, and I only need the thermal data (not MSX).

Thank you beforehand!

- Magnús


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Magnús Pétur Bjarnason Obinah

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Jul 23, 2018, 10:15:08 AM7/23/18
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pps: I can see that this guy was trying to do streaming of the output but had difficulties (never seemed to succeed): https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/flir-lepton/oUG8CjNxDlw - Has this gotten better since 2016, and if so, how would one go about controlling the color palette of the stream?
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