The new Tooltop T7 with 'claimed' 256 x 192 sensor. Genuine 256 x 192? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Liam G
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2024, 02:08:22 pm
content: I'm seeing mixed/negative opinions in customer comments, but who knows where they're coming from.Seems to be a gap in the YouTube-market for a detailed review/test of this device, if anyone here is interested.

author: tankslapper
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 29, 2024, 09:30:59 pm
content: I ordered one from Aliexpress before Christmas. When it arrived, the neutral field calibration shutter appeared to be stuck, so it kept trying to calibrate with it open which made the image unusable. I had no issue returning it - they gave me a UK address to send it to and the refund was done fairly quickly after they got it back.It definitely did have a 256 x 192 resolution however.I have since ordered a Tooltop T256, since that was by then at a lower price. That also has the same resolution and that is working fine - it has the Tiny1-C core and also works with the Infiray P2 Pro app as well as the Topdon TC001 app.They are both manufactured by Shenzhen Dianyang Technology Co, who make a variety of thermal imaging products. The Tooltop T7 is on their website listed as the model H2FB:https://www.dyt-ir.com/h2fb-mobile-thermal-camera-product/The T256 I have is called H2F. They also make a lower resolution variant of both.

author: Liam G
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 29, 2024, 11:44:41 pm
content: @tankslapperThanks for all that.Could you name some other 256x192 cameras that you've used and can say are comparable in terms of image quality?Personally, I own a Guide PC210.

author: tankslapper
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 30, 2024, 09:21:11 pm
content: I haven't directly used any others with the same resolution. I have used a Flir One however (not sure if it was first or second generation) and this one produces far superior thermal images. That is slightly offset by the Flir edge overlay feature, but I don't find that to be necessary with the better resolution. Having 25Hz refresh is also quite nice.From what I've seen people post, I think these cameras which use the same sensor are all pretty much the same in hardware, but the software does differ between them. They all do things slightly differently, but none of them do everything I want. The one supplied with the Tooltop one is I think the same as with the Victor VC328B and the Mileseey TR256i. It is functional but a bit quirky. The image is a bit more raw and has less processing than the P2 Pro or Topdon app so images with narrower temperature spans look more noisy, whereas the others produce a more smooth image.The P2 Pro app is the one I use most often because it saves images which include the raw thermal data as well, and that allows you to post process them with software.There is an opening for someone to make an an app for these cameras which does all the basics properly - things like setting a fixed span for the scale easily, and saving images oriented properly according to how you hold the phone. All of these current apps are somewhat buggy and have flaws in how they go about doing things, which could be corrected quite easily with a bit of thought. They all seem to have been written to provide something that 'works' rather than a polished product.That said, for the price I'm quite happy with the capabilities of it, and it's perfectly OK for doing things like spotting missing insulation and damp patches and general geekery etc. If you want something more repeatable and customisable then that's where using external PC software or a more polished product like Flir would probably be better.

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2024, 09:45:56 pm
content: Does the Tooltop T256 allow manual setting of the span?

author: Veteran68
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2024, 10:17:50 pm
content: The Uni-T UTi260B/690B cameras are 256x192, and are quite popular. At least when they came out, they were the best camera on the market for the price. Lots of competition since then so not sure if that still holds true, but one YouTuber said it was practically as good as his $3K Flir camera and he wished it had been available when he bought his Flir.I've had the UTi690B for awhile now and it works well for me. If I had a complaint it would be the vertical/portrait display orientation. I'd prefer a landscape orientation.And FWIW, you can open it up, solder in a pin header, and use a TTL to USB serial adapter to get a console to manipulate and unbrick it should a firmware update go bad. There's a thread or two here on that. I rescued mine that way. Banggood is the exclusive distributor of the 690B model (it's just a whitelabeled 260B) and they provide support directly, rather than Uni-T. Banggood support sent me a v2 firmware upgrade that bricked my v1 hardware model. I was able to recover it from the guidance in those threads.

author: tankslapper
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 31, 2024, 04:00:49 pm
content: Quote from: PlainName on January 30, 2024, 09:45:56 pmYes, kind of. The native app lets you adjust the span with sliders which is kind of like adjusting the black and white points on a digital camera. You can't directly set a fixed span though, eg by setting an exact maximum and minimum temperature. Here's an example:The limitation with it is that the adjustment is not setting the actual temperature span, but is limiting the spectrum to a percentage of the minimum and maximum temperatures in the image. This works OK if the image is static, but if something moves into or out of the frame that changes the overall temperature range, then you end up with a span covering a different range.The P2 pro app doesn't allow you to do that at all though. If you modify the span in that, then instead of adjusting the span so the whole spectrum is used between the temperatures you set, it instead clips the values above and below, which is not very useful:Sorry for the rotated images, but you should get the point. The attachment handling in this forum software is annoying.

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2024, 05:08:51 pm
content: Thank youAlthough the manual setting initially looks useful, your description says it's not really (for my application).One of the things I found a fixed span good for is detecting damp in my office roof. I set the minimum span (can't remember the rangs offhand, but it's a couple or few degrees) and the major part of the roof is orange. Pan the camera and the damp bits jump out as purple. But with auto-range, as you pan the colours change according to the average in view, and the damp just doesn't stand out any more.So I don't mind the cut-off type (in fact, that might even help), but once the colours are set for a range of temperatures they have to stay that way regardless.

author: tankslapper
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 31, 2024, 07:39:50 pm
content: Yes all the apps I have tried with it have limitations of one sort of another. It needs someone to make an open source android app which addresses basic functionality like that. Unfortunately that's not within my skillset or I'd give it a go.It's like the devs for the existing ones wrote what they thought would be useful without actually trying to use it in practice.

author: LooseJunkHater
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 25, 2024, 04:55:56 pm
content: Old thread but I ended up buying the Tooltop T7 and use it with the P2 Pro app. It's a really nice thermal camera for ~100USD. The pixels appear to be very closely matched. Previously I was using a Seek micro USB thermal camera and the pixels were really NOT matched, so the temperature differences between pixels was very noticeable. This has been a great upgrade for me personally.

author: ArcSin
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 25, 2024, 05:40:17 pm
content: The camera supposedly has Tiny1-c core? how can it be, wherever I look, the core retails at 300+ buckaroos, while this camera retails as low as 180 dollhairs?Is this one of those "economy of scale" things, where we lesser beings must pay premium for daring so much as bother the noble manufacturers and must go trough retailer as a good liter consumer we are... or am I looking at wrong places.

author: Onehundredballs
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: June 07, 2024, 07:01:43 am
content: Hey I've just purchased one myself, do you have any longer distance images taken with it? Curious to see the quality for sporting wildlife.

author: LooseJunkHater
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2024, 12:53:53 am
content: Here's various thermal images taken in my backyard.Image ~10cm away from a PCBImage of a landscape with a tree ~100M in the distance (straight ahead), a building to the left at a closer distance, and a gazebo taking up most of the front of the frame.My cat walking around in my backyard, ~2MMy cat walking around in the backyard, ~3M, hidden behind various objectsA close-up image of an Apple Magsafe 2 charger (45w?), previously under a high load but allowed to cool down, ~5cm, outside of its plastic enclosure

author: czullo
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: July 01, 2024, 07:33:55 am
content: Does anyone know where I can find the rubber (probably) lens holder for this model, or what it is called so i can look for it? I found this in a comment on aliexpress lens so I cannot ask the owner when he found/bought this. lens island cover is 21mm so this must be probably 20mm

author: enut11
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2024, 12:02:23 am
content: I made my own macro lens holder for my Tooltop T7 from balsa wood. You could also 3D print one or even make it out of cardboard. I used a neoprene O-ring to support the new lens and a cut-down clear plastic cap from a spray bottle. Distance from the original T7 lens does not appear to be critical. Cost of macro lens was only $11AUD from Aliexpress.

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2024, 08:18:44 am
content: Neat!

author: enut11
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 05, 2024, 03:24:22 am
content: Reduced the minimum focus distance of the T7 from about 300mm to around 50mm.

author: vinny2020
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: September 19, 2024, 05:03:25 pm
content: Which one would you go for between TOOLTOP T7 vs TOPDON TC001 ?

author: fritze
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 20, 2024, 04:48:46 pm
content: My new Tooltop T7 is making a clicking noise (from calibration) every 5 seconds and the video freezes for about one second.Is this normal?I have read that it should do a calibration only every 10 seconds.Thank you very much for your help!

author: ArsenioDev
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2024, 06:08:48 pm
content: Yeah that's NUC (Non-uniformity correction) shutter.It will slow down as thermal equilibrium is reached

author: fritze
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 21, 2024, 02:29:14 pm
content: Thank you very much!You are right, it does click less when the camera is working for a longer time.

author: jackwhite
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: December 13, 2024, 11:31:28 pm
content: Does anyone know if the ToolTop USB-C devices are compatible with iOS?I know they list only Android as compatible, but EEVBlog seems to be the only source of information from a google search.There is a P2 app on the app store, FWIW..

author: mc84
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 20, 2025, 01:55:38 pm
content: Does the Tooltop T7 work in Windows at all? Has anyone tried?

author: LooseJunkHater
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2025, 03:18:10 pm
content: Quote from: mc84 on January 20, 2025, 01:55:38 pmDevice manager recognizes it as a "USB Camera", and the default Windows Camera app works with it in the black-white mode. Not 100% sure how to change the colours however. Plugged it in directly to the USB C port on my laptop. Image attached.Hardware ID:USB\VID_0BDA&PID_5840&REV_1303&MI_00USB\VID_0BDA&PID_5840&MI_00

author: denned
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 29, 2025, 08:32:47 pm
content: Consult please. Is it possible to update the firmware in TOLTOP T7?

author: mc84
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 10, 2025, 09:49:45 am
content: Thanks for confirming! Wondering if it could be used with the likes of Temp master from Thermal Master website? Or SharpInfraredAnalyzer? It would be interesting to try.

author: adrianbravom18
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: April 26, 2025, 01:08:52 pm
content: I have purchased this camera with a macro lens and a bag, it works on MacOs in split view, i can also confirm it works with Android apps like Temp Master, P2 pro, etc (It is recognized as a P2 Pro). It doesn't work on iOS, iPadOS.This is the AliExpress product link in case anyone wonders:https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008077894235.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.4e301802iUy2Xe

author: justJack
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 27, 2025, 12:26:33 pm
content: I just got this camera and it does the clicking/calibrating every 5 seconds, which i read is normal until it warms up.Sensor and image quality is really good for it's price, i got it for 130 euro with some aliexpress discounts.Anyone tried using a microusb to usbc adapter? I have a cheap adapter but it didn't work, will it work with a OTG adapter?LE: I bought a Essager OTG adapter and it works:https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007618338606.html

author: adrianbravom18
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 10:08:05 pm
content: I have it connected to my raspberry pi zero 2 W using a micro-usb to usb-c adapter, working fine as expected (since camera uses USB 2.0, it shouldn't matter connector is micro-usb or usb-c).