how to power up L3 thermal eye 640x480 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: geggen
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2024, 07:34:28 am
content: I have bought an thermal camera , i think it is an thermal eye 640 core inside. It has an 8 pin connector. Does anybody know the pinout diagram to this camera ? And whats the name of the camera?

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2024, 12:55:15 pm
content: It is an L3 core.You could try contacting the OP in this thread for details of how to get it running. Likely just power and video out and that can be identified by reverse engineering the connections to the PCB connector.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/thermal-eye-17-640-nuc-problem/Fraser

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2024, 01:07:18 pm
content: Confirmed, she is the L3 17-640 thermal core released in 2009…..https://www.photonics.com/Products/Thermal_Imager/pr40684Sadly I doubt L3 will be willing to provide technical information to you on this core as it has military applications associated with it.Fraser

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2024, 01:15:47 pm
content: As a side note… please be very cautious if you decide to sell any of these cores. They are still a controlled USA product.Fraser

author: Bill W
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2024, 04:59:43 pm
content: Quote from: Fraser on February 28, 2024, 12:55:15 pmThe second picture Fraser posted shows J1 - a 20 way connector that goes to the 8 way socket.Can you get an image of that with the plug in place ?It is just that the 4500AS also had a 20 way external interface connector of that type. Could be the same pinout - but no guarantees.Just from the colours you'd guess red +ve, black - ve and the tightly wound yellow / black is the video out.If it follows the 4500AS, there is however a soft controlled on/off.Bill

author: geggen
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2024, 12:07:02 pm
content: Sorry for late reply, here are some pictures

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 04, 2024, 05:09:12 pm
content: Originally armoured vehicle mounted ?Fraser

author: geggen
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2024, 07:59:44 am
content: I dont know where it has been mounted , but maybe on an armored car.Is this an 24v camera ?I have found out + and - voltage in, and i think video is black and yellow. But the green ,gray , blue and purple i dont know.Maybe black hot/white hot ?Is there any zoom option on this camera maybe ?

author: Bill W
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2024, 11:25:12 am
content: So far a match for the AS4500 pinout.Have the grey , blue and purple wires fallen out of the 20 way ?If not you'd have to assume they are signals NOT provided on the 20 way and need to go looking where they go on the PCB.Could be the 640 had a slightly different pinout, eg separate USB ?WARNING Attached is the pinout for AS4500. Use on any other core is at your own risk.

author: geggen
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2024, 02:01:19 pm
content: Thanks for the info, the board look like this

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2024, 02:50:06 pm
content: Have you tried just plugging a USB power supply into the USB socket ? That may well power the camera as it would be used for configuration. Once powered you can then confirm the video output. As Bill-W has stated, the camera may need a pin on the I/O connector to be grounded to switch it on. The USB input may switch the camera on automatically. The Thermal Eye configuration utility comes in several versions and the later versions cover multiple camera cores. From memory they covered up to the 4500 series cores but may potentially talk to the L3 640 core.There was also a special version of the configuration utility created for communications with the EoTech X320 and X640 thermal scopes (from the L3 X series lineage) but I found it incompatible with standard L3 Thermal Eye cores. It might work with your L3 640 core though.Finding any of the configuration utilities will not be easy however as they are controlled release.The X320/640 manual…….https://www.manualslib.com/manual/993576/Eotech-X320.html#manualFraser

author: geggen
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2024, 04:00:03 pm
content: I managed to get the camera to work now, pretty clear image. To use the manual shutter and zoom , black/white hot. I only need to touch this wires to GND? ground?

author: geggen
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 05, 2024, 04:03:49 pm
content: clear image for an so small sensor