Leonardo DRS Infrared Tamarisk 320 Core tear down  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: mahony
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2019, 08:03:13 pm
content: Hi guys,I recently stumbled upon a 19mm f/1.1 thermal imaging lens attached to an unkown, supposed to be defect thermal imaging core. From the images I guessed it to be of some chinese origin.BUT: I was quite suprised when it arrived and I spotted a well known logo from Selex/Leonardo. Quick googling revealed it is indeed a very neat little DRS Infrared Tamarisk 320 core in 60Hz NTSC fashion. Unfortunately the optional feature board is missing so the only interface I got is the very tiny 0.4mm pitch Samtech 60-pin connector.As it is supposed to be non-operational I did a quick disassembly and some pictures for the interested forum members. But there is not much to disassemble to be honest.I just ordered some of the required connectors to be able to apply some input voltage and check if there is any sign of live in the core - maybe it can be brought back to life, or isn't dead at all?!The good thing is DRS has all infos on the core on their website. Mechanical, electrical and software manuals along with software to communicate with the core - so pin-outs and wiring is not the issue. But if anything on either of the boards is really damaged I guess it will not be possible to repair it - just thinking of the 'massive' Altera Cyclone III FPGA on the backside of the top processing board. Not to mention the size of the boards (~23x23mm).If it proofes to be dead I still got a nice 19mm lens to experiment with for a decent price plus maybe a nice 320x240 sensor that might still be operable - if the core is working this would be a really good catch but quite some work to get images from it … We'll see.

author: Vipitis
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2019, 08:12:36 pm
content: That is quite a nice surprise. If it really is defective, it's a shame. I haven't seen any Leonardo cores on here and it would be great to compare them. As uncooled Selex can look really awesome.From the photos you gave I was unable to find any indication, but did you find any date on there? It looks to be quite modern.Best of luck!

author: eKretz
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2019, 09:42:42 pm
content: That looks like a quality piece of kit. I'll keep my fingers crossed that somebody just didn't know what they were doing and it will work for you!

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 21, 2019, 11:29:43 pm
content: Very nice little CoreI hope it worksThere is one of these little beauties in my DRS Pan Tilt ball turret CCTV Camera but it is the 640 x 480 pixel version. It is a relatively modern miniaturised core that has some nice features.As you will know, it is often the power supply side of these little cameras that can suffer issues as there are normally several DC-DC converters present. The other common failure is sadly firmware corruption during an update or just flash memory cell failure. I should state that these little cores are normally very reliable and built to a high standard. Such are common in military devices.Fraser

author: JanHenrik
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 25, 2019, 11:45:34 am
content: I really hope that your sensor works!Great pictures and indeed there is not that much to tear down. Somehow I ended up finding such a core (attached to a security camera) last saturday on a junkyard. Mine has a 40mm FOV lens.Some photos and Videos of the operating camera can be found here:https://twitter.com/JanHenrikH/status/1109511110485512192If you need any pictures from the working sensor/the feature board or the cameras mainboard, just ask@Fraser *envy*

author: Vipitis
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 25, 2019, 01:48:30 pm
content: By pure chance there was an eBay auction for a Tamarisk 640 dev kit. last week. The seller was somewhat sketchy and did not reply to any questions I sent. It sold for 810€ to somebody else.Included in said auction was a 300€ Ethernet board by Leopard Imaging, which turns your Tamarisk 320 into an IP camera and allows for on board recording as well. It might be something for you if your Core turns out to be working.Finding a working Watchmaster on a Junkyard is even crazier to me. You both have been luck and I haven't, yet.

author: railrun
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 25, 2019, 01:53:13 pm
content: Quote from: Vipitis on March 25, 2019, 01:48:30 pmThe seller is still sketchy and didn‘t reply to any questions Maybe the account was hacked or he isn‘t satisfied with the price...

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 25, 2019, 02:05:45 pm
content: I recently purchased an external CCTV camera from an IT recycler who has little interest in the items except to shift stock. The camera had an unusual lens that I recognised as that of a FLIR TAUThe end price on the camera was £75When I received it I found a high quality heated external camera enclosure that looked new and unused. Inside the enclosure was a perfect FLIR TAU2 320 x 240 pixel coreTo say I chuffed to get a TAU2 320 x 240 for £75 is an understatement ! Only one other person bid against me and I suspect they thought the camera was a standard, but nice looking, visible light external camera.Fraser

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 25, 2019, 02:19:31 pm
content: The following thread details my brand new DRS Ultra 6000 (Labelled GANZ) pan tilt thermal camera that uses the Tamarisk 640 x 480 high frame rate core....https://www.eevblog.com/forum/thermal-imaging/the-superb-drs-watchmaster-ip-ultra-6000-pan-tilt-camera-by-fraser/She is a beauty. I just need to find a use for her !Fraser

author: JanHenrik
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 25, 2019, 02:23:14 pm
content: Quote from: Fraser on March 25, 2019, 02:05:45 pmThe unusual lens also drew my attention at the junkyard, otherwise I wold have missed itThat is actually a good idea, search for cameras on ebay with unusual lenses, never thought about that...

author: mahony
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 29, 2019, 09:56:28 pm
content: @JanHenrik: nice find! My core is supposed to be sourced from a Geutebrück surveilance camera - so quite similar setup. The seller just sold it as lens + defect sensor.@Vipitis: I saw this auction too but the seller seemed a bit strange and I saw the offer a couple of days before originating from Estonia(?) on another platform - so did not dare to bid. But to be honest: when I saw the final price a regretted it a bit.I did not find much time to play with it but I attached power to it and watched the top PCB through one of my Thermal Expert cameras. The power delivery IC warm quickly to ~50°C and cools down within second after power is off, plus some smaller ICs too but no shutter operation could be observed. I did a quick break-out PCB in KiCAD for the tiny connector to be more accesible. It should be delivered in roughly 1 week hopefully, plus I ordered 4 of the connectors and a STM32H7 dev board.Next step will be assembly of the break out and checking some of the IO lines with the oscilloscope - after that I may fire up the STM and try to talk to the core directly.By the way: really nice PTU @Fraser

author: Cat
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 04, 2019, 07:54:17 am
content: Nice teardown, finally some more Tamarisk ownersHad also seen the 640 on eBay, but the seller didn't answer my questions, too.I already have a Tamarisk 320 with some IP-Camera boards from Leopard Imaging but unfortunately could not get the setup to run.The FFC-Flag on the Tamarisk is clicking, the webserver is running but I get a truckload of I2C-errors on the debug of the LI-Board. The people at LI did a great support but something seems wrong in my setup.Next step would be to use the DRS setup-tool via 1,8V UART, but I neet do build a levelshifter first.One quote for the feature-board was ~300$, so currently I'm considering designing it on my own.More text when I'm @ home

author: Vipitis
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 04, 2019, 08:31:42 am
content: I am keeping my eye on eBay recently as I still want some better camera. There are some DRS DVE cameras which house a 640 sensor in the US. These don't export and output to a 32 pin vehicle bus, but might be an option for some.

author: JanHenrik
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 04, 2019, 08:42:51 am
content: I would be quite interested in the design of a Tamarisk-to-something board, especially if one would be able to get absolute temperature readings from the sensor. The image quality is very nice on the security camera, however the fps are limited to 30fps (the sensor should record with 60fps), there are no absolute temperature readings and the thermal image is clamped to ruffly -10-40°C. I haven't looked into the design of my own hardware, because I have too many projects at the moment D:I would ofc contribute to such a project, however I have nearly no experience with CamerLink (afaik that is the sensors main interface).Do you have any information on what the temperature imaging range of the sensor is?A friend of mine patched the update of the camera, giving me ssh access to it. Interestingly enough the root command history was not cleared. Sadly no super interesting thing is running on the board. As you already mentioned I2C, indeed there is a lot of I2C stuff going on.

author: mahony
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 04, 2019, 07:27:47 pm
content: Hi guys,I hope my breakout board arrives sometime next week plus the STM Nucleo board and connectors too.My plan would be to grab the image data via the STM32 parallel camera interface, this is supported on most STM32F4 and higher. This interface is good for up to 14bit wide data plus frame and line sync lines (exactly the Tamarisk output) at up to 54 MHz pixel clocks depending on processor (the Tamarisk 320 uses only 10MHz). I would then just pass the data on to the USB port for further processing and display on a PC but direct processing and output to some LCD or even streaming (raw) via Ethernet should be possible.I just hope I can 'talk' to the core and it is working …