Success: inexpensive Wi-Fi dongle for FLIR SC6xx-series - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 10:02:43 am
content: Update / spoiler alert: Fraser found some answers and I have purchasedsomething that will hopefully workan Edimax EW-7711UTN that works a treat.Has anyone got a Wi-Fi dongle that will work with a FLIR SC6xx-series camera, specifically a SC-660?As I understand it there are only a very few Wi-Fi USB dongles that will plug into the back of the camera and actually work. Doubtless so FLIR could charge a premium for their own unit (which, to be fair, would beguaranteedto work, with no compatibility issues).If any one knows of a 'compatible' that I can search for then I'd really like to know about that, too.Thanks al

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 10:12:07 am
content: Giles,The official FLIR dongle may be seen here…… and the image includes the FCC approval code !https://www.flir.com/products/t951387_wi-fi-usb-micro-adapter/I will look up the licence for you

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 10:17:09 am
content: The “P5T” Grantee Code is Ambicom Holdings and there are 28 entries for them on the database. The one you are interested in is here……https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=BZNYdY22H6b1X08fhN5fRg%3D%3D&fcc_id=P5T-WL150NNUSBIt uses a Ralink driver.

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 10:25:28 am
content: You are looking for a Ambicom WL150NAmazon used to sell it……https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ambicom-WL150N-USB-Wireless-802-11n-Adapter/dp/B0035EQE94

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 10:33:41 am
content: Ambicom has gone out of business !https://www.computerhope.com/comp/ambicom_holdings_inc.htmSo it would be an idea to search for the WL150N driver and see which chipset it is for. Then search for a WiFi dongle that uses the same Ralink chipset. It is a Circa 2009 product so the chipset will be quite old. The problem will be if the FLIR only recognises an Ambicom WiFi dongle ID.Fraser

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 10:35:45 am
content: https://drivers.softpedia.com/get/NETWORK-CARD/AmbiCom/AmbiCom-WL150N-nUSB-Dongle-Driver.shtml

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 10:38:06 am
content: The Ambicom WL150N uses a Ralink RT3070 chip.http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/AmbiCom_WL150N-nUSBThat data source suggests the dongle OEM is Edimax and it is a Edimax EW-7711UTn v1https://www.edimax.com/edimax/merchandise/merchandise_detail/data/edimax/global/home_legacy_wireless_adapters/ew-7711utn/

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 10:47:58 am
content: Be quick and get it on eBay.co.uk now….https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EDIMAX-150Mbps-Wireless-mini-USB-Adapter-EW-7711UTN-New-Sealed-/324388235162?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286Fraser

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 11:10:13 am
content: Done! Hopefully £15 well spent. I will report back in due course.Many thanks Fraser - you're amazing.

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 11:24:12 am
content: I will have to dig out those fake FLIR labels I made, put them on few 'compatible' dongles, sell them for 20x cost price, then buy a nice T1030sc with the proceeds ... no, that would be naughty!

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 11:31:35 am
content: If you wanted to experiment you could try other WiFi dongles that contain the RALINK RT3070 chipset. It will likely be very common but possibly found only on old Wi-Fi dongles. I did not know if the size was critical so went with trying to find the closest match. Ambicom holdings are the FCC licence Grantee yet that reference page suggests Edimax is the OEM. Maybe Edimax was a subsidiary of Ambicom Holdings ? I have not checked.All this was made possible by the picture that FLIR provided of ‘their’ dongle. How kind of them to show the FCC IDThe only unknown is whether the FLIR dongle contains a unique ID but I doubt that. The camera likely wants to see a Ralink RT3070 chipset but may check the VID and PID as well.It was a pleasure to helpFraser

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 11:37:49 am
content: Some more useful information. It seems this dongle is also to be found under the D-Link branding.http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Edimax_EW-7711UAn_v1lhttp://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/D-Link_DWA-127_rev_A1Note version 2 uses a different chipset.

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 11:39:04 am
content: Thanks again. As I say, I will report back on whether the camera recognises the dongle (and on what it does for me). The present method of getting images out, via the removable SD card, works OK but it's always interesting to have alternatives.The video recording facility on the camera seems atrocious, very jerky and highly compressed, so I'll want to see if it's possible to stream live video and record on a outboard application. The alternative of course is just to connect to the analogue video output port, but that's not terribly elegant.

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 11:46:57 am
content: The video recording capabilities, or absence there-of, on the FLIR professional thermal cameras has always surprised me. The PM series that I like so much have no video recording capability or even time lapse, image sequence recordingWe take ‘on-board’ video recording for granted these days but maybe the processors could not cope with such when these cameras were designed. SD card based video cameras were bleeding edge technology not so long ago. We now have SOC dedicated video processor chipsets that take fast frame rate video recording in their stride. The PM series could not produce high frame rate video even when connected to a PC with the expensive data link option. With the PCMCIA card interface I think it was limited to around 10fpsUsing a modern external DVR module is a good option but sadly you lose your thermal metadata so such is only really useful fir artistic purposes. Some of the cameras have S-Video output so image quality should be reasonable for recording externally.Fraser

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 11:53:12 am
content: The ‘top level’ FCC ID licence details are for the Edimax product and details are here…https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=pRKnmN9D5Heyldlc18hIaw%3D%3D&fcc_id=NDD9577110812Fraser

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 11:57:03 am
content: The DWA-127 dongle from D-Link uses a large antenna so will provide greater operating range, if such is required, if it fits on the camera OK.http://en.techinfodepot.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Special:Browse/:D-2DLink-20DWA-2D127-20rev-20A1FCC ID page…..https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=IguBZvS67TSeZRVwtj5ufQ%3D%3D&fcc_id=KA2WA127A1

author: Bill W
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 02:10:49 pm
content: Quote from: Fraser on June 17, 2021, 11:46:57 amVery much so. Go back to say 2005 and a new 'greatest yet' processor from Texas Instruments could just about do 10fps / MJEPG / 320x240.Also can be limited by whatever processor (or sub section) the SD card was attached to (might not be the video processor - some could not have SD card interfaces), SD card write speeds etc all of which are far better now.So more compression to cope with lower card data rate meaning lower frame rate.... YUCK ! Things got a bit better with newer codecs.A lot of the time (fire) camera video storage was done in add-on dedicated modules which of course added cost and power.Bill

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 03:09:05 pm
content: The FLIR branded WiFi dongle is 120 Euro’s ……https://www.datatec.de/flir-t951387-wifi

author: Ismsanmar
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2021, 05:52:36 pm
content: I did exactly the same research a week ago, and came to the same conclusions. For my part, I can add that I did some tests connecting a couple of wifi dongles, one with an unknown chipset and another with an RT3070 (Alfa Network AWUS036NH Luxury) that I use to "collect" passwords from nearby networks. The first dongle, the camera told me that I had connected to the USB port a device that it didn't recognize. The second dongle didn't give any warning, and the option to control the Wi-Fi parameters appeared in the Communications tab. I don't know if it is because my router uses OpenWrt or because I have it in WPA2/WPA3 double compatibility mode, or because it consumes too much as it is a high-power adapter, but at no time did it manage to connect to my wifi network. The camera can see all the nearby networks, the manual or automatic DHCP mode can be selected, the password type can be selected up to WPA2, but at least it didn't help me much. In the end I decided to order an EW-7711UTn for 9€, as I wanted to stay as close as possible to the original adapters avoiding those with antennas or SMA connectors, and it's still on the way. I just hope that the one I've ordered is a V1, because the V2 uses a different chipset, and has a different entry in the FCC.Regarding the subject of video, supposedly this camera is capable of recording up to 240fps through FireWire with the ResearchIR program, in Windowed mode at 640x60, without compression. I am still waiting for the 6 to 9 pin adapter to arrive so I can use my cable combo and do some testing.

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2021, 01:42:03 pm
content: Great news! I can confirm that I just plugged the Edimax EW-7711UTN into the USB socket on the back of the SC-660 and it was recognised at once. From there it was simple to enter the Setup menu and connect the camera to my Wi-Fi network and access its images from FLIR Tools running on my Android phone.Download to the phone wasn't exactly speedy, running at around 60KB per second - and there was 400MB to download so it will take a whileMore news later when I get my back the use of my phone... it feels like I'm back in the dial-up days of data transfer speeds!(Actually, I'm fortunate in that my phone supports a completely separate user interface via the USB-C port - connect it to a computer or wireless or USB-C capable screen and it pops up in a window like a virtual machine, from which you can access any part or function of the phone without interrupting whatever is happening on the phone (screen) itself. It's like having a secret laptop built into the phone).

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2021, 01:55:48 pm
content: Good news

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2021, 03:22:58 pm
content: So, some photos of the beastie actually working, and the all-important barcode from the box the dongle came in.

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2021, 03:43:13 pm
content: And, just to prove engineering has a sense of humour, here is FLIR Tools running a live view in a window on an Android mobile phone producing a virtual screen in a window on a Windows PC.(What you're actually seeing is the Android phone window, cropped from the Windows desktop).

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2021, 03:45:20 pm
content: It is the version 1 of that dongle model number that is very important as the version 2 chipset was different. It may well be that the SC660 will accept any USB dongle that uses the Ralink RT3070 chipset.

author: Ultrapurple
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2021, 03:50:27 pm
content: According to the label on the box (see barcode photo) it's version 1.0D.