Hughes Probeye Infrared Thermal Viewer

Background
Wavelength and Temperature
DC Power
Video Out
Patents
Alternate IR Cameras
Related
Links

Background

Infrared (IR) viewers come in two flavors. The Near IR viewers work for wavelengths that are close to the eye's red seeing ( 650 nm) ability (hence the "near"). These typically use a Silicon image sensor (1,000 nm still works). In fact all digital cameras have some near IR ability but typically it has be blocked with a filter so that the color shown has the correct color balance. Thermal IR viewers are more difficult to make and typically require cooling the sensor well below room temperature using Pieltier, liquid or high pressure gas.

Wavelength and Temperature

Wien's displacement law (Wiki) of 1893 (Prior to Einstien and quantum mechanics) stats that the wavelength of the radiation from a black body has it's peak:
Wavelength (nm) = 3,000,000 / (temperature degrees K). More exactly WL = 2,897,768.5 / (deg K).
Note: degrees K = degrees C + 273 (Wiki)
Note: it was five years later that Planck's law (Wiki) came out that expresses the frequency of the light as a function of the temperature.
Planck's constant (h) (Wiki) is a physical constant used to describe the sizes of quanta in quantum mechanics. The energy in light is not continuous but rather comes in lumps. It may have been the first step toward quantum mechanics and was needed to express the frequency of light from a black body as a function of the temperature.

Because of this the Sun's surface temperature (5778 deg K) causes the light falling on the Earth to peak at 500 nm, i.e. green. That's probably why eyes of daylight mamals peak in the green.

Mammals have body temperatures around 300 deg K so peak around 10,000 nm which is far beyond the eye or Silicon camera sensors.

DC Power

Internal

External

Cable

The 24 pin connector may have video output signals on it. If you have information about this please let me know.


DDK 025-024 24 male pin		HRS 5 sockets
Probeye Pin	Description	Wire	Batt Pin	Bat Wire	Batt Desc
1, 20		white	1	Brn	Common
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18		Red Black	2	Red	+4.8V
19		Green Black	4	Yel	-4.8V
21		Black	2	Red	+4.8V
22		Black	4	Yel	-4.8V
23
24
			3	Blu	nc

DVM Voltage readings battery (probably dead)

	R2	R3	R4	R5
B1	2.575	0	-2.283	0.000
B2	-	0	-4.85	0.042
B3	-	-	0	0
B4	-	-	-	0

Battery

Two strings of 4 Ni-Cad cells (8 total cells).

Video Out

It's my understanding that there is a way to get the video signal out of the Probe eye by using the above connector.
If you have information about this please let me know.

Patents

3051044 Recording and Projecting System, J.T. McNancy (General Dynamics), Aug 28 1962 - copy machine

3069493 Sweep Synchronization System for Infra-red Ground-Scanning Devices, B.E. Martel (TI), Dec 18 1962 - airborne FLIR
3520586 Entrant Beam Optical Scanner, S.Bousky (Ampex), July 14 1970,
3715497 Optical Scanner and Real Time Image Conversion System, E.E. Cooper, H.V. Kennedy (TI), Feb 6 1973,

Calls:
3548192 Infrared Scanner using a Double Sided Inclined Mirror Mounted on Annular Air Bearings, V.M. Farmer, C & JF Knight (Electrical & Musical Ind Ltd),
3510191Optical Scanning System, J.B. Cannon (HRB Singer), May 5 1970,

3004162 Infra-red Ray Detecting Apparatus, J.F. Menke (Brinro Ltd), Oct 10 1961 - scans 360 azimuth
3173019 Radiant Target Locator, E.M. Wormser, Mar 9 1965,
3119018 Horizon Sensor System, R.W. Astheimer, T.F. McHenry (Barns Eng), Jan 21 1964
2333583 Enlarger, E.C. Rogers, Nov 2 1943
3156823 HORIZON SENSOR WITH REFLECTIVE OPTICS
3211046 Split Image, High Scanning Rate Optical System with Constant Aperture, H.V. Kennedy (TI), Oct 12 1965,

Calls:
2011271 Television System
2844648 Scanning Mirror, A.H. Rosenthal (Fairchild Camera), Jly 22 1958, - flying spot
2859633 typo
3087986 Optical Search System, K.L. DeBrosse (IT&T), Apr 30 1963 - IR viewer with CRT disp

3023662 Hemispherical Scanning System, H.F. Hicks (Navy), Mar 6 1962
3217170 Rotary Optical Servomechanism, BL Ho (IBM), Nov 9 1965

3563146 Single Lens Panoramic Camera, J.G. Miller (Itek Corp), Feb 16 1971
3475552 Signal Distributing System, K.M. Makino, I.W. Odawara-shi (Fuji), Oct 28 1969
3160751Optical System for Identifying and Tracking Source of Infrared Radiation Emmission, C.E. Dunning (Aerojet-General), Dec 8 1964,

rotating mirror tilted from rotation axis does scanning

3526091 Probeye patent number is a typo
3640091 Valve Arrangement to Provide Temperature Level Control at Cryogenic Temperatre Ranges (Cryostat), J.S. Buller, M.J. Nagy, E.W. Peterson (Santa Barbara Research Center), Feb 8 1972

Calls:
3320755 CRYOGENIC REFRIGERATION SYSTEM
3413819 FLOW RATE CONTROL FOR A JOULE-THOMSON REFRIGERATOR3457730

3742238 Two Axes Angularly Indexing Scanning Display, R.G. Hoffman (TI), Jun 6 1973

Calls:
3278746GEOPHYSICAL SURVEY METHOD COMPRISING DETECTING INFRARED IN TWO WAVELENGTH BANDS, G. FIAT
2989643 Infra-red Image System, W.W. Scanlon (Navy), Jun 20 1961
3447852 Scanning Apparatus, B.V. Barlow (Smith & Sons), Jun 3 1969,

3764192 Optical Raster Scan Generator, Bryce .A. Wheeler (Hughes), Oct 9 1973 -

Calls:
3436546
3468229
3447852
3478662

3641348 THERMAL_IMAGING_SYSTEM_WITH_THERMAL_IMAG
3941923 Thermal_imaging_system_with_redundant_ob
4249797 Dual_image_viewer_with_mirror_adjusting_
4618768 Thermal_imaging_device_having_non_ortho
4810088 Laser_rangefinder_and_thermal_imager_wit
4876453 Method_and_apparatus_for_calibrating_an_
4902128 Apparatus_for_harmonizing_a_plurality_of
5614714 Thermal_imaging_device_and_method
5623146 Thermal_imaging_device_with_scanned_ligh
5663562 Thermal_imaging_device
5682035 Thermal_imaging_device

Alternate IR Cameras

While looking at another Probe Eye on eBay found other more modern IR cameras that do not use cooling. All of the military surplus IR heat cameras I've seen required high pressure gas for cooling. The following alternate civilian cameras do not require external cooling.

Infrared Solutions IR SnapShot Thermoelectric Infrared Imaging Radiometer - based on a Honeywell Ir chip WIN98 vintage software
They were sold to Fluke who offers the VT02 with 11k pixels about $333 (Apr 2015) - EEVblog FlukeVT02 (hopeless) vs Flir I3 ($1,100)
FLIR One is an adapter for the iPhone 5/5s (but not Android phones. They have new products in the pipe, but only Apple phone stuff now.)
FLIR I-series comparison >$1,000 the FLIR TG165 is <$500
Seek UW-AAA (36 deg wide angle) and Seek UT-AAA (20 def variable focus) add on hardware for Android cameras 32k pixels <$200 (Apr 2015)
So, as of April 2015 the Seek USB add-on to an Android phone looks like the best performance/price unit.
Choosing between the 20 deg and 36 deg field of view Seek thermal cameras.
See Klein Tools TI250 Rechargeable Thermal Imaging Camera.

Optics
Infrared
Thermal Hand Held Imager DFOV

Links

Mike Murphy - where I got this one
Old School - Getting a Hughes Probeye650 to work -

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[an error occurred while processing this directive] page created 7 Aug 2009.