Hand held mini heat IR sensing / thermometers.

[lesjcbs]

Has anyone here used a hand held mini heat sensing IR thermometer gun to detect hot spots from buried metals in the ground? Kellyco once sold them and claimed that when the ground heats up from sun light during the day, metals in the ground heat up also. Thus, after the sun goes down and things start to cool off, the buried metals, that keeps heat longer than dirt, cools down slower leaving a hot spot to be detected. Fluke, Craftsman and other such companies make and sell them

Anyone know anything about using mini hand held heat sensors for metal detecting / treasure hunting?

 

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[Seden]

This has been brought up before and the IR thermometer is not viable. You can get a USB Thermal imaging camera for cheap on ebay. Many to choose from besides flir and they plug into a smartphone to use the display. I've got one and it works great! Best time to use them is when it still gets above 80 but cools off rapidly towards the late afternoon. Here in So. cal. that would be the latter half of October. Hope this helps.

 

[bjgiff]

There is a lot of difference in thermal image equipment. The simple, cheap "point and read" are not going to do anything for you. They work for mechanics and various applications where you can be near what you are reading and only need a small, specific target read. As you get farther from your target the "point and read" pointer takes in a larger area. When you are within 4-6 inches it takes in approximately a dime size area into account. Step back several feet and the target area it reads enlarges the farther away you are. The farther away you are from the target the more ambient temperatures, wind, rain etc affect your reading.

I've used a Testo 882 for other applications- veterinarian oriented as well as being an amateur house inspector for a couple friends. It had good resolution and software was fairly simple. Details from a distance were good. I believe a camera like the Testo 882 was in the $5-6K range but that is a very "vague" guess as it's been quite awhile back.

I also followed some inspectors around a natural gas booster compressor station. They were using a FLIR that was upwards of $100K in cost. It showed the actual gas leaks invisible to the naked eye. Very good camera and was used as both a safety device and environmental device for finding gas leaks. I was fortunate to see 2 gas leaks that day- very small.

If you ever are serious about a thermal imager, do some home work and look into possible classes. Thinks like reflective factors, angles of the camera etc. all come into play.

Basically you get what you pay for with thermal imaging. There are very good reasons that some cameras cost more than others- when you really understand what is going on.

 

[Bumbalawski]

I have a hand held FLIR E4 camera. It cost right at $1000. It can be hacked to E6 capabilities prior to a certain camera mfg. date. Mine is hacked to the E6, which is an immense improvement over the out of the box E4. I use it for cave detection since I am a caver. We use it to dig out sinkholes and warm spots. Some sinks are trash filled with various metals. Unless in direct sunlight and exposed to the sun, the metals do not give off a different temperature reading than the surrounding soil. Even in direct sunlight, buried metals do not display a different heat signature than the surrounding ground. At least what I have noticed to date. I will perform some field test in the near future to see if there is anything to this theory. It does work well with airflow detection, which is a primary tool for finding caves. But it is done usually around 60° and above and 32° and below, since cave temperatures vary from low 40's to upper 50's, depending on the cave environment.

 

[lesjcbs]

I have a hand held FLIR E4 camera. It cost right at $1000. It can be hacked to E6 capabilities prior to a certain camera mfg. date. Mine is hacked to the E6, which is an immense improvement over the out of the box E4. I use it for cave detection since I am a caver. We use it to dig out sinkholes and warm spots. Some sinks are trash filled with various metals. Unless in direct sunlight and exposed to the sun, the metals do not give off a different temperature reading than the surrounding soil. Even in direct sunlight, buried metals do not display a different heat signature than the surrounding ground. At least what I have noticed to date. I will perform some field test in the near future to see if there is anything to this theory. It does work well with airflow detection, which is a primary tool for finding caves. But it is done usually around 60° and above and 32° and below, since cave temperatures vary from low 40's to upper 50's, depending on the cave environment.

I remember now, what I saw and read about on other web sites was the detection of auras. I'll look some more.

 

[rtp_guy]

Sorry for reviving an old thread, but I just acquired my FLIR e8 and am looking forward to sharing by my discoveries. Curious if anyone else is still using the FLIR e4/6/8 cameras?

 

[thermal]

It finds its target to those who know how to use a thermal camera.
The point is to know the method.
I have taken care of what is written above, but there is no result.
I want to sell the method of use to 0.1 BTC.
Let the serious interested message sending

 

[iziksa]

i heard that there is IR thermometer software that people use satellite imagine to anylize heat remotely ... anyone know person that doing it ?