I spent $400 on a thermal camera for board repair and it feels like a waste.

I bought it thinking it would be the magic bullet for finding shorts on modern, dense boards, but half the time the hot spot is under a shield or the temp difference is too subtle to see clearly. It just sits in my drawer while I go back to my old method of checking voltages and injecting current. Am I using it wrong, or is the hype around these things overblown for general repair work?

3 comments

3 Comments

max2231mo ago

Honestly, same. I spent way too much on one thinking it would make me a repair wizard, and now it's basically a really expensive cat warmer. The trick is you almost need to pre-heat the board with a hot air station first to make the short stand out, which feels like cheating.

samk771mo ago

But what if the pre-heat trick is actually the right way to do it? @max223, calling it cheating feels like saying you need to warm up your car in winter. A thermal camera shows heat moving through the board, so starting from room temp gives you a clearer picture of where the short really is. That expensive cat warmer becomes a proper tool when you use it to see the whole heat spread, not just the hottest spot. You just bought a diagnostic tool that needs a specific method to work right.

aaron7401mo ago

That "feels like cheating" thing is everywhere, @max223.