Use thermal imaging/ IR to diagnose electrical problems

[67Dart273]

Another forum a thread popped up, and a guy over there--who owns a 70 Plymouth, by the way--uses thermal / IR imaging to look for warm spots.

Do an internet search, there are various suggestions on this

And a few years ago, when I was screwing around with old manual lenses, guys were pulling the filters out of their camera sensor (an older camera) to convert them to IR/ full spectrum. For some cameras, you can buy a filter to convert it to ONLY IR, or you can use a filter on the front of your lens.

 

[Dana67Dart]

I bought a dedicated ir camera that hooks to me smart phone.

It shows the ignition connector warms up faster than the rest of the bulkhead connectors, not over heated but current is passing through the connector

 

[skykeith]

I bought a FLIR C5 camera a year ago. It was very expensive ($500),but the accuracy and resolution is awesome. It has opened up a whole new world of troubleshooting. I’ve found everything from dead cylinders on airplanes, bad alternator bearings , plugged heater cores , overheated relays, and dozens of other things just by looking at them. If you’re doing beat the clock work, these things will definitely pay for themselves.

 

[67Dart273]

I thought I "had er" as I have a simpler, older, Canon powershot. I was going to (or may still yet) hack the filter out of it. But you have to tear all of it apart to get to it.

There is a couple ways you can do this: Pick your camera, and you can buy either some "universal" filter kits, or sometimes, dedicated replacement filters.

You can tear the camera down and either remove the old filter, and just leave it out, or replace it with an IR one

If you leave it out, the camera becomes "full spectrum," but if you want IR response only, you can buy IR filters of different wavelength.

I also have my old, original Canon Xt (350D) and I may hack that one up, as I can put filters and lenses as I wish on it.