Spent $300 on a thermal camera and it's not the magic fix everyone says

I keep seeing posts where people say a thermal camera is a must-have for finding shorts. I saved up and bought a basic one for about $300 last fall. For the first few weeks, I was using it on every board that came in, but honestly, it mostly just showed me hot spots I already knew about from following power rails. It didn't find a single tricky short that my bench power supply and freeze spray couldn't have found, just slower. The worst part was on a newer laptop board where the heat spread so evenly it gave me zero useful info. I feel like for a small shop like mine, that money would have been better spent on a better microscope or a nicer soldering station. Has anyone else found these cameras to be overhyped for general board repair?

3 comments

3 Comments

tessagibson25d ago

Mine's been a total game changer for finding those weird ground shorts on phone boards. You gotta crank the bench supply way up sometimes to get a clear hot spot.

olivia38025d ago

My buddy used his to find a leak in his home's heating ducts. He said it showed a cold spot in the wall that he never would have found otherwise. Ended up saving him a ton on his heating bill that winter. Guess they're good for more than just circuit boards.

matthew1223d agoProlific Poster

Makes me wonder if @tessagibson's trick for phone boards could help spot those duct leaks even faster.