LED Lights That Can Be Seen by a Thermal Imager?

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EarthWindandFire
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Post by EarthWindandFire » Tue. Feb. 07, 2017 10:47 am

I have a mixed science background, but I'm stumped on this one.

For a school project, my son is looking for LED lights that can be seen by a thermal imager. But, they must look to the person using the thermal imager like an extremely bright light, almost like a flashlight in intensity.

Any suggestions or thoughts?

 
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Post by lsayre » Tue. Feb. 07, 2017 11:11 am

As a rule, LED bulbs are cool, so they would not present a very bright thermal image. Their bases get hot though.

 
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Post by EarthWindandFire » Tue. Feb. 07, 2017 1:46 pm

Thanks Larry!

They do make IR LED's that emit only infrared light. But, I'm not sure that's the best method for this attempted application.

What wavelength of light could be seen best by a Thermal Imager during a fire, for example?

 
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Post by lsayre » Tue. Feb. 07, 2017 2:27 pm

Not sure. Something with a low 'effective' temperature and thereby a long wavelength would be my guess. IR fits that bill.


 
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Post by titleist1 » Tue. Feb. 07, 2017 2:42 pm

I've got some LED's and I have a thermal imager so I can try imaging a few tonight and see what it looks like. The flashlights that I have are LED too so I'm not sure comparing the LED to my flashlight helps?

 
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Post by Black_And_Blue » Tue. Feb. 07, 2017 5:06 pm

Hmmm, I know infrared LED can be seen with a cell phone camera but I think you are asking the other way round.....

 
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Post by titleist1 » Tue. Feb. 07, 2017 9:16 pm

I found a standard bulb flashlight and set it next to the LEDs I have then took a thermal image. The 10mm, 12V "very bright" LED's barely registered on the image, didn't matter which color LED. I tried red, purple, blue and green. An example is below...The flashlight is on the right and the barely seen blip on the left sitting on the battery is the LED.
RedLED.jpg
.JPG | 43KB | RedLED.jpg
From a spool of flexible led strip I have 6 green LED's in the next picture. These show up better. The flashlight is on right and the LED strip is on the left. I suspect it is the components on the strip giving off heat that the imager is picking up rather than the LED's themselves.
6GreenLEDs.jpg
.JPG | 41.3KB | 6GreenLEDs.jpg

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