Technical Support
Welcome to Argus technical questions and answers section. The questions below are from customers like you, we hope you will find the answers helpful and informative.
If you don''t find the answer you are looking for please either contact your local Argus sales office or email your question direct, use the email me back facility to write your question, you will receive a reply within 24 hours.
Questions and Answers
What do Thermal Cameras do?
Thermal cameras allow the user to see through smoke and navigate in complete darkness. They aid the search and rescue of casualties during fire fighting and help with finding hot spots and provide scene temperature measurement.
How do Thermal Cameras work?
Thermal cameras use special detectors (also known as FPA or camera engines) that convert infrared energy into signals which can be displayed on a viewing screen.
What types of detectors are available?
The twp main types of fire camera detectors currently used are BST and Microbolometer.
BST detectors work by seeing a change in temperature and require a spinning chopper wheel to continually allow the detector to see these changes. It also needs an iris to maximise its temperature range.
Microbolometer measure the scene temperatures. Each pixel of a Microbolometer is like a thermometer and changes its output signal to give a grey scale image. To maximise a microboloters temperature range microbolometers have two or three levels of sensitivity and switch between them when the scene temperatures increase. To keep the image at its best at all times a shutter close on the image very quickly to recalibrate the detector.
What is a pixel?
A pixel is the tiny element inside the detectors that sees the infrared energy. Detectors come in two main sizes 160 x 120 pixels and 320 x 240 pixels.
