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Full Memory Causes Imager Upset

Thermographers with too much on their minds may feel sluggish. A thermal imager with too much in its memory may not work at all. This week’s Tip describes one thermographer’s recent experience.

Recently, I encountered major problems when storing images in my thermal imager. During the previous two weeks, I had noticed several malfunctions. These included ghosts on the monitor screen during shutdown, decreased processing speed, color palette changes, and factory defaults replacing my user-defined settings .

Finally, I received an “Out of Memory” message when attempting to store an image. Checking the imager’s directory indicated the presence of only 12 images. I then connected the imager to my laptop and downloaded the stored images to my disk drive. The imager’s directory now indicated no stored images; however, the unit continued to display the “Out of Memory” message and would not allow image storage.

Consulting by telephone with the manufacturer’s repair department yielded a diagnosis of a defective motherboard. I arranged to hand-deliver the imager the next day for repair. Upon further diagnosis the repair tech asked me if I had been adding files to the camera.

To improve file organization, I had been renaming the imager’s “images” file and dragging them to my laptop’s hard drive while connected to the imager. By doing this I had unknowingly created new directories in the camera which used up all available memory. The tech removed the offending data, performed an operational check and found that the imager was fine.

By hand delivering my imager and working with the repair department, we discovered a procedural error rather than a hardware malfunction. Camera repairs can be like car repairs. Replacing parts is easy. Getting to the root cause takes time; however, it is more effective in the long run.

Tip provided by Bill Arnott, Apex Infrared, Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada www.apexinfrared.com