Faulty amg8833

[Smilingbob72]

Hello!

I am having trouble with an AMG8833 IR thermal camera Breakout I purchased at the end of June, order #2589328-5435277899

The temperature test seems to be accurate, but the pixel test example shows most of the pixels reading "0".

The display works fine, I tested it with the TFT example scripts. I'm currently using it with the nrf52840 express Bluetooth feather.

I am using the stemma connection plugged into the headers on the back of the display feather wing.

Please let me know if any other way I could fix this, or if I can get an exchange. Thank you!!

Also, why is there such a small file limit on images here? I have a bunch of pics I took with my phone, but will not upload here. If you need images I can email them / upload them a different way.

[mikeysklar]

We can try and help you get this going.

Can you post a photo of your wiring between the amg8833 and the feather. If you have done any soldering please post that too.

I usually do not have trouble attaching photos in these forums, but you might need to reduce your resolution to 800x600 if it is giving you a hard time.

[Smilingbob72]

Hi! Thanks for the reply.

I've attached the pics of the setup, currently the only soldering I've done is the pins to the feather, which you can see there.

I changed out the stemma cable for another, and I got different results, but none that are accurate. The first cable read mostly 0s, but the new cable reads a crazy range of temps, from 300 to -600, in pixels right next to each other. See the serial monitor screen shots (and forgive the horrendous picture-of-a-picture-on-a-monitor, I tried a bunch of things to get a pic that would fit on this forum, apparently my phone is incapable of taking pics that are less than 1mb)

To confirm the wiring, red is power, 3V; black is ground; Blue is SDA, yellow is SCL;

The thermistor Temp test reads : Thermistor Temperature = 26.56 *C

I can solder the wires if I absolutely have to, but I'm prototyping a few ideas with this setup, so I was going to hold off on that until I had it working.

Thanks so much for your help!

[mikeysklar]

It is a good sign that the code is running well enough to report some data even if it is crazy values.

The soldering on your Feather nRF52 looks fine.

The i2c stemma appears a bit long, but is probably a non-issue.

What is going on with the AMG8833. It looks like you soldered some pins, but not completely on along one edge? I'm asking because that could be a source of noise if there is a loose connection.

Github is down at the moment, but would you mind posting the example code you are running?

[Smilingbob72]

Thanks for the reply!

I haven't actually soldered anything other than the feather. The AMG8833 is connected to the feather via the stemma connector, and pins plugged into the headers of the 2.4" tft featherwing. I attached another pic that my be more helpful. Sorry for any confusion here.

I'm hoping that the cable isn't too long, cause I'd really love to keep it that length to mount the sensor where I want it.

The code I am using is the example code, that comes with the Adafruit AMG88xx Library. I have pasted that below:

Code: Select all

/***************************************************************************
  This is a library for the AMG88xx GridEYE 8x8 IR camera

  This sketch tries to read the pixels from the sensor

  Designed specifically to work with the Adafruit AMG88 breakout
  ----> http://www.adafruit.com/products/3538

  These sensors use I2C to communicate. The device's I2C address is 0x69

  Adafruit invests time and resources providing this open source code,
  please support Adafruit andopen-source hardware by purchasing products
  from Adafruit!

  Written by Dean Miller for Adafruit Industries.
  BSD license, all text above must be included in any redistribution
 ***************************************************************************/

#include <Wire.h>
#include <Adafruit_AMG88xx.h>

Adafruit_AMG88xx amg;

float pixels[AMG88xx_PIXEL_ARRAY_SIZE];

void setup() {
    Serial.begin(9600);
    Serial.println(F("AMG88xx pixels"));

    bool status;
    
    // default settings
    status = amg.begin();
    if (!status) {
        Serial.println("Could not find a valid AMG88xx sensor, check wiring!");
        while (1);
    }
    
    Serial.println("-- Pixels Test --");

    Serial.println();

    delay(100); // let sensor boot up
}


void loop() { 
    //read all the pixels
    amg.readPixels(pixels);

    Serial.print("[");
    for(int i=1; i<=AMG88xx_PIXEL_ARRAY_SIZE; i++){
      Serial.print(pixels[i-1]);
      Serial.print(", ");
      if( i%8 == 0 ) Serial.println();
    }
    Serial.println("]");
    Serial.println();

    //delay a second
    delay(1000);
}

[mikeysklar]

This all appears to be working correctly. I suspect the issue is that pixel test is just reading pixels and not returning real temperature data. Have you tried running some of the other example programs that read temperature?

https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_AM ... x_test.ino

https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_AM ... r/examples

[Smilingbob72]

Yeah, I have tried every available example sketch, including the basic temp one. As I said in the initial post, The thermistor Temp test reads : Thermistor Temperature = 26.56 *C; Which is correct. But I haven't been able to it to read any data that makes sense from the other examples.

I have attached an image of the thermal_cam_featherwing code running. half the screen says 361 while the others say 0.0; The pixel test is also back to reading mostly 0s.

Even when I was getting non-zero data on the pixel test that I previously posted, the thermal camera scripts did not appear to be working. I moved my hand / made the peace sign and the display did not show that, it just showed random red or blue pixels, and didn't appear to be interpolating at all. I added a pic of the thermal cam interpolate example also.

[Smilingbob72]

I have also now tried 3 different stemma cables, ( all the same length), and I've had the same issue with each of them today; mostly prints out 0s / its not getting accurate data.

[mikeysklar]

Thank you for the additional photos. These are helpful.

Since we are nearing replacing the unit could you do a test of soldering in header for the 3v / gnd / scl / sda / int connectors row and attach the amg8833 to a breadboard. Then connect up short hookup wire or jumper cables to the featherwing? I just want to confirm the amg8833 is the issue and not the stemma cable length.

[Smilingbob72]

Yeah, I will do that and post back here once I get a chance to do that tonight. Thanks so much for your help!

[mikeysklar]

Great. Looking forward to reading about your findings tonight / tomorrow.

[Smilingbob72]

Hey again!

I did what you asked, and I am getting the same results. Right now its about 50/50 when i reset; I either get all 0s, or random numbers.

The interpolated thermal camera script seems to just be random when I'm not getting just 0s. see attached pics

[mikeysklar]

Okay, let's try another unit.

Please send an e-mail to [email protected] request a replacement AMG8833. You will need to provide your order# and a link to this forum thread for approval.