Warning: spent $120 on a thermal camera for finding hot spots and it paid for itself in one week

I bought one of those attachable thermal cameras for my phone to track down overheating components in server racks. Found a failing PSU in under 2 minutes that would have taken hours to debug otherwise. Has anyone else used one for board-level troubleshooting or is it just me?

3 comments

3 Comments

lewis.brian16d ago

My buddy laughed at me for spending 120 bucks on that Flir One attachment for my phone, but I used it to find a cracked solder joint on a GPU that was causing random shutdowns. It took me maybe 30 seconds to spot the hot spot near the voltage regulator where the crack was making a tiny arc. Saved me from replacing the whole card which would have cost way more than the camera lol. I've had mine for about six months now and it's already paid for itself three times over with random stuff around the house and at work. Honestly it's one of those tools you don't think you need until you actually try it on something stubborn.

wells.christopher16d ago

Ha, fair enough but I'm not totally sold. I mean yeah, a thermal camera can be handy for finding hot spots, but most people probably aren't chasing down GPU issues that often. Your mileage may vary, but for a lot of us, that 120 bucks would sit in a drawer 99% of the time.

elliot_roberts16d ago

yeah @lewis.brian that's the whole point - you don't know til you try it