Raspberry Pi Thermal Imaging

Description

This project shows how to use the MLX90621 16x4 IR sensor array from the Raspberry Pi to add basic thermal imaging to your pi for under $100. It is a part of my ongoing project to build a general purpose electromagnetic scanner (prototype picture on left).

This Project is provided under the MIT license, enjoy ;-)

Details

The MLX90620 and MLX 90621 are 16x4 remote temperature sensors. Both operate via I2C. The MLX sensors are very affordable and work well. The only drawback is that the sensors are designed for 'production line' so their 16x4 aspect ratio is not ideal. You can see in the picture of the thermo-data overlaying the camera image that we get a 'strip' of temperature data that runs either horizontally or vertically across the middle of the image depending on orientation.

Aside from this one drawback, they are pretty awesome little sensors. They will work from 3.3V but prefer a bit lower voltage. So it's prudent to connect a small rectifier diode in series with th positive power (a 1n4001 works nicely.) Other than that, wiring is the same as any I2C device-

MLX Raspberry Pi

Vcc -> Pin 1 (via 1n4001 diode to drop voltage)
SCL -> Pin 3
SDA -> Pin 5
Gnd -> Pin 9

You'll also need to make sure that i2c is enabled for your Raspberry Pi. (A pretty good guide on that is here- http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2014/11/enabling-the-i2c-interface-on-the-raspberry-pi/)

Finally you'll need to enable the pi camera if you wish to run the 'mlxview' example that's included with the mlx90621 user space driver.

Once the device is physically installed and i2c is enabled verify that the SOC can see it by opening a terminal and running-

for Raspi - 'sudo i2cdetect -y 0'

for Raspi 2 - 'sudo i2cdetect -y 1'

(If that command is not found do 'sudo apt-get install i2c-tools'.)

Once you execute that command you'll see a grid of dashes with numbers where any i2c device is detected. The MLX has 2 i2c devices which collectively bind 9 i2c addresses - 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57 and 60

Addresses 50-57 and 60 below are the MLX90621. The other addresses are other i2c peripherals...

Once you can see the MLX90621 with 'i2cdetect' you can download and install the mlxd code from github.

Open a terminal and do 'git clone https://github.com/alphacharlie/mlxd.git'
run 'cd mlxd'
run 'make'

To run the driver/daemon do- 'sudo mlxd &', if succesfull the thermopile data will now be available at - /var/run/mlx90620.sock

The mlxview.py application is an example app that grabs the thermopile data and attempts to superimpose it over the feed from the raspicam. It has a few python prerequisites. So if you want to run it first do -

'sudo apt-get install python-numpy python-scipy python-skimage'

(There may be other prerequisites I'm unaware of because I already had them installed. But those are the big ones...)

Here's a short video of the mlxview.py demo in action-

Components

1 × MLX90621 thermopile array

1 × Raspberry Pi 2

1 × Raspicam (and ribbon cable)

1 × LCD display (HDMI or PiTFT)

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Discussions

heylol2009 wrote 09/04/2020 at 03:15

I keep getting MLX9062x init failed

Are you sure? yes | no

ks123456 wrote 03/19/2019 at 05:21

Hi, l need to interface raspberry pi 3 with mlx90640 and picamera, does anyone try this, can help me? Thank you

Are you sure? yes | no

roerich wrote 06/26/2017 at 14:50

Hi, i have the problem that i can see the live picture from the picam but without overlaying the thermal image from the MLX90621.
i get
'pi@raspberrypi:~/mlxd $ python mlxview.py
/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/skimage/util/dtype.py:107: UserWarning: Possible precision loss when converting from float64 to uint8
"%s to %s" % (dtypeobj_in, dtypeobj))
^CTraceback (most recent call last):
File "mlxview.py", line 90, in
fifo = open('/var/run/mlx90621.sock', 'r')
KeyboardInterrupt'
then.
Can anybody help me please?

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kadmomi1 wrote 05/05/2017 at 09:01

Hello charles, with sudo ./mlxd

OK, MLX9062x init
Ta = 22.79146767
C 73.02464180 F
I tried your solution
Mlxd is the driver daemon.
: 'Sudo / full_path / to / mlxd &'
I get command not found
But I do not know what's wrong. Any suggestion?

I'm using google translate

Thank you

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svtechie wrote 03/02/2017 at 06:49

Update: Following does not work

Before I fork and commit: I found latest code at https://github.com/terickson/mlxd/tree/56839dcf746b5fe0a5db7b51ae233075ecad1e3d. Please see if that works for you first.

I have checked in fixes at https://github.com/svtechie/mlxd

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svtechie wrote 03/02/2017 at 06:44

Update: Code is available at https://github.com/svtechie/mlxd

To all: If you are seeing Ta = nan C nan F, there is bug in the code. I have fixed this bug. I'll update the code at GitHub by 6th March 2017.

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svtechie wrote 03/01/2017 at 15:46

Hey Charles, I'm seeing exactly the same issue as John. I have tried to debug it but not sure what's wrong. Any suggestion?

Thanks

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John Lauer wrote 01/22/2017 at 07:35

I'm using an MLX90621 and I can't seem to get this to work. I get detection of the MLX90621, but when running mlxd I get the init, but no temp. Seems this is what a lot of folks are seeing as well. Any thoughts?

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo i2cdetect -y 1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f
00: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
20: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
30: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
50: 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
60: 60 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
70: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

But then getting...

pi@raspberrypi:~/mlxd $ sudo ./mlxd

OK, MLX90620 init
Ta = nan C nan F

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svtechie wrote 03/01/2017 at 15:44

John, I am seeing same issue. Were you able to resolve it?

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svtechie wrote 03/02/2017 at 06:45

John, I have fixed the issue on my end. Going through remaining code.

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John Lauer wrote 01/22/2017 at 06:58

Your pins are reversed in your main description above. It caught me up for an hour.

SCL -> Pin 3
SDA -> Pin 5

Should be

SCL -> Pin 5
SDA -> Pin 3

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Kenneth Tang wrote 01/13/2017 at 13:23

everything fine also but i also get the message: "Ta = nan C nan F", anyone has the solution?

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svtechie wrote 03/01/2017 at 15:46

Hey Kenneth, were you able to resolve this issue?

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svtechie wrote 03/02/2017 at 06:46

I have fixed the issue on my end. Going through remaining code. Will update!

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Patrick wrote 10/03/2016 at 18:07

Quick question. Do you think it is possible to work with multiple MLX90621 sensors on the Raspberry PI? Possibly leverage 4 sensors into the mix, rather than a single sensor?

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Alpha Charlie wrote 10/12/2016 at 16:38

The Raspberry Pi has a second I2C bus (GPIO 28, 29) and in theory, you can have one per bus. (Note that I haven't tried it.)

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adarsh.ambati1 wrote 10/03/2016 at 13:47

Also, I can't access the thermopile data

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Alpha Charlie wrote 10/12/2016 at 16:42

Sorry for the delay responding. Verify that you have I2C enabled, i2ctools installed, and that the device is visible when you run 'sudo i2cdetect -y 1'. (If you see all dashes in that grid, your sensor may be mis-wired.) See the I2c portion of this page - https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/raspberry-pi-spi-and-i2c-tutorial

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adarsh.ambati1 wrote 10/02/2016 at 19:19

Hi, I also have the Ta = nan C nan F error.

Cananybody help me?

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Mark Dammer MM0DQM wrote 09/28/2016 at 17:39

Anybody knows where to get these sensors in the UK ?

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yuting.wang wrote 09/28/2016 at 13:02

okay, I have solved the problem.

gcc -o mlxd mlxd.c -l bcm2835 -lm

sudo ./mlxd

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yuting.wang wrote 09/27/2016 at 13:51

Hello, I also got the "command not found" problem and your suggestion to daihael did not work for me. Please help

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msasikumar895 wrote 07/11/2016 at 10:59

Its working fine. But i have a problem with output while run the sudo mlxd & comment and its output is "Ta = nan C nan F". is this error or just an output

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daihael wrote 05/09/2016 at 16:02

ok it worked ! thx

now i have a problem with the output. i get the message: "Ta = nan C nan F"

I'm using a MLX90621. Does it really work with 621 ? maybe thats my problem ?

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Alpha Charlie wrote 05/10/2016 at 05:59

No I'm using the 90621 in the video...

if from a shell you execute the command 'sudo i2cdetect -y 1' does the output show devices at 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57 and 60?

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daihael wrote 05/10/2016 at 06:14

yes

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msasikumar895 wrote 07/11/2016 at 11:15

Dear daihael,

Did you get any solution for this output message??

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daihael wrote 05/04/2016 at 16:01

To run the driver/daemon do- 'sudo mlxd &', if succesfull the thermopile data will now be available at - /var/run/mlx90620.sock

I tried "sudo mlxd &" but i get the response "sudo:mlxd: command not found" ... heeeelp :)

is it just the command "sudo mlxd &" and what for is this command actually ?

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Alpha Charlie wrote 05/07/2016 at 20:35

mlxd is the driver daemon. It needs to run as root (hence the 'sudo' at the front...) It sounds like mlxd is not in your PATH or the current directory. Try the full path to the daemon. - i.e. : 'sudo /full_path/to/mlxd &'

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Alpha Charlie wrote 07/22/2015 at 20:09

Sorry for the slow reply. Sounds like your issues are hardware related. First make sure you are only supplying the MLX with ~2.7V by placing an 1n4001 diode in series with the power supply... Next double check your SCL/SDA lines. (If one is grounded out then ALL of the addresses will show as active in i2cdetect... If they are reversed or not connected, then nothing will show up.) Also make sure you've got i2c enabled on your Pi both in raspi-config and in /boot/config.txt (and /etc/modules)

Once you have i2c working the daemon should (hopefully) be able to connect.

Also double check against the datasheet to make sure it's wired correctly.

Are you sure? yes | no

Raspberry Pi Thermal Imaging

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Video Demo of IR Thermopile Array

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