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# Thermal Camera
[Video Demo](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hk5CXilCE_w)
**This project was posted to [Hackaday](https://hackaday.com/2025/08/10/cheap-thermal-camera-fits-the-bill/)!**
This is my design of a cheap and affordable thermal camera (< $60, excl shipping)!. It utilizes the MLX90640 as the image sensor, and the esp32 to process and display the images on a TFT LCD screen.
I made this project because off the shelf thermal cameras are exuberantly expensive, and I need one to figure out if my PCBs are shorting.
The hardest part of this project so far was designing the battery charging circuit, as I needed to use multiple ICs to charge the battery, keep the voltage stable, and to keep the battery from overcharging.
# Screenshots
-> The case (and PCB) isn't very well designed, If I redesigned this project, i'd make the pcb smaller and integrate the LCD...
# Photos
# Firmware
You can find the firmware in the `thermal_camera` folder.
The firmware is written with the Arduino IDE. The ESP32 is used to read the thermal camera and display the images on the TFT LCD screen.
## Firmware Setup
1. Open the Arduino IDE.
2. Install the TFT_eSPI library and MLX90640 library by Adafruit.
3. Create a thermal_camera.h file in `C:\Users\YourUsername\Documents\Arduino\libraries\TFT_eSPI\User_Setups`
4. Paste in the following code:
```c
#define ILI9341_DRIVER
#define TFT_WIDTH 240
#define TFT_HEIGHT 320
#define TFT_MISO 8
#define TFT_MOSI 6
#define TFT_SCLK 5
#define TFT_CS 15
#define TFT_DC 4
#define TFT_RST 16
#define TFT_BL 7
#define TOUCH_CS 10
#define SPI_FREQUENCY 40000000
```
5. Open `C:\Users\YourUsername\Documents\Arduino\libraries\TFT_eSPI\User_Setup_Select.h`
6. Add the line `#include <User_Setups/thermal_camera.h>` to the file under User_Setup.h
7. Compile and upload the firmware to the ESP32.
# BOM
The total cost of the project is about $86 USD: ([Spreadsheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PjPY5GV_mC4sFPF-p1Rz1wbnOWLJnwNhDzCwLhk1jFM/edit?usp=sharing))
