Nowadays we often value the superb design of vintage technology. It is, therefore, laudable when a broken piece of old electronics is given a new purpose. These types of builds are exactly [Martin Mander’s] cup of tea as he confirmed by turning a 1979 Apollo microwave monitor into a thermal camera (video embedded below).
Intrigued by its unique design, [Martin Mander] picked up the original microwave monitor at a secondhand sale, although the device
was not exactly in mint condition. Supposedly this type of detector was used to monitor the exposure of personnel to microwave radiation in an industrial environment.
After removing all the guts, he replaced them with a Raspberry Pi Zero W, Adafruit thermal camera, 1.3″ TFT display, and a USB battery pack. It is especially nice that [Martin Mander] was able to mount all the components without relying on 3D prints but instead, he hand-carved some custom panels and brackets from waste plastic.
The software is based on Python and automatically uploads the captured images to an Adafruit.IO dashboard. With 8 x 8 pixels the resolution of the sensor is not great but by using bicubic interpolation he was able to convert it to a 32 x 32 image which was enough to take some interesting pictures of his cat and other household items.
It is also worthwhile to check out some of [Martin Manders] other retro-tech mods like his cassette Pi IoT scroller.
And a new meme is born. Grumpy cat meet thermal cat.
Oh boy. For a moment there I thought it might be April 1st again already.
Let me get this straight. Somebody gutted a piece of Apollo hardware for it’s case? Really? Well, ok, a thermal camera is significantly cooler than your typical just-a-pi in a box. But still, Apollo hardware?
“Hacker digs up grandmother and makes world’s most awesome animatronic twitter feed reader from her skull” next week on HaD.
I’m pretty sure Apollo here is a brand of industrial safety equipment.
Apparently, microwave equipment and parts and they still exist now that I look.
Oh… Yup. I thought it was an artifact from the Apollo space program. Well.. there have been a lot of stories about things from NASA being available in auctions in the last few years. Sorry Martin Mander, good project, carry on!
https://youtu.be/YIj0qhYzqCU
I know, right?!?!
This project is certainly not as cool as all those you have been posting.
Please keep up the great work.
Would be a great Halloween hack though.
I feel like someone who had an actual cause for concern would have noticed that 1979 was several years after the Apollo program ended.
That case looks like something out of Tales from the Loop.
I have one of those apollo microwave meters around somewhere, came in a lot from a medical surplus auction. I have used it a few times to test microwave ovens for leakage, though weither the meter itself works is another question itself really… Gives me some peace of mind though.