Review: InfiRay P2 Pro Thermal Camera

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that Hackaday is constantly hounded by companies that want us to review their latest and greatest gadget. After all, getting us to post about their product is cheaper, easier, and arguably more effective than trying to come up with their own ad campaign. But if you’ve been with us for awhile, you’ll also know that in-house reviews aren’t something we actually do very often.

The reason is simple: we’re only interested in devices or products that offer something useful or unique to this community. As such, the vast majority of these offers get ignored. I’ll give you an example. For whatever reason, multiple companies have been trying desperately to send me electric bikes with five-figure price tags this year. But since there’s no obvious way to turn that into useful content for the readers of Hackaday, I’m still stuck pedaling myself around like it’s the 1900s. I kid of course…I haven’t dared to get on a bike in a decade.

So I don’t mind telling you that, when InfiRay contacted me about reviewing their P2 Pro thermal camera, the email very nearly went into the trash. We’ve seen these kind of phone-based thermal cameras before, and it seemed to be more of the same. But after taking a close look at the specs, accessories, and claims laid out in the marketing material, I thought this one might be worth checking out first-hand.

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Light Meets Movement With A Minimum Of Parts

We often say that hardware hacking has never been easier, thanks in large part to low-cost modular components, powerful microcontrollers, and highly capable open source tools. But we can sometimes forget that what’s “easy” for the tinkerer that reads datasheets for fun isn’t always so straightforward for everyone else. Which is why it’s so refreshing to see projects like this LED chandelier from [MakerMan].

Despite the impressive final result, there’s no microcontrollers or complex electronics at work here. It’s been pieced together, skillfully we might add, from hardware that wouldn’t be out of place in a well-stocked parts bin. No 3D printed parts or fancy laser cutter involved, and even the bits that are welded together could certainly be fastened some other way if necessary. This particular build is not a triumph of technology, but ingenuity.

The video below is broken up roughly into two sections, the first shows how the motorized crank and pulley system was designed and tested; complete with various bits of scrip standing in for the final LED light tubes. Once the details for how it would move were nailed down, [MakerMan] switches over to producing the lights themselves, which are nothing more than some frosted plastic tubes with LED strips run down the center. Add in a sufficiently powerful 12 VDC supply, and you’re pretty much done.

As it so happens, this isn’t the first motorized lighting fixture that [MakerMan] has put together.

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Raspberry Pi Pico W Now Supports Bluetooth

What’s the best kind of upgrade a piece of consumer technology can get? A free one that doesn’t require you to do anything other than accept a new version of the software it’s running.

That’s precisely what every current (and future) owner of the Raspberry Pi Pico W just got with the addition of Bluetooth support to SDK 1.5.1. This is possible because the CYW43439 radio chipset used on the wireless version of the Pi Pico has always had Bluetooth capabilities, they just weren’t officially accessible from the C or MicroPython environments until now. In a corresponding blog post, [Eben Upton] explains that part of the delay was due to difficulties in getting both WiFi and Bluetooth connections to work simultaneously over the three-pin SPI bus that links the two chips on the board.

One thing that struck us as particularly interesting here is the use of BlueKitchen’s BTStack to provide support for both Bluetooth Classic and Low Energy profiles. This library is released under a modified version of the BSD 3-Clause license that otherwise specifically forbids commercial usage. That would be a problem for anyone who wanted to sell a gadget built around the Pico W, so Raspberry Pi Ltd negotiated — and presumably paid for — a special dispensation so commercial use is in the clear.

We should note that technically Bluetooth support was available in a beta state previously, albeit without this new license agreement made with BlueKitchen. Though anyone with a keen eye knew Bluetooth support was coming well before that, our own [Elliot Williams] called it when he first set eyes on the Pi Pico W back in 2022.

Updated OSHW Flash Drive Keeps Data Safe, Fingers Dry

For almost a year now, we’ve been following the progress [Walker] has been making with Ovrdrive — a completely open source USB flash drive that features the ability to destroy itself should it fall into the wrong hands. It’s an interesting enough project on those merits alone, but what really made this idea stand out was that the user was expected to lick their fingers before handling the drive as a form of covert authentication.

Well, we’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that [Walker] is just about ready to release the Ovrdrive officially on Crowd Supply. But it’s with a heavy heart that we must report that the device’s cutting edge spit-detection capabilities have been removed. Now if you want to preserve the drive’s files, you need to rapidly insert and remove the drive several times rather than just plugging it in.

In all seriousness, this new approach makes a lot more sense. As entertaining as it might have been, the whole idea of a device that could detect moisture on the user’s fingers was fraught with problems. It was a bit more of a meme than a real solution, and if we’re being honest, kind of disgusting. This new approach sounds far more reliable, especially when combined with the new “Lite” self-destruct mode.

While the original capability of literally frying the flash chip by way of several capacitors and a voltage doubler is still here, there’s also a non-destructive approach that’s enabled by default. Unless you open up the drive and desolder the jumper pad on the PCB, the onboard ATtiny24A will simply use the enable pin on the flash chip to make it appear empty. This means that you’ve got to really want to cook your flash chip on the first hint of funny business.

Ultimately, whether it’s self-destructing or not, we just really like the idea of a hacker-developed open source hardware USB flash drive. Admittedly it would be a lot cheaper and more practical to just buy one like a normal person, but we strongly believe that if there’s a way for the community to build a OSHW version of something, they should at least give it a shot.

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Passionate Hams Make Their Mark On The Hack Chat

Let’s be honest — there are some not very pleasant stereotypes associated with amateur radio, at least if you ask outsiders. Hams are often thought of as being in two camps: old guys who can’t figure out modern technology or conspiracy theorists who think their knowledge of radio will give them an edge after the world becomes a post-apocalyptic hellscape. We’ll leave it to you to decide which is the worse brush to be painted with.

As is often the case, the best way to fight such ignorance is with education and outreach. Events like our weekly Hack Chat are a perfect platform for that, as it allows the curious to ask questions and get answers directly from subject matter experts. This is precisely why we invited Mark Hughes and Beau Ambur to helm last week’s Chat. The fact that they’re both relatively recent licensees makes them uniquely qualified to shed some light on what it’s like to become part of the ham radio community in the 21st century. As an added bonus, they’re both sharp and articulate technologists — about as far as you can get from the mental image of the doddering old granddad who prefers the simplicity of the Morse key to those newfangled smarty-phones.

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High Voltage Ion Engines Take Trip On The High Seas

Over the last several months, we’ve been enjoying a front-row seat as [Jay Bowles] of Plasma Channel has been developing and perfecting his design for a high voltage multi-stage ionic thruster. With each installment, the unit has become smaller, lighter, and more powerful. Which is important, as the ultimate goal is to power an RC aircraft with them.

There’s still plenty of work to be done before [Jay] will be able to take his creation skyward, but he’s making all the right moves. As a step towards his goal, he recently teamed up with [RcTestFlight] to attach a pair of his thrusters — which have again been further tweaked and refined since we last saw them — to a custom catamaran hull. The result is a futuristic craft that skims across the water with no moving parts and no noise…if you don’t count the occasional stray arc from the 40,000 volts screaming through its experimental thrusters, anyway. Continue reading “High Voltage Ion Engines Take Trip On The High Seas”

Hackaday Podcast 222: VCF East Special Edition

Editor in Chief Elliot Williams is spending the week communing with nature, which under normal circumstances would mean no podcast — after all, he’s the one who puts each episode together. But since your weekend would obviously be ruined without a dose of lo-fi Hackaday beats to kick things off, Managing Editor Tom Nardi made a valiant attempt to go it alone and produce…something.

This shortened episode will briefly go over the news, including updates about Hackaday’s various ongoing contests and the recent unearthly conditions in the US Northeast due to the Canadian wildfires, before diving into the results of last week’s What’s that Sound challenge. Listeners will then be treated to a special Quick Hacks segment from Jenny List, before settling in for the main event: a pair of fascinating interviews recorded during the 2023 Vintage Computer Festival East in Wall, NJ.

Check out the links below if you want to follow along, and as always, tell us what you think about this episode in the comments!

Feel free to download the MP3 directly for safe keeping.

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