Thermal2 Unit – A new Smart Thermal Camera Module based on ESP32 from the house of M5Stack

M5Stack embedded developers have developed the Thermal2 Unit thermal imaging camera. This is a newer version of the earlier Thermal Unit developed by the same company. The Melexis MLX90640 FIR thermal sensor used in the module is the core component. It has a wide range of temperature measurement abilities starting from as low as -40 deg C, and it can reach up to 300 deg C. It can also withstand an operating temperature in the range of -10 deg C to 60 deg C.

The sensor has a resolution of 32 x 24 px which offers 768 individual measurement points. The device has a 110×75 deg field view and a refresh rate from 0.5Hz up to 64Hz. The refresh rate is programmable as well. The power consumption is only 2.5W, operating at 5V with a current consumption of 500mA.

The MCU used in the device is the ESP32-PICO-D4, with many features included, such as a flash memory of 4 MB, Bluetooth 4.2 radio, and SRAM of 520kB. It is also integrated with two low-power Xtensa LX6 32-bit microcontroller cores, two banks of 8kB in RTC, and 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi.

It is a very lightweight module weighing merely 4.9g with a small size of 48mm x 24mm x 8mm. To make the module ready to use, a user-addressable RGB LED and a button is attached. The device can operate in standalone or I2C mode, and a default firmware is already flashed in the module. However, UIFlow or Arduino IDE can be used to program the device, as confirmed by the makers.

Some prominent applications where it can be used are motion detection and visual infrared thermometer. It can also be used for non-contact temperature measurements with high precision. The applications are of course extended to any DIY projects as well. The Thermal2 is now available at a price of $69.90 for purchase at the M5STack Store. A separate cable is not necessary, as an HY2.0-4P cable comes bundled with it.

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