Anyone know any sources for affordable thermal imaging devices? I am in the process of putting togather (well planning and sourcing atleast, airframe is designed) a large gas powered all composite drone (3350mm wing span) designed to conduct grid searches for missing persons/fire detection as well as mapping and such. I plan on putting regular high resolution color (10mp with digital zoom to 1200mm), IR for bad visability and thermal for detection of persons and such(all 360x180 gimbal mounted). I contacted SPI infrared (still waiting on the responce) for a pricing quote on a thermal security camera located in their 'affordable cams' section (the TSC4500-E). It has a detection range of 3000ft with a 12 degree lens with video being white on black. its a 8.3"x2 inch cylinder that weighs 20 oz. so its size and weight are perfect for this drone. runs off of 8-32VDC at 2W (12vdc being the sweet medium) so lipo power will be no problem. looking at a DLA-112 with a Biela 3-blade 25x10 to run this. plenty of power and fuselage space to carry about 2.5 to 3 gallons of fuel so long flights will be possible. the airframe desigh is similar to a IAI Heron, but slightly smaller. carbon fiber and aramid honeycomb construction with some kevlar here and there. the whole thing (empty no parts) should only weigh a few kg so the payload whould be pretty good. it may have to be catapult launched though... now i wonder how much this cam is going to cost.... i may only have to spend about a grand (rounding way up) on all the composite materials and maybe another 1500 or so on electronics and the power plant. i think this cam mught double the cost of building this thing. anyone else out there messing around with thermal?
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You should look at the FLIR Tau line. Plan on spending at least $3,500.
Who are you building this bird for? What experience have you had building uas?