DIY thermal imaging camera & other options

[Daox]

During the energy audit of my house, I got to see a thermal imaging camera in action. It was amazing. With the flick of your wrist you can see exactly where cold is entering your house.

I have a normal IR thermometer as well as a somewhat more fancy black and decker IR thermometer & leak detector that has an LED that shines a light at whatever you're pointing at do. It turns blue when its colder and red where its hotter than your initial reference point. Its a neat device, but nowhere near as nice as a thermal imaging camera. Here is a quick review video on how it works:

YouTube - Black & Decker TLD100 Thermal Leak Detector

Looking up prices on thermal imaging cameras looks like they start around $1200 which is a bit out of my range. However, here is a quick video on how they work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t1C6...eature=related

So, how can we make our own thermal imaging camera? I did some googling and here is what I found:

DIY Heatmap "Infrared Thermal Image" using the Black and Decker TLD100
This is a somewhat manual way of making a 'thermal map' of an image. While it would work, it would be painfully slow and the resolution leaves a lot to be desired IMO.


cheap-thermocam.tk
This site seems to have the most complete set of instructions on how to make your own images from a normal IR thermometer. It uses a IR thermometer that automatically scans a portion of the room and then produces an image from that data. It still takes a while, but the resolution is much better.


Has anyone seen any other options?