IR Grid 2 click
PID: MIKROE‐3194
Weight: 26 g
IR Grid 2 click is a thermal imaging sensor. It has an array of 768 very
sensitive factory calibrated IR elements (pixels), arranged in 32 rows of 24
pixels. Each one of them is measuring an object temperature up to 300˚C
within its local Field of View (FOV). The MLX90640 IR sensor used on this
Click board™ has just four pins, and it is mounted inside of the industry
standard TO39 package. It is equipped with 2Kbit of EEPROM for storing the
compensation and calibration parameters. The MLX90640 IR sensor array IC
has I2C compatible digital interface, allowing it to be interfaced with a wide
range of different MCUs. The sensor used on this Click board™ offers a
summed field of view of 55˚. The sensor can output up to 64 frames per
second (FPS).
Due to the small number of external components it requires, as well as the
low pin count and widely used I2C digital interface, this sensor is an ideal
solution for building a range of thermal detection applications. IR Grid 2 click
can be used for a wide range of applications, including thermal scanners,
precise contactless thermal measurement, thermal leaks in homes, industrial
temperature control of moving parts, other types of heated object
localization, human presence, and similar applications that require accurate
contactless thermal measurement, or thermal imaging.
How does it work?
IR Grid 2 click is equipped with the MLX90640, a 32x24 IR array sensor,
from Melexis. This sensor contains 8 Kbit EEPROM, used to store all the
compensation and calibration parameters, along with some editable user
parameters, such as the config registers, I2C address and similar. These
sensors can measure temperature relative to the cold junction temperature,
and for this reason the MLX90640 IR sensor incorporates a PTAT
(Proportional to Absolute Temperature) compensation sensor. The device
also contains the power supply voltage measurement feature, allowing
power supply monitoring. It is recommended that the supply voltage stay as
accurate as possible, which is taken care of if used with the MikroElektronika
development systems. The IR sensor array as well as the PTAT sensor
readings are sampled by the internal Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) and
stored to RAM, which can be accessed via the I2C interface. The resolution
of the ADC can be programmed between 16 bits and 19bits.
The MLX90640 IR sensor used on this Click board™ has a Field of View
(FOV) of 55˚, with the IR sensing elements arranged in a 32x28 grid. Each
sensor measures the temperature in its individual FOV, allowing the host
MCU to build a thermal image or calculate the temperature at each spot of
the viewed scene. The measurement results are stored to RAM. The entire
RAM area is divided in two pages, with access patterns controlled by the
configuration registers (chess pattern, or interleaved pattern). The
compensation parameters stored in the EEPROM are factory calibrated for
chess pattern access, yielding the most accurate results when using this
mode. The chess pattern mode is selected by default.
The configuration and control registers allow to set the operational
parameters of the IR grid sensor. These registers contain bits that control
the behavior of the sensor IC: the refresh rate, the ADC resolution,
measurement mode (continuous or step mode), sleep mode, I2C mode (FM
or FM+), etc. On restart, the data from the corresponding copies of these
register locations in EEPROM is mirrored to the operational register locations
in RAM, preparing the device to be instantly operated. This allows changing
of the default values, since they are actually stored in EEPROM, rather than
being hard-coded into the device.
Besides the default working parameters, the EEPROM area contains all the
compensation parameters for each IR element, necessary for completing the
accurate thermal calculations. Those calculations include ambient
temperature calculation, pixel offset calculation, pixel to pixel sensitivity
difference compensation, object emissivity compensation, and object
temperature calculation. The datasheet of the MLX90640 IR sensor contains
equations which use these parameters stored in EEPROM. However, this
Click board™ is supplied with the library, which contains functions that
simplify working with this sensor, saving time.
Two modes of operation are available: the device can continuously sample
data from the IR elements, with the programmed refresh rate (up to 64
frames per second), or it can take one frame, by sampling the selected
page. The status byte contains flags that indicate that the reading of a
specific page is done.
It should be noted that the sensor measures the IR emissivity of an object,
so it is to be expected that some materials cannot be accurately measured
by this sensor due to their low emissivity, such as the aluminum. To better
understand the emissivity property of the materials, a person wearing
clothes, can be taken as an example: the measured temperature will reflect
the clothes temperature, rather than the body temperature itself, which is
known to be about 37 ˚C Care should be taken not to expose the Click
board™ to a cold or hot air flow, as it will cause false readings of the real
temperature. This sensor requires the temperature across the sensor
package to be constant.
The MLX90640 IR sensor uses 3.3V for optimal results. While the power for
the IR sensor itself is taken from the 3.3V mikroBUS™ rail, in order to
support MCUs which use 5V compatible logic levels, the Click board™ comes
equipped with PCA9306, a bi-directional I2C level translator IC, produced by
Texas Instruments. This allows the logic voltage level to be selected by the
SMD jumper labeled as VCC SEL. Besides I2C bus lines, no additional lines of
the mikroBUS™ are used. I2C bus lines are routed to the respective pins of
the mikroBUS™.
Specifications
Type
Optical
Applications
It can be used for thermal scanners, precise contactless
thermal measurement, thermal leaks in homes,
industrial temperature control of moving parts, other
types of heated object localization, human presence,
and other similar applications
On-board
modules
MLX90640, a 32x24 IR grid array sensor with EEPROM,
from Melexis; PCA9306, a bi-directional I2C level
translator, from Texas Instruments
Key Features
768 factory calibrated sensors, capable of contactless
measuring of temperature up to 300˚C, integrated 8Kbit
of EEPROM for storing configuration and compensation
parameters, programmable refresh rate up to 64Hz, and
more
Interface
I2C
Input Voltage
3.3V or 5V
Compatibility
mikroBUS
Click board
size
M (42.9 x 25.4 mm)
Pinout diagram
This table shows how the pinout on IR Grid 2 click corresponds to the pinout
on the mikroBUS™ socket (the latter shown in the two middle columns).
Notes
Pin
Pin
Notes
NC
1
AN
PWM
16
NC
NC
2
RST
INT
15
NC
NC
3
CS
RX
14
NC
NC
4
SCK
TX
13
NC
NC
5
MISO
SCL
12
SCL
I2C Clock
NC
6
MOSI
SDA
11
SDA
I2C Data
Power supply
3.3V
7
3.3V
5V
10
5V
Ground
GND
8
GND
GND
9
GND
Power Supply
Ground
Onboard jumpers and settings
Label
Name
Default
Description
PWR
PWR
-
Power LED indicator
VCC
SEL
VCC SEL
Left
Power supply voltage selection: left
position 3.3V, right position 5V
Software support
We provide a library for the IR Grid 2 click on our LibStock page, as well as a
demo application (example), developed using MikroElektronika compilers.
The demo can run on all the main MikroElektronika development boards.
Library Description
The library contains all the necessary functions for successful work with IR
Grid 2 click.
Key functions :
void irgrid2_init() - Functions for initialization chip
void irgrid2_getPixelTemperature(float *Ta, float *pixelTemp) - Functions for
reads Ambient temperature and pixel temperature
Example description
The application is composed of three sections :
System Initialization - Initializes I2C module and USB UART for data logging
Application Initialization - Initializes driver init and IR Grid 2 module
Application Task - (code snippet) - Reads the temperature of all pixels and creates a pixel
temperature matrix that logs on usbuart every 500ms
note : The sensor needs about 4 minutes for calibration
void applicationTask()
{
irgrid2_getPixelTemperature(&Ta,&pixelTemp[0]);
mikrobus_logWrite("Ambient temperature: ",_LOG_TEXT);
FloatToStr(Ta,demoText);
mikrobus_logWrite(demoText,_LOG_LINE);
mikrobus_logWrite(" ", _LOG_LINE);
mikrobus_logWrite("‐‐‐ Pixel temperature matrix 32x24 ‐‐‐", _LOG_LINE);
for ( cnt = 0 ; cnt 0))
{
mikrobus_logWrite(" ", _LOG_LINE);
}
}
mikrobus_logWrite(" ", _LOG_LINE);
Delay_ms( 500 );
}
The full application code, and ready to use projects can be found on
our LibStock page.
Other mikroE Libraries used in the example:
I2C
Additional notes and information
Depending on the development board you are using, you may need USB UART
click, USB UART 2 click or RS232 click to connect to your PC, for development
systems with no UART to USB interface available on the board. The terminal
available in all MikroElektronika compilers, or any other terminal application
of your choice, can be used to read the message.
mikroSDK
This click board is supported with mikroSDK - MikroElektronika Software
Development Kit. To ensure proper operation of mikroSDK compliant click
board demo applications, mikroSDK should be downloaded from
the LibStock and installed for the compiler you are using.
For more information about mikroSDK, visit the official page.
https://www.mikroe.com/ir‐grid‐2‐click 10‐30‐18