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Spent $80 on a thermal imager attachment and it paid for itself in one job
Picked up one of those cheap phone thermal camera attachments last month, mostly out of curiosity. Had a nightmare case this week where a Dell laptop kept overheating no matter what I did. New paste, cleaned fans, rechecked mounting pressure, still hit 96C under load. Out of pure desperation I pointed that thing at the board and found a tiny hot spot near the VRM, like a 2mm square. Turns out a mosfet was failing and drawing excess current. Replaced it with a donor board part, temps dropped to 71C. Client paid me $140 for the repair. That little $80 toy just earned its cost plus some. Honestly I'm thinking about using it on every thermal complaint now, before I even crack the case. It's not lab grade but it catches the big stuff. Anyone else using one of these for board level work or is it just a gimmick for finding drafty windows?
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parkerward4d ago
Honestly $80 for one lucky hit sounds like a fluke, not a tool. Point that thing at a board and you'll get hotspots everywhere, half of them totally normal, and next thing you know you're swapping parts that were fine. Real board level work needs a scope and schematics, not a phone toy.
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