Chassis inspection using thermal imaging

[LukeSimon]

Infrared thermal cameras are great for checking on flyback health and electrolytic capacitor health. Also surprising is how cool the ultor rectifier tube runs. All pictures are of a GE Portacolor:


Visible light spectrum, camera flash is on.


Visible light spectrum, camera flash is off.


Infrared light spectrum for thermal imaging. Reticles show minimum temperature, maximum temperature, and the white reticle shows the temperature of the targeted area of the picture. Temperature is in fahrenheit.


Ultor rectifier is only 84F. It is a 1AD2A, which has enough x-ray shielding built in that the high voltage cage door isn’t even installed in this model of Portacolor.


The flyback transformer donut is 109F. This is a very low temperature for a tube type flyback!