aioscilloscope / Instruments / Fluke TiX580

Fluke TiX580, inside, chip by chip

Fluke's TiX580 is a handheld thermal imager with a touch screen. Inside, an Altera FPGA turns the infrared engine's frames into pictures, and a Texas Instruments DM3730 running Linux 3.4.79 shows, stores and sends them. Ours is on the bench.

Fluke TiX580 thermal imager from the front: its touch screen beside the keypad with F1 to F3, arrows, Rescale, Auto/Manual, IR Fusion, Zoom and Memory keys
The screen side: the keypad's F1 to F3, the arrows, Rescale, Auto/Manual, IR Fusion, Zoom and Memory.
Fluke TiX580 thermal imager from the back: the infrared lens with its cap, the visible-light camera and laser, and the HDMI, USB and 15 V DC ports under a cover
The lens side: the infrared lens under its cap, the visible-light camera and laser above it, and HDMI, USB and 15 V DC under the cover.

How a picture gets to the screen

  1. The infrared engine behind the lens, a 640 x 480 microbolometer with its own small processor, measures the scene and sends each frame down a 40-way cable to the main board.
  2. An Altera Cyclone IV FPGA takes the frames into its own memory, scales them and blends in the visible camera's picture for IR-Fusion.
  3. A Texas Instruments DM3730 reads the frames from the FPGA, turns raw counts into temperatures with the camera's calibration, and runs the touch interface.
  4. From there the picture goes to the 5.7-inch screen, out of the HDMI port, over USB to a PC, over Wi-Fi, or into a saved file.
How the Fluke TiX580 makes a picture The infrared engine (lens, 640 by 480 microbolometer and its own processor) sends frames over a 40-way cable, J34, to an Altera Cyclone IV FPGA (U21) with its own Nanya memory (U28). The FPGA hands the frames to a Texas Instruments DM3730 processor (U23) two ways: as registers and frames on a 16-bit bus, and as video on its camera port. The DM3730, with two Micron memories (U26, U27), a 4 GB eMMC (U22) and a microSD card, drives the 640 by 480 screen through three level shifters (U65 to U67), HDMI through an ADV7513 (U63), USB to a PC through a TUSB1210 (U6), the accessory USB port through a USB2512B hub (U14), and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth through a TiWi-BLE module (U18) on the chip antenna E8. Power comes in at the DC jack J28 or the battery; a TPS65930 (U31) and the LTC3633 (U35) and LT3022 (U32) regulators make the rails, and the TPS65930 also reads the keypad. Infrared engine lens + 640 x 480microbolometerits own FPGAand processorvisible camera,laser(off this board) J3440-way Video pipelineFPGA · U21 Altera Cyclone IVEP4CE75 frames · scalingIR-Fusion blendengine linkantenna switch Frame memory · U28Nanya DRAM 16-bit video Processor · U23 TI DM3730ARM Cortex-A8+ C64x+ DSP Linux 3.4.79touch interfaceradiometrysaving, streaming DRAMU26, U27Micron StorageeMMC U22microSD J20 Screen 640 x 480 · J30via U65-U67, touch RGB HDMI out · J29ADV7513 U63 video USB to PC · J26TUSB1210 U6 USB USB accessory · J25USB2512B hub U14 USB Wi-Fi + Bluetooth · U18TiWi-BLE, antenna E8 SDIO Power inDC jack J28 or batteryregulators LTC3633 U35,LT3022 U32 and others Power management · U31TI TPS65930processor rails · clock · real-time clockkeypad · power key · backlight · audio rails, I2C
Drawn from the main board's chips and from what the camera's own software sets up on them. The infrared engine is a separate module behind the lens.

The main board

Fluke calls it TI-ORION-4001; ours is revision 008. The camera's software calls the board Orion and runs the same main board in the TiX520 and TiX560.

Main board, back-cover side, in the case: the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module bottom left with its antenna, the cable to the infrared engine on the left, the microSD socket top left, the screen connector and its three level shifters on the right.
Main board, back-cover side, in the case: the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module bottom left with its antenna, the cable to the infrared engine on the left, the microSD socket top left, the screen connector and its three level shifters on the right.
Main board, screen side, enclosure off: the DM3730 processor and its two memories in the middle, the Cyclone IV FPGA with its memory to the right, the power management chip below them, the HDMI, USB and power jacks on the left.
Main board, screen side, enclosure off: the DM3730 processor and its two memories in the middle, the Cyclone IV FPGA with its memory to the right, the power management chip below them, the HDMI, USB and power jacks on the left.

The core chips

In the order a picture travels. The marking is what is printed on the chip on our board; identified means the marking or a filing names the part, probable that it fits everything we have read but the part number is not printed in full.

RefChipMarkingSideKnown
U21Altera Cyclone IV FPGAThe video pipeline: takes the infrared engine's frames, scales them, blends in the visible camera (IR-Fusion) and hands every frame to the processor.Altera Cyclone IV S952AF90 3G1GE920D KOREAscreen sideidentified
U28Nanya DRAMThe FPGA's own frame memory.NANYA 1946 NT6DM16M32BC-T1 912675Z2EL L TWscreen sideprobable
U23Texas Instruments DM3730The processor: an ARM Cortex-A8 with a C64x+ DSP. Runs Linux, the touch interface, the radiometry and saving.TI DM3730CUSA 9BZCF09 CUS 773 G1screen sideidentified
U26Micron DRAMHalf of the processor's 32-bit memory.MT 9SC17 D9RXG PPRBscreen sidenot identified yet
U27Micron DRAMThe other half of the processor's memory.MT 9SC17 D9RXG PPRBscreen sidenot identified yet
U22Micron eMMCThe 4 GB internal storage: the software and saved images.Micron 9XA17 JY995 5G1Pscreen sideprobable
U31Texas Instruments TPS65930Power management: the processor's supply rails, its clock and real-time clock, the keypad, the power key, the screen's backlight and audio.TI TPS65930A2 99C92W $4 G1screen sideidentified
U65TI SN74LVC8T245Level shifter: lifts eight of the screen's lines from the processor's 1.8 V to the panel's 3.3 V.NH245 96K G4 A5VLback-cover sideidentified
U66TI SN74LVC8T245Level shifter, eight more lines.NH245 96K G4 A5VLback-cover sideidentified
U67TI SN74LVC8T245Level shifter, the last eight lines.NH245 96K G4 A5VLback-cover sideidentified
U63Analog Devices ADV7513HDMI output: turns the processor's video into the HDMI port's signal.ANALOG DEVICES ADV7513 BSWZ #1719 3827255.1screen sideidentified
U6TI TUSB1210USB 2.0 transceiver for the processor's USB port.T1210B AFX4 G4 88Iback-cover sideidentified
U14Microchip (SMSC) USB2512BUSB hub: the accessory (type-A) port hangs off it.SMSC USB2512B D1947-A2P10 9474JEA ASE-TWscreen sideidentified
U18LSR TiWi-BLE module (TI WL1271L)Wi-Fi and Bluetooth: Wi-Fi to a phone or PC; Bluetooth for the headset that records voice notes onto images.LSR Model: TiWi-BLE P/N: 450-0064 R5 FCC ID: TFB-TIWI1-01 IC: 5969A-TIWI101 0219483 24892back-cover sideidentified
E8Johanson 2450AT18D0100The 2.4 GHz chip antenna: one antenna, shared by Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and the meter radio, switched by the FPGA.—back-cover sideidentified
U35Analog Devices (Linear) LTC3633Two 3 A step-down regulators: main supply rails.LT 9K 3633 83482back-cover sideidentified
U32Analog Devices (Linear) LT30221 A low-dropout regulator: a quiet low-voltage rail.3022 B42540 LT 945back-cover sideidentified

Not identified yet

These chips carry only short codes. If you know one, write to us.

RefMarkingSide
U29LLTP 83GG 925screen side
U33LTA2screen side
U138B76 3526 M-Hscreen side
U82Z14Lscreen side
U36<946 LDQF B177screen side
U47<946 LDQFscreen side
U3AVVback-cover side
U59AEX BABback-cover side
U54FEN Zback-cover side
U55FEN Zback-cover side

What it runs

ProcessorTexas Instruments DM3730 (DM3730CUSA on our board): an ARM Cortex-A8 with a C64x+ DSP beside it
Stock softwareLinux 3.4.79
Kernel supportLinux 3.4 left kernel.org's long-term support in 2016
Main boardTI-ORION-4001, revision 008 on our unit
PortsHDMI, USB and 15 V DC, as marked on the case

The schematic, drawn from the board and the firmware: TI-ORION-4001 schematic (PDF).