Bullard T3 Max image freeze

[rjd7965]

Just wanted to know if any fire companies have experienced frequent image freeze in a high heat environment?? This seems to be a real issue when conducting search and rescue operations in working structure fire or searching for the seat of the fire. The shutter seems to calibrate more often in high temperatures making it a pain to conduct tasks. Any thoughts would be appreciated. The TI Commander worked great this seems to be a issue only with the T3 Max.

Thanks, Rick

[Jonathan Bastian]

Originally posted by rjd7965
Just wanted to know if any fire companies have experienced frequent image freeze in a high heat environment?? This seems to be a real issue when conducting search and rescue operations in working structure fire or searching for the seat of the fire. The shutter seems to calibrate more often in high temperatures making it a pain to conduct tasks. Any thoughts would be appreciated. The TI Commander worked great this seems to be a issue only with the T3 Max.

Thanks, Rick

This is somewhat normal, depending on what you mean by "frequent." The T3MAX is a microbolometer. To "refresh" its image and maintain a quality picture, a shutter passes over the detector momentarily. This results in a slight freeze of the picture. It occurs about every 2-3 minutes, plus every time you go into or out of EI mode. For more details, look at the training CD that came with the TI.

The TI Commander is a BST imager and therefore does not have a shutter.

[Rescue101]

As JB indicates this is the nature of the beast.Things that will helpon't spend all of your time with the imager "glued" to your facepiece, scan the room top,middle,low,find a landmark, lower the camera,advance to the landmark and rescan.Also known as a "reality"check.If you happen to get a "freeze",remember to rescan that area.Frequent training with the tool will minimise the "annoyance"of the millisecond freeze. T.C.