29,000 people have seen this video. That is 29,000 sales lost due to poor batteries and poor customer service. You would think they might correct the issues...
Well here's the thing. I'm not 100% dissuaded from buying one. I just want to find one for a cheaper price than new so I can do some diagnosing of a couple of laptops I have that won't turn on. The battery life is terrible because there isn't a lithium battery out there that can fit inside this device that will. A, last anything longer than like 15 minutes. B, last longer than a couple of months of no use. It will swell. Now the only problem I would have with this camera is if the battery is non-replaceable due to some software shenanigans
To those of you saying the reset procedure or new battery will fix it easily, that may, or may not be the case. I can yell you from my experience on a dead gen 2, the reset procedure and a brand new battery (confirmed good 3.7v) did not resuscitate the unit. It was dead dead. Flir gave me the same bs about a "discounted" new unit but wanted me to mail them the old one. No thanks.
Open it up and check the battery connector plug in. Mine the actual connector wasn't soldered for shit and just touching it caused leads to come off board. I just soldered some wire leads on that went to an external 3.8v cell battery and works great now. I think this was part of their planned obsolescence.
You are 100% correct. I have 2 flir ones. The first is now an expensive paperweight. The second i have to charge every to weeks (max8O%) so as not have a dead battery/dead camera. Zero support from Flir.
Had this issue with mine. Get a heat gun and heat it up, on a low setting so as not to melt it, heat it gently and keep plugging in to check. Mine started charging again after heating for a while. The heat raises the voltage in the battery and allows the charging circuit to kick in.
I would be very VERY careful. Make sure that the battery pack is not swollen before doing this. I suspect that the heat is "healing" a dry or cracked solder joint rather than the battery. Personally, I would separate the battery and just heat the circuit board. The main problem is avoiding damaging the sensor. It's a bizarre predicament because most people will use these devices for fault finding electronic issues however, you can't use it on itself!
@@charlies418 its to do with the battery voltage dropping too low when not charged for a while. Same thing happens with ipads and other devices left to drain too low. A little heat brings the voltage up allowing the charging circuit to charge it, which it won't do if the voltage is too low. But yes, be careful and don't heat to aggressively...
Doesn't always work either. Ebay is flooded with these for a dyier. It's bs to pay $300 for any device that has a design flaw like this across all the variations. It's very apparent by the feedback here that this is a problem flir still hasn't ironed out. Much safer to buy a lipo charger. Lithium is very dangerous if exposed to air. Much more dangerous than lead acid in my opinion. Both will burn you if you're not careful.
Not sure if they improved, but it has become easier to find a replacement battery. I bought one for about 15 on scamazon, but I have to find a device with the old micro USB in it to test.
Guys I have been messing with mine for a few days plugged into the computer then found that it would stay with the light on longer if I used a battery powered USB charger, then it came up with a red blinking power light and after long last it turned on a green light by the charging power cord I was about to give up and take it apart and do a cold reboot at the inside battery, but started a video about it and the guy said try turning it on, then plug into your phone, yahoo its works! so glad to have it going again when it runs I love it.
I've had luck prior to this video being made with getting the device to power on following information that flir had provided with regards to resetting the device. Unfortunately, there will be a point where you become frustrated that the reset is no longer available because the battery is too low to initiate, or the microprocessor looses instructions from low battery power.
Thanks for the info, I just though of getting 2 flir one Gen3 to interchange and charge them if I required them on the field. I just did research on FLIR battery, they are after market replacement battery and rate 185mAh/0.7Wh ~ $10 to $15 . According to Lithium polymer property, it will discahrge 5% per month. so if you keep it in a box for 12 months, the charge will drop to 55%. But if you use it often, recharge for 300 times and the battery will start to degrade.
Never had a problem with mine & I only use it during winter to check my bee hives. For most of the year it's in a drawer in my desk. I just purchased the Flir One-Pro only because my new phone uses a USB-C connector.
I have the first FLIR One also and just wanted to let you know that it is possible to modify it and replace the micro USB with a USB-C connector. Requires a bit of fairly small soldering, but not too difficult if you have at least a little soldering experience. For 5 bucks and a little effort you can convert it. A bonus is that you can then use the camera facing either way. I rarely use mine and luckily I have not had the battery issue. I'm an RC hobbyist so the soldering comes easy and I have tons of ways to check and charge the battery manually if need be.
Do they have warranty? If so, check your debit card or credit card that you used to purchased it with and see if they have any extended benefits from visa or mastercard. If they have extended warranty you can file a claim through them (visa or mastercard respected websites) with a warranty claim, and you should get reimbursed what you paid (excluding shipping, check benefits to see if its covered). Check the cardholder agreement.
I had also this gen2 camera and it's battery died. Flir kindly replaced mine with gen3. But seems it has also isssues with battery, it will be empty if not used for a while. Batteries are available at ebay and they are with connector. Diy perks did replace microusb with usb c for one of those..
It absolutely could use the phones battery as phone is more than capable to provide power to an external devices and even charge them. They chose to do it that way and planned obsolescence is my only guess, because sooner or later batteries will die. I've recently got myself an Infiray P2 Pro. Much better, smaller, powered by the devices it is plugged in to and doesn't have any non removable watermarks in the pictures and videos
They just told me the new app, which apparently works with a variety of iPhones, does not support Gen 1, but Gen 1 can still be used (somehow) with the iPhone 5/5s. Too bad my iPhone 5 is dead.
Just normal lipo issues. Try warming it up to 40 degrees C (105 f) whilst charging. ie. Take a water bottle, check the temperature as noted, put a blanket over it, sit the unit on the blanket and charge it.
@@rywolf01 I would guess, that if the lipo battery falls below a threshold of 2.8v, it simply refused to charge because this is a minimal limit that is safe to charge as per manufacturer recommendations. If however you could lift the temperature of the battery it is fairly likely it will briefly go over that cutoff threshold.
Let's put it this way, it's a Chinese product, we know the Chinese manufacture, but they're smart, even if this project isn't theirs, they make a function accessible at a modest cost, and they do it with everything, professional cameras have unaffordable prices for many. with this product they have made it accessible to many, but do we want to expect that reliability and durability are enclosed in those few centimeters and at that modest price? It is a risk to consider, it can go well or it can go badly, it being understood that it could also happen with high-end products, although it is less likely, perhaps you are among the unfortunate few?
I got same issue. I took apart and the battery connector on the board ain't soldered for shit so I took and soldered leads in place of the connector to connect with an external 3.8v battery I took out of an old cellphone and now I don't have issues and the battery lasts forever. Only problem is charging it so now I'm thinking of hooking a drone battery pack up to it with the charging port built into it. Oh p.s. if you try this be careful and ground yourself to prevent static discharge
That's a common issue with any lithium-powered device. Lithium batteries lose charge over time, and when left to sit without usage/charging, the voltage can drop lower than the required voltage for safe charging. Being a small device, it has an even smaller battery without a lot of capacity. You should be able to give the battery a temporary "boost" in power using another battery, if you can get to the physical battery itself. Then immediately plug it in and it should be fine to use. IMO, the only real waste of money here is buying something that costs $200 and then leaving it sitting around for 6 months to never be used.
I loved mine, for just about 2 years and 10 uses as well. I was appalled at how bad their customer service was. I've read of people modifying theirs to oull power from your phone. I need to do that and convert to type c. Its gonna be difficult but this thing has been a paperweight for the last 5 years
@rywolf01 this is totally out of my wheelhouse and have 50 other projects started. Ideally i can find someone to do it for me. Good news is, it can be done
i have used a good battery and jumped it to a dead battery. the voltage will increase enough so the charger can sense voltage to charge. smart chargers need to sense voltage to charge. works most of the time unless the battery is stone dead. seek compact pro uses the phone to power up. but is not as good as the flir. less pixels.
Positive perceptions equal positive outcomes. Believe it or not, the flu is still a winner in killing. Wish the news would force social distancing during flu season. www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-disease-2019-vs-the-flu
I noticed that my FLIRONE PRO self-discharged fairly fast when off. The battery is a small 4.2V Li Ion. If it goes below ~ 2.7 V, it will refuse to charge, but I never let it go low. I got inside and installed a switch to disconnect the battery when off. When the switch is turned on, it starts the warmup automatically (no need to press the button). Also the charger that came with it was way too high current, so I substituted a ~100 ma charger.
Nice! I like that idea of adding a switch to the battery. I'll be modding my Gen 1 today by swapping out the micro USB connector with a USB-C one so I can use it on my newer phone. Haven't really used that camera in over a year because I just didn't like having to use an adapter for my phone. Luckily the battery is still going strong, which really surprised me.
Great idea but the average FLIR owner shouldn't have to resort to this... surely someone on the FLIR design team knew average users weren't likely going to use the device very often and weren't going to faithfully charge the device once a month while it sat in storage.
Wow, that's a real deal breaker. I would have never guessed that if the camera sits unused for several months, it bricks itself. At least the Seek will never have that problem.
rywolf01 The Seek is not perfect either, the image has a lot of noise compared to the Flir and the image stops every 2 to 3 seconds as the unit does a re-calibration.
@@BobDiaz123 I think I will keep mine on a charger 24-7-365 like you do using trickle chargers on lead acid. Also use a small external portable power supply bank to hopefully run current off of that as often as possible to prevent using the main battery as much as possible. I get my gen 3 today. I will keep everything you said in mind. And yes $200 is a lot of money to most people now a days. If FLIR is being dead beats I found something that get's things done fast sometimes. Write to your states attorney general and tell them about it. I wish you the best! ✌🇦🇺
Strange, I have a gen 1 and i preordered it, so i got it as soon as it was released. I've had it for idk, roughly 5 or 6 years? i cant remember, it was a terribly long time ago, and it works as well today as when i first got it. Maybe I just lucked out. The reason i went with FLIR is because at work, that's all we ever used for Thermals, so I thought they were the best. The ones we had at work were in the 10s of thousands of dollars though, but they took some serious abuse and kept on truck'n.
Thank you for sharing was thinking whether to get the Flir One Pro or Flir C5. I know once I'm done with it, it will sit in a box probably all summer or until the next time I need it. So this video has just saved me £400 if the same issue is to happen on Flir One Pro. I don't think the same thing will happen with the C5, but let me know if you do know of similar issues with C5? Or any better recommendations
if you leave any device that has a tiny lithium battery inside for 6 months without use ,it will be stuffed ,same with bt head phones and bt speakers ,once the battery is 100% dead and left for 4-6 months itll never hold charge properly again
You could just replace the battery for $15. Or do what someone on here said in another comment and pull the battery out, jump start the battery back up to above 3 volts and then it should start taking a charge again. Someone also said that there are solder joint issues. I'm gonna go over mine that is quite a few years old with a microscope and hit it with hot air if I see any joints that look suspicious.
@@rywolf01 I haven't had to replace my battery on my Gen 1 camera. I'm not sure how that happened, since I rarely use it and I fully expected it to be totally dead when I turned it on last week. I have brought other LiPo batteries back to life that way though. I'm an RC hobbyist so I have a ton of ways to charge batteries. I haven't gone over the board with a microscope yet, i'm waiting for some tamper resistant torx bits to arrive today. I'm actually going to be replacing the micro USB connector with a USB-C connector so I can use it on my newer phone. I have all the parts, just need that T5 torx bit. Amazon does have replacement batteries for the units for about $15 if you want to try to get your unit working again.
I have the 2, I actually came here wondering if there’s a newer one that’s better yet. Guess not. I had a different issue. I returned it during the warranty period due to terrible battery. I thought it was defective. Full charge and almost immediately it’s reading in the 70s and within a few minutes it blacks out. They sent me a new one. The new one was the same. I’ve had it for 2 or 3 years now and since I don’t use it much, due to these limitations, it’s only gotten worse. It starts off around half battery and within minutes it’s dead. Really frustrating because I otherwise love it. It’s a great device while it’s working. The fact that 3 generations has not seen much improvement is odd for such a company. Here’s some advice. Make it twice as big and fill it with more mah. We don’t care if it’s bigger if it lasts and works!
@@rywolf01 yup. Junk. I bought one called topdon, it uses the phones battery. Much higher resolution and it always works no matter what. Barely takes any battery from the phone. Highly recommend.
its a shame it does not use the phone battery to power up the flir. otherwise keep it plugged into wall outlet usb when not in use. maybe that will keep it charged up.
Sorry to hear about your troubles, nothing worse than an experience like this especially the steep cost of the product. I ordered the FLIR One Pro a month or so ago, even after reading all the negative comments. So far I haven’t had any issues with it. The battery has been charging nicely in about an hour and it has not been discharging when not in use over a few days. The software also has been working for me, I use it for fault finding electronics. I did reach out to FLIR in regards to the issues and they reassured me the product was good and backed it up with a 2 year warranty period.
...is it possible that too strong of a charger takes out a resistor inside of the flir , causing this issue? Perhaps the unfortunate users charged it with an improper charger..?
I have the flir one pro lt, and can confirm this is a problem... FLIR makes shit consumer product, I recommend you to stay away from it and buy better and more serious brand ( think chinese tinkers make better than this USA crap )
Its probably got a Lipo battery in it which the voltage drops off the edge of a cliff when goes below 3volts per cell. Open it up... give it a boost with a RC charger in NIMH mode - about 10 to 20 seconds and the battery will pick up... then put i back on normal charge. Might be a good idea to disconnect battery when doing this. Ive heard FLIR support is a joke... they literally dont give a F
They don't give a f is right! I'll give that a whirl with an rc charger. I have some other lipo charging equipment as well. Sort of feel this is a microcontroller issue though. Maybe I'll try to draw a diagram if i get bored one night.
@@rywolf01 Yup bearin midn when LIPOs go below 3V they tend to get a little damaged and not recover sometimes and if they recover they dont ever charge quite the way they did so your charging regime will have to be very strict to keep it alive. If it works for a bit might be worth trying to find replacement Lipo at that point. Good luck.
When this video was originally uploaded, the battery wasn't readily available. I did buy a battery from scamazon for about $14 usd. Haven't had a chance to fiddle with it. It's installed. Have orange light illuminated, but not green. These are junk.
The Seek has some issues too, BUT at least you don't brick the camera if you fail to change it often. Thanks for the video, you saved me a lot of money. While Seek has some quirks, it looks like the only choice for me.
rywolf01 Pity they didn't add a master power off switch to prevent that from happening or some design change to prevent total discharge of the battery.
lol i literally searched for a review, and the first video i found was this, what a disappointment, so what alternative we have? i mean the ease of use from flir one is top notch
I had issues on 3 different flir one devices. They all failed at some point. There's apparently poor layered pcb design and also the main CPU / other IC's solder fails
@Swim Fan disagree with you in this situation. I do agree that using the correct charger is important, but in this case, the manufacturer and design of the product are terrible across all 3 versions. The kicker is that flir doesn't care.
Uhm, the USB "charger" doesn't matter, what matters is the charging IC, if it's set to charge at 500mA for example, using a 2A supply should make no difference whatsoever unless there's no charging circuitry but I doubt it.
@@rywolf01 about a month ago, bought on Amazon. Do a Google search there's is how to instructions. As pop the back cover off easy peasy, unplug old battery, plug in new on, snap back back on, done. I thinking of buying 2nd battery, wire them in series, doubling the capacity, drill hole in back cover for wires then velcro 2nd battery on back cover.
open it carefully, disconnect the battery, charge or replace it and that's will fix the problem. You can't leave battery builtin devices uncharged over than 6 months it will die.
It might have been less than 6 months. Regardless, someone in development knows this is an issue. Trust me, buy one and write your own review. I had already exchanged one with flir that was problematic within the first 2 months of owning. I bought directly from flir and not a vendor.
i have the exact same problem with my flir one (iphone version)- used it 4 or 5 times then didnt use for a year. Took it out to use and of course it doesnt work/charge.. took it apart and disconnected and re connected and still the same issue! Do not buy!!
This can happen on any lithium battery device. The issue is when the internal cell of the pack gets below 3v the battery will protect your device and will not allow to charge any more. Fast solution is replace the battery for a similar in voltage and amps. Do a hard reset and all will go back to normal. Next time do not keep your electronics for months whitout charge.
Ya Flir sucks. Right to Repair is going to force them to make a better product we can change the battery on. If I were you, just buy another switch the serial number sticker and send that hoe back to Flir.
@@rywolf01 It's good when it works though. Bought it for attic leaks but now know internal temperature of a cat - and part of my frontal lobe responsible for moral reasoning is 'lights out'
Battery too weak to be detected for charging. They can't tell you to jumpstart your battery and everything will be cool if you don't let it drain all the way down.......and no electrical person would come to you to do it for less than $100 - flir is in a tough spot - if they wanted to send someone to you to fix it, it could trigger legal issues? (My mind - a customer who's battery drains from not being used within 2 years of ownership - isn't interested in buying another flir product lol.)
I had original no issues but battery sucked. Then got the C2. Had issues they sent me a new one, used 5x now I have orange yellow on the screen and the lense is flaking. Now i have to contact flir again
I always wanted a thermal camera, I finally got a FLIR One Pro LT today, made around 20 photos, put it in my hoodie front pocket, minutes later it didn't work anymore. I think the connector snapped inside :((( Connector is a very rigid plastic, I seen photos online, sealed inside that wheel connector is multi layer circuit (that snaps easily). You guessed it, they are not fixing these.
We have a SEARCH AND RESCUE SCOUT TK Scope And we have the SAMEEEEE ISSUE !! After 3 months of not using it the unit will NOT CHARGE Please let me know HOW you fixed it They do.warn ya that the internal batterys life span is lesss then 2 years. And the batterys can not be changed
@@rywolf01 Well, if it takes you three years to respond, you’re clearly not serious about RUclips. Meanwhile, I'm living in the future, not the Stone Age. Technology changes rapidly, but by the time you catch up, you'll be discovering what's already outdated. Good luck with your time travel 🧳
Nice video i like it. I think i have a gen3 since 9 month and use it 10 times maybe. battery pass from 60% to 40% in a minute. Last time i want to charge the device it doesnt work. Today it just died no light anymore. Is there a way to plug inside wires to be able to charge the device just by using it? sorry for my english.
If you have a similar board as the gen 2 you can pull power from Phone to infrared camera buy pinning out positive voltage. Not sure if you have iPhone or Android. Pinouts from usb port on phones may be similar.
@@rywolf01 thanks a lot, i try too open IT yesterday but i dont have the screwdriver for this. Have tout buy IT. I Will Côme back with pictures of the inside. Thanks again
I taught i could send you some pictures for archive but no. I finally succeed tout open IT. Pretty simple only two T5 screws. White opening the box a little black electronic piece fall on the table. I disconnect battery and plug or again to run another test. This time light appears but flash green to tell me its full. The matter is that its not working. Camera turn off when plug too my Android type-c. After investigeting, i Maybe find a place for the small piece that fall off. Thank you
My one would never even charge to 100%. Best i could get was 82%. Got a replacement. Exactly the same problem. Then lucky if i got 30 minutes of use. Rubbish. I had to plug a power bank into it while i was using it.
It was dead within a year. FLIR sent me reset instructions, which worked for a little. Granted it did sit in a drawer for months at a time, if you own one... you'll be sorry:-)
@@rywolf01 I hate stuff that has batteries that can't be replaced - it appears they make them hard to replace on purpose. It's plain crooked. They force us to buy the same thing over and over again every several years, even if we use it rarely - I blame them for that.
Unable to find a suitable battery replacement. Haven't had time to continue messing around. Flir also doesn't offer a battery replacement. Response from FLIR below. Unfortunately... They do a circle response because the unit purchase is over a year. Thanks for the follow-up. We unfortunately do not offer a replacement for the battery of the camera. What we do is that we replace the entire unit.
@@rywolf01 Got you. They should have just offered you a full refund in this situation. You’re being too nice trying to justify their reaction. Good business is built on the principle of trust between sellers and buyers and when seller does not stand behind their own product, this trust is broken.
He opens with "Happy new year! Happy 2020!" Hahahahahahahahaha! If only it had turned out that way.
Positive perceptions equal positive outcomes. Now if only I could predict the future.
@@rywolf01Wouldn't that be nice. Just a stock tip or two every now and again.
@@joeprimal2044 If you got one, share away. I've been buying chewy low and selling high. Sixflags was good one too.
@@rywolf01 IDK. None of it makes any sense anymore. I've just taken the diversified approach for now.
Too much uncertainty.
Hopefully 2021 is better!
You just saved me $200 thank you
Nice.
29,000 people have seen this video. That is 29,000 sales lost due to poor batteries and poor customer service. You would think they might correct the issues...
Well here's the thing. I'm not 100% dissuaded from buying one. I just want to find one for a cheaper price than new so I can do some diagnosing of a couple of laptops I have that won't turn on. The battery life is terrible because there isn't a lithium battery out there that can fit inside this device that will. A, last anything longer than like 15 minutes. B, last longer than a couple of months of no use. It will swell. Now the only problem I would have with this camera is if the battery is non-replaceable due to some software shenanigans
To those of you saying the reset procedure or new battery will fix it easily, that may, or may not be the case. I can yell you from my experience on a dead gen 2, the reset procedure and a brand new battery (confirmed good 3.7v) did not resuscitate the unit. It was dead dead. Flir gave me the same bs about a "discounted" new unit but wanted me to mail them the old one. No thanks.
Open it up and check the battery connector plug in. Mine the actual connector wasn't soldered for shit and just touching it caused leads to come off board. I just soldered some wire leads on that went to an external 3.8v cell battery and works great now. I think this was part of their planned obsolescence.
I have deleted FLIR from my amazon wishlist. Thank you!!
The thermal gun with imaging is not terrible. But this device adapter for phones hasn't improved over 3 generations.
Glad I saw this. I will likely return the Gen 3 I just bought. I'm going to run it down and see what happens.
Good luck 👍
You are 100% correct. I have 2 flir ones. The first is now an expensive paperweight. The second i have to charge every to weeks (max8O%) so as not have a dead battery/dead camera. Zero support from Flir.
Thanks for your Review. I purchased the Seek instead. It does not have a built in battery and uses your phone and for the same price.
I’ve been using seek for the past three years…. And still going. Very good product, reliable and not super expensive. Totally recommend it!
Had this issue with mine. Get a heat gun and heat it up, on a low setting so as not to melt it, heat it gently and keep plugging in to check. Mine started charging again after heating for a while. The heat raises the voltage in the battery and allows the charging circuit to kick in.
I would be very VERY careful. Make sure that the battery pack is not swollen before doing this. I suspect that the heat is "healing" a dry or cracked solder joint rather than the battery. Personally, I would separate the battery and just heat the circuit board. The main problem is avoiding damaging the sensor. It's a bizarre predicament because most people will use these devices for fault finding electronic issues however, you can't use it on itself!
@@charlies418 its to do with the battery voltage dropping too low when not charged for a while. Same thing happens with ipads and other devices left to drain too low. A little heat brings the voltage up allowing the charging circuit to charge it, which it won't do if the voltage is too low. But yes, be careful and don't heat to aggressively...
I've used this same trick with other lithium powered devices. Worked 6 outta 6. Pretty great.
Pretty smart
Doesn't always work either. Ebay is flooded with these for a dyier. It's bs to pay $300 for any device that has a design flaw like this across all the variations. It's very apparent by the feedback here that this is a problem flir still hasn't ironed out. Much safer to buy a lipo charger. Lithium is very dangerous if exposed to air. Much more dangerous than lead acid in my opinion. Both will burn you if you're not careful.
Wow. Thanks for posting. I was looking at this model, mostly because I thought FLIR was a reputable company. I will look elsewhere.
I think they are, but their consumer products seem to have high failures.
Mine is about 4 years old and still works good.🧐
Thanks for sharing and confirming what I thought was the case. Disappointing.
Thanks for exposing this and glad I caught it before I made a purchase. Gonna stick to an isolated solution that's not Flir.
Not sure if they improved, but it has become easier to find a replacement battery. I bought one for about 15 on scamazon, but I have to find a device with the old micro USB in it to test.
Guys I have been messing with mine for a few days plugged into the computer then found that it would stay with the light on longer if I used a battery powered USB charger, then it came up with a red blinking power light and after long last it turned on a green light by the charging power cord I was about to give up and take it apart and do a cold reboot at the inside battery, but started a video about it and the guy said try turning it on, then plug into your phone, yahoo its works! so glad to have it going again when it runs I love it.
I've had luck prior to this video being made with getting the device to power on following information that flir had provided with regards to resetting the device. Unfortunately, there will be a point where you become frustrated that the reset is no longer available because the battery is too low to initiate, or the microprocessor looses instructions from low battery power.
Thanks for the info, I just though of getting 2 flir one Gen3 to interchange and charge them if I required them on the field. I just did research on FLIR battery, they are after market replacement battery and rate 185mAh/0.7Wh ~ $10 to $15 . According to Lithium polymer property, it will discahrge 5% per month. so if you keep it in a box for 12 months, the charge will drop to 55%. But if you use it often, recharge for 300 times and the battery will start to degrade.
Leave a link for purchase of battery you purchased. May help others.
Thank you ...will not be purchasing this product or any other from them for that matter ...thank you !!
You're welcome.
Never had a problem with mine & I only use it during winter to check my bee hives. For most of the year it's in a drawer in my desk. I just purchased the Flir One-Pro only because my new phone uses a USB-C connector.
Love honey and always wanted to have hives. Good luck with your new camera.
I have the first FLIR One also and just wanted to let you know that it is possible to modify it and replace the micro USB with a USB-C connector. Requires a bit of fairly small soldering, but not too difficult if you have at least a little soldering experience. For 5 bucks and a little effort you can convert it. A bonus is that you can then use the camera facing either way. I rarely use mine and luckily I have not had the battery issue. I'm an RC hobbyist so the soldering comes easy and I have tons of ways to check and charge the battery manually if need be.
I’ve been eyeing these FLIRs for the exact same reason. I’d like to check hives, internal temps and cluster size of my colonies in winter.
I liked your information as I have the same problem.
Your dogs were a distraction to your otherwise good video.
Sorry about your luck my friend! Thanks for posting
Thanks i wont but one!!!!! FLIR DO SOMETHING!!!!!!!
It's for this reason I deal with Amazon. You're not stuck with crappy electronics.
Thank you for the warning me. I was just on the way to order before I saw this :o)
Good luck.
Do they have warranty? If so, check your debit card or credit card that you used to purchased it with and see if they have any extended benefits from visa or mastercard. If they have extended warranty you can file a claim through them (visa or mastercard respected websites) with a warranty claim, and you should get reimbursed what you paid (excluding shipping, check benefits to see if its covered). Check the cardholder agreement.
They will cover it within a year... most likely. This is an old video. That flir is still floating in a parts bin.
I had also this gen2 camera and it's battery died. Flir kindly replaced mine with gen3. But seems it has also isssues with battery, it will be empty if not used for a while. Batteries are available at ebay and they are with connector. Diy perks did replace microusb with usb c for one of those..
Why does it even need an internal battery when it gets plugged in to the phone anyway 🤷♂️ Planned obsoletenes?🤔
it's funny that it cannot use the phone USB power, maybe they should use a capacitor instead of a battery.
It absolutely could use the phones battery as phone is more than capable to provide power to an external devices and even charge them. They chose to do it that way and planned obsolescence is my only guess, because sooner or later batteries will die.
I've recently got myself an Infiray P2 Pro. Much better, smaller, powered by the devices it is plugged in to and doesn't have any non removable watermarks in the pictures and videos
Experienced a different flir customer service issue. I was left screwed out of $200's. Any alternatives? Seek devices any good?
I've heard good things about seek.
They just told me the new app, which apparently works with a variety of iPhones, does not support Gen 1, but Gen 1 can still be used (somehow) with the iPhone 5/5s. Too bad my iPhone 5 is dead.
Happy new year! Happy 2023
Just normal lipo issues. Try warming it up to 40 degrees C (105 f) whilst charging. ie. Take a water bottle, check the temperature as noted, put a blanket over it, sit the unit on the blanket and charge it.
Seems like the gate is stuck in chip. Power goes in but not out.
@@rywolf01 I would guess, that if the lipo battery falls below a threshold of 2.8v, it simply refused to charge because this is a minimal limit that is safe to charge as per manufacturer recommendations. If however you could lift the temperature of the battery it is fairly likely it will briefly go over that cutoff threshold.
Let's put it this way, it's a Chinese product, we know the Chinese manufacture, but they're smart, even if this project isn't theirs, they make a function accessible at a modest cost, and they do it with everything, professional cameras have unaffordable prices for many. with this product they have made it accessible to many, but do we want to expect that reliability and durability are enclosed in those few centimeters and at that modest price? It is a risk to consider, it can go well or it can go badly, it being understood that it could also happen with high-end products, although it is less likely, perhaps you are among the unfortunate few?
I got same issue. I took apart and the battery connector on the board ain't soldered for shit so I took and soldered leads in place of the connector to connect with an external 3.8v battery I took out of an old cellphone and now I don't have issues and the battery lasts forever. Only problem is charging it so now I'm thinking of hooking a drone battery pack up to it with the charging port built into it. Oh p.s. if you try this be careful and ground yourself to prevent static discharge
I bought a new battery. I don't have a micro USB laying around any longer.
That's a common issue with any lithium-powered device. Lithium batteries lose charge over time, and when left to sit without usage/charging, the voltage can drop lower than the required voltage for safe charging. Being a small device, it has an even smaller battery without a lot of capacity. You should be able to give the battery a temporary "boost" in power using another battery, if you can get to the physical battery itself. Then immediately plug it in and it should be fine to use. IMO, the only real waste of money here is buying something that costs $200 and then leaving it sitting around for 6 months to never be used.
Lol. That's a long winded keyboard jockey move there someguyontheinternet. Phew, next you'll have a thesis on no life experience.
I loved mine, for just about 2 years and 10 uses as well. I was appalled at how bad their customer service was. I've read of people modifying theirs to oull power from your phone. I need to do that and convert to type c. Its gonna be difficult but this thing has been a paperweight for the last 5 years
I have too many other projects, but I did buy a battery off of scamazon. I should also run through the USB c to the device.
@rywolf01 this is totally out of my wheelhouse and have 50 other projects started. Ideally i can find someone to do it for me. Good news is, it can be done
i have used a good battery and jumped it to a dead battery. the voltage will increase enough so the charger can sense voltage to charge. smart chargers need to sense voltage to charge. works most of the time unless the battery is stone dead. seek compact pro uses the phone to power up. but is not as good as the flir. less pixels.
"May 2020 bring you good health and good fortune"...
That didn't pan...
Positive perceptions equal positive outcomes. Believe it or not, the flu is still a winner in killing. Wish the news would force social distancing during flu season. www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-disease-2019-vs-the-flu
Blame China. And political opportunists who were against the travel ban in January. *cough* Biden *cough*.
I noticed that my FLIRONE PRO self-discharged fairly fast when off. The battery is a small 4.2V Li Ion. If it goes below ~ 2.7 V, it will refuse to charge, but I never let it go low. I got inside and installed a switch to disconnect the battery when off. When the switch is turned on, it starts the warmup automatically (no need to press the button). Also the charger that came with it was way too high current, so I substituted a ~100 ma charger.
Nice! I like that idea of adding a switch to the battery. I'll be modding my Gen 1 today by swapping out the micro USB connector with a USB-C one so I can use it on my newer phone. Haven't really used that camera in over a year because I just didn't like having to use an adapter for my phone. Luckily the battery is still going strong, which really surprised me.
@@housinit There are 3 wires coming from the battery. You only need to disconnect (switch) one of the two wires other than the center wire.
Great idea but the average FLIR owner shouldn't have to resort to this... surely someone on the FLIR design team knew average users weren't likely going to use the device very often and weren't going to faithfully charge the device once a month while it sat in storage.
@@__WJK__ one would think they would have added a small on off switch to help solve their problemo. considering the high price.
Can yo show us
This dude keeps mentioning 2020, he had no clue...
Thank goodness I picked up AMC at $2 a share:-)
@@rywolf01 jelly
Wow, that's a real deal breaker. I would have never guessed that if the camera sits unused for several months, it bricks itself. At least the Seek will never have that problem.
good to know.
rywolf01 The Seek is not perfect either, the image has a lot of noise compared to the Flir and the image stops every 2 to 3 seconds as the unit does a re-calibration.
@@BobDiaz123 I think I will keep mine on a charger 24-7-365 like you do using trickle chargers on lead acid.
Also use a small external portable power supply bank to hopefully run current off of that as often as possible to prevent using the main battery as much as possible.
I get my gen 3 today. I will keep everything you said in mind. And yes $200 is a lot of money to most people now a days.
If FLIR is being dead beats I found something that get's things done fast sometimes. Write to your states attorney general and tell them about it.
I wish you the best!
✌🇦🇺
Hello, Good evening! Is there a way to adapt the flir to be like the seek? Greetings Brazilian
@@giovannialmeida5244 Sadly, no. The Flir used RAM to hold the program, the Seek puts the firmware into Flash Memory.
This happened to me too. Solid orange LED.
Post your review on Amazon on the product page. That will get millions of views.
I tried. They gave me a funny response.
Strange, I have a gen 1 and i preordered it, so i got it as soon as it was released. I've had it for idk, roughly 5 or 6 years? i cant remember, it was a terribly long time ago, and it works as well today as when i first got it. Maybe I just lucked out. The reason i went with FLIR is because at work, that's all we ever used for Thermals, so I thought they were the best. The ones we had at work were in the 10s of thousands of dollars though, but they took some serious abuse and kept on truck'n.
You're lucky.
The same with my camera. It goes to sleep and never come back. the app recognizes the cam, but never start to work.
Thank you for sharing was thinking whether to get the Flir One Pro or Flir C5. I know once I'm done with it, it will sit in a box probably all summer or until the next time I need it. So this video has just saved me £400 if the same issue is to happen on Flir One Pro. I don't think the same thing will happen with the C5, but let me know if you do know of similar issues with C5? Or any better recommendations
Welcome.
if you leave any device that has a tiny lithium battery inside for 6 months without use ,it will be stuffed ,same with bt head phones and bt speakers ,once the battery is 100% dead and left for 4-6 months itll never hold charge properly again
You could just replace the battery for $15. Or do what someone on here said in another comment and pull the battery out, jump start the battery back up to above 3 volts and then it should start taking a charge again. Someone also said that there are solder joint issues. I'm gonna go over mine that is quite a few years old with a microscope and hit it with hot air if I see any joints that look suspicious.
Have you?
@@rywolf01 I haven't had to replace my battery on my Gen 1 camera. I'm not sure how that happened, since I rarely use it and I fully expected it to be totally dead when I turned it on last week. I have brought other LiPo batteries back to life that way though. I'm an RC hobbyist so I have a ton of ways to charge batteries. I haven't gone over the board with a microscope yet, i'm waiting for some tamper resistant torx bits to arrive today. I'm actually going to be replacing the micro USB connector with a USB-C connector so I can use it on my newer phone. I have all the parts, just need that T5 torx bit. Amazon does have replacement batteries for the units for about $15 if you want to try to get your unit working again.
I have the 2, I actually came here wondering if there’s a newer one that’s better yet. Guess not. I had a different issue. I returned it during the warranty period due to terrible battery. I thought it was defective. Full charge and almost immediately it’s reading in the 70s and within a few minutes it blacks out. They sent me a new one. The new one was the same. I’ve had it for 2 or 3 years now and since I don’t use it much, due to these limitations, it’s only gotten worse. It starts off around half battery and within minutes it’s dead. Really frustrating because I otherwise love it. It’s a great device while it’s working. The fact that 3 generations has not seen much improvement is odd for such a company. Here’s some advice. Make it twice as big and fill it with more mah. We don’t care if it’s bigger if it lasts and works!
Maybe try to hook it up to a PowerBank as you use it
Replaced battery and tried wiring truck. Mine would would come on as orange. Tried hard resets. Junk.
@@rywolf01 yup. Junk. I bought one called topdon, it uses the phones battery. Much higher resolution and it always works no matter what. Barely takes any battery from the phone. Highly recommend.
Thanks for the warning!
Thanks for helping me dodge a bullet!
I still own the first gen and it still works
A lucky owner:)
I have a Cat S61 Phone, the Phone works Really Good, Battery last All Day, and it have a Thermo Camera,
Many of us have not had the same luck
a 300 dollar camera addon is not a thermal camea, it's a gimmick.
Bet you'd say the same about a $300 wrench that breaks in your hand.
Your right on with your attuned .Flir has going down.
Retail junk. Money grab with snake oil.
its a shame it does not use the phone battery to power up the flir. otherwise keep it plugged into wall outlet usb when not in use. maybe that will keep it charged up.
Sorry to hear about your troubles, nothing worse than an experience like this especially the steep cost of the product. I ordered the FLIR One Pro a month or so ago, even after reading all the negative comments. So far I haven’t had any issues with it. The battery has been charging nicely in about an hour and it has not been discharging when not in use over a few days. The software also has been working for me, I use it for fault finding electronics. I did reach out to FLIR in regards to the issues and they reassured me the product was good and backed it up with a 2 year warranty period.
I bet you it don't work now.
Still working flawlessly
...is it possible that too strong of a charger takes out a resistor inside of the flir , causing this issue? Perhaps the unfortunate users charged it with an improper charger..?
Bought it for real estate. Tried a new battery. Still didn't work.
Open up the device. Wire in an external battery. Will make it more practical amount of charge. Good luck.
New battery still didn't resolve it. Orange light stays on. Tried to hold power button too. How about we all just admit flir consumer products suck.
Thanks , you saved my money.
My question is: Is there a solution? For example: Ask a professional to put the flir to charge directly on the cell phone?
I bought a battery on scamazon. I installed it. Stilled didn't resolve issue. It has worked for others. amzn.to/3x8iRlL
Just replaced my battery after 5 years of use.
Where did you buy the battery?
I have the flir one pro lt, and can confirm this is a problem... FLIR makes shit consumer product, I recommend you to stay away from it and buy better and more serious brand ( think chinese tinkers make better than this USA crap )
Its probably got a Lipo battery in it which the voltage drops off the edge of a cliff when goes below 3volts per cell. Open it up... give it a boost with a RC charger in NIMH mode - about 10 to 20 seconds and the battery will pick up... then put i back on normal charge. Might be a good idea to disconnect battery when doing this. Ive heard FLIR support is a joke... they literally dont give a F
They don't give a f is right! I'll give that a whirl with an rc charger. I have some other lipo charging equipment as well. Sort of feel this is a microcontroller issue though. Maybe I'll try to draw a diagram if i get bored one night.
@@rywolf01 Yup bearin midn when LIPOs go below 3V they tend to get a little damaged and not recover sometimes and if they recover they dont ever charge quite the way they did so your charging regime will have to be very strict to keep it alive. If it works for a bit might be worth trying to find replacement Lipo at that point. Good luck.
Thanks for the tip! I will keep mine charged and hopefully it will last longer.
Open it up and order a new battery with the same part number.
When this video was originally uploaded, the battery wasn't readily available. I did buy a battery from scamazon for about $14 usd. Haven't had a chance to fiddle with it. It's installed. Have orange light illuminated, but not green. These are junk.
The Seek has some issues too, BUT at least you don't brick the camera if you fail to change it often. Thanks for the video, you saved me a lot of money. While Seek has some quirks, it looks like the only choice for me.
It's sad because it's a cool product, just bad quality control.
rywolf01 Pity they didn't add a master power off switch to prevent that from happening or some design change to prevent total discharge of the battery.
lol i literally searched for a review, and the first video i found was this, what a disappointment, so what alternative we have? i mean the ease of use from flir one is top notch
Seek Thermal Compact does the trick pretty well
@@rodolfocabellobilbao6887 what about the quality and price?
@@NicolasSilvaVasault 250 USD in amazon, material quality and assembly feels very good. I've been using it for over a year now with no issues.
I had issues on 3 different flir one devices.
They all failed at some point.
There's apparently poor layered pcb design and also the main CPU / other IC's solder fails
@Swim Fan disagree with you in this situation. I do agree that using the correct charger is important, but in this case, the manufacturer and design of the product are terrible across all 3 versions. The kicker is that flir doesn't care.
Uhm, the USB "charger" doesn't matter, what matters is the charging IC, if it's set to charge at 500mA for example, using a 2A supply should make no difference whatsoever unless there's no charging circuitry but I doubt it.
The battery is easy very easy to replace yourself. Agree that battery life sucks, but the new battery I'm good to go.
When did you replace your battery? Do you have an updated link you'd like to share with us? Thank you :)
@@rywolf01 about a month ago, bought on Amazon. Do a Google search there's is how to instructions. As pop the back cover off easy peasy, unplug old battery, plug in new on, snap back back on, done.
I thinking of buying 2nd battery, wire them in series, doubling the capacity, drill hole in back cover for wires then velcro 2nd battery on back cover.
Thanks for sharing.
open it carefully, disconnect the battery, charge or replace it and that's will fix the problem. You can't leave battery builtin devices uncharged over than 6 months it will die.
It might have been less than 6 months. Regardless, someone in development knows this is an issue. Trust me, buy one and write your own review. I had already exchanged one with flir that was problematic within the first 2 months of owning. I bought directly from flir and not a vendor.
explains why it only costs 200 bucks being that most flir's cost over a grand...
I replaced battery too. Bad engineering.
i have the exact same problem with my flir one (iphone version)- used it 4 or 5 times then didnt use for a year. Took it out to use and of course it doesnt work/charge.. took it apart and disconnected and re connected and still the same issue! Do not buy!!
Junk.
This can happen on any lithium battery device.
The issue is when the internal cell of the pack gets below 3v the battery will protect your device and will not allow to charge any more.
Fast solution is replace the battery for a similar in voltage and amps. Do a hard reset and all will go back to normal.
Next time do not keep your electronics for months whitout charge.
I used an rc lipo charger that solved it for a little while. Got bored with it and tossed it in the junk electronics bin.
You probably bored the poor little unit to sleep. Of course it did not want to wake up and hear more talk.
Well, I'm sure you were googling your little tube head off looking for answers asshat!
Take it apart and try to power it directly from usb connector... Should be possible if phone gives out enough juice.
Tried the wire trick. Tried replacing battery. tried resetting. Still didn't work.
FLIR pro do the same. Wasted my with the same problem. 600$
That's terrible. I know it's a gimmick regardless. Seemed like a cool tool. I did buy a replacement battery, but don't have a micro usb device.
Ya Flir sucks. Right to Repair is going to force them to make a better product we can change the battery on. If I were you, just buy another switch the serial number sticker and send that hoe back to Flir.
Uh oh I now know what my problem is
Expensive paperweight:-p
@@rywolf01 It's good when it works though. Bought it for attic leaks but now know internal temperature of a cat - and part of my frontal lobe responsible for moral reasoning is 'lights out'
Battery too weak to be detected for charging. They can't tell you to jumpstart your battery and everything will be cool if you don't let it drain all the way down.......and no electrical person would come to you to do it for less than $100 - flir is in a tough spot - if they wanted to send someone to you to fix it, it could trigger legal issues?
(My mind - a customer who's battery drains from not being used within 2 years of ownership - isn't interested in buying another flir product lol.)
Tried replacing battery. Didn't work.
Been working on getting my gen 3 back to life after this same problem
Good luck.
I had original no issues but battery sucked. Then got the C2. Had issues they sent me a new one, used 5x now I have orange yellow on the screen and the lense is flaking. Now i have to contact flir again
I replaced battery and tried wiring it to USB. No luck.
Interesting I got mine a week ago and FLIR is included a complimentary power bank no charge
really??
where you buy it?
Nice
I always wanted a thermal camera, I finally got a FLIR One Pro LT today, made around 20 photos, put it in my hoodie front pocket, minutes later it didn't work anymore. I think the connector snapped inside :(((
Connector is a very rigid plastic, I seen photos online, sealed inside that wheel connector is multi layer circuit (that snaps easily).
You guessed it, they are not fixing these.
Yep. Junk. Even if you replaced battery or tried wire trick.
We have a SEARCH AND RESCUE SCOUT TK Scope
And we have the SAMEEEEE ISSUE !!
After 3 months of not using it the unit will NOT CHARGE
Please let me know HOW you fixed it
They do.warn ya that the internal batterys life span is lesss then 2 years. And the batterys can not be changed
Allabiba had some similar lithium batteries. I bought and replaced battery since flir didn't offer any support.
Parallel charge the lipo for 5 seconds.
Still dead. New battery didn't with with. Orange light stays on.
Ditto, my gen 1 has battery issues too. $200 through the window!
Yep.
Flir one is a toy, Flir Pro is the best … you should know that …
Should I? Didn't watch the video did ya? The unit is a pro version, but I'm curious to see you upload a video explaining what you got.
@@rywolf01
Well, if it takes you three years to respond, you’re clearly not serious about RUclips. Meanwhile, I'm living in the future, not the Stone Age. Technology changes rapidly, but by the time you catch up, you'll be discovering what's already outdated. Good luck with your time travel 🧳
Flies after sales sucks
Open it and switch the battery. It’s broken so you can’t do any worse.
Do you own one?
Nice video i like it. I think i have a gen3 since 9 month and use it 10 times maybe. battery pass from 60% to 40% in a minute. Last time i want to charge the device it doesnt work. Today it just died no light anymore. Is there a way to plug inside wires to be able to charge the device just by using it? sorry for my english.
If you have a similar board as the gen 2 you can pull power from Phone to infrared camera buy pinning out positive voltage. Not sure if you have iPhone or Android. Pinouts from usb port on phones may be similar.
@@rywolf01 thanks a lot, i try too open IT yesterday but i dont have the screwdriver for this. Have tout buy IT. I Will Côme back with pictures of the inside. Thanks again
I taught i could send you some pictures for archive but no. I finally succeed tout open IT. Pretty simple only two T5 screws. White opening the box a little black electronic piece fall on the table. I disconnect battery and plug or again to run another test. This time light appears but flash green to tell me its full. The matter is that its not working. Camera turn off when plug too my Android type-c. After investigeting, i Maybe find a place for the small piece that fall off. Thank you
My one would never even charge to 100%.
Best i could get was 82%.
Got a replacement.
Exactly the same problem.
Then lucky if i got 30 minutes of use.
Rubbish.
I had to plug a power bank into it while i was using it.
Yep. Junk.
What would you or people here recommend instead?
Good question. What's your application?
Infiray is way better than flir, seek or anything else!
I was gonna say same thing, tear it down and try to diy battery replacement. Did you eventually come up with a solution? Thanks for vid.
Never got it to fire back up. This was a 2nd unit that flir originally replaced because of similar issue.
what is the best way to open it ??
It's been a minute. If I recall, there were some very small phillips head screws on the back. Behind the label if I recall.
I'm guessing it's an nternal non-replaceable battery 😢
It's replaceable, didn't fix my issue.
You had the product 2 years. That’s a long time for the battery to sit with no activity. Any lithium ion battery can go bad.
It was dead within a year. FLIR sent me reset instructions, which worked for a little. Granted it did sit in a drawer for months at a time, if you own one... you'll be sorry:-)
thx great video. i think ill modify mine with a tiny phisical switch on the battery idk
Como Se Hace nene :(
I replaced battery and tried usb trick. No luck
you should buy the UNI-T 300usd better resolution .. for the money it is a lot better
I'll check out. Thanks.
What do you mean "I don't blame them - they are a big corporation"? Thanks for letting me know it needs to be charged. - that's a surprise!
It's called capitalism. They don't care as long as consumers bleed green.
@@rywolf01 I hate stuff that has batteries that can't be replaced - it appears they make them hard to replace on purpose. It's plain crooked. They force us to buy the same thing over and over again every several years, even if we use it rarely - I blame them for that.
@@weekendwarrior3420 car manufacturers are planning to charge a monthly subscription for creature comforts like heated and cooled seats.
whats the status on the teardown? I'm sure some of these electronic fixit guys can fix it.
Unable to find a suitable battery replacement. Haven't had time to continue messing around. Flir also doesn't offer a battery replacement.
Response from FLIR below. Unfortunately... They do a circle response because the unit purchase is over a year.
Thanks for the follow-up.
We unfortunately do not offer a replacement for the battery of the camera. What we do is that we replace the entire unit.
@@rywolf01 i'd like to take a shot at it!
Im pretty sure i saw a whole bunch of replacement cell on ebay
This should be a warranty service. Doesn’t FLIR provide warranty with their devices?
They did for the first one I sent back. Within a year.
@@rywolf01 Got you. They should have just offered you a full refund in this situation. You’re being too nice trying to justify their reaction. Good business is built on the principle of trust between sellers and buyers and when seller does not stand behind their own product, this trust is broken.
Hi, I have a Flir One Pro, phone won't recognize it any more, keeps saying to insert camera, any idea why?
Does it turn on?