UTi260B Infrared Thermal Imager 256 x192 + Macro Lens

See the fault before it takes the machine out.

A loose terminal in a switchboard does not announce itself. It sits there running hot, shift after shift, until the insulation lets go. By then you are not doing maintenance any more. You are doing a shutdown, an incident report and an insurance claim.

Same story out on the plant. A bearing runs hot long before it starts making noise. A brake drags. One cell in a battery bank sits well above its neighbours. Every one of those shows up as heat well before it shows up as damage. You just need something that can see heat.

That is what this is. The UTi260B is a handheld thermal imager: point it, pull the trigger, and surface temperature comes up as a picture. 256 x 192 infrared pixels, a 2.8 in screen, a measuring range of -15°C to 550°C and stated accuracy of ±2°C or ±2%, whichever is greater. It reads what a spot thermometer reads, except it reads the whole panel at once and shows you which part of it is wrong.

Both options include the UT-Z002 macro lens. The only difference between them is how you carry it: a soft belt pouch, or a hard case. Same imager, same lens, same price. Pick the carry that suits the way you work.

What It Solves

• Switchboard walk-arounds: scan a board from a safe distance and the loose lug or the overloaded phase stands out bright against the ones either side of it. No contact, no shutdown to find it.
• Bearings and drives: compare the same bearing on two identical machines. If one is running 20 degrees warmer than the other, you have found your next breakdown while it is still a planned job.
• Solar and battery banks: a panel with a hot cell, a shading fault, a lug that was never done up properly, or one battery in a string sitting out of step with the rest. All of it is a temperature difference, and all of it shows in seconds.
• Vehicles and plant: dragging brakes, a blocked radiator core, an exhaust leak, a wheel bearing on the trailer. Walk around the ute or the truck before a long trip and look at what is warm that should not be.
• Sheds, homes and cool rooms: where the cold air is getting out, where the insulation was skipped, whether an underfloor line is actually running.

What It Does

• Four image modes: full thermal, plain visible light, fusion, and picture-in-picture. Fusion blends the two at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% so you can see the hot spot and still know which cable it is on.
• Seven colour palettes: white hot, black hot, iron red, lava, rainbow, high-contrast rainbow and red hot.
• Four ways to measure: centre point, automatic high and low tracking across the frame, a box area (ROI) so a nearby heat source does not skew the reading, and up to three points you place yourself.
• Adjustable emissivity: so you can set it for the surface you are actually pointing at instead of taking whatever the factory default gives you.
• Saves what it sees: BMP stills to a micro SD card, with a 16 GB card in the box.
• Talks to a computer: Type-C USB to the supplied PC software for real-time projection on screen, image analysis, over-temperature alarms and PDF report export.
• Macro lens for close work: the UT-Z002 clips on the front for circuit boards and small components, where a standard lens just gives you one warm blur.
• Built-in work light: an LED next to the lens for the visible-light camera in a dark cabinet.

Key Features

• Infrared resolution: 256 x 192, which is 49,152 real infrared pixels on an uncooled focal plane detector, 12 µm pitch, 8 to 14 µm band.
• Measuring range: -15°C to 550°C, split into two gain bands. High gain covers -15°C to 150°C, low gain covers 150°C to 550°C.
• Stated accuracy: ±2°C or ±2%, whichever is the greater, with a response time of 500 ms or less.
• Screen you can read: 2.8 in TFT LCD, about 71 mm across the diagonal, 320 x 240.
• Visible camera as well: 640 x 480, so a fused image gives you the context and not just a coloured smear.
• Field of view: 56° horizontal by 42.2° vertical, IFOV 3.8 mrad. That works out at roughly 3.8 mm across per pixel at one metre, which is what sets how small a fault it can resolve.
• Takes a knock: IP65 rated and drop tested to 2 m, both supplier figures. Rubber over-mould on the body and the grip.
• Runs a shift: 3.6 V 5000 mAh 26650 lithium cell, supplier states not less than six hours, recharging over Type-C in no more than five.
• Sized for one hand: 236 x 75.5 x 86 mm, pistol grip, trigger under the index finger.

Watch It Work

Two independent walkthroughs of this imager. Neither is ours and neither is an advert.

Limits

Here is what this tool will not do. Read it before you buy, not after.

• It is not a medical device: do not use it to take a person's temperature or to screen anybody for illness. It is an industrial instrument for surfaces, it is not built or approved for that job, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
• Surfaces only: a thermal imager reads the outside of a thing. It does not see through walls, panels, glass or water, and it cannot tell you the temperature inside a sealed enclosure. It sees what the outside surface is doing about it.
• Shiny metal will lie to you: bare aluminium, polished steel and clean copper reflect infrared and read far cooler than they are. Set the emissivity for the surface, or stick a patch of matt tape on it and read that instead. Nothing wrong with the imager when that happens.
• It is a diagnostic tool, not a reference: ±2°C or ±2% is fine for finding what is hotter than it should be. It is not the instrument for a test that needs a calibrated figure, and no calibration certificate is supplied with it.
• Water resistant, not waterproof: IP65 means dust-tight and protected against water jets. It does not mean immersion. Rain and a wash-down are fine, dropping it in a puddle and leaving it there is not. Some of the supplier's own marketing images use the word waterproof for IP65. That is the wrong word and we will not repeat it.
• The 2 m drop figure is theirs: it is a supplier specification, not something we have tested, and it is not a licence to throw it in the toolbox loose. That is what the case is for.
• 256 x 192 is the sensor, not the screen: the display is 320 x 240. This is a fault-finding resolution, not a photographic one. Small targets need the macro lens or a closer stand-off.
• Badging and paperwork vary: the supplier's own photographs show the same tool badged both UTi260B and RX-600, a UNI-T and A-BF joint product, and the printed manual pictured is in Chinese. Which badge and which manual arrive in your box is not specified by the supplier.
• CE mark, no certificate: the housing carries a CE mark and an IP65 marking. We have not sighted a certificate for either, and we are not going to quote one we have not seen.

Q & A

Is the macro lens included, or is it an extra?

Included. Both options are the imager plus the UT-Z002 macro lens. The choice you are making is the carry: a soft belt pouch, or a hard case. Same price either way.

So which option should I pick?

Belt pouch if it lives on you and comes out a dozen times a shift. Hard case if it lives in the ute, gets freighted between sites, or gets shared around a crew.

Is 256 x 192 the screen or the sensor?

The sensor. That is the number that matters, and suppliers routinely quote the screen instead. The infrared detector is 256 x 192, which is 49,152 pixels. The screen is a separate thing: 2.8 in, 320 x 240.

Can I check someone for a fever with it?

No. Do not. It is an industrial surface thermometer, it is not approved as a medical device, and a reading off a person's forehead is not a body temperature.

Will it tell me my solar panel or my battery is faulty?

It will show you a temperature difference. Reading that difference is still your job, or your sparky's. What it does is put the difference in front of you instead of leaving you guessing which cell or which panel to pull.

Does it record video?

The supplier specifies BMP stills to the micro SD card, plus real-time projection to a computer over USB. No video recording function is specified, so treat it as a stills camera.

What actually comes in the box?

The imager, the UT-Z002 macro lens, your chosen pouch or hard case, a Type-C USB cable, a 16 GB TF card and a printed manual.

How long will it take to get here?

Ten to fourteen days from the day you order, and allow up to three weeks. Regional and remote addresses take longer again. Delivery is free to Australia and New Zealand.

Specs