DIY Thermal Imaging: A Hands-On Project with Arduino

Katie Dumont of element14 Presents has developed a DIY handheld thermal camera using an Arduino UNO R4 Minima board paired with a Seeed Studio MLX90640 thermal imaging sensor. The MLX90640 employs a 32×24 thermopile array to detect infrared radiation, translating heat data into thermal images. The Arduino UNO R4 Minima processes this raw data via I2C and outputs the results to a DFRobot Fermion TFT capacitive touchscreen. Dumont designed a user interface for the device, which includes two physical buttons for adjusting settings such as range. The entire assembly is housed in a custom 3D-printed enclosure created using FreeCAD. This project demonstrates how accessible components can be combined to create functional thermal imaging tools for both professional and recreational use.