Diy night vision

[Jem45472]

This is a test a did a few years back if you haven't seen it.

My night vision goggles

These were a bit big, bulky, and a little heavier than I'd like, but were just a test and worked actually very well. I had to use an ir illuminator with them.

I'm moving on to the final finished version 2 now. These will be light weight, self contained, and self illuminated.

By the way, these will also be in full 3d with about a 100° fov

First step is installing the ir LED's. Here's one of the two panels installed. These are 940nm, and are completely invisible to the eye compared to the more common 850nm which gives off a red glow.

 

[squib]

WOW, very interesting. Sub scribed

 

[Jem45472]

These are going to be the main components used.

Battery pack

This holds two 18650 batteries putting out 7.4 volts

A 12 volt step up converter


I could run the cameras, and ir boards straight off the batteries, but the 940nm LED's are designed to run at 12 volts, and I want full power from them.

An OTG cable for the phone to allow plugging in, and powering additional accessories.

These work with most Android devices, sorry apple lovers, Steve Jobs and company fucked you again by not allowing apple to work with OTG. (Apple sucks)

This is an analog capture device, which the phone will be powering through the OTG cable. When assembled, I'll cut the extra cords. I only need the yellow.


And here's the camera next to one of the ir boards. It was just released, and has very impressive nv capability. It's used for flying drones at dusk, or night.
Foxeer cat3 mini camera.



I could probably put everything together and be done now, but I'm thinking I really want a 3d version to be able to see depth while moving. So, I'm going to have to wait a bit, order another camera, and a circuit board that will allow side by side 3d video over a composite cable.

 

[Jem45472]

Little bits at a time

 

[squib]

What gen of NV will this be comparable to?

 

[Jem45472]

What gen of NV will this be comparable to?

At least gen2, possibly a bit better.

 

[Robin]

This is very cool!!!!! I'm an Apple guy, but all the same, this is very cool!!!!
Robin

 

[Jem45472]

What gen of NV will this be comparable to?

I hooked up the old camera temporarily, don't want to try the new one yet. I can DVR the footage also. This is a quick recorded test to show you quality. When the goggles are on, this picture takes up your entire field of view.

Don't mind the fumbling around in the beginning, I was trying to get the DVR to work.

 

[FrankenCub]

Pretty damn cool. I'll be interested to see how much distance you can see outside at night.
I have plans of doing something similar with my truck. Being a military truck it has black out lights which I figured I'd replace with IR. I want to mount a camera in the grill. Have a military laptop to mount in the truck to view live feed on. Still in planning stages.

 

[Jem45472]

Pretty damn cool. I'll be interested to see how much distance you can see outside at night.
I have plans of doing something similar with my truck. Being a military truck it has black out lights which I figured I'd replace with IR. I want to mount a camera in the grill. Have a military laptop to mount in the truck to view live feed on. Still in planning stages.

I'm expecting about 20-25' with the built in ir. If I get more than that, all the better.
If I need to track out long distance, I'll use my handheld ir illuminator.

 

[squib]

After you finish the NV project could you please start on a thermal. Me poor

 

[Jem45472]

After you finish the NV project could you please start on a thermal. Me poor

Like I don't have enough stupid projects going on lol!

 

[Jem45472]

Tight fit, but just squeezed everything in.

 

[Jem45472]

Success! This recording sucks, for some reason the DVR is recording in low quality, and also not in landscape mode. I need to figure out how it works.

Anyhow, they are working better than I expected. I still have some tinkering with camera settings to do, and have to tidy up the wire mess inside. Low quality video aside- you get an idea of how they work here. I'm in my basement, and when I flip the light switch off, it's pitch black. The projector screen at the far end of room is about 30' away. This is with only the ir panels I've installed on the front, no need to use my handheld ir illuminator.

 

[squib]

So this is a head mount?

 

[Drinkthekoolaid]

This is super cool.

How much do you think you have invested into this project so far?

Any chance you will be putting up a step by step tutorial on how to?

 

[Jem45472]

This is super cool.

How much do you think you have invested into this project so far?

Any chance you will be putting up a step by step tutorial on how to?

This came in at maybe $175-$200. I can put up parts list if you'd like.

 

[Jem45472]

All finished



I still have to make some camera settings, there's maybe about 10 milliseconds of delay I'm going to try to get down.

I'll try to get a better video up tonight.

 

[Jem45472]

Ok, managed to get the DVR working. Automatically starts recording when I turn goggles on. Recording quality is much better now.

Same as last night, when I turn the switch off, it's pitch black down here. I can easily see 30' distance, I still have to adjust some brightness, and contrast settings, as it's still a little overexposed, but I'm getting there.

 

[Jem45472]

Ok, now we're getting somewhere! Don't mind the messy basement. This looks pretty damn close to what I want to see.