DIY IR night vision.

[rushthezeppelin]

Well got my new camera in yesterday (roommates never told me so I didn't see it till this morning). This one was being a bit flaky turning on and off. Turns out I wasn't using the perfect plug type. Made me go back and check the other camera. Sure enough I'm good. I now have two working cameras with two different mounting types and lens types. Going to have to see which one does better for this setup and either sell the other one off or maybe mount it as a spotting cam (not mounted behind the scope) to switch to for lower zoom since my monitor has two video inputs.

Anyways here's my setup atm with a daytime shot...All I'm missing is the battery now and I can throw this on my rifle.

Even tried it out in my closet with the light turned off and the clarity was great when it wasn't being the scope. Can't wait till it's dark to test it out behind the scope.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

More pics of nighttime.
This picture came out decent but it does look better than this in person.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S III

 

[IXLR8]

Nice setup! The only negative comment I can make other than the size of the setup, is that you lose your eyes nightvision looking at the monitor. I wonder if the picture could be shifted to a color that would assist you in maintaining your eyes low light sensitivity?
I always thought that if you could make a sensor that attached to the eyepiece of a scope and transmitted the image to a wireless monitor like an iPhone via bluetooth or wifi, it would be the best of both worlds. You have all of the image processing power of the iPhone which is substantial, working for you. I would probably mount the monitor off of the handguard rail just to lower the overall height. Or even head mount it to allow shots around corners.
Keep your posts coming...

 

[rushthezeppelin]

I can easily put a red filter over the screen itself...many people are doing this to save night vision


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Got a youtube vid up now of a mouse coming out my compost. Almost got two in the shot but the second one was camera shy.

 

[matefrio]

Got a youtube vid up now of a mouse coming out my compost. Almost got two in the shot but the second one was camera shy.

Nice, you need a DVR direct hook up.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Nice, you need a DVR direct hook up.

I was thinking of using an RCA splitter to send a feed to a USB capture device....just goto buy the darn thing and I'll post one up. I also noticed going back through the vid that I did get both mice in that shot.

 

[matefrio]

I was thinking of using an RCA splitter to send a feed to a USB capture device....just goto buy the darn thing and I'll post one up. I also noticed going back through the vid that I did get both mice in that shot.

Does your camera have a video in?

If not check out the RC airplane\helo\quadcopter DVRs they're using.

http://www.foxtechfpv.com/mini-d1-quality-sd-card-video-recorder-cased-p-533.html

 

[IXLR8]

Great video. Keep them coming.

 

[Jeffrey]

Subscribbled.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Been tweaking things even more on my setup and I've got it now to where I can just take it straight off the scope mount and the whole unit (sans the torch) comes with. Just have to buy more of the same scope rings that are 30mm with 1" inserts that alloy me to put this on any scope and still be centered. Will post more detailed pic (with hopefully better lighting) of what I'm talking about.

Thinking I'm going to throw this setup on my 10-22 with a 3-9x and maybe see if flyers will dissipate enough with my aguila ammo to pop some mice/bunnies.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Here's my cleaned up setup.....will mount the battery up on the front of the rail once it comes in (it's been a month and a half now).

Just have power and vid2 from my monitor sticking out.

All I have to do is loosen that huge nut....

It comes off.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S III

 

[shooterfpga]

Pretty cool idea. Kinda bulky though. Its getting closer to the quarter for the android release of the flir camera. Iphone version is already out from what I recall. Thats what ill be using for cheap and light night time hunting.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Pretty cool idea. Kinda bulky though. Its getting closer to the quarter for the android release of the flir camera. Iphone version is already out from what I recall. Thats what ill be using for cheap and light night time hunting.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

Holy crap I had no idea they were doing that. Just found the Flir One for Iphone.....pretty darn nifty although I wonder how well or poorly it would do behind a scope considering it says it compiles an image from both a normal spectrum camera and the thermal camera. It's still probably more expensive than my setup too (especially if you don't already have an Iphone 5).

 

[Mike1234567]

I've seen similar setups and this one is very nice. Has anyone considered keeping the LCD viewing screen detached from the rifle?

 

[shooterfpga]

Holy crap I had no idea they were doing that. Just found the Flir One for Iphone.....pretty darn nifty although I wonder how well or poorly it would do behind a scope considering it says it compiles an image from both a normal spectrum camera and the thermal camera. It's still probably more expensive than my setup too (especially if you don't already have an Iphone 5).

Good point, however I think it should be fine as a lot of guys now currently run a cell phone taped to a locating plate attached to a scope or spotter and the camera focuses just fine. The image may possibly degrade some to counter the focus on the scope with the thermal imager. I guess we will see.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

 

[matefrio]

Its getting closer to the quarter for the android release of the flir camera. Iphone version is already out from what I recall. Thats what ill be using for cheap and light night time hunting.

Problem with the setup is that the image isn't real time. It'd be good to spot but not shooting as by the time you pull the trigger you're seconds behind.

 

[shooterfpga]

Problem with the setup is that the image isn't real time. It'd be good to spot but not shooting as by the time you pull the trigger you're seconds behind.

I didnt recall seeing that part? It makes sense though as you have two cameras and then your phone to interpret all that data into useable info.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

 

[rushthezeppelin]

I've seen similar setups and this one is very nice. Has anyone considered keeping the LCD viewing screen detached from the rifle?

Do you mean not even attached to the rail like mine? I've seen some people use video goggles with this kind of setup. Check out youtube channel Rolaids Bench. This guy is the American authority on DIY IRNV.

Problem with the setup is that the image isn't real time. It'd be good to spot but not shooting as by the time you pull the trigger you're seconds behind.

Probably uses something similar to how some of the security cams out there claim really low lux values (or ability to gather light). They use this tech called sense up which is just basically a fancy term for really long frame exposure and a bit of software cleanup. This has been warned about on NVUK as giving very laggy images and causing you to miss prey. I'd imagine it would even suck in a security cam setting as you would probably get image blur if a perp is moving too fast.

 

[rushthezeppelin]

Well just found out something very interesting today and figured I'd give a warning out. Apparently cheaper scopes tend to have better clarity with this system than more expensive ones do. I put the setup on my 3-9x BSA Sweet 22 (definitely crappier glass and less coatings than my PA 1-4x not to mention 1" tube vs 30mm tube) and at 4x the BSA is slightly brighter with more clarity. Alot of people from the NVUK have had the opposite experience trying to put these setups behind something like a Nightforce. Once you get into that level of optics apparently you start running into pretty extreme IR filtering with the scope.

So the moral of the story is, if you are building one of these setups try it out first on your cheapest scope. And if you don't have a scope in the $60-200 range you might need to grab one to make this setup work. Basically the only limiting factor with the low end of scope selection on these setups is if the scope can hold zero with the caliber gun its going to be attached to.