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Budget DIY Recordable Night Vision


ace_of_hearts
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Night shifts are dangerous for my spending :lookaround:

 

I will update here when all the parts arrive, but i should have a working recordable night vision set up for around £40 after drawing some inspiration from lots of other threads on the net, and may provide some new ideas for people who fancy building their own night vision (although knowing me it has probably been done before using this kit)

 

The main difference with this build as it should be wireless, so could be interesting (if it actually works)

 

I don't even need it, but i just like building stuff i guess :hmm: But you never know, it might come in handy in the future :D

Edited by ace_of_hearts
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Night shifts are dangerous for my spending :lookaround:

 

I will update here when all the parts arrive, but i should have a working recordable night vision set up for around £40 after drawing some inspiration from lots of other threads on the net, and may provide some new ideas for people who fancy building their own night vision (although knowing me it has probably been done before using this kit)

 

The main difference with this build as it should be wireless, so could be interesting (if it actually works)

 

I don't even need it, but i just like building stuff i guess :hmm: But you never know, it might come in handy in the future :D

 

Allways intrest in new bits of kit, so get making it!! Hurry up :shifty:

 

 

TEH

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  • 1 month later...

Sorry for the lack of updates but time / money have been in short supply. I have modified the camera with a new lense now and also have a modified torch with a UV LED. I will post pictures and links to all of the kit tomorrow.

 

All i have left to do is make a mounting sleeve to fix the camera to the back of the scope and all is done :good: Hopefully if i get some time i will turn up the mount tomorrow night and get back to you all on Friday.

 

I have also picked up my first permission today so will be able to get some good videos for you all hopefully when i am done :)

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Can't wait for the full details mate - sounds very interesting!

 

I need to get one up and running, but being a bit 'dyslectrical' my eyes just glaze over when I start looking at the components needed.

 

Shopping list and full instructions appreciated :good:

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Ok, the long awaited update.

 

Camera:

 

This is a cheap Ebay DVR with IR just like this:

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item257640fa2c

 

£12.99

 

TTInT3Bh.jpg

 

What i have done to this is open the case, remove the old lens (just unscrews) and removed the IR LED's in the front (but i have since found out you can turn them off on the menu screen. I then replaced the lens with one of these:

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item1c2c7cd2a0

 

£20 but they may be able to get bought cheaper

 

The new lense means that you can zoom the camera into the scope, allowing you to adjust it so that the cross hairs fill the whole screen. Without this the cross hairs and scope will look a long way into the distance (very small) on the screen. I hope this makes sense :lol:

 

With all this done the camera will look like this:

 

nzpvmWKB.jpg

 

And with a bit of twiddling to get it focused will look like this:

 

ARYR96It.jpg

 

All else you need for the camera is an SD card:

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item4158584d5e

 

£3.99

 

To finish you need to fill in the old LED holes and holes around the new lens with some glue or silicone sealer. The front of the camera casing will need a small amount of trimming to get the new lens to fit but its quite self explanatory when you try to screw it in.

 

Torch:

 

This is an LED setup as described in the other thread. This is the torch I bought with the remote pressure switch.

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item4d04459b53

 

£12.88

 

This is a good torch for regular lamping, but for the night vision setup i got an IR LED that replaces the red one. It only screws in and out so can be swapped between in under a minute. This is the IR LED i got for it:

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item416781cf0d

 

£8.00

 

If you only want the torch for IR, you can save some money by getting the one below with the IR LED already fitted:

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item27cbcc5205

 

£14.18

 

As described in the lamping torch thread, I also got a better quality reflector and domed lens to focus the beam. These were from deal extreme and worked out very cheap:

 

http://dx.com/p/glas...ights-28mm-5297

 

http://dx.com/p/26-5...ut-emitter-5955

 

£4 ish

 

The lens takes a small fettle around the edged with some fine wet and dry to get it into the casing, but this only took a couple of minutes as it really was a tiny amount.

 

The torch is now complete (other than optional painting of the reflector black which apparently helps (?)

 

With the red LED to show the pattern

 

ns1fura1.jpg

 

The two LED's and new lense fitted

 

XbWOQfUJ.jpg

 

And then with the barrel mount here:

 

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item53efcc7add

 

£3.79

 

You get this :)

 

m7UjGQNu.jpg

 

LVbToCfH.jpg

 

Now all is left to do is make a mount to line the camera up to the back of the scope, and you are good to go! I hopefully should get some time to make up a mount tonight so with any luck will update again tomorrow. I have a few mucking around shots with the camera though which i will upload to Youtube now to give people an idea of quality.

 

Total price so far £58.95

Edited by ace_of_hearts
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Well i have been busy on the lathe :)

 

I managed to get the focus acceptable after an hour or so of tinkering, then took some measurements and turned down a bit of PTFE bar from the scrap bin to give a snug fit on either end.

 

mqQPmWvR.jpg

 

I then drilled and tapped some holes to give fine adjustment of the site picture, and mounted everything up. The focus ***** are still easily accessible and i think the picture quality is more than adequate. I will get back this evening with hopefully some footage.

 

I do have a couple more pictures but i can't get them off my phone at the minute :(

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only downside I can see, and it would bug me to h ell, is everything is upside down, not so bad whilst setting it up, but out in the field, pitch black etc, if your focusing on a rabbit that hops left, your reaction will be to follow it, but to do so you'll need to go right

I'll stick with my non recordable unit at £52.50

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only downside I can see, and it would bug me to h ell, is everything is upside down, not so bad whilst setting it up, but out in the field, pitch black etc, if your focusing on a rabbit that hops left, your reaction will be to follow it, but to do so you'll need to go right

I'll stick with my non recordable unit at £52.50

 

Surely it's just the actual screen that's upside down and not the picture itself?

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Not been able to use it in anger yet, but due to the amount of interest i just tried it out in the garden with mixed results :hmm:

 

The IR torch works perfectly and seems to throw out plenty of light, enough to light up the church 60+ yards away and make it easily visible on the screen.

 

The problem comes with the camera (or lens). I am having trouble getting it to focus on the crosshair and the subject in the sight. I can adjust it to focus on either but cannot get it to focus on both at the same time :( Some more fiddling needed methinks.

 

Any suggestions anyone?

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