DIY Noght Vision

Do it yourself night vision goggles

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DIY Noght Vision

Do it yourself night vision goggles

Uploaded by

Erik Barnes

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

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Homemade Night Vision – How to Make Night Vision Goggles

There’s a lot of fun to be had with night vision, both for

kids and for the young at heart, and if you’re primarily interested in these devices for their
entertainment value, then you may want to find out how to make night vision goggles for
yourself.

Homemade goggles are probably good enough for dashing around at night, firing off paint-
balls and having a great time, or for kids playing in the nocturnal back yard. They’re also an
interesting home science project that may surprise you with the results. If you need night
vision goggles for a serious purpose, though – for your work as a security guard, for
example, or for search and rescue during catastrophes and emergencies – go for a
professionally made set.

The first thing to remember when you’re finding out how to build night vision goggles is to
ignore all the technical jargon; just have fun and enjoy the process. You can always get an
inexpensive entry level set of night vision equipment like the Eyeclops V2 Night Vision
Stealth Binoculars so that you can enjoy some night vision fun while you’re still working, and
so that you have a basis for comparison, too.

Tips for simple Do-It-Yourself night vision:

The easiest form of do-it-yourself night vision equipment you can make duplicates the
method of amplifying light found in commercial and military versions, just on a much smaller
scale. The heart of the system is blue and red theatrical gels and high intensity infrared
LEDs, which create a similar effect to what is going on inside a commercially manufactured
NV device.

Here’s how to put all the stuff together:

1. Buy blue and red theatrical gels and a pair of welding glasses whose lenses can
be removed, plus a cheap infrared flashlight. For tools you’ll need a hobby knife
or multi-tool, glue and a pinch of luck. If you are more courageous or enjoy more
technical projects you can make your own infrared flashlight with eight to twelve
high intensity infrared LEDs . For this you will also need two 3-volt coin batteries,
some thin electrical wire, superglue, and a soldering iron.
2. Cut two pieces of each colored gel to cover each of the lenses of the welding
glasses. Since the lenses ought to be removable, you can use them as a
template for shape and size.
3. Glue (only the outside edge,) the red gel lenses to the exterior of the welding
glass lenses, and then glue the blue gel to the interior surface. Try to line them
up as exactly as you can so you filter all the light that passes through them.
4. Put the lenses back in the frame of the welders glasses. If you are making your
own IR flashlight now glue the LEDs to the outer edges of the frames, pointing
outward to light up the objects you are viewing. Glue the batteries to the temples
(ear pieces) of the goggles or wherever else is convenient, and connect the
LEDs. If you have the technical knowledge, add in a switch to let you turn the
LEDs on and off and a current-limiting resistor rather than just draining your
batteries.
5. Test your goggles at night. If they work, then you have discovered how to make
night vision goggles! If the image is dim and feeble, add another layer of red gel
to the outside, more blue gel to the inside, and extra LEDs to give more
illumination.

My favorite homemade night vision project:

The method above is the quickest, easiest, and/or cheapest of the options you have for
homemade night vision. It isn’t the only one though, there are many different ways for you to
experiment and enjoy do it yourself projects. If you’re feeling adventurous – here is my
personal favorite homemade technique which will give you very impressive results.

Board Camera For Homemade Night Vision

The key component is a board camera also known as a micro camera or a spy camera. To
be clear, I’m talking about a “low-lux” (capable of functioning in very low light, 0.5 lux is
good) black and white camera otherwise known as a monochrome camera. These cameras
differ to the color variety as they have no infrared blocking filter on the lense. You could
probably guess this is important because that’s precisely the light we want to see in the
dark. Also the monochrome type have a very basic 3 wire connection and can be found for
as little as $10. My favorite online vendor is www.esentia.com
The 3 wire hook up is easy as 2 wires are used for 12 volts D.C. power, and the last is used
as a composite-video out that plugs directly into a camcorder for recording or a video
display like an LCD screen.
This setup alone is capable of producing a remakably clear IR picture. A simple test is to
point any remote control you have at home that is labeled as being infrared and observing
the light which is emitted in pulses on your handy-dandy do it yourself IR camera.

No doubt you’ll be amazed how much your little remote control’s light illuminates a
darkened room. But with just a little more work we can really brighten things up for our
homemade infrared camera by perfecting an IR light source.

My homemade infrared light, is simply a halogen-bulb flashlight that is found anywhere for a
few dollars. I want a halogen-bulb because this produces the most amount of infrared in the
white light it gives off, but an incandesant-bulb flashlight will work almost as good and has
the advantage of not heating up as much.

Heat is a factor because I modify my flashlight with a home-built infrared pass-filter. As the
name suggests this is a filter which will allow only IR light to pass through it. I do this by
cutting out a close fitting piece of filter material and fixing it to the outside of my flashlight.

Floppy Disk For Infrared Filter

The materials I find to be the best for an IR pass-filter are listed below best to least:

1. 5.25 inch floppy disk. The actual plastic disk inside the square cover.
2. 3.5 inch floppy disk. Same as above only the larger 5.25 inch is more practical for
cutting out shapes.
3. Used (developed,) cellulose film. I purposely take a blank photo (without a flash,)
in a dark room for this. And it usually takes several layers for best results.
4. Camera store supplied glass IR pass-filter for a SLR camera. I list this last only
because of cost, but it actuall works great.
You will not believe the effectiveness of your homemade equipment. You will want to
experiment and tweak to find what is best for your application – oh, and you’ll invent many
more applications just for the hell of it.

Exploring the world of night vision can be a whole lot of fun, both in learning how to make
night vision goggles and then using them! And if you want to skip ahead to the good stuff
even while you continue to work on your projects, you can always get a cheap, entry-level
start on stripping away the gloom with the Eyeclops V2 Night Vision Stealth Binoculars that
you can read about on our site – adventures in the starlight await!

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