Home Made Night Vision adapter

[petemacsydney]

Hi all, thinking of building a home made Infra red shooting cam to mount to my scope for some night / dusk / dawn hunting.

I can get the individual components (low light cam, IR illuminator, LCD screen etc) fairly cheap, but most admit, still need to do some more research on it!

Anyone tried to make their own?

[petemacsydney]

ok, research so far is below...

I'm thinking $100-150 will get me all the equipment and a few hours of tooling around should take care of the build.

a lot more research and thinking to go, BUT.... it looks highly achievable...

potential design:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg7X0dQv7Z8

potential parts:
LCD Screen: $39
http://www.securitycamera2000.com/produ ... nitor.html

CCD Cam: $32-$85
http://www.securitycamera2000.com/produ ... amera.html
or this
http://www.securitycamera2000.com/produ ... -lens.html
or this combo
cam
http://www.securitycamera2000.com/produ ... E-BNC.html
plus lens
http://www.securitycamera2000.com/produ ... amera.html
(I think I need focus capability to make it work, per thread located here:
http://www.airgunforum.co.uk/forums/sho ... rts/page19

IR illuminator: $58
http://www.securitycamera2000.com/produ ... -lots.html
(30 degree, 80 meter range or 15 degree 100m range)

[tom604]

i will be watching this thread with interest, best of luck with it,,do a utube vid on the build and i will copy it,,always wanted a nv

[cruze82]

can I place my order now ?
sounds like you know what your doing

[petemacsydney]

lol, yeah mate, retailers charge about $1800, i'll build it for you for $1600!!

just jokes... i use a lot of this stuff for other hobbies, so i'm reasonably confident.

i'll be ordering the stuff soon and will do a video of the build.

all things going smoothly, i reckon it'll work

[cruze82]

Cool will be great if you document it well as an instructional vid
Hope it all goes well

[petemacsydney]

lets hope so!
i'm about 80% confident

[Westy]

Were 100% Confident that you can save us all some $$$$ here, go son

[flap]

Ambitious

I'd end up with a little green torch

[petemacsydney]

well, I'm not promising, but i reckon it'll work...
I've watched a few youtube vids on people who have done it and they seem to work pretty well.
my main energy at the moment is focusing on making sure the components are right before i order them.
I'm swaying a fair bit on camera choices and also on IR devices.
the problem with IR's is weight. i can get a great illuminator that will shell out to 100 meters and will be really bright at 100m, but the weight is 450grams, which is a lot to scope mount.
i could make it mounted independently, but then it means i would need to train/point it towards the target as well as training the rifle. would prefer not to have to move 2 devices and just have it scope mounted.

So i need your advice guys!!!
what sort of range would you expect to receive from an IR illuminated device? and for what sort of varmin woudl you use it for?
50m, 100m, 150m? rabits, rats and Lion's?
Obviously safety is paramount for everyone, so I was thinking closer in for an environment and backstop that you have strong knowledge of.

Anyway, keen for any input from anyone who has something to say about this little project!!!

[Seconds]

I'll you can put a half decent one together for $150 I'll put in an order!

[Aussier]

50m, 100m, 150m? rabits, rats and Lion's?

I'd say 100.

To need to be inside 50m you'd scare off as many as you'd see before finding them I'd say.

I don't know anything about this kind of tech, can you get past that range without spending a fortune? What gets you to 200m? 300m? Just curious.

[petemacsydney]

cost difference to get out further is nominal, its more the weight
i may go with a 50m scope mount and a 100+ meter stand alone illuminator..
dunno, still thunking

[Aussier]

Any idea specifically (or roughly) what it would add to make a 300m version?

[petemacsydney]

about an extra 100 clams
you'd need one of these bad boys though:
http://www.securitycamera2000.com/produ ... nator.html
they are too big to put on a scoep, so you would mount it on a tripod next to you.
you'd chew through a lot of energy though, so you'd also need a big bad ass battery whcih woudl probably weigh a kilo.
i guess you could put the battery in your back pack though

[tom604]

i would say 100 also ,,you could use it at 50 but if they {rabbits cats foxes panthers ect} stay out a bit,,like 75 to 100 then 50 would be a pain. better to have too much than not enough

[petemacsydney]

yeah, i feel ya mate
i've decided to build it in a way so that i can exchange 50 and 100 IR's
now all i gotta do is work out how to do that!
ordering most parts this weekend, just a couple more hours research before i order.

i do however already have the screen and PVR (DVR)
i got thsi for other stuff and dont use it too much, so decided to use it for this project. gr8 news is it can record as well as be the screen to see the night vision output

[petemacsydney]

build log continued... i'll keep a log of what i buy and what i build so you can see what mistakes i make! lol

2nd part ordered:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/181188202284 ... 1439.l2649

i need to use these to create a snug fit of the NVA tube (Night Vision Adapter) tube to the front of my scope.

1st NVA build will be for my CZ 22LR which has a 40mm bushnell scope on it (6-24)

part cost $2.48 (including postage)

[petemacsydney]

3rd item ordered
Liquid electrical tape
you don't really need this, but i want to make the cam circuit board waterproof. plus i will only use about 1 buck worth of it, the rest of it will be used for other projects

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/400715846465 ... 1439.l2649

[Westy]

This is starting to get serious LOL

[botfour]

I think pete secretly works for these electronics companies and is pitching his stuff on the sly

[petemacsydney]

OK, more parts ordered...

Cam: $US32
http://www.securitycamera2000.com/produ ... amera.html

IR Illuminator: $US35
http://www.securitycamera2000.com/produ ... nator.html

total $75 Aussie!

[petemacsydney]

Yup westy, she's looking serious now, just ordered the guts!
As i decided to set this up for 22LR (to start with , i have chosen 15 degree's to 50 meters on the IR
To support longer distance, i will assess a stand alone IR illuminator, but want to curtail spending on initial device build - to make sure it works before i shell out any more cash on a stand alone IR or laser IR.
probably take a couple of weeks for the parts to come in, so you may not see much change over the next 2 weeks.
i will however start working on the tube to attach to the scope and have a think about how i will mount the LCD and ir illuminator.

[petemacsydney]

IR device scope mount bracket ordered: $AUD5
will need to tailor it a bit to hold the ir device
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/301095578796 ... 1439.l2649

[petemacsydney]

Alternate mount ordered $15
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 0605103762

[Westy]

Yup westy, she's looking serious now, just ordered the guts!
As i decided to set this up for 22LR (to start with , i have chosen 15 degree's to 50 meters on the IR
To support longer distance, i will assess a stand alone IR illuminator, but want to curtail spending on initial device build - to make sure it works before i shell out any more cash on a stand alone IR or laser IR.
probably take a couple of weeks for the parts to come in, so you may not see much change over the next 2 weeks.
i will however start working on the tube to attach to the scope and have a think about how i will mount the LCD and ir illuminator.

I'm going to watch this with great intrest!!!Nice work Peter!!!

[petemacsydney]

thx mate, here's hoping that in about 100 posts time it works!! lol

it should turn out similar to this one...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOcRSZK ... L&index=18

[tom604]

very interesting watching with baited breath

[Seconds]

C'mon build faster!

I wanna see this baby take shape

[petemacsydney]

Problem is the parts will take a coupla weeks ;-(

It's one third the price to get em from china, but the boat is a slow one!

I reckon it'll take me only 1 weekend to finish it when i get the parts.