IR night vision project

[YoungBuck]

Evening gents,

As the title suggests I am putting together a little home made IR night vision kit to go bunny hunting in the dark without a spotlight.
Have got the camera that I am after lined up but Ill be stuffed if I have to buy it from the UK, does anyone have any ideas where I might be able to get one of these in Aus? Have scoured the internet and made google run out of breathe looking, but no luck.
This is what I'm after:
http://www.sure24.co.uk/surveillance/ca ... ernal.html

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/KPC-E700PUB- ... C_66DbmNKw

[brett1868]

The FPV Section of HobbyKing may have what you're looking for...

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__538__543__FPV_Aerial_Video_Telemetry-Cameras.html

[YoungBuck]

Thx Brett,
Definitely on the right track but the ones I need are sourced from overseas.

[Title_II]

That's not IR. It's CCD with some spectral response in near-IR range, which is light and not heat. It's basically what they call "digital night vision." It is not as good as real night vision (image intensification) nor thermal (IR), and should generally not be counted on as a passive system. You will likely need a near-IR illuminator. It also is not in a form factor to aim a weapon unless you plan to aim your weapon with a near-IR laser.

This is a cheapskate surveillance camera and not a hunting tool. Although I usually don't recommend Gen I night vision (other than multi-stage US or German), you would probably do better with a Gen I rifle scope or a digital rifle scope for a couple hundred bucks more, likely with a mounted near-IR torch. Remember, neither generally allow you to see in the dark and require near-IR illumination. For about $500 you can score a real Gen II used rifle scope that will allow you to see in the dark with or without near-IR illumination under most conditions.

[YoungBuck]

Yes I am aware that I will need an IR illuminator Title, have done my research, it's already on the way (as is battery, mounts, adapters, etc).

Absolutely this is the cheapskate version. The whole purpose of this is for me to learn about NV and decide whether I want to fork out mega $ for a decent NV scope. Maybe in the great land of the free you can get a true night vision scope secondhand for $500, but here down under you need to add a 50-100% markup. Commonly call the Australia tax...brand new, forget it.

[Title_II]

OK, well you have a cheap project so that is good. Have fun!

[YoungBuck]

And have fun with it I will!

For those interested I ended up getting the camera on ebay from the UK mob, just could not for the life of me find an aussie seller.

[YoungBuck]

For those following along, all the parts came in and I have put it together. Will be testing it out this weekend. Lights up even better than I thought it would.

[petemacsydney]

had a go at this myself here:
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2397
got some good results, but then bought a second hand pulsar night vision scope and never looked back.
although the results were ok with my home made, it was fidgety and no where near as good as having the pulsar... but it cost me a more

[YoungBuck]

Ah nice, didn't see your thread. This little system cost me $270 all up including postage for the parts.
This might get me into getting a better purpose built system but I'm going to need to be keen on night hunting and will really have to win the Mrs over with the price of them.

[Title_II]

It looks awesome! Not sure how you are going to get a cheek weld with that. I have a similar setup but thermal, and with a one eye goggle display, and meant for shooting around corners or from defilade. Yeah, I have an inner Mall Ninja that gets me into pointless projects here and there.

If you are going to build the thing so that you can't even get a decent cheek weld, might as well look into an eye display instead of a giant panel. I did mine almost 10 years ago and the electronics and glasses cost probably $200 (not including the thermal). They are probably almost free now. I got something marketed for use as a DVD player. Which is pretty much the dumbest idea ever, who the heck wants to watch a DVD with one eye? Anyway, they are probably almost free now. And this was not my first one. I bought a setup that did the same thing about 15 years ago but it had mirrors and stuff and was a complete piece of crap. It was marketed as CCD digital night vision but was garbage.

[Herdsman]

A bit bubba but very cool mate, impressive results for so little coin

[Luvmadaysoff]

Well Done. Are you enjoying the system you made, and have you made any upgrades as yet?

[Gamerancher]

Have a look at this for night work.

http://www.nola.com/outdoors/index.ssf/ ... r_home_pop

[YoungBuck]

Well Done. Are you enjoying the system you made, and have you made any upgrades as yet?

Hi mate,

Yes enjoying it, it doesn't get used as much as I'd like but I've taken several rabbits with it. No upgrades to it since I made it, the one thing that i will be doing is getting a more powerful IR torch on in. The one that I have seems to have an overheat system built in and when its been running a bit long it starts blinking on and off on the lowest power setting (I assume to help it cool), really annoying when you are trying to line up a rabbit.
If anyone has any suggestions I'm happy to hear them.

[Fritz]

I've been thinking of doing the same.
If the camera you bought from UK ebay doesn't work out too well, have a look at this:
http://shop.runcam.com/runcam-owl/
minimum illumination of 0.0001Lux as opposed to 0.1 Lux for the camera you bought.
colour during the day, changes to B/W at night.
can be bought here on Oz for about $80
or here, http://www.banggood.com/RunCam-Owl-700TVL-Night-Vision-Starlight-FPV-Camera-0_0001-Lux-FOV-150-p-1026606.html for a little over $60

[YoungBuck]

Thanks Fritz, will keep that in mind but the the camera (not sure if your quoted one is) must have be able to detect IR light. That's how I initially spot the rabbits, scanning across the ground/distance you pick up the glint from their eyes on the screen very easily, even from 100m away so long as your IR torch is strong enough to go the distance.