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DIY Nightvision Goggles

Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 4:18 pm
by Chemistry
Hello All,
First post onto the forum and thought I would try to be helpful and show a little project I built myself last year.

The pictures show the nightvision goggles. I did not come up with the idea myself and simply followed the idea which I saw in a tutorial.

The concept is fairly simple and cheap. I obtained a cheap pair of FPV goggles which are usually used for drone flying and then I connected a Raspberry Pi computer to the goggles which then boots the operating system onto the screen in the goggles. I then connect a Pi Noir camera to the Pi and this also incorporates two IR LEDS which project light in front for the IR camera to detect. After a little of programming the Pi, when started boots up and opens the live camera display onto the screen of the goggles...put these on your head and voila you can see in the dark!

Advantages of this system:
-Cheap (Roughly £60 depending if you already have battery packs available)
-Real time IR vision with no lag
-IR lights give out no visible light

Disadvantages:
-Limited Range (just over 5m)
-Spatial awareness is off as the goggles protrude some distance from your face (takes time to get used to!)
-Have to have 2 battery packs connected and stuck in your back pockets

Hope people enjoy this! If people are interested I could get round to making a tutorial for it as well :)

Re: DIY Nightvision Goggles

Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 5:05 pm
by Jamesey1981
Nicely done, I love projects like that.
Is the limited range down to small IR illumiators or is it a limitation of the camera? You can buy chinesium IR illuminators fairly cheaply and it might add to your range if it's not down to the camera.

Re: DIY Nightvision Goggles

Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 6:06 pm
by Chemistry
Thanks glad you like it :)

You are actually right. I realized this when I built it, but that was a while ago now :D

The viewing range could completely be extended by using extra lamps or even an IR LED torch (was meant to purchase one and never got round to it)

Re: DIY Nightvision Goggles

Posted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 6:40 pm
by Chemistry
As the last photo of the actual nightvision was rubbish, here is one I just took (no windows in the bathroom).

Spot the cat...

Re: DIY Nightvision Goggles

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2017 3:19 pm
by sniper 55
I found for a cheap simple monocular a car dash camera worked well enough, I just taped a lupe (a sort of magnifing thing used to look at negatives/images close up) to the screen of the camera and Bobs your mothers brother. total set up cost about £30 and I used it the rest of the time as a dash camera.
This is just the camera ir, with a IR torch it's miles better.



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Re: DIY Nightvision Goggles

Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2017 2:22 pm
by Chemistry
Nice!

Yeah, I built my set up as more of a project...I did realise I could do easier ideas really :D

Re: DIY Nightvision Goggles

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2017 4:35 pm
by sniper 55
Chemistry wrote:Nice!

Yeah, I built my set up as more of a project...I did realise I could do easier ideas really :D
I missed a proper night vision scope a few years back, bloke wanted £30 for it but I only had £20 on me, by the time I got back it had gone.

Re: DIY Nightvision Goggles

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2018 7:09 pm
by defender130
I guess the benefit of doing this using goggles rather than using a dash cam or similar is there is no screen glare back at your face to illuminate you

If you wanted to move in total darkness and the googles fit well enough it should be possible