Night vision goggle help

[Need4skis]

Hey everyone, I’m new to these forums, and pretty new to building electronics in general, I have seen a lot of kipkay videos, and have been inspired. :] once I saw this video> YouTube - How to See in The Dark!I decided I have to make these. I have had some electronic experience, like I fix iPods, and have soldered a decent amount before. I couldn’t find the camera that is shown in the video, but I saw this> https://cgi.ebay.com/12-0M-Pixel-Webcam-Web-Camera-Vision-Mic-Infrared Night_W0QQitemZ260526878742QQcmdZViewItemQQptZPCA_Video_Conferencing_Webcams?hash=item3ca89cb016 and ordering it today, unless someone else has any good, cheap ideas. I figured it would be good mostly because it was designed for low light use, and already has the LED’s, I will buy a couple more though. I do not yet have the view finder, but I will have it in a week or so. I would like to power it all from one battery source, so I was wondering if anyone could help me out, like what kind of battery should I use and what components will I need etc. I read that a USB port puts out 2.5w of power, so I’m not sure what kind of resistors and what-not will be in the webcam. I will post pictures and updates often, just hoping someone can help me get stared really, and some ideas would be appreciated, thanks! feel free to email me at need4skis@AIM.com

 

[Need4skis]

help anyone?

 

[Sceadwian]

You're going to need a whole lot more LEDs than that webcam has on it to get any decent pictures in the dark. The light source is actually more important than anything else. All digital cameras will take pictures in the dark like this, however they generally have an IR cut filter installed on them which needs to be removed and replaced with a solid piece of glass. The webcam you bought may not have the IR filter but for 8 bucks you can't go wrong. USB might provide enough power for the lights or the webcam but possible not for both, and I think you'll really want more lights that what was in the video. If you want to run the webcam as is off USB it'll prolly work fine and then you can just a DC wall wart to power the LED module. Make sure you get quality IR leds the brighter the better.

 

[Chryseus]

Pretty much every camera has a built in IR filter which you will need to carefully remove.
For the power one or two 9V batteries should do fine, as for the USB port 2.5W is far from correct, it is actually 250mW maximum.

 

[Sceadwian]

9 volt batteries have horrible energy density, Carbon Zinc 9 volts are only 50mah's. At 100ma they're roughly 300-400mah and at 1amp they're only 90-150mahs of capacity.
A simple 6 or 7 cell series pack of NiMhs will last 10-20 times longer. A wall wart will last forever, this is obviously going to have to be plugged in anyways so no reason not to use a wallwart.

 

[Need4skis]

thanks everyone, just ordered, i will keep updated with pics, like im not sure about how the ir filter will go (idk what it even looks like), ill post pics when i start taking it apart, if you folks are still willing to help but since its low lux, will i need to mess with the infrared filter, if it even has onoe? yeah, i plan on getting a bunch more LED's mostly from broken remotes for tv's with good LED's do you think that will work? and yeah, i want to make it mobile, i plan on using a battery or several batteries, this is on a limited budget too, so i dont want to be too over the top, but i do want it to work well also, say if i got 4 AA bateries (or whatever number) what kind of resisitors would i need? stuff like that would be helpful, or any hints with batteries and resistors, i got a resistor code chart, which is a little confusing but i am getting the hang of it. thanks, but please keep helping

 

[Need4skis]

2.5W is far from correct, it is actually 250mW maximum.

any suggestions for a battery?

 

[Need4skis]

9 volt batteries have horrible energy density, Carbon Zinc 9 volts are only 50mah's. At 100ma they're roughly 300-400mah and at 1amp they're only 90-150mahs of capacity.
A simple 6 or 7 cell series pack of NiMhs will last 10-20 times longer. A wall wart will last forever, this is obviously going to have to be plugged in anyways so no reason not to use a wallwart.

so what kind of batteries would you suggest to put in a 6 or 7 cell pack? rechargeable, come to think of it would be great, but not necassary. yeah, i was thinking about these LED's, but maybe not so many. maybe if radioshack has some, id rather avoid ordering, heres the link, they're what was used in the video **broken link removed**

 

[Sceadwian]

Chryseus, apparently you missed the part where the LED module was composed of 12 250mw LEDs which is 2.4watts. And I'd double that 12 to 24 or more if it was being used in anything other than a small room.

Need4skis you need to explain what you're trying to do here, cause if you're going to use the USB webcam it'll be hooked up to a computer right? Which means you have wall adapter access, which means you wouldn't use batteries.

The IR cut filter on a web cam could be a problem because it may just be a coating over the lens. If I'm not mistaken it tends to give the glass a slightly pink hue.

 

[Need4skis]

i think Chryseus means the led's in the webcam im buying, which i agree, i do not think those will light up much.
I want to make a night vision hedset,(or apparatus) so im going to hack up the webcam, and use all the parts, well i might even just keep the camera and LED's whole and cut up the USB plug, to keep it simple.
The plan is to wire that to a camcorder view-finder, that i will be getting soon, and power the whole unit by battery for nightvision. sorry i wasnt clear, so any ideas? if i can scrounge up the $ for that many LED's i will, but in the meantime, im just scrapping them from TV remotes etc. and possibly buying a few from radioshack if they have IR LED's


"The IR cut filter on a web cam could be a problem because it may just be a coating over the lens. If I'm not mistaken it tends to give the glass a slightly pink hue. "

why will the IR ct filter be a problem? im not sure what it does. are you pointing out that it gives a slight pink hue just so i know if its there? because if thats it, i dont mind. but if it makes it so i cant see, thats a problem, so what exactly does it do?

 

[Sceadwian]

How do you intend to interface the camera to a head mounted display? That single part alone is probably beyond the capabilities of even a hardcore hobbyists. The interface from the camera view finder to the CMOS chip on the webcam are likely completely different.

The IR cut filter does exactly what it sounds like it does, it blocks near IR, which is what you're interested in, so the camera will be less responsive to it, which is what you don't want.

I seriously think this project is WAY beyond your capabilities at this point, you can't just stick this stuff together and expect it to work. Asking how to go about it isn't gonna help you much either as you'd need advanced knowledge of all the chips on both systems and how to interface them.

 

[Need4skis]

did you see kipkay's video? i dont mind holding the thing, i know im going to need circuit board components, https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/infared-leds-night-vision-camera-lense.29703/ <i dont mind it being like something like in that link, what if i made an IR floodlight? i saw someone in a video do it by putting a number of blue and red cellaphane (spelling?) over a flashlight lense, and by interface, you mean what the camera records and what the view-finder displays is in different formats? and if i wanted it to be head-mounted, i could probably gigure soething out with a hard-hat no? since the camera is pretty low-lux, wouldnt that mean it would be reasonably responsive to IR light, like, wouldnt the low-lux kindof cancel out the filter? if there even is one? i know i cant just stick it together and expect it to work, im lookng for help, and i know im not very educated on this, but i'm looking to learn. thanks

 

[Sceadwian]

The video doesn't show you ANYTHING about how it's actually constructed. You're looking at videos expecting to reproduce their results without understanding that what they did probably isn't real, and was just edited to get people like you to waste their time senselessly trying to figure out how they did it. When the answer is they didn't actually do it!

You're basically on a wild goose chase. You'd be better off simply buying massive numbers of bulk IR leds and using any ole digital camera you had floating around for it. The lighting is the hard part, ANY digital camera will pick it up if it's bright enough. IR flood lights are not that easy to create, and keep in mind it's NEAR IR light not far IR (such as is used in heat detectors)

 

[Need4skis]

i am aware that it didnt give mch detail. other than the schematic, that is why i came here

 

[Sceadwian]

Schematic? Where!? You posted no schematic.

 

[Oznog]

All electronic cameras have the IR filter, even the cheap ones. Without it, all the IR light present in a picture adds bluish-green to the pic. There's IR present in indoor and outdoor shots so nothing will look right.

From personal experience, removing the flat glass IR filter changes the focal distance because, even though the glass is flat and not a lens, the speed of light is different through it and consequently it acts like a different distance from the focusing lens to the imager. Now ALL cameras have a focus adjustment, which will generally not be exposed until you disassemble it. However, in SOME cases the change in focal length can be compensated by readjusting the focus, but sometimes not. It may exceed the adjustment range of the focusing ring.

 

[Sceadwian]

Oznog, if I'm not mistaken the IR filter can be as simple as a coating on the glass, I think that's how most filters work nowdays.

 

[Need4skis]

it shows it breifly in the video, ill post it, here is a link Install all of the components...

 

[Need4skis]

any more help anyone?

 

[joelby]

The schematic you linked to has a camera with a composite video output, and a viewfinder with a composite video input. The Web cam you've bought only has a USB output, which is much more difficult to work with. The easiest way to make it happen would be to mount an embedded computer on your head with a USB controller and a video card with composite output for your viewfinder. It would be better to just buy a more appropriate camera.