How to make a night vision device from binoculars. DIY night vision device - is it possible? Installing LED lighting

Today we will skip the medieval alchemical method that allows you to make a night vision device with your own hands. You can easily manage it if you have sulfuric acid and tin chloride stored at home, but the authors consider such an approach dangerous and unreasonable. Today's work plan: we briefly discuss the principle of operation of a night vision device. We’ll help you collect it, if you can’t sit still, perhaps we’ll make a short excursion regarding the stores: we’ll discuss stale items from the field of hunting equipment.

Operating principle of a night vision device

The eye is a passive radar and receives radiation emitted by objects. The visible spectrum is a small range of vibrations of the body of the Universe surrounding humanity. The predator from the film of the same name switched bands, a representative of an advanced civilization is unable to cover the total spectrum! In the dark, the eye is powerless to see; Homo Sapiens cannot observe infrared radiation. Bodies will emit waves at low temperatures environment, power density drops. The first night vision device appears. Nothing to do with the military. The device is used by builders.

Meet the thermal imager, which receives infrared radiation from objects. The device is not intended for viewing a dark landscape, but the frontal view can be seen. The gizmo has a number of settings, the following characteristics are typical:

• temperature 10 degrees Celsius heat appears orange glow;
• the walls of the houses look reddish;
• the surrounding inanimate nature of different shades, even black.

Forget about assembling a thermal imager with your own hands, you can buy it for 50 thousand. After spending seven thousand, you can buy a night vision device (NVD) in a store. There is no point in taking a thermal imager specifically for vigil in the dark; it helps builders evaluate the quality of thermal insulation measures. If you find a foreman you know, you can admire nature in the dark for free by borrowing a unit.

The circuit of the night vision device is implemented by the indicated processes, so as not to irritate the eye with a radiant rainbow; inside the factory product there is a transparent plate covered with semiconductor material, using the internal photoelectric effect, it allows you to “see” the infrared radiation of objects.

For reference. The photoelectric effect is the phenomenon of the transition of electrons in a material to new energy levels under the influence of photons of light. It is incorrect to use the term for invisible radiation, this is how the concept is played up in literature, so we avoid contradicting other (authoritative) sources.

Under the influence of invisible “photons”, the electrons of the plate receive energy. Information can be read by changes in the transparency of the material and the electrical conductivity of the substance. Microchannel technology for manufacturing sensitive elements helps to avoid illumination of neighboring pixels. The Nazis were the first to approach the solution of the problem. Germany benefited from the work of talented scientists. Some voluntarily, others were forced. A rifle scope weighing 2.25 kg with a suitcase of batteries (13.5) kg was created. It would probably have made it possible to accomplish many feats (or crimes) if Soviet troops had not taken Berlin in May 1945.

Sometimes the radiation is further amplified by photomultipliers. Helps to obtain a bright, contrasting image for a night vision device. Often external radiation is not enough; infrared illumination is used. Lamps are used, more often semiconductor diodes of a special type are used. You can find it in a radio amateur store. By the way, the coherence of LED radiation is high. This means that interference will not affect the quality of the picture.

For reference. Coherence is interpreted as being in phase with the wave. Such light is concentrated in a narrow segment of the spectrum ( vertical line graphics), easily folds, giving greater brightness than other radiation sources. As a result, you will get high-quality illumination with low power.

Night vision devices are divided as follows:

1. The nature of the impact on the environment:
   1. Active with LED backlight.
   2. Passive, receiving only radiation from other objects.
2. Method of processing the received signal:
   1. With amplification.
   2. Deprived of reinforcement.
3. Sign of the presence of a storage device:
   1. Registrants.
   2. Not registering.

Now you can assemble a night vision device with your own hands.

Make your own night vision device

The night vision device includes:

1. Converter of infrared radiation to video signal.
2. A kind of eyepiece that could display the signal in real time.
3. Backlight.

There are many devices in the store that help with night photography. The night vision device is obviously based on the same technology. A black and white micro camera will do. It’s not cheap, but it’s easy to adapt the gadget for other purposes if you get tired of the night vision device. Examples of devices are JK 007B, JK-926A. The main thing is that the device has a video output; any camera has a built-in port, otherwise why would it be needed at all? The purchase price should not greatly exceed the store price of the night vision device (see above), otherwise greed will stifle it. Take comfort, our device will be able to record, the option costs extra money on the counter.

Find an old viewfinder. Visit a salon that repairs household appliances if you don’t have any suitable equipment at home. The viewfinder is equipped with one input for video according to the protocol used by the camera.

The question can be clarified by interviewing local professionals, and the operation can be checked by connecting the devices with a cable. It works - all that's left is to buy a backlight. Order LEDs online and shake up your nearest market. How to check? There is a video camera for recording at night. Go into the dark, turn on the power, see if the radio element glows: point the lens at the video camera.

A foreign do-it-yourself amateur recommends combining a dozen LEDs in garlands of 6 pieces per branch. Provide the bunch with a 10-ohm shunt and supply power to the battery. It is difficult to reverse the polarity; just in case, use a special reference book for LEDs. The backlight block is ready. The LEDs are mounted on a homemade housing: an ordinary children's pencil case, packaging.

Actually, it's ready. We connect the camera and viewfinder with a video cable, placing the lens in the same plane with the LEDs. Considering the size of the devices, they will fit in one pencil case. The viewfinder is mounted on the side. For the recording device, you will need to install the appropriate connector into the housing. Night vision devices from China cannot compare with ours! Let's look at the operation:

1. The night camera captures your surroundings.
2. LEDs illuminate objects for better visibility.
3. The viewfinder projects the image visible to the eye.
4. If necessary, registration is carried out through a special connector.

Don’t be surprised if you fail to look at distant objects; the LED rays don’t reach you. The night vision device has disadvantages: there are no glasses, the cost of new components is high, you need to buy batteries and place them in the case. Explained in simple language operating principle of the device. Purpose: to show how to make a night vision device from improvised materials. However, there are probably a couple of reagents lying around in the chemistry lab. Try to slow down the teacher!

Shop night vision devices

The Cyclops night vision device is so named because it received a monocular instead of glasses. Would be useful for a one-eyed giant. Like others, a night vision device is characterized by three parameters:

1. Resolution in arc minutes. The smallest part of the field of view that can be distinguished from an adjacent one of similar size.
2. Gain.
3. Line of sight.

The faint reflection of the stars is enough for the devices to work; if the moon illuminates the sky, the picture will become clear. Celestial bodies will illuminate the landscape no worse than the LEDs discussed above. Of course, if you look at the sky, you can study the Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, but the picture will be filled with a whitish glow.

The Zenith monocular night vision device has a built-in backlight and a piezoelectric energy converter for power supply. The brand supplies hunters with scopes, do not confuse them. Especially for people with blurry vision, lens adjustments to the missing diopters are available. Makes night vision goggles for reading in the dark!

NPF Dipol produces night vision devices, the products are no different at an affordable price. However, you need to look at the intended purpose of the device. There is an opportunity to pay 190 thousand rubles for glasses, for this money Belarusians will sell a cool device for night viewing of the surrounding area. Catch the car thieves, watch the shameless people returning from the party, punish the desecrators of the area!

Necessary materials:

1. Mobile phone;
2. Screwdrivers, sewing needle or pin;
3. Infrared diodes and resistor;
4. Power supply 9-12v.

And so, let's get to work. First of all, let's sort it out mobile phone and we get to the camera, which we will also disassemble.

In this phone model, the camera has autofocus, they are more difficult to disassemble, but I can tell you that I carefully disassembled everything with a knife (yes, yes, there were no screwdrivers of such small sizes).

Now the main thing is to find an infrared lens. Practice has shown that they are easy to identify by their shape. They are square or rectangular, the rest of the lenses are round, so you won’t get confused.

I removed the lens with a needle. Everything turned out to be much easier than I thought. The lens itself was not glass, but plastic, and I removed it with a needle very easily, without even damaging it.

After removing the lens, we put the camera and phone back together.

Now we need infrared light for the camera to work in the dark; the human eye does not perceive it, but your converted mobile phone now does).

The simplest option I used was to buy 4 IR diodes, connect them in series with a resistor, and power them from 12V. Well, I put them in a box for beauty.

For those who don’t know, such IR diodes are found in TV remote controls and other remote controls. Well, if you have an IR flashlight, then this is just ideal, since the camera will see tens of meters.

In this material we will talk about zero generation night vision devices. What exactly are these devices? Zero-generation night vision devices are the simplest types of the family of these devices that have active illumination. These devices operate in the near-infrared range. It should be noted that remote controls for TVs and household appliances operate in the same range.

Let’s finish the introductory part here and start assembling the device, but before that we suggest watching the video

What we need:
- old web camera;
- 4 infrared LEDs;
- 4 resistors of 50 ohms;
- a piece of plastic;

At the very beginning, you should clarify the features of some materials. Infrared LEDs can be removed from old remote controls. The author does not recommend using more than four LEDs. And the plastic that we will use during assembly should be visible through infrared rays, but not visible through ordinary light. The best option would be exposed film. If you don't have one, you can simply connect the camera and look through different pieces of plastic. According to the author, soft black folders from Erich Krauser are excellent. Let's get started.

First of all, we disassemble our webcam and unscrew the lens from it.

Next, we look at where exactly the filter is located in the camera. Sometimes the filter we need is in the lens holder and is installed inside. That is, in order to remove it you need to unscrew two screws on the back side, remove the holder or simply break the filter and screw the holder back. The author has a filter installed in the lens.

To do this, he simply lifts the top locking ring and pulls out the light filter itself. This filter allows only the visible part of light to pass through and blocks infrared rays, which is not acceptable if we want to use infrared radiation specifically.

Now, instead of the old filter, we need to put our new one and put the web camera back together.

Each LED has two outputs. We need to combine their cons.

Now we need to connect a resistor to each plus.

We connect the free ends of the resistors to each other.

Human vision is an amazing thing. The eyes are called the mirror of the soul and a powerful weapon that nature has endowed us with. What we really are not given is to see in the dark, unlike technical devices, called NVGs or night vision devices.
Until recently, we heard about them as special equipment for the military, who use them for covert surveillance and combat operations in the dark. The capabilities of such devices are also used in modern conventional cameras. Moreover, some of them are able to distinguish objects in the infrared spectrum, while others are not. Today we will show you how to make a night vision device from a regular digital camera. So let's get started!

How it works and resources for homemade NVGs

• Digital camera;
• Button – switch;
• AA AA battery 1.5 V – 2 pcs;
• Wiring, electrical tape.

• Soldering iron;
• Screwdriver with replaceable bits;
• Painting knife;
• Hot glue gun;
• Tweezers.

We manufacture a night vision device (NVD)

Removing the infrared filter

Installing LED lighting

In this article you will learn how to make a real night vision device with a monitor with your own hands. This homemade device has quite good characteristics and will definitely come in handy in the household, well, almost anyone can assemble it!

To make the device you will need:

• 3D glasses with lenses
• Car monitor good quality with a small diagonal.
• Rechargeable batteries from a video camera, Samsung type 4 pcs. 3.5 V each.
• Two video cameras, one of which has very good sensitivity for night work
• Two IR illumination

You can watch the homemade video at the end of the article!

This is what the monitor we need for homemade looks like:

Two cameras, one for close-up viewing and the other for far-viewing.

IR illumination, purchased on Aliexpress, is round fee with a hole in the center and two rows of IR diodes. I left a link to them at the beginning of the article. By the way, you can purchase a backlight in a frame, and then disassemble it if you can’t find a suitable one. These boards will be attached to the glasses as shown in the photo below.

The monitor will be mounted into the glasses as follows:

Manufacturing of night vision devices NVD

We first check how the equipment works. I connect a small video camera to the monitor, supply 12 V - everything is fine. The monitor shows the image transmitted by the camera

I install the monitor from which the stand leg is removed into 3D glasses. I remove the partition, excess filling and lenses. I used a 3D printer to print an extension for the frame of the glasses to make it comfortable for my eyes to look at the monitor. The surface of the extension was not entirely smooth due to the printing speed of the printer, but this does not really matter.

I burned holes in the body of the glasses and secured the entire structure with plastic ties. For reliability, I fixed it with “Second” glue.

I carefully cut off the fastenings that were on the body of the glasses and transferred them to the lid so that it could open and not fall down. I also secured the hinges on the lid with zip ties. I also screwed in a small screw to give additional strength to the structure and the ability to unscrew it and get inside the device for repair or replacement of parts.

On the front side of the device I attach a small video camera between two LED lights. I fix the larger camera on top using mounts printed on a 3D printer, into which I screw small screws. Everything is held securely.

For the LED backlight, I also 3D printed mounts in such a shape that the side partitions would cover the camera and prevent it from being blinded by the LEDs.

The front camera and LED backlight are mounted on glue. The wires from the LEDs are secured with ties and routed into the housing through a drilled hole. I installed control buttons on the body (on/off and switching to the far or near camera), and connected the wires to them. On the body I also placed a joystick, which is responsible for the settings of the distant camera.

As a power source, I used 4 batteries from Samsung video cameras, each 3.5 V.

The batteries are fixed with tape into a single block, the wires from them converge in the connector. The connector indicates which wire is which, as well as the plus and minus. The battery is connected to the device using a homemade plug, in which the wires soldered in series are fixed with glue and tape. The plug is connected to the battery connector, the plug is connected to the night vision device.

Battery charging is still available certain problems. First, the first battery in the block is charged for an hour, then it is rearranged Charger and the next one is charged. We still need to think about this problem.

First short-range camera:

I tested the device at night. If the near camera does not produce a good quality image, then the far one does its job perfectly. Houses, passing vehicles, and people are clearly visible. And in the forest it will be perfectly possible to see a hare, a wolf, and our owl. Actually, I'm going to watch the owls.

Long range camera:

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