How to: Make a homemade night vision headset! - Overclock.net

oc_faq · 08-19-05

This is a faq on making your very own, splinter-cell night vision headset! Maybe not as good as those things, but certainly very useable. For this you will need:
A camera (any camera realy, as long as it has an lcd screen ont he back. Size of screen doesnt matter)
Some negatives from pictures. Take a picture of something very white/bright+white. The brighter and whiter the better, and make sure it is very even. Like take a picture of a sheet of paper, so only the paper is seen, and have as many lightbulbs shining onthe paper as u can.
Also, you will need a headset and tools for working with hardware.
You may need a lens from some glasses.
4 infrared led's , some wire, and a 1.5 v double a battery (the standard thing)

Directions:

Unscrew and take apart your camera.
Now find the actual lense asembly. Take that apart VERY carefully. You will see a couple of lenses in there. Find a square piece of glass kind of lens, should be the one closest to the electronics of the camera. Now, take that out with a scalpel or something similar. Be careful, dont smudge it, or ge tit dirty! If it has a red tint to it, get some alcohol (get the pure stuff, as pure as it gets) or maybe windex, and rub/scratch the tint off on BOTH sides. The quality of the removal of this tint is directly proportional to the quality of the final resulting product. Now, take the lense, measure its dimensions, and find the darkest spot on the negative that should come back with ur pictures. Thats the film from ur camera. Find tha tpicture u took of something white/bright. It should now look VERY dark. Check the whole film, to see if its the darkest part of it, if its not, select the darkest part of film you can find. Next, cut out 2 pieces of it, with the dimensions of your camera's lense. Place the 2 dark pieces of negative film on either side of your lense, and stuff the whole thing back into the lense asembly. Put the camera back together, but dont close the case yet. Find a AA 1.5v battery, and insulate it with tape or something. Then attach 2 wires to it, on either ends obviously. You could soldier them on, if you know how to. Next, connect the 4 IR leds u bought to them. Now, drill some holes for the leds, on the front of the camera. Try to have the simetrical and be around your lense assembly. Then, put them leds in there, and double check to make sure all the leds are connected PROPERLY to the battery. Make sure the leds dont make any shortcircuits too. There - that part is done. The following is optional, and may be risky. If the lcd screen on your camera is connected with a wire of some sort, then do the following:
Take the lcd out, and make sure u dont sever the connection with the wire. Close the case, and make a hole for the wire. Now, mount the whole thing on your headset, and make sur ethe cmaera is right inthe middle of the headset. Now, mount the lcd RIGHT in front of your eye. Turnt he whole thing on,a nd now u can see everything in the dark! a pitch blavck room u cna see as in day.

Contributed by n-sanity

bobcool · 08-20-05

thats crazy i don't know if that will work but hell it was a good read, pics would be a nice

**Krunk_Kracker** · 08-20-05

Nice FAQ dude, to bad I'm not gonna take my digital camera apart, lol.

Rep+

somody · 08-21-05

Theres a similar thing with a webcam. Open it up and take out the IR filter and put in about 4 pieces of black negatives (to block out visible spectrum). Then it only picks up IR. You can see at night if you have the illumination of like a remote control!

Syst3m · 08-21-05

lol, sounds like it would be a little bulky on your head...but kick @ss FAQ

n-sanity · 08-22-05

Lol thnx people! i didnt expect so much niceness :D
I did it with a friend once, with his camera as i dont have one, so i cant give you any pix:( but as you know, an iron is my best friend, so it did look clean, and it was definitly fully operational :D Good luck with your splinter celling your neighbor's cubicle :D

claymanhb · 08-22-05

I'm gonna make a FAQ on how to build your own space vessel to take you to other planets/galaxies. I'll put that right next to my time-machine faq.

n-sanity · 08-22-05

Mmm.. funny. But c the above actually works, since its pretty mucha copy of what military grade stuff out there uses.

n-sanity · 08-22-05

Btw, if u want a space vessel, i heard bush has a couple. Go ask him :D

accskyman · 08-22-05

thats cool, if i can find a cheap cheap dig camera with a display maybe i'll piss around with it =D

08-19-05	#1 (permalink)
oc_faq New to Overclock.net Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 85 Rep: 60 Unique Rep: 52 Trader Rating: 0	This is a faq on making your very own, splinter-cell night vision headset! Maybe not as good as those things, but certainly very useable. For this you will need: A camera (any camera realy, as long as it has an lcd screen ont he back. Size of screen doesnt matter) Some negatives from pictures. Take a picture of something very white/bright+white. The brighter and whiter the better, and make sure it is very even. Like take a picture of a sheet of paper, so only the paper is seen, and have as many lightbulbs shining onthe paper as u can. Also, you will need a headset and tools for working with hardware. You may need a lens from some glasses. 4 infrared led's , some wire, and a 1.5 v double a battery (the standard thing) Directions: Unscrew and take apart your camera. Now find the actual lense asembly. Take that apart VERY carefully. You will see a couple of lenses in there. Find a square piece of glass kind of lens, should be the one closest to the electronics of the camera. Now, take that out with a scalpel or something similar. Be careful, dont smudge it, or ge tit dirty! If it has a red tint to it, get some alcohol (get the pure stuff, as pure as it gets) or maybe windex, and rub/scratch the tint off on BOTH sides. The quality of the removal of this tint is directly proportional to the quality of the final resulting product. Now, take the lense, measure its dimensions, and find the darkest spot on the negative that should come back with ur pictures. Thats the film from ur camera. Find tha tpicture u took of something white/bright. It should now look VERY dark. Check the whole film, to see if its the darkest part of it, if its not, select the darkest part of film you can find. Next, cut out 2 pieces of it, with the dimensions of your camera's lense. Place the 2 dark pieces of negative film on either side of your lense, and stuff the whole thing back into the lense asembly. Put the camera back together, but dont close the case yet. Find a AA 1.5v battery, and insulate it with tape or something. Then attach 2 wires to it, on either ends obviously. You could soldier them on, if you know how to. Next, connect the 4 IR leds u bought to them. Now, drill some holes for the leds, on the front of the camera. Try to have the simetrical and be around your lense assembly. Then, put them leds in there, and double check to make sure all the leds are connected PROPERLY to the battery. Make sure the leds dont make any shortcircuits too. There - that part is done. The following is optional, and may be risky. If the lcd screen on your camera is connected with a wire of some sort, then do the following: Take the lcd out, and make sure u dont sever the connection with the wire. Close the case, and make a hole for the wire. Now, mount the whole thing on your headset, and make sur ethe cmaera is right inthe middle of the headset. Now, mount the lcd RIGHT in front of your eye. Turnt he whole thing on,a nd now u can see everything in the dark! a pitch blavck room u cna see as in day. Contributed by n-sanity Last edited by BFRD : 04-19-06 at 11:32 PM

08-20-05	#2 (permalink)
bobcool WaterCooler Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: benicia ca Posts: 971 Rep: 56 Unique Rep: 46 Folding Team Rank: 934 Trader Rating: 0	allo thats crazy i don't know if that will work but hell it was a good read, pics would be a nice

		Overclock.net - Overclocking.net > Overclock.net Forum > FAQs
How to: Make a homemade night vision headset!

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)