Super Nightvision Headset Hack!

We have all seen the webcam nightvision hacks and other ways to make nightvision cameras but this will blow you away! This a Super Bright Nightvision Headset that lets you walk around in total darkness AND record what you see! My inspiration for this project came from Brad Graham & Kathy McGowan Watch the video and see the Test Results and then build your own! I hope you enjoy this Instructable as much as I enjoyed making it!

Get the Infrared LED's for this Project HERE

Step 1 What You Need...

Dig through your closet or ask a friend if they still have a classic full-size VHS camcorder hanging around collecting dust. Or go to garage sale or pawn shop and find one for cheap. All we need is the analog viewfinder

Comments

[abgersaurus]

Hi!
a have a viewfinder with 4 yellow wires and 1 black wire. how do i find out which one is video and power?

[Alex1M6]

I made this project a while back, just without the camera and view finder part.

It works very well!

[Chris Lamerichs]

Hello

I would like to make a 2 or 3 led of this, so I can see in the dark with my mobile.

I can see the led butt they are very weak.

How is this possible?

What must I do?

THANK you for your help!

[MadBricoleur]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cell-Phone-Night-Vision-Under-10/ on the sidebar that says "related"... right on this page.

[pietzeekoe]

Your camera probably has an IR filter that filters out the infrared.
If you want to see the infrared better you will have to remove that filter but this is quite a hard job.

[MadBricoleur]

How would an old phone camera that picks up IR (and the phone screen used as the monitor), without an IR pass filter, and a 250mW LED array be worse/better from your setup? That's all I have handy, and I want to know before I go buy the LEDs at the nearby warehouse.

[bobsmith760]

My viewfinder has four wires. Yellow and three brown. Im pretty sure yellow is video in but I read below it could be ground. The positive I know I have found, it's written on the board, and the ground I think is another brown going to the largest PCB pad. The third brown I don't know about, it goes directly to a green SMD(resistor I think). Inside the case it shows directions for replacing the picture tube, would this be worth trying? The camera I got it from would not display video through the viewfinder so I'm guessing its the tube, is their any easy way to test the tube? I appreciate any help

[psphaker5]

Same here. My picture would not display but the camera worked fine, i found that a pin was disconnected but could not tell if reconnecting it worked. What type of camera did you take it from? Which wire was positive 'cause to only ting that I could find was a + on one side of the pin. It was next to the yellow wire. As for the extra wire, one wire will be the H-synch which I think can be left alone. I may be wrong thats just what my camera's schematics looked like.

[bobsmith760]

Looks like I have the same viewfinder as you, the only difference is the big wires going to the tube are different colors. The wire that I think is positive is the brown one right next to the yellow one, it connects to the pad under the + and then goes to the bottom of the board. After lots of web searching the best I could find was a datasheet for the big metal rectangle part, which turns out to be a flyback transformer. I think the camera was Hitachi but I can't find it so im not sure. I don't know what else to do so if you find anything that could be helpful let me know.

[Entropy_king]

I only have 4 wires on mine, Is one of them a common ground for video and power?  Mine also runs on 4.9vdc... so any hints on not frying this...

[invisiblelight386]

use a resistor

[rocketman221]

Use a 7805 regulator it will reduce the voltage to 5 volts. Be sure to put a heatsink on the 7805.

[UkuleleGuy]

You could use a regulator, but why not just use a resistor?

[awmt102]

You would not use a resistor to reduce the voltage of a power supply. It would only work if the current drawn by the device were constant, which is unlikely.

There are various things you can do (Zeners, DC-DC converters etc) but by far the simplest, although not the most efficient, is a 7805. For a project such as this I would not consider anything else, but as rocketman said, you will probably need a heatsink.

[Entropy_king]

ALSO: if you think you can help me with this in a more "live" setting my email is fire_darkness_shadow @ Yahoo . com

I can give you my phone number and maybe someone can walk me through figuring this out.

Colors of the wires are as follows:
Pin 1 Small yellow
Pin 2 Med Black
Pin 3 Sm Grey or white
Pin 4 Sm orange

Pins 2+3 share a heat shrink "sleeve" while 1 and 4 are "loose"

[luther303]

Does anyone know why i can get my panasonic vhs palmcorder viewfinder to work when i plug it into a dvd player but not a spy camera i have used an RCA wire to connect to 2 wires from the viewfinder that i plug into the dvd player but when i plug it into a spy camera's phono jack i get nothing

[Cubensis]

This looks like it would work:
http://www.amazon.com/SC-NVA5-Wired-Security-Camera-Adapter/dp/B000V0AHRA

[luther303]

hey i have a view finder a panasonic one but it has 8 wires orange,purple,pink,black,yellow,red,grey and white anyone know how to figure out wich one is wich?

[UkuleleGuy]

Try these two pages:
http://www.lucidscience.com/pro-night%20vision%20viewer-2.aspx
http://www.lucidscience.com/pro-night%20vision%20viewer-3.aspx

They tell how to do it all.

[luther303]

cool ill try that thank you so much for the reply

[UkuleleGuy]

This website goes alot more in detail:

http://www.lucidscience.com/pro-night%20vision%20viewer-1.aspx

It should solve any further questions

[bman22]

after trying and retrying, i figured out what does what on my viewfinder, but it was terribly terribly out of focus. to the point of being unintelligable. I did manage to adjust the focus potentiometer and viewfinder focus slider until it was better, but its still quite bad at some times. Any clue as to how i might make it better? i was thinking about adding some resistors in parallel to the potentiometer, high enough, or low enough to adjust it accordingly. does that seem like a good method?

[Wesley666]

Usually there is a knob or a way to adjust the lens that you view the tiny screen through, find that and adjust that, and it should fix the problem.

[Badetise]

I had the same exact problem I used a new 9v battery nd it wasfine until itgot a bit too low for the camera..that's when it starts going blurry

[Badetise]

is there any way i can use a webcam as the camera? i hav several laying around..

[UkuleleGuy]

You might be able to hack one. It probably is possible, but I have no idea of how to do it.

[StratMan9000]

This is so cool! I want to modify the design so I can wear it  for night time airsoft. Does anybody think that would work? what should I do differently?

[Loser390]

A toggle switch should be better. Might want to get rid of indicator LED. Something to mount it on your head. Make it smaller with a different viewfinder and less LEDs.

[Wesley666]

Oxy-acetylene welding goggles...they are perfect.

[StratMan9000]

What kind of viewfinder should I use then? One off of an  8mm type camera? and I was thinking more LEDs actually, since I would be outside.

[Loser390]

More LEDs would make sense for outside, but I was thinking about portability. Test how many LEDs make things visible at a good distance for night time airsofting.

[Nightrazr]

I think using and old welding mask headgear system, 2 viewfinders and 2 of those tiny cameras would give you amazing nightvision, depending on the amount and power of your IR LED's.

2 viewfinders and 2 cameras that are positioned like your eyes are in your head would give you the advantage of still being able to judge distances, which 1 cam and viewfinder robs you of.

[Archive555]

It does rob you of depth perception, but it is a lot simpler and cheaper this way. I personally think that for my use, the cost outweighs the benefits.
Onto the idea of welding goggles, that's exactly what I intend to use, as it already has the flip up/down support, it's comfortable (to an extent), and is dirt cheap.

With the amount of LEDs, you could use less, with I higher mW output, or, alternatively, less LEDs that have a angle of divergence, so that the beam spreads less over distance. You may also be able to make/buy a lens that can attach to the LEDs and focus them for a wide area or long, thin beam.
Several LEDs like this, with some adjusted for wide angle, and some for long distance would be ideal I imagine, as you'd have the best of both worlds.

And I'm not sure if it's been mentioned yet or not, but KipKay didn't come up with this idea. It was published years ago in the book "101 Gadgets for the Evil Genius", and it describes it in more detail there. I highly recommend this book, as it has several other projects of a similar nature aswell, and is a rather good introduction to working with IR.

Hope your nightvision goggles work well!
-Archive555

[Tioz]

Could I just use an LCD screen from a digital camera instead? Or would i have troble connecting it?

[cashdoggplayer]

well i completed mine but i cant see in the dark:'( i think either the leds arnt getting enough juice to power up all the way or the camera i got isnt the right one...

[freerunnin1]

try wiring up the leds in paralel instead of series, that way they will all be the same brightness and if one blows then they wont all go out, it also makes them brighter then if they were in series

[wmcraver]

Uhg.  I’m new to LEDs and soldering… well electronics in general.  I would like to try this project, if not to just create an infrared light for my camera…

How does one do the “6 LEDs wired in series to another series of 6 in parallel” step?

Any help would be much appreciate.

[freerunnin1]

LEDs only work one way so you have to make sure its hooked up in the right direction

[tomtortoise]

you have resistor,led,led,led,led,led,led and make two of those then solder the two resistors and solder the two negative ends of the last leds. i know it took me like forever to figure that out.

[Pale_Flyer]

any cam should work, the viewfinder should not matter, just as long as you have a lcd display you can connect to, and make sure your cam can register the IR light, other wise, you need to take the lense assembly apart, and remove the filter, and replace it with either nothing or a film that blocks out normal light.