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

[Jimmy_retro]

Hi All, I'm trying this with a Panasonic M7 and there are 9 (yes 9!!) wires from the viewfinder: red, black, grey, purple, white, pink, brown, yellow, and orange. Any ideas as to which are which? I'm quite new to this and don't to risk popping something by trying the 'trial and error' method! many thanks. J

[Jimmy_retro]

If anyone's interested it was +ve= Red. -ve= Orange and Video = Pink

[natsud1]

Help Please. Hello i have taken apart and found the positive, ground, and video wires and the tube works so does the camera so i am positive about the wires. My problem is when i tey to use a different video source i dont get any picture i bought a black and white little cmos camera that has a yellow rca connector and i hooked that up but no picture i also tried a color surveilence camera it didnt work either so i tried a vcr/dvd player which also didnt work UNTIL i tried the component RGB connector then i finally got a picture when i hooked to the Green port the other two were scrambled but there was some picture. So my question i guess is why does the normal yellow composite signal not work and the green component signal work? is there some way i can hook my B/W camera to some resistors or capacitors or something to make it work? what am i doing wrong? does the viewfinder need a different type of signal than everyone elses that has gotten this to work with B/W cameras? thanks to anyone that can help

[natsud1]

so i did some testing with resistors nothing happened but i then went to capacitors and viola it seems any capacitor will make it work i put it between the output of the camera and the input of the view finder or you can put it between the ground of the cameras output and the ground from your powersource either way worked for me. I used a couple different electrolytic ones and ceramic ones they all worked size didnt make a difference in picture quality that i could notice. i stuck with a small ceramic capicitor . OK then just thought id post an update incase anyone else might have a similar problem

[malkav2024]

Hi,

I just read your message regarding the viewfinder rewiring. I currently have the same problem : I found the proper ground and + wires to power up the viewfinder, but I have a very poor image quality when I hook up the video signal (I get an partial picture shaped like a horizontal line that drops in and out of the screen). Did you get the same problem ?
I will try to add a capacitor to see if its sorts things out. What kind of capacitor did you use exactly ? I am very surprised that any kind of capacitor can fix the problem. I also don't know how a capacitor can, electronicaly speaking, fix a video signal. Maybe you have an opinion about that ?
Thanks in advance !

[natsud1]

that sounds pretty much like what was happening to me. The first capacitor i used was an electrolytic 220uf 50volt cap but that was just because it was the first one i found. I then switched to one of those green chiclet looking ceramic caps i think the value was 0.01uf it had the code 103k on the cap itself. I just assumed that any cap would work because of the vast difference in the two that worked for me. I really have no idea about why it would make it work but it did so i just thought id post it. My guess would be that it filters out something but you would think that it would need to be a specific value if that were the case. Let me know if it helps yours. I put mine between the +output of the B/W camera and the video Input of the viewfinder

[malkav2024]

Thanks natsud !
Actually, my setup didn’t worked because I forgot to hook up the video ground cable ^_^;
I managed to decode 2 viewfinders so far. For the record, I also had the case where the viewfinder had 2 video cables. None works if you hook one of them with a video signal. You have to join the 2 cables together then hook it up with a video signal.
Cheers

[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?

[T_T_]

well, the best way would be with an oscillscope and volt meter, but not everybody has those, so simple trial and error will have to suffice

[abgersaurus]

ok thank you :)

[10er512]

This might be a dumb question but, based from my understanding of this, i have a question. If the goal is to see in darkness, why do you need led lights that would still emit light? 'coz for me its just like replacing the filter with black and white then tints it to green. If that is so I'd rather get a green plastic and put it in front of the lens of a camera. I don't really get the function of the led lights.

-please shed some light for me.

[wejimjodie]

They are infra red led lights.

[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.