Super Nightvision Headset Hack!

Step 3 Disassemble the Viewfinder

Remove the viewfinder from the camcorder. Depending on the camcorder, this may be as easy as unplugging the connector to the camera and removing the viewfinder screws to release the entire unit. Some may be hard-wired inside the camcorder which will require more work. Once removed, take off the plastic housing to reveal the viewfinder components. Identify the ground wire. To identify the power wire, you will have to do some tracing back to a power regulator or diode. You can use an adjustable power supply (recommended) or 9 volt battery to test the viewfinder power line. After identifying the ground and power, the video libe can be located byfeeding a video signal into the other wires.

Comments

[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]

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

[thpe]

Can you use smaller viewfinders such as the one on the Sony CCD TRV608? At least it should be analog. Link to one on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-EVF-Viewfinder-Screen-CCD-TRV308-TRV608-/260515991285?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Camcorders_Professional_Video_Cameras&hash=item3ca7f68ef5#ht_3456wt_1026

[jules15]

im just getting a regular digital camera AND these monster
LEDs

[shihoukemi]

disassembling the viewfinder could cause a injury? because in the viewfinder box says that, how I do to avoid it? thanks

[tomtortoise]

haha they stretch the warning to avod lawsuits. i opened it and nothing happened cuz they run on 9 volts. but if you want then dont touch the CRT ot the capacitors

[guitarman63mm]

While there's likely very little chance of injury, like ninja said, sometimes there can be a charged capacitor lying in wait!

[wailenhalen18]

No worries.  Just use a the tip of a screwdriver to short the capacitor safely.  Oh yeah, and it should be a screwdriver that has a plastic handle.  Unless you are into that sort of thing.  lol

[Landon Sullivan]

Just go ahead and open it, the warnings are sometimes exaggerated to keep you from tampering with the camera. But just in case, wear some rubber gloves in order to prevent any electrical discharge into your body. Besides, at least for me, warnings are simply just too tempting. I learn from experience, so I often find myself tearing apart DVD players and the like.

[QwertyuioLP]

hey same here!!

[matstermind]

me too, any busted electronic i can get my hands on

[WillTheRescue]

Those warnings also "prevent" lawsuits. That way if you get hurt digging around inside it, it's your fault for not heading the warnings.

[brodieboy143]

Hey, can anyone help me with this, i have a viewfinder off a panasonic pv-320d, it pretty much is exactly the same as the one pictured here (same wire colours, and 2 or 3 different components, probably a different board revision). Has anyone had any experience with this viewfinder, unfortunately i don't have the camera to test outputs, so does anyone know what wire corresponds to what?

[tomtortoise]

the way i did it was by finding the ground and attaching a 9 volt battery then with the wires touching the other end of the battery. then i did the same for the video

[bman22]

i don't know if you figured this out yet, but if not, if you have a yellow, blue, and gray wire, yellow is gnd for video and power, blue is +9vdc, and gray is composite video in.

[oaky8]

 thank you! this was very helpful. i can now see my ps2 games on my tiny screen, but only in black and white i have. i have more wires than the ones above. 
the thickest is a brown wire (traced to be ground.)
red (used as ground for video)
black (traced to be positive voltage)
white
orange
yellow
gray (used for video, but it comes in black and white, and the viewfinder is colour i believe)
and blue

I dont know if my connections are right, some help would be great :D

[UkuleleGuy]

If it is a crt viewfinder, then it should be black and white.

[brodieboy143]

thanks a lot. I've kinda been putting this project off due to lack of progress with my viewfinder(s), but this helps a lot. I cant find a pinout for the video ic anywhere either so i didnt really know where to start with this.

[bman22]

I just realized, i meant to say white instead of blue. White is my 9vdc input. I have also noticed that my viewfinder has begun to get weird. It may be because the battery is getting low, but the horizontal hold is starting to go off, and the top 5mm or so is starting to get distorted. Anybody else have this issue?

[sporgo]

This project has some very vague instructions and a lot of info seems to be left out for no good reason. From various posts I have seen on forums many people fail when it comes to the viewfinder component of this project. This is because these view finders vary widely in design. Most of them operate at 6 Volts DC and can tolerate 9 volts. Some used lower voltages and will promptly short out or fry a component if you blindly connect a 9V battery to it as suggested here. This whole project should be rewritten.

[sporgo]

To make sure you supply your viewfinder with the correct amount of power you can test it with a multimeter while it is connected to the original camera (if available or functional). The older the viewfinder the better, as the newer ones tend to lack wires which makes it very difficult or impossible to hack them.

[a573r10n]

In Español: Hola, he conectado el viewfinder a la mini camara y veo la imagen moverse de arriba a abajo, como en los antiguos televisores de tubos. En esos televisores se arreglaba la imagen con el V-Hold y H-Hold, pero en el Viewfinder no se como hacerlo. Consejos? En Ingles: Hello, I have connected the viewfinder to the mini camera and I see the image move from top to bottom, like in the old televisions of tubes. In those televisions he/she got ready the image with the V-Hold and H-Hold, but in the Viewfinder one doesn't eat to make it. Council?

[Masowai]

Tal vez podrias ajustar el "pot" (un componente) por girarlo. Hay un pot que tu puedes ver? Si no, entonces no puedes cambiar el v-hold facilmente. Vete a un pawn y compratelo. Buena suerte.

[geeklord]

Aaaahhhh, the wonders of translation. Council?

[afcbasser]

well ya, one doesn't eat to make it..duh :)

[geeklord]

lol

[jeymeowmix]

huh?

[Emiliogiz]

I am having a very big problem figuring out which wire is which.
Identify the ground wire. To identify the power wire, you will have to do some tracing back to a power regulator or diode. You can use an adjustable power supply (recommended) or 9 volt battery to test the viewfinder power line. After identifying the ground and power, the video libe can be located byfeeding a video signal into the other wires.
The problem is, I can't see which wire goes where, as the actual viewfinder cord that plugs into the camera has a plug-in component on the other side. To make things worse, I can't see where each wire goes on the circuit board, because some lighter green stuff is obscuring it (the green stuff is stuck on to the board, if I had to choose a word for it I'd say paint). I don't want to risk damaging the board by scraping the stuff off. If anybody who has done this before could help me, that would be really great. If you need pictures, I can get them. Thanks.

[conundrum]

hey there.. that was probably the regulator or the HOT (horizontal output transistor) ... can be fixed however. if you want, i have a couple of these viewfinders here so if you want one I am on the 4HV forum under conundrum, will trade for the broken one+ postage. the best ones are the little mono LCD variety, 320*240 and they are pretty simple to wire up. 13V + 4V+5V required, and you can do neat "Predator" style phase switching backlight+LED wavelength tricks :) If only I had more time to actually build the thing.. mwahahaha... :) watch out though, nasty HV available on the viewfinder PCB. hope this helps, -A

[joe57005]

i just screwed mine up! a surface mount component (i can only assume was a transistor) literally blew up! it was a little explosion! insert swear word here