DIY night vision goggles. We create a night vision device with our own hands. A night vision device with our own hands from binoculars.

How to make a night vision device from a mobile phone? Surely your friends will be very surprised when you show them that your mobile phone camera works in complete darkness.

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, we disassemble the mobile phone and 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 the 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 simply ideal, since the camera will see tens of meters.

In this video tutorial we will show you how to make a simple and inexpensive homemade night vision device; we will cope with this task in 5 minutes. The author of the idea demonstrated the entire process of its creation on video.

The first minute of the video demonstrates shooting in the dark using a regular camera with artificial light. Then the light turns off and the device switches to night vision mode. In this state, nothing is visible without special infrared illumination. From the second minute it turns on and you can see that the night vision device is functioning well.

Webcam – the basis for infrared vision

In order to make a device for night vision, you need a regular webcam, which needs to be slightly modified by removing the infrared lens from it. As a result, the camera will begin to transmit infrared radiation. For illumination we use an infrared flashlight. In the video, the author of the video mentions the power of the flashlight, but in the commentary he reports his mistake when he mentions its power. In fact, its power is 3 watts. The infrared filter is transparent and sits on the camera lens. After assembling the webcam without a filter, you can watch night views, but only with the use of such a flashlight.

If you need a factory-made, high-quality night vision device, you can purchase it in a Chinese online store. There you can also find out the price range for goods, and also find an infrared light source (if necessary). There are reviews on the site, read them when you make a purchasing decision.

Next, watch how this homemade camera works, illuminated using a television remote control. With a remote control, infrared lighting only works at close range, but for example, for a landing it will be enough.

Optics/NVD

Today we will not touch on the medieval alchemical method to make a night vision device with our own hands. This is, of course, simple if you have sulfuric acid and a little tin chloride at home, but we think this approach is somewhat dangerous. Therefore, the work plan for today is as follows: we will briefly discuss the principle of operation of a night vision device, we will tell you what it can be assembled from if you cannot sit still, perhaps we will make a short excursion into the topic of what is available in the store in this area.

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.

The store has many devices that allow you to shoot in the dark. A night vision device should obviously be based on one of them. A black and white micro camera will do just fine. It is not very cheap, but you can use it for something else if you get tired of the night vision device. An example of such devices is JK 007B or JK-926A. The main thing is that the device has a video output, and any camera has it, 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 in the fact that our device will be able to record, and this costs even more money on the counter.

You need to find an old viewfinder. To do this, you can go to a salon that repairs household appliances if you don’t have suitable equipment at home. The viewfinder must have a video input using the same protocol as the camera transmits.

This question can not only be clarified with local professionals, but also checked there by connecting the devices with a cable. If everything works, then all that remains is to buy the backlight. Order LEDs online or buy them at your nearest market. How to check? We also have a video camera for shooting at night. Go into the dark, turn on the power and see if the radio element glows. To do this, just point the video camera at him.

A foreign do-it-yourself enthusiast recommends combining a dozen LEDs in garlands of 6 pieces per branch. They must be equipped with a 10-ohm shunt for the entire bunch, after which power can be supplied from a regular battery. It is difficult to reverse the polarity, but just in case, use a special reference book for LEDs. The backlight unit is ready. LEDs are mounted on any case, it can be an ordinary children's pencil case or something else of the same kind.

Actually, everything is ready. It is necessary to connect the camera and viewfinder with a video cable, and place the lens in the same plane as the LEDs. Considering the size of the devices, they can fit into 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! Here's how it works:

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

Don’t be surprised if distant objects are not visible; the LED beams cannot reach them. Such a night vision device also has disadvantages: there are no glasses, the cost of new all components is quite high, it is necessary to purchase batteries and place them in the case. But we explained in simple language the principle of operation of the device. Our goal was 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 talking to the teacher!

Shop night vision devices

The Cyclops night vision device is so named because it has a monocular instead of glasses. This would be just what a one-eyed giant would need. Like all others, this night vision device is characterized by three parameters:

1. Resolution in arc minutes. That smallest part of the viewing sphere that can still be distinguished from the neighboring one.
2. Gain.
3. Line of sight.

For the devices to work, at least a faint reflection of the stars is enough, and if the Moon rises in the sky, the picture will become completely clear. These celestial bodies will illuminate the landscape no worse than the LEDs we talked about above. Of course, if you look at the sky, you can study Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, but all this 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. There are also scopes under this brand, so don’t confuse one with the other. There is a lens adjustment especially for people with poor vision. These are already night vision goggles for reading in the dark!

NPF Dipol also produces night vision devices, but they are not affordable. However, you need to look at what exactly the device is for. If you have the opportunity to pay about 190 thousand rubles for glasses, then for this money you can buy from Belarusians a real cool device for viewing the surroundings at night.

Operating principle of a night vision device

The eye is a passive radar, that is, it receives radiation that comes from objects. But the visible spectrum is only a small range of vibrations on the body of the universe that surround us. In particular, the predator from the film of the same name could switch ranges, but even he could not see the whole picture! The eye cannot see in the dark because we cannot observe infrared radiation. All bodies will emit waves, especially at low temperatures. Therefore, the first night vision device is emerging. He has nothing to do with the military. Builders use it.

Meet the thermal imager, which receives thermal radiation from objects. The device itself is not designed to see in the dark, but you can see something on it. It has a number of settings, but in a typical state:

• temperature of about 10 degrees Celsius heat appears orange glow;
• the walls of the houses look reddish;
• The surrounding inanimate nature can have a variety of shades, even black.

It is unlikely that you will be able to assemble a thermal imager with your own hands, but it is quite possible to buy it for 50 thousand. And for seven thousand you can buy a night vision device (NVD) in a store. Usually there is no point in taking a thermal imager specifically for vigil in the dark, because it serves builders, for example, for the purpose of assessing the quality of thermal insulation work. But if you find a foreman you know, then you can, of course, admire nature in the dark.

The circuit of the night vision device is also based on these processes, but in order not to irritate the eye with such an unusual rainbow, inside the factory product there is a transparent plate covered with semiconductor material, which, due to the internal photoelectric effect, allows you to “see” infrared radiation from 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. Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to use this term for invisible radiation, but this is how it is used in the literature, so we will not contradict other sources in any way.

Under the influence of invisible “photons,” the electrons in the plate gain energy. Information can be read by changes in the transparency of the material or its conductivity. In particular, microchannel technology for manufacturing sensitive elements makes it possible to avoid illumination on neighboring pixels. The Nazis were the first to approach the solution of the problem. Many talented scientists worked for them. Some voluntarily, others, according to some sources, were forced. A scope was even created for a rifle weighing 2.25 kg with a suitcase of batteries (13.5 kg). This 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, for example, by photomultipliers. This allows you to get a brighter and more contrasting picture in a night vision device. But often there is not enough external radiation, and then illumination in the infrared range is used. Lamps can also be used for this, but most often semiconductor diodes of a special type are used. You can find these in any store. By the way, the coherence of LED radiation is very high. This means that interference will not affect the picture quality.

For reference. Coherence refers to the concept of being in phase with a wave. It doesn't matter what this means - we need to know that such light is concentrated in a very narrow part of the spectrum, and in addition it is easily combined, giving greater brightness than any other sources of radiation. As a result, you can get high-quality illumination at low power. (See also: The principle of operation of a night vision device)

1. By the nature of the impact on the environment:
   1. Active with LED backlight.
   2. Passive, receiving only radiation from other objects.
2. According to the method of processing the received signal:
   1. With amplification.
   2. No gain.
3. Based on the presence of a drive:
   1. Registrants.
   2. Not registering.

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.

The IR illuminator, purchased on Aliexpress, consists of a round board 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.

There are still some problems with recharging batteries. First, the first battery in the block is charged for an hour, then the charger is rearranged 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:

Similar

Do you dream of seeing in the dark like a cat and remaining invisible to others? Night vision goggles will help you fulfill this desire. This device is used in various fields, for example:

• for all kinds of search operations;
• for the professional activities of security guards, police officers, military personnel and drivers, who often have to repair equipment on the roads in complete darkness;
• for those who like to photograph or videotape wildlife at night.