# In the city seeing in the dark



## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

Hi
I have heard a lot of people in the city say that they would be afraid to have lights at night
after TSHTF it would invite the bad guys to there house.

OK so spend $36.95 and get some night vision goggles in the toy department at Walmart 
I got my nephew a set and there not the greatest but they do work.



might help you get the drop on a bad guy in your dark house too 
and I think they take AA batteries like from yard lights. Use the yard lights
to charge up the batteries and your set for a long time.


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

Arklatex said:


> How far can you see with that toy? Does it work with ir as well.


The description says it is, in fact, a true IR illuminator and receiver.
The range is stated as 50ft.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

Arklatex said:


> If the bad guy is in my home I can use this to see him.
> 
> View attachment 6049


yea and he can see you too. This might give you an edge


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

you can also get infrared flashlights or spot lights see as far as you want or set up some infrared lights in your yard
no one could the light from them but you.


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

Dagummit budgetprepp...

I'm $40 poorer now because of you.
I'm a sucker for gadgets, and just had to try this out.
So far, I'm more impressed than I thought I would be.

The headset is a bit flimsy, the lens is set on a permanent 4(ish)x magnification, and the veiwscreen resolution is a bit low.
But sure as shootin, it throws IR and picks up ambient from the environment too.
There is a focus adjuster, which I only found after reading the small instruction sheet. At first I thought it was a piece of junk camera/lens, but after focusing it properly, the picture is quite clear.
Due to the magnification, you can't see anything up close too well. I'm talking, if I put my hand out to full length, I can only see about 3 fingers in the image, and they are big.
Still, with the focus adjuster, they can be seen quite clearly. You can't make out fingerprints due to the low res, but you can clearly see scratches on a wedding band.

The package comes as technically two pieces, a headset and the monocle, but there is a battery pack permanently tethered to the monocle for 4 AAA batteries.
The monocle can be used independently of the headset, and the battery pack slides into a slot on it, so it is essentially one unit. You just have to wrap the length of cord somewhere.
When attached to the headset, the battery pack affixes to the back of the headset, which serves to balance the unit as a whole.
There is even a minimal effort given to wire management via a hook on the top to keep the wire out of the way.
The monocle can pivot 180 degrees upward on the headset mount to be completely out of the way when not in use.
In fact, I typed this entire review while wearing it.

Now... as I said, I like gadgets.
Due to this fact, I also like voiding warranties and return policies.
I'm going to do a tear down of this device to see if anything can be adjusted. I'd love to be able to reduce the zoom, if possible.
From a tech standpoint, it isn't really anything special. All cameras can pick up IR light, but most have a filter in place to block it. Removing that filter gives you that functionality back.
This device is basically just a camera with no IR filter, and a few low power IR LEDs.
I'm going to look into swapping out the LEDs too for higher power ones.
The ones on this unit are lower quality/power, as evidenced by the low view distance and the fact that you can see their red glow. (humans can't see pure IR, so the low red glow indicates that these throw some light that is just shy of the pure IR spectrum)


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

Kauboy said:


> Dagummit budgetprepp...
> 
> I'm $40 poorer now because of you.
> I'm a sucker for gadgets, and just had to try this out.
> ...


 Hummm need to find some yard lights that take the AAA batteries.
Did you check out the listing devices? They look like a small hand held satellite dish
hear a whisper at the length of a foot ball field 
So for $40 do these get a thumbs up? And can you see through a gun scope with them?


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## Innkeeper (Jun 18, 2014)

I'm with Arklatex on this can't wait to hear the outcomes of the tinkering.


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

budgetprepp-n said:


> Hummm need to find some yard lights that take the AAA batteries.
> Did you check out the listing devices? They look like a small hand held satellite dish
> hear a whisper at the length of a foot ball field
> So for $40 do these get a thumbs up? And can you see through a gun scope with them?


For $40, they are certainly on the edge of "awesome deal" and "wait for a sale".
If I can get the magnification down, it will easily be an awesome deal.
I didn't pull out the AR to see how it worked with a scope.
The monocle is kinda long, so eye relief from the scope may be an issue.
This might be rectified easily by just moving the scope forward a few slots.
We'll see.



Arklatex said:


> Let us know the results of your tinkering.


Most definitely.
I'll try to get it thoroughly tested and tinkered with this weekend.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

Man you could do a post on the night vision and your tinkering.
I bet this makes you a terrorist. You and your silly toys.,,,,,,,,


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

Alright, got a chance to disassemble the unit tonight.

First, the monocle and battery pack: (batteries have been removed)









The bottom of the monocle, showing the 7 housing screws:









Housing removed:








You can see power switch in the top right, the viewscreen is the black rectangle in the middle, and the camera and focusing lens unit is at the bottom center.

Guts removed from housing:








Here I'm showing the cover that holds the LEDs after I separated it from around the focus lens.
This was when I started to get a bit sad...

Major parts displayed:








You can see the circuit board for the LEDs in the ring housing.

LED circuit board removed from housing:








Depending on the draw that each LED creates in the circuit, it should be possible to unsolder these from this circuit board and add better ones.
Such an upgrade would degrade battery life though. Trade-offs...

Focusing lens removed:








With this lens off, you can see the tiny board where the physical pixels on the circuit board get hit by the light. So tiny...

Focusing ring removed from lens:








The piece on the right is the portion that protrudes from the unit, and allows focusing adjustment.
The piece on the left is the lens assembly.

Lens 1: (we'll call it the "top" one)









Lens 2: (the "bottom" one in the same assembly)









Internals reassembled and batteries inserted, unit turned on and focused (non-IR):









Close up:








Tough to see due to my phone camera, but that Tidy Cat litter container is about 18 to 20 feet away, and is about the size of a 5gal bucket. (The inability to make out the words is a result of my photography, not the unit. The words are quite clear on the viewscreen)

I didn't take any pictures of the IR setting in action. Just imagine the same picture of the Tidy Cat bucket... but green. 
I *did* try the monocle with my AR scope, but results were inconclusive.
I don't have a red dot or aimpoint. Just a shortened magnification scope for longer range.
Because of this, the only way I could get a sight picture was to butt the monocle directly against the scope and focus the lens to be extremely close up.
This *IS* possible, and *DOES* produce a somewhat clear image of the scope's view.
However, due to the magnification, you only see a few mil-dots from center, making target acquisition difficult. (field of view is reduced due to magnification of the scope AND the monocle)
Now, with a red dot or other such aim assist, the magnification would be less, making this problem almost a non-issue.
Eye relief would also be less of a problem.

Now, there is one caveat to using this monocle with a scope.
When using normal lighting setting, things are mostly discernible, though color is off a bit(looks blue-ish).
When using the IR setting, things become impossible to see through the scope, aside from the now neon green crosshairs.
This is due to the IR LEDs casting light directly at the scope lens, and the lens reflecting it right back to the camera. You end up with a completely washed out view except for the black crosshairs that are now bright as day.
Nothing is visible outside the scope.
This problem could be avoided if the LEDs were deactivated or covered up during this type of use.
As I said in another post, this camera isn't special. It just has its IR filter removed. So even if no IR is being thrown from the monocle, it will still see ambient IR, and IR from any other source available. If you had an IR light or laser on your gun, and the LEDs blocked or off, you should be able to see as clear as day through the scope, as the light would not be bouncing of of the scope lens right back into the camera.

So, what was learned:
1. LEDs can almost certainly be upgraded with a little know-how, a multimeter, and some soldering practice (positive)
2. Lens assembly is molded together to hold both the magnification lens and the focusing lens making elimination of magnification "difficult" (negative, but maybe possible)
3. Use with optics is still inconclusive, but results are optimistic (neutral)
4. Unit is not terribly sophisticated, yet more than I expected from what is supposed to be a child's toy (positive)

I may refresh myself on the detailed electrical workings of LEDs and drop by the local Radio Shack for some replacements in the near future. The existing ones are low power and glow red when looked at in a dark room. You don't want to use these at night, and basically draw a nice red target on your eyeball. Better LEDs would resolve both issues.
I am considering adding an additional micro switch to the LEDs that will allow for disabling them during IR mode to facilitate use of a scope. The leads to the LED board are long enough to do this fairly simply.
I'm not quite sure how to go about attempting to remove the magnification lens, or if that will cause the objective focus to go completely out of whack, making the whole thing useless without it. Pending further investigation...

All in all, I'm impressed with the unit.
It will never compare to a true NVG setup, so don't kid yourself, but it doesn't cost $500 either.


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## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

You are AWESOME. I comend you.


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

Arklatex said:


> Is it possible to put the nvd at the other side of the scope. Minus the magnification but with the ir?


It would not work like you think. Your scope would then be looking at a viewscreen, and not the real target. Any scope with magnification would likey not be able to focus on someting so close anyways. Since you would be looking at a screen, you would have zero certainty that your round would impact the same spot on the real target as what the crosshairs cover on the viewscreen.


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

I decided to strip the unit again and try to fiddle with the lens assembly.
I filed off a portion of the assembly and found the lenses to be held in without adhesive, which was a plus.
Basically, there are two lenses separated by a spacer.
The lenses are of identical curvature.
One side is convex, the other slightly concave.
I tried every manner of orientation to get the image to not magnify, but it seems the magnification is inherent in the design of the lenses.
The concave side of the lens causes the image to be magnified from the perspective of the focal point.
It seems my only option would be to alter the lenses themselves.
This is quite risky, as I would not be able to undo what I've done once I get to filing.

So, before that undertaking, I wanted to reach out to the community and see if anyone has experience with lenses in general.
I need to know what shape I should attempt to make these into in order to get good sight angle.
I can't go with a "wide angle" setup, as this would shrink the viewable area because it would capture the sides of the housing that protrudes from the front allowing focusing.
I am thinking that may be my limiting factor. The fact that there is essentially a "shroud" that the lens sits back in would limit view angle.
Perhaps the magnification was a necessity to avoid this very problem.
The magnification might only allow in the light coming from directly in front of the lens, and not capturing the inside of the shroud.
There's certainly a reason that our eyes are not shrouded, but rather bulge a bit out of the head. This gives us a wider view angle.

It may end up being a hopeless endeavor, but I'd still like to try. I could always modify the shroud to be minimalistic, or even remove it altogether and come up with another method of focusing.

So, if any of you are familiar with lens shapes and their functions, I'm all ears.


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## StarPD45 (Nov 13, 2012)

BUMP. 
Curious to see what happened next.


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## 1skrewsloose (Jun 3, 2013)

If you have lights, then nite vision is not required, if they only bother lit houses, the fire from within will surely discourage them. I could see shifts using nite vision, on a per block area. The city is like bad dudes to cockroaches, the real only way to win is to leave. Or you're a rat in a cage. jmo. Interesting el-cheapo device though.


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## Kauboy (May 12, 2014)

I've not managed a way to alter the lenses. I have also come to the conclusion that if I were to change the magnification and field of view, it would cause the inside of the shroud to be visible, and obscure a large part of the viewable area. The shroud could be shortened to compensate, but this would remove the only means of focusing the device for a clear picture. Still thinking on it though.


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## StarPD45 (Nov 13, 2012)

Oh well. It was a noble experiment. ::clapping::


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