Cheap infrared source?

[Chrontius]

So this year for Christmas, I got the Jaxx Eyeclops NVG. Sadly there's no real quality darkness to be had, but I get the feeling that it really needs a good IR illuminator to do the job outdoors - indoors, it's quite impressive. So, here's what I'm thinking:

Surefire IR filter for either 8X or 6P.
FM33 for 6P, $90
FM13, nominally for the 9AN, $112
(Hm, too spendy)

Kaidomain has a 3W IR LED module, but it's not a discreet one; it glows dull red when in use. Also, it's only around $12 and I have two P60 hosts.

I think Solarfoce has some cheap filters that go inside the head with the lamp, but I'm not sure...

Any ideas about what would be simple, resilient, and affordable?

 

[TigerhawkT3]

An incan so underdriven that it has an efficiency of 0L/W would do it. Unfortunately, I don't know the precise battery/bulb combos for that, so you'd have to experiment with it yourself.

 

[outersquare]

heh, is there any practical reason minor red glow is a problem? You are using a $50 "night vision" set.

unfortunately, even the built in illuminator on some gen 1 sets glow red also.

 

[gallonoffuel]

I got the IR P60 dropin from DealExtreme for use on my Gen1 monocular, and I stuck it in an old UltraFire P60 host. It works way better than the built in illuminator, although Ive completely drained 2 sets of batteries in it because you cant really tell it's on without using the NVGs.

 

[Chrontius]

heh, is there any practical reason minor red glow is a problem? You are using a $50 "night vision" set.

unfortunately, even the built in illuminator on some gen 1 sets glow red also.

Paintball. My ultimate goal is to build some sort of freaky "Land Warrior" paintball rig around a SmartParts SP-1. To do so, I'll need (probably) a Picatinny P60 host, maybe the G&P one with lots of preemptive repair work, a visible light source - I'm leaning towards an FM-D26 enhanced 6P mated to an 1111 bulb and two AW IMR cells for a 1000 lumen monster that runs for about eight minutes... oh, and the mask will have a flip-up gun-cam display. IAPW, it will also have an ammo counter in the form of a 10-segment LED display - if I can get the gun's shot counter to pass the information to the head-mounted display. An LED in the bottom corner will indicate fire mode (semi, burst, full) via a tri-color LED, again if I can get the gun's control board to output the data to the display.

My goal is to have everything a good FPS has on its heads-up display.

 

[Chrontius]

An incan so underdriven that it has an efficiency of 0L/W would do it. Unfortunately, I don't know the precise battery/bulb combos for that, so you'd have to experiment with it yourself.

Underdriven Incandescent Infrared Illuminator Test:
ROP-Hi on 2xAA: very very visible. 120 lumens?