Project log : "CVS" night vision scope

First and foremost, this project was conceived by CPF member Everett. This project earned an entry on hackaday on February 23rd - which is how I stumbled across it. Thanks for doing all the footwork, everett!

The meat of the project - transform a $30 "single-use" digital camcorder into a night vision device.

This project appealed to me for a number of reasons. First, it's very cheap - the camcorder is the most expensive component. Second, it repurposes something mundane into something far more interesting. Third, it greatly expands the "brochure" capabilities of a durable device that its maker would have us treat as "disposable" so they can turn around and rent it back to you at an exorbitant rate. There's nothing like turning crippleware on its head.

Anyway... you didn't come here to read my indictment of consumer culture or the marketing hacks that stoke it.

This is not a how-to. Everett has done a good job of explaining how to do things without beating the subject to death. If you want to know how to "hack" the firmware and add a USB port, I found this site to be instructive.

"Phase 1" photographs


Packging - front (know your target)


Packging - rear (In case you want to read the ad copy? Note that processing is not included in the $30 retail price)


In action before dissection


Dissection in-progress


Primary guts


Lens, after IR Filter removal. Regrettably, the IR filter did not survive the process. There goes the last possibillity of returning it


In action, sans IR filter. Note the blue spot around the monitor controls - that's what reflected IR looks like. IR illumination is courtesy 940nm LEDs on a constant-current LED tester - 4x10mA, 1x30mA.


I regret that I was unable to take some "before" and "after" shots of an IR LED, but that would require more than 2 hands . With the filter, the camcorder saw the emitted IR like most other digigams. Without the filter, the emitted light blooms to the point of washing out most of the image at just 10mA.

I may not need all 20 of the LEDs I bought. Doing some testing in my small bathroom with my 4x10mA + 1x30mA setup, I had not trouble making out objects at the maximum 10' range the bathroom offers.

I'm not exactly sure how this project is going to proceed. I might go the headlamp route; if so, I'll probably mount it for left-eye use to reduce parallax error. I think I'm going to leave the housing as-is.

Interesting article and hack. :thumbsup:

This makes me want to do it! Good stuff.

me wants to do it too

what drugstore carries it?


Pablo

CVS. 'Looks like they only have locations in the United States.

these cameras are also available in the Pacific NW (USA) at Rite-Aid stores for around $25

I made some progress today.

"Phase 2" photographs

I was hoping for consistent LED placement, so I drew a pattern with hole centers


All holes drilled. 'Looks like the pattern "wandered" around a bit...


LEDs placed and soldered into 3 strings of 4, prior to snipping the leads.


"The bigger the blob, the better the job."


Re-assembled, complete with hole for power switch.


I'm delaying the decision about how to mount it for now.

I obtained a camcorder for $4 from a flea market at First Saturday with the intent to just use the eyepiece, but it's a bit too small. Maybe I can cut it down and devise some sort of shroud to stand it off - the lens seems to be sufficient for monocular use. Of interest on the camcorder - it's of sufficient age that the viewfinder appears to be a tiny CRT rather than LCD. If anyone wants it, it's theirs for the price of shipping, possibly along with the camcorder (a JVC VHS-C "video movie" with case).

Some might notice that I have some LED holders for 4 of the LEDs. I decided to experiment with those for a wider angles up close. I've determined with my digicam that they let IR through. I don't know if they're going to make any difference in actual use. I may replace the IR LEDs with some high-brightness white LEDs at some point in the event I want to use the camera for, uh, regular videos.

The front switch concept may not survive. I need to find a toggle switch instead of the shoddy NO momentary switch I originally intended to use.

Be forwarned that the firmmware revision on most cameras being sold these days doesn't seem to be "hackable."

'Seems that CVS/Rite-Aid/Pure Digital didn't care for a bunch of geeks cutting into their expensive "rental" market.

"Phase 3" - stopping point

The working model


Lucky for me I don't solder or layout electronics for a living


Short-range test setup


Short-range test



This project has reached a stopping point for now. I've reached the point that I have, er, "proof of concept." It works more or less as advertised - in darkness the IR LEDs help the camera render the world in a pale blue color; and in daylight they more or less do the same.

I regret that I am unable to take a longer-range "beamshot;" The ~12" shot stretched the limits of what I can do with a mini-tripod and cheap digital camera.

When testing it outdoors this evening, it quickly became apparent that the real-world utility of my project was going to be rather limited. Maximum effective range was about 5 meters... and by "maximum" I mean it - that's going side-by-side with a flashlight or working in low-light conditions where I can see the target object somewhat well.

Of course, I'm doing this while walking around in a fairly well-lit suburb and a fog is rolling in. Perhaps if the air were a bit less damp and I were in total darkness, I would see better results. I could probably have driven the LEDs a bit harder than the ~25mA they're seeing. It might also help if I modified the LCD for lower brightness and had an optic that let me hold it up to one eye for maximum "squintage." I could also have done more than just picked up some random IR LEDs at the local surplus electronics store - specs on the cardboard bins were 940nm IR LED - VERY BRIGHT! for the LEDs I chose or 940nm IR LED - high-current - VERY BRIGHT!. Narrower-angle LEDs might help for greater distance.

I'm also at a stopping point since the camera isn't reliably "hackable" at this point. Maybe the folks at the camerahacks.com forum will devise something.

I'll experiment with longer-range beamshots later.

I'm interested to see how yours turns out.
Are you sure it's not crackable? i know one version out now is not, but i've bought 3.40s in CVS within the past month, so they must still be around. also, i know 3.70s are now cracked. which version do you have? when attempting to crack it, remember that there are two different ways of wiring USB to the board, depending on which version you have.

I have 3.70, and concensus at camerahacks.com seems to be that you're far more likely to "brick" a 3.7 unit than unlock it using the flash-pin shorting trick. 'Seems that Pure Digital has gotten their timing down to a handful of clock cycles where a short is apt to enable debug mode.

yeah it's definitely a risk, and for this function you won't want to take videos as often (but you can get some cool clips running around at night with a camera strapped to your head... hehe). if you attempt it, good luck

Longer-distance shot

A scene that might be familiar to those that have read some of my reviews... I believe the IR LEDs are on in this shot, likely explaining the blue tint


Lights out, IR on

I'm weighing the number of disassembly/reassembly cycles that the thing can survive before I start losing tabs or strip a screw pedestal. I think that number is down to around 4.

I need to mod the LCD backlight, no doubt. I don't really want to putz around with a pot, unless I can find something insanely low-profile to fit in that "mistake" hole in the upper-left corner I'm covering with a LED diffuser.

Everett:
What value did you find acceptable on backlight control resistance? I'm thinking I want to replace the momentary switch with some sort of 2PDT switch to control IR LEDs & switch a "night" LCD brightness resistor (maybe 3PDT or greater and get the speaker muted).

what happens when all the space is used up, can you still use it to navigate by? Or does it go to a solid screen?

I don't know what happens when you'vre run out of diskspace. I don't even know what happens if you power down the unit after saving a film. I filmed a short walk with the thing after completing the mod then deleted it after watching.

The folks on camerahacking.com might know about its behavior.

unfortunately when it's full it shows a "camcorder full" screen and you can't navigate. the resistor currently running the backlight LEDs is a 50k. i think my variable one goes up to 100k or something similar, and it brings the brightness all the way down if you want it to. good switch idea.

just stumbled across this thread -
interesting reading....
I know my Sony camcorder has a "night vision" mode,
and we can pretty much see into the neighbors yard on a dark night.
I've also used the camera like a night vision flashlight walking around a pitch dark house, and you can see the IR "flashlight" beam on the walls.
Wonder what they use in the camcorder that throws such a strong IR flashlight beam ? Heck, it's more than my Lux flashlights.
Also - pointing a TV remote at the camera, and pressing the buttons, you can see the IR pulsing signal...

ps56k said:

Also - pointing a TV remote at the camera, and pressing the buttons, you can see the IR pulsing signal...

Click to expand...

Yep. And pointing a monochrome chip camera towards an IR source produces a much brighter reaction than a color camera.

It's not a secret that black & white CCD cameras see fairly well in the dark - that's why they remained popular for so long until color CCDs caught up... and are still in use today. There are also no small number of compact CCTV cameras on the market that have a circle of IR LEDs around the lens and use the same trick to see in the dark.

The trick Everett and I used should work with most any CCD that either has the IR filter removed or has manual control over the IR filtering ("nightshot" mode). I'm thinking of doing another version of this from scratch with just a compact CCD camera and compact LCD... but this will be somewhat difficult given the expense of small LCDs and trouble getting one that speaks NTSC.