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Night Vision Scope From Scavenged Parts

Caydel writes "Greg Miller appears to have built a Night Vision Scope out of an image intensifier tube, and parts he found mostly in dumpsters. Also on Greg's site: Flyback transformers, coil guns, plasma globes and Tesla coils made from dumpster materials." You get the feeling he's not also writing product safety manuals on the side.

23 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. cool by secretsquirel · · Score: 5, Funny

    But can it see through clothes?

    1. Re:cool by breinier · · Score: 3, Interesting

      For that sort of thing, look here:
      http://www.baytoday.ca/content/news/details.asp?c= 6657

  2. And I thought I was geeky... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This guy is one mullet and a bra-strap-propelled rocket away from his own 80's series.

  3. coral cache by supersuckers · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's angelfire, so bandwidth limit probably won't take long to be reached...
    http://www.angelfire.com.nyud.net:8090/80s/sixmhz/ infrared.html
    Also, this project was from May '03.

  4. CORAL Cache Link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    http://www.angelfire.com.nyud.net:8090/80s/sixmhz/ infrared.html

    I managed to get most of the pages in before the /.ing

  5. Hack A Day by wolveso · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hack A Day's story referencing Miller's night-vision project can be found here;
    http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000107028849/

    Lots of similar DIY projects, including peltier beverage coolers and linux-powered weather balloons, can be found at;
    http://www.hackaday.com/

  6. He should go into hiding... by Interfacer · · Score: 5, Funny

    because the department of homeland security will be knocking on his door pronto.

    Excuse mr, you have just won a free vacation to the beautiful island of Cuba. do not bother to pack your stuff. everything has been arranged for you.

    after that they have to start watching landfills and monitoring scavengers's behavior. "Excuse mr hobo, where do you think you are going with that rusted coathanger? not planing an attach on the pentagon, are we?"

  7. See this book (pub 1990) for detailed plans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Gordon McComb's Gadgeteers Goldmine ( http://tinyurl.com/4jw9t ) has some plans for doing this. While some of the projects are pretty flawed (the Tesla coil design is anything but efficient) it's a reasonable read.

  8. Reaction from the stars by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Funny

    Paris Hilton was said to be very interested in this device.

    Hang on, thats not news is it.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
  9. Wow 60 year old technology.... by MajorDick · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Night Vision is a 60-70 year old technology,

    Ther Germans used the Vampir in WWII for crying out loud. I dont know when the first US night vision appeared but it was pre Korea

    I can build a 1 tube radio too, and theyre basically on the same level tech wise.

    Now why dosent someone build one of those cool doppler thingamajigies that ses in the dark and throught smoke and fog, now THAT would be cool , and a little more recent technology wise.
    I mean night vision ? I can do it with my 99$ Camcorder. A doppler I haven seen for under about 5 grand.

  10. This is news? by Caradoc · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I built a IR scope in 1988 (in high school) from a surplus tube, a transformer from an old monitor, and some surplus optics.

    It won me a $500 scholarship from the Army, which paid for my freshman Biology textbooks when I got to college.

    This is news?

    --
    Specialization is for insects. - R.A.H.
  11. All we need now... by GillBates0 · · Score: 4, Funny
    is a Shopping Cart made from scavenged parts.

    Armed with the night vision scope and shopping cart, we can make those nightly dumpster scavenging rounds really fruitful.

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  12. Re:The important question by kyojin+the+clown · · Score: 3, Funny

    Very few people on the Tokyo Subway wear dark bikinis. Surprising as it may seem.

  13. I beg you pardon ?!? by fizze · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ok, the goggles and stuff might be fun. ok. but building a tesla coil ?

    Pardonnez moi ?
    This is not only highly dangerous, but also incredibly stupid. While he DOES notice that the very strong electromagnetic field does turn on and off other devices nearby, he still keeps fiddling with it.
    There is no clue about the frequency his coil effectively produces, but simply the fact that there are at least some 50.000 volts wouldnt want me to have this device active, unless in a controller environment. (read: laboratory)

    And, whats more, he also puts it on the net for other whackos to attempt, too.
    Great.


    Quotes from other "projects" from this dude:
    " Also you'll need to drill a hole in the microwave cover to get the hose out the back because you WILL *IMPORTANT* put the panel back on the microwave before operation or you will get cooked with RF radiation."
    wohoo, at least he is aware that the panel is vital.


    For those people who aint really into tech: a microwave oven heats up water molecules. and a human body consists of mostly water....
    go figure.

    I for one, wouldnt be surprised if this man dies a young death from cancerial deseases.....

    --
    Powerful is he who overpowers his temptations.
    1. Re:I beg you pardon ?!? by reezle · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So you are saying we need to be protected from his ideas?
      Us whacko's will give it a try and kill ourselves because we aren't quite smart enough to recognize the dangerous bits like you have?

      Let me guess. You're from the government. And you're here to help.

    2. Re:I beg you pardon ?!? by Al-Hala · · Score: 3, Informative

      "... but building a tesla coil ?"

      I wholly agree this fellow isn't exactly all there in the understanding or safety departments (Flybacks and IHVT's are different animals, and his rough and ready approach to microwaves would make me pause as well), but building Tesla Coils is a rite of passage for any serious geek. They're no more dangerous to make than any other line powered device. They produce a lot of RF noise from the spark gap in the primary (if so equipped, I've seen some Solid State switching models), and 30KV and up of high frequency electricity from the primary.

      This high frequency energy mostly travels along the skin, an is (depending on the model) of a low enough current that the worst I've ever gotten is pinpricks from letting the energy ground itself to me directly (which is why most demonstrations use a metal object or thimbles). Having said that, I'm not willing to catch the output of one of the garage models, throwing around 1MV at the walls.

      Heck, standing in water IMPROVES the effect. Of course, directions should be researched before attempting anything like this, but hey, people burn themselves with hot coffee by placing it in laps....

      "While he DOES notice that the very strong - electromagnetic field does turn on and off other devices nearby, he still keeps fiddling with it."

      Wonder if he's noticed the inductive heating effect on perpendicular bands of metal. Induction furnace in action:)

      I've still got mine, and it gets use every Holloween, along with the Lighting Bulb, and the Jacobs Ladder (both of which use low frequency electricity, and so are shielded from inquisitive hands). I work with RF professionally, by the way, partly in result to my playing with Tesla Coils.

      "- And, whats more, he also puts it on the net for other whackos to attempt, too. Great."

      He's not the first. check out Powerlabs (Rail Guns, Can Crushers, Plasma Experiments). That "whacko" got a advanced education, thanks to his insanity. And I'm green with envy. Also, check almost every year of Popular Electronicsl at least one issue will have a Tesla Coil in it.

      "For those people who aint really into tech: a microwave oven heats up water molecules. and a human body consists of mostly water....
      go figure."

      True enough. The frequency of microwaves used causes a resonance in the carbon-hydrogen bonds, affecting Fats, Sugers and Water (in that order). Having said that, it still follows the same laws as normal electromagnetic radiation, and drops off drastically as distance increases. It's interesting to actually measure the drop offs and emissions from damaged microwaves to see just how little escapes (I used to repair them, at one point).

      Anyway, ramble time is over :)

  14. Re:No safety manual? by mikael · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There's an article in New Scientist which reports that Dutch military suppliers have finally solved the problem of using colour-mapping to convert the monochrome images of nightvision systems into colour. Previous attempts to use fake colour mappings had been a failure due to the creation of "psychadelic experiences". Some images of the new system

    --
    Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
  15. Re:Cost ? by eclectro · · Score: 3, Funny

    Image intesifier: $27
    Cost of multiple trips to the laundromat after dumpster diving: $35

    Being able to see in the dark after 3,000 volt electric shock: priceless.

    --
    Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
  16. Use just a plain web cam by codepunk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You can get better results from a ordinary web cam. Take the ir filter off of the lens and put it back together, add a few ir led's and bingo you got night vision.

    --


    Got Code?
  17. Just use a $20 webcam by sonamchauhan · · Score: 4, Informative

    $20 example

    Webcam image sensor have been sensitive to infrared for ages.

    Finally, some manufacturers have got the sense to leverage that by removing the infrared filter in front in the lens, and adding some infrared LEDs for illumination.

    I've got one, and played around with it to get a similar picture as the guy in the article got with his image intensifier tube.

  18. Ugh... by lucifuge31337 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Under the "Discouraging Occurances" section:

    8. While standing in the dumpster, feeling some part of your body getting wet by something....

    --
    Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
  19. All the fear from the doomsayers by panurge · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Is misplaced. I went into science because we had a superb physics teacher in high school (he'd left a job as a research engineer basically because, I think, it was too limiting, and he ended up as the schools science adviser for the council.)

    Among the stuff we used to work with were high voltage induction coils, the odd home-made low pressure gas discharge device - a good way of checking your vacuum technique - low power radioactive sources for playing with simple cloud chambers and trying to deflect alpha and beta rays with a watercooled electromagnet - and extracting short half life radionucleides from samples of yellow cake. (I did have enough sense to know that you don't breathe thorium oxide dust and that you handle uranyl nitrate carefully.) That and getting a signal big enough to light up a small bulb across the lab using a klystron. And he would let us get on with this stuff unsupervised - something about kids need trust in order to learn.

    Nearly 40 years later I am not only still alive but still building stuff, probably because those early experiences gave me the confidence to try things.

    Being quite ruthless, anybody who tries stuff around HV and microwaves and doesn't have the brain to spot when things are going wrong, probably needs to be removed from the gene pool anyway. And anybody who tries and has the brain and initiative to stick at it will learn something. We can't all expect to make our livings for the next twenty years by either recording not very good music and selling it for inflated prices, or suing people who actually have a business. Buying geek toys is no substitute for making them, and things that just go bang or send projectiles a long way are not the only way to have fun with physics.

    --
    Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
  20. Re:who want's 20Kv to the eyeball? by VAXcat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Not only that, if his HV supply is putting out too much voltage, he's getting soft x-rays beamed into his head by this thing...not good.

    --
    There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.