Hey guys! I'm back. Its been a few months since the last time you guys showed me how little I know, educated me, put me in my place, and ultimately helped me achieve my optical hopes and dreams.
Think you can do it again?
As you can guess from the title, I am looking for help with some DIY Thermal imaging goggles. Or whatever you call them. I have tried to educate myself via google, the library, and my familly full of engineers.
What I came up with was almost embarassingly little. I couldnt find anything more specific on the actual function of thermal imagers than "special sensors pick up ambient light in the 7000-14000 nm range and convert it to an image".
So I looked for straight up "DIY Night vision goggles", and came up with a million and one people telling me to make a filter and essentaly use an IR flashlight.
I dont like this option much. For one thing, I have no idea how safe/unsafe IR light is, and I dont have a good light source for it. For another thing, this only lets me see as far as I can cast my light, which, anless you are using something along the lines of an IR Ultrafire 502 (which I cannot find anywhere), is unlikely to work well.
At this point, you have some idea of where I am. I want something that works, not a kids toy. And I dont want to spend $2k on it.
If anyone can help, it would be you guys.
PS: My brother has an IR rifle scope, and wants an IR laser to go with it. I have pointed out to him how scary a laser that you cant see is (he's terified of my 1.2W 445nm) but he is determined to buy one anyway. I am thinking of something in the 30-40mW range?
Can anyone recomend a good source and a safety guide for me?
Thanks so much! I can allways count on you guys for helpful, respecful, and prompt replies, regardless of how silly my question is (see my early activity on this forum for an example).
-Liam-
Think you can do it again?
As you can guess from the title, I am looking for help with some DIY Thermal imaging goggles. Or whatever you call them. I have tried to educate myself via google, the library, and my familly full of engineers.
What I came up with was almost embarassingly little. I couldnt find anything more specific on the actual function of thermal imagers than "special sensors pick up ambient light in the 7000-14000 nm range and convert it to an image".
So I looked for straight up "DIY Night vision goggles", and came up with a million and one people telling me to make a filter and essentaly use an IR flashlight.
I dont like this option much. For one thing, I have no idea how safe/unsafe IR light is, and I dont have a good light source for it. For another thing, this only lets me see as far as I can cast my light, which, anless you are using something along the lines of an IR Ultrafire 502 (which I cannot find anywhere), is unlikely to work well.
At this point, you have some idea of where I am. I want something that works, not a kids toy. And I dont want to spend $2k on it.
If anyone can help, it would be you guys.
PS: My brother has an IR rifle scope, and wants an IR laser to go with it. I have pointed out to him how scary a laser that you cant see is (he's terified of my 1.2W 445nm) but he is determined to buy one anyway. I am thinking of something in the 30-40mW range?
Can anyone recomend a good source and a safety guide for me?
Thanks so much! I can allways count on you guys for helpful, respecful, and prompt replies, regardless of how silly my question is (see my early activity on this forum for an example).
-Liam-
