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Posted: 1/4/2003 5:21:58 PM EDT
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Got one of those wild hairs after watching The Discovery Channel special about future guns. I'll be picking up an FAB-15 so I'll have an SUR again. I've got the crazy idea that I can hang an black and white IR sensitive camera off the rear rail of a flat-top, mount an Aimpoint in front of it and an IR laser along side of it. The only thing I'm not completely sure of is the eyeglass mounted monitor. The IR camera I have plenty of and they're simple to mount to the weaver rail with a bit of modification to a scope ring. I'll have to research the focal distance of various lens to find one that's correct for the Aimpoint. I'm thinking a short bit of PCV pipe to mate the Aimpoint to the camera. These cameras have the ability to nearly see in the dark - 0.0001 LUX abilities. The camera will run about $120. The IR laser is easy enough to get ahold of now. They can be picked up for about $300 or so. Mounted to a tri-mount on the front sight for about $70. Running the camrea power and video via a curry cord to a battery supply and some sort of glasses mounted monitor. I'll test the weapon end of the system using a battery powered monitor while looking for a nice eye glass monitor. I want the IR laser as some day following my winning the lottery I'll get a $3000 set of Generation III night vision goggles. The thermal video viewers are a bit on the farside of $30,000 so my camera isn't going to have thermal. An IR flash light will turn night into day for my DIY night vision. |
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Paul, I hate to rain on your parade, but an IR camera cannot see through glass. It can see through the mirror-like material you see on the camera lens (I forget the material name) and other materials like cellophane. If you mount an Aimpoint in front of the IR camera, you will not see anything but the temperature of the surface of the glass. Your aiming reticle would have to be incorporated into the IR camera or you could put an aimpoint behind it. I worked as an aerospace engineer for U.S. Air Force Special Operations and dealt with FLIR turrets for MC-130 Talon Is and IIs as well as MH53J Pave Low IIs. Also, my father is a certified infrared thermographer, whom I have worked with on a few IR camera mount projects for Cessna 208 Caravans. One fact that always had to be considered for maintenance and design was the limitation of glass being opaque in the IR spectrum. Hope this helps! Chase My latest project: www.dropmaster.com Finally funded by the Army! |
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Thanks Chase. The cameras I'm looking at are visual with IR abilities. I know the thermal image cameras woun't see though glass - the Navy's firefighting gear ... so it does make sense the IR doesn't as well. There must be some near visual IR that does - what I don't know is what the IR frequency of the cheap IR lasers is ... and if the Comp M2/ML series is transparent. I think you've rained on my parade [:(] but taught me an old lesson [:D] So if I mount my camera along side my IR laser it will work with the IR designator but not with the visible red dot from the scope. I'm trying to find the time to rig something up on my bench just to do a proof of concept test. |
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There is a product called eye glasses (I-glasses) that project an image (TV) onto the lense. I was thinking about this too but I just don't have enough money (I think the farthest I will go with this is maybe a gun camera SIR mounted later when cameras get a little smaller and don't weight as much.) |
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