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Hardware Hacking

Night Vision Scope From Scavenged Parts 177

Posted by timothy from the see-in-the-dumpster dept.
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.
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Night Vision Scope From Scavenged Parts More

Night Vision Scope From Scavenged Parts

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  • cool (Score:5, Funny)

    by secretsquirel ( 805445 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @08:49AM (#11676278)
    But can it see through clothes?

    • Re:cool (Score:3, Interesting)

      by breinier ( 846675 )
      For that sort of thing, look here:
      http://www.baytoday.ca/content/news/details.asp?c= 6657 [baytoday.ca]
      • I have seen this guy before. If you look at the pictures, the big red and white suit was designed to protect people from bear attacks. He designed it for bear researchers

        He also has developed some kind of material that resists heat and is really light that you can paint on and is really strong. He figures that if Columbia had been covered in this stuff, it would have survived. Not sure what his background is but you get the impression that what he makes he shouldn't be able to.
        • >>I have seen this guy before. If you look at the pictures, the big red and white suit was designed to protect people from bear attacks. He designed it for bear researchers

          This isn't the same guy , the Ursa suit designer is Canadian and the site here mentions living in Iowa. Besides , the Ursa guy isn't an engineer or other sort of geek , he's more obsessed with grizzlies than anything.
  • What about its cost (I know this comes from a dumpster but Hell, some might have less difficulties buying the part than finding these) ?

    • Re:Cost ? (Score:3, Funny)

      by IO ERROR ( 128968 ) *
      Cost $27 for the image intensifier, and $5 each for several trips to the laundromat after dumpster diving.

      • Re:Cost ? (Score:4, Funny)

        by eclectro ( 227083 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @09:36AM (#11676474)
        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.
        • Man, I guess I won't need to get the image intesifier anymore, the 3kv electric shock will probably give me superman powers.

  • And I thought I was geeky... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @08:51AM (#11676283)
    This guy is one mullet and a bra-strap-propelled rocket away from his own 80's series.
  • I mean come on that's the main cost of a night scope

  • Insurgents in Iraq (Score:1, Insightful)

    by barrkel ( 806779 )
    I wonder if this will be used by various guerilla groups to try and even up the technological battleground.
    • No but his railguns may. Speaking of which I know I only have a rudimentry understanding of physics but surely he should of done some calculations regarding optimum coil size wire diameter coil spacing field strength.
    • No. This is a Gen 0 tube, which means that you need IR illumination to see. All NVG's can see IR illumination. If you walked aroudn with this at night, to other people with NVG's, you'd look like you had a giant flashlight strapped to your head. That does not bode well for your long-term longetivity on a battlefield.
    • I wonder if this will be used by Paris Hilton.

    • Re:Insurgents in Iraq (Score:3, Interesting)

      by CAIMLAS ( 41445 )
      I read in an article about the new Army uniforms how they had infrared-light sensitive patches on their armbands for FoF identification. My first thought was, "this will be trouble."

  • coral cache (Score:5, Informative)

    by supersuckers ( 841107 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @08:56AM (#11676311) Homepage
    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 [nyud.net]
    Also, this project was from May '03.

  • CORAL Cache Link (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @08:57AM (#11676312)
    http://www.angelfire.com.nyud.net:8090/80s/sixmhz/ infrared.html [nyud.net]

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

  • Hack A Day (Score:5, Informative)

    by wolveso ( 849359 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @08:57AM (#11676314) Homepage
    Hack A Day's story referencing Miller's night-vision project can be found here;
    http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000107028849/ [hackaday.com]

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

  • Angelfire links on Slashdot (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Have the editors never heard of nyud or other caching services? How long before this poor guy's site gets terminated for using up its available bandwidth?!

  • He should go into hiding... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Interfacer ( 560564 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @08:59AM (#11676321)
    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?"

  • See this book (pub 1990) for detailed plans (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @09:04AM (#11676342)
    Gordon McComb's Gadgeteers Goldmine ( http://tinyurl.com/4jw9t [tinyurl.com] ) 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.

  • Reaction from the stars (Score:5, Funny)

    by LiquidCoooled ( 634315 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @09:04AM (#11676344) Homepage Journal
    Paris Hilton was said to be very interested in this device.

    Hang on, thats not news is it.

  • Wow 60 year old technology.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MajorDick ( 735308 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @09:04AM (#11676346)
    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.
    • No kidding. While a neat project, it is mostly a waste of time unless you are just interested in learning how these things work.

      You don't even need a $99 camcorder. There are countless B/W infrared cameras out there. I picked up a couple a while ago just to play around with. Total cost? $20 for two of them. I didn't have to do anything, just plug into the composite video out.

      These "active" infrared cameras are boring. You need a strong IR source to see anything (ie. you still need a flashlight). M

  • This is news? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Caradoc ( 15903 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @09:06AM (#11676352) Homepage
    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?
  • but is there actually any use for Tesla coils in one's own home.

  • All we need now... (Score:5, Funny)

    by GillBates0 ( 664202 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @09:11AM (#11676377) Homepage Journal
    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.

  • I beg you pardon ?!? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by fizze ( 610734 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @09:18AM (#11676406)
    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.....
    • Much like the Anarchist's Cookbook, anyone who follows these instructions is a Darwin Award in the making.

    • Re:I beg you pardon ?!? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by reezle ( 239894 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @09:35AM (#11676469) Homepage
      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.
    • "... 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
    • "cancerial diseases"??? That ain't a word, bro :-P. You can only get cancer from radiation that can spoink your DNA, meaning frequencies UV and above. Microwaves have frequencies lower than visible light. They'll heat you up. That's it. Now... if being heated up causes cancer, that's news to me. I doubt he's beaming large quantities of HV electrons at tungsten / moly targets to create x-rays. My dad (a power engineer) has let me play with homebuilt tesla coils since I was 3 or so... no problems here
    • Bah. Everything fun is at least a little bit dangerous. Nobody's making you build one and you're fairly unlikely to come to harm because some "wacko" (to use your terminology) has knocked up a Tesla coil in his garage.

      Same go's for playing with old microwave ovens. Just for the record, by the way, even if he screws up royally he's not going to get cancer from his microwave- non-ionising radiation you see. He could cook himself though- that'd probably suck.

      I think this kind of nanny "but you might hurt you

      • Damn right, Chemistry was the both the most boring and the most exciting lesson at school.

        Most exciting when they said "Right, you need to design an experiment to investigate this ... give the lab assistant a list of the equipment you think you will need and it will be ready for next lesson"

        The most boring bits where the rest of it, balancing equations yuck !
      • and you're fairly unlikely to come to harm because some "wacko" (to use your terminology) has knocked up a Tesla coil in his garage.

        I'd feel bad about the poor Tesla coil though, I mean, what's she going to tell her father? "Some geek I didn't know all that well took his leads to my prmary and bam, I got pregnant."?

    • 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)

      Due to the number of turns and length of the coil, the self resonant frequency is usualy well below 1 Megahertz. Read up on TC's for the facts. It's not like it's a bunch of power at UHF or Microwave frequencies.

      At these long wavelengths, skin effect is strong keeping current m
    • Try playing around with the space/time continuum:
      The Resonant Gravity Field Coil [kahealani.com]!

      I wanna see some nutball actually try to build one, just to see what would happen. I'm guessing a large fire...
    • And, whats more, he also puts it on the net for other whackos to attempt, too.

      Think of it as evolution in action.

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

      Sounds to me like you aren't "into tech" yourself, because this is just an urban legend.

      Any object will be heated by microwaves, even if it is (nearly) completely devoid of water molecules.

      What is your scientific basis for this? What phenomenom could possibly make radiation heat water, and nothing else?
      • Umm, ever heard of a little thing called "friction"?

        What "phenomenom" do you think makes microwaves work, exactly? They heat up the air with "radiation", cook your food with convection, then cool the air down really quick when you open the door so you can't figure it out?

        • Umm, ever heard of a little thing called "friction"?

          Yes, and it sure isn't the exclusive domain of water molecules. So what makes you (and others) think microwave radiation affects only water?

          They heat up the air with "radiation", cook your food with convection, then cool the air down really quick when you open the door so you can't figure it out?

          Now you're just being moronic.
    • He's doing dangerous stuff, but it sounds fun. It actually reminds be of a lot of crazy old science experiments. If you read reports from a lot of early studies into chemistry and fluid dynamics, for example, boy those guys loved playing with mercury! Huge tubs of the stuff, scientists submerging half their bodies in it. Or the way people used to play with radium.

      Or, have you ever read about the early experiments in electricity? They didn't really have effective units of measure yet, so when they were

  • Even more interesting stuff: 10Mbps optical link "Ronja" (for wireless LAN-speed connections) and best of all, GPL licensed.

  • Use just a plain web cam (Score:4, Interesting)

    by codepunk ( 167897 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @09:37AM (#11676475)
    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.

  • Just use a $20 webcam (Score:5, Informative)

    by sonamchauhan ( 587356 ) <sonamc.gmail@com> on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @10:01AM (#11676658) Journal
    $20 example [ebay.com]

    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.

  • Ugh... (Score:4, Informative)

    by lucifuge31337 ( 529072 ) * <daryl@in t r o s p e c t . n et> on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @10:04AM (#11676680) Homepage
    Under the "Discouraging Occurances" section:

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

  • All the fear from the doomsayers (Score:5, Insightful)

    by panurge ( 573432 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @10:13AM (#11676748)
    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.

    • 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.

      When I was younger, I lived in a small town. I had a high-voltage transformer for neon lighting. It was hooked up toome aluminum foil and a doorknob. One of the neighbor kids was over and I told him it was electrified. He touched it and felt a tingle. He said it was fun. He wasn't very bright.
  • OMG!! He gets extra points for using a lamp shade on a tesla coil. That's bloody wicked. This guy could be so dangerous if he hooked up with the likes of Dr.Evil or Al Qaeda.
    • Great, referencing a Mike Myers character and the most wanted organization in the world in one post. All we need now is a reference to a some Serbian immigrant scientist and we'll have Homeland Security all over our posts. ;-)

      All I want to know is how to set the sleep time on my alarm clock to be longer than 7 minutes.
  • I have heard that some of the early image-intensifier tubes had X-ray problems (often occur when you accelerate electrons to high velocities and they hit metal targets)...
    • While some X-rays are generated, unless the accelerating voltage is over 10kV or so (more than gen 0 image converter tubes operated at), the X-rays are of such low energy that they can't even penetrate the tube envelope. They would start to become a hazard at around 16 kV or so.
  • Why is it that everytime someone makes something from parts they have "lying around", there's always one part they just happened to have, that is rare and/or expensive?
    • because when someone aquires a rare part, the first thing the geek in them says is "duuude i could build an X with this!"
    • It's the same principle of those 4-item cookbooks you see at the bookstore:

      "Fast and easy recipies that only take 4 items!"

      But what they don't tell you is that 3 of the 4 ingredients are really easy to find, like salt, water, rosemary, etc, but that 4th item is something you'd never find in a common cupboard, like pickel scallions, or something wierd like that.

  • Why isn't anyone asking why he is searching through a "dumper" in the first place???

  • find this stuff in a dumpster? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by AviLazar ( 741826 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @11:02AM (#11677189) Journal
    Hm which research facility does this guy leave near? People generally do not have this kind of hardware....and what are the chances thta if someone does he happens to be there on the day they put it in a dumpster?

  • Yawn (Score:2)

    by mwood ( 25379 )
    I could get all that and more decades ago from Edmund Scientific.
  • Is this dude related to David Hahn [dangerousl...tories.org]?
  • Dumpster diving is great fun. There are a half-dozen 19" racks in the dumpster next to our work right now. I got two rack shelves and four levelling feet off them last week. Figure I saved at least $50 by not buying them retail. And, let's face it, my local Home Depot is unlikely to carry the stuff...

  • Dude (Score:2, Funny)

    by joNDoty ( 774185 )
    Where can I find these dumpsters full of electronic treasure!? I consider myself lucky if the dumpsters I'm thrown into don't have shards of glass or used needles.

  • Dumpster Diving is great! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Peale ( 9155 ) on Tuesday February 15, 2005 @12:23PM (#11678067) Homepage Journal
    I've been doing it since I was a kid. You find all kinds of interesting stuff.

    Forums: http://www.dumpsterworld.net [dumpsterworld.net]
  • The Flyback Transformer project page has some pretty choice quotes. If safety was a factor, then these gems would probably never have been written.

    "You will not be able to locate the high voltage return pin with a multimeter. The only way to do it is to bring the high voltage line down to the pins and whichever one it arcs like mad to is the one yer looking for. Try to stay away from arcing to any of the pins used for coils."

    "With such small current at this voltage you can even touch the glass with onl

  • Excellent. I'm coming for you Clairice....
  • One interesting "glitch" I had noticed in years of using CCD based analog video camcorders (VHS/8MM), is that the IR LED on the front of remote controls would show up as a bright white light (it would appear on a brightness level comparable to a bright white LED).

    So my question is, would it be possible to scavenge a common video camera (dirt cheap at Goodwill or yard sales), turn off the electronic shutter, and build a similar night vision scope?

    You have pretty much everything you need shy of a bank of IR

  • Must Get Shredder (Score:2, Interesting)

    by freepath ( 745838 )
    Finally, absolutely convincing proof that everyone needs a cross-cut shredder: Salvaged Photos [angelfire.com]
  • It's pretty neat to read about a Darwin award winner *before* he blows himself up.
  • And to think that I made my cheapo night vision by replacing the led in an led flashlight ($5 wally world) with a high-output IR led from RadioShack ($2). I just use my digital camera to view since the ccd is IR sensitive.
    Total dev time 5 minutes, total skill required zero.

    Greg's project is still pretty cool, I'm just much lazier than he.

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