www.nightvisionforumuk.com

Newbie well oldbie I suppose.

Hello all.
Been prompted to join from another forum since most of the 'Fiddling' these days is with the NV setup!

Shoot the usual pest species with an FAC air rifle, not sure if I consider bunnies as pests tho. more of an endangered species around here, with the number of foxes. 22WMR primarily Fox, and sub 12ftlb air rifle, local rats and corvids.

Built a scope add-on camera setup (1/3" Sony Super HAD II board camera ) a year or two ago, been very good. Used mainly on the sub 12 for shooting rats in the garden attempting the chicken run 'break-in'.

The time has come when I must make a decision & put a decent set-up on the WMR.... I need a good long range, (200m ish as it is used as a spotter as well) NV setup, so I would greatly appreciate your advice on what is best. NB: budget not infinite!
Do I.....
1 Increase IR output and carry on with the existing?
2 Yukon Photon and Doubler?
3 Scope intensifier add-on?
4 Any other method(s) I've missed?

Existing IR source is the usual Ultrafire with 850nm pill and a extra internal lens mod.
Don't like lasers would prefer to keep my eyesight!

PS: I do eat lots of carrots!
I bet you all must get a bit fed up with the same stupid questions from newbies!

Many thanks
Bif

Welcome to the forum bif , dont worry about asking questions mate we have all done it at one time or another , you dont mention your budget but probably the cheapest and easiest way to upgrade your set up is to replace the camera with an E700 from sure24 and you should notice a big increase in performance.

welcome to the the forum Biffo

think johns probably spot on, for what the e700 costs, your going to get a lot more from your setup

cheers jock

Hello Bif and welcome to the forum.

George

Hi Bif plenty to read and a bunch of very helpful guys to point you in the right direction

Geoff

Hi biffo and welcome to the forum up date your camera and decent ir your be sorted m8

Hi Biff.

200 yards through a daytime scope is a fairly big ask. What IR do you currently use?

If cash is a consideration and you are using a low power IR I'd suggest a BIG lens IR illuminator would be the first port of call, from Marky or SikaStag, then the camera if it still doesn't get what you need.

Hello again,
Thanks for your replies.

Camera:
650TVL 3D-DNR D-WDR Board Camera Vari-focus Lens 0.001 Lux Starlight SONY CCD
Evilbay 251004674737

Did do a bit of homework prior to purchase, seemed pretty good at the time.
Obviously can't wind the gain up much as it causes too much dithering.

Illuminator:
Ultrafire single 1850 with 1w (1mm square) 850nm pill

The Osram & Chinese copy pills are specified as having a 70° beam angle, (ish.) They then put a daft dispersing rubber lens in front, so I chopped that off to get the pill back to book spec.
I then use a second lens in front to act as a the first collimation stage.
I tried a glass aspheric from DX but that acted as a diffuser due to its poor surface finish, so went back to the original.
The result is a beam that is a fairly clean focussed square of 650mm at 25m. Not a lot of overspill. This enables x24 magnification on the scope out beyond 40 yds. 80 yds is ok but pushing it I think. With the moveable front lens the focus can be adjusted and the beam enlarged for lower magnification.

Scope is a Hawke Sidewinder 30 IR SF 6-24x56. which might be the limiting factor, so probably could be improved upon but has been ok so far. I have a couple of other old scopes but not tried the NV setup on them. In my spare time.....

Thank you

Bif,
could you be a little more specific on the torch and driver please mate,

is the led the oslon black SFH4715S.....? this is the high powered one we all use, usually either in a UF-T20 or a 501B

cheers jock

Torch:
http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-Ultra ... 43332.html
Same as DX just cheaper.

I think that you might have hit the nail.... Chinese 850nm Pill...... The input power is about 2W so I would gain 70% ignoring efficiency differences.

Done some more home work.. I need a star, plus chip, plus driver:

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/ir-leds/7 ... 424F544826

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/thermal-g ... 438341|acc

The driver is a bit more of an issue, I have found:

http://dx.com/p/4-mode-1-5a-led-driver- ... xMd-s6rPZI

Probably need a bit of tweaking. + 3 week delivery ugh!

Thoughts appreciated.
Thanks for your help
Bif