Short'ish range thermal scope for airsofting - what do i need? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: swatti
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 04, 2019, 06:14:12 pm
content: "Hi, first post"Poked around few different forums but i have yet to find what im looking for...Idea is to build a "fieldworthy" scope for airsofting. The ranges airsoft-guns reach is mostly within 50-60 meters. I've seen some use their phones as rail-mounts but those cameras are ~8hrz so its a slideshow and you cant really track your target using em.I'd prefer as high as possible resolution but the screen would be around half the size of a regular smart-phone so maybe i can cut costs on resolution being lower(?)I've got decent 3d modeling skills and a printer. Meaning i also have dozen or so Rasperry Pis and Arduino Dues that my printer uses. Sadly the coding i have zero understanding of, i should be able to upload it to a board tho if need be.What i can do is make a housing for the needed electronics and batteries.I'm really hoping to get a thermal BUT "plan B" is an IR-setup, sadly im also at a bit of a loss what i should look for in a camera-unit.Are there parts aviable for a thermal unit or should i go IR?

author: Vipitis
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2019, 06:55:46 pm
content: well, welcome.a good starting point is to look at products that are already available. You can find thermal rifles scopes from different manufacturers, but they are pricey. You should set yourself a ballpark budget for this project. On the low end thermal cameras you find the phone dongles, that strictly forbid any use as a rifle scope "because the recoil can hurt the electronics" while true they also don't want to sell advanced arms which are illegal in a lot of countries. With airsoft you won't have any issues of recoil, even gas based systems are alright.Torrey Pines Logic has a few products that would be this kind of tiny rifle mounted thermal imager.https://tplogic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/t12.pdfThe T12 has 30hz variants for example.They still charge a good price for them to building something yourself is a good idea.Depending on what kind of environments you play in, you want to have your imager to be rugged, so dropping it, taking a BB hit, rain, mud and all does not destroy it. This will be very difficult with something self build.As you said that your are not sooo deep into the electrical engineering part and software side, it would be a good idea to use the work of somebody else. Forum members have done multiple projects of building thermal imagers from just a core or harvested old camera. With a bit of luck you can spot a cheap Raytheon core (sensor and basic electronics) fromSPI wholesaleand a cheap monochrome display from somewhere on the internet. A good example thisthis workof a forum member. The Raytheon cores are great because they allow configuration and video signal output so you don't need any more electronics in between.My advice would be to look around some more and set yourself a budget, and find out what is needed for you (like 30/60hz) and what resolution you can afford. The software side of things will hopefully easy as people have worked with devices and getting a greyscale color(which you want to detection of targets and maybe recognition) is really simple.There are some posts about using a RasberryPi with a ThermalExpert or a Seek, but some had difficulties getting to that 30hz on the single cores of a PiZero.

author: Collat3ral
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 04, 2019, 10:59:21 pm
content: Hi.I've build one for myselfe using a seek thermal XR. It was verry usable, even at only 8hz. Night play isn't that fast to begin with (in the woods, don't know about CQB).I used a old S3 phone that was in a printed case, locked the rotation verticaly and used a anglesight with a aditional mirror to work as a prism. For protection use a mesh facemask that you cut out a disc to fit your needs. I have it somewhere in the basement, can take a few pictures. A couple of SW tweaks and you're good to go. Loved the single BB hit at 30-40m in a pitch black forestTotal cost was about 150€, got the XR used. Sold the XR for more. If you have a better budget, check the Leupold LTO with a adjustable scope ring.Another option is to modify a HT04. Someone did it on Thingiverse, but his account and the files got erasedNow it got replaced with a ebay find (320x240 @ 30hz core)

author: swatti
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 06, 2019, 04:13:16 pm
content: I was hoping to keep this below 500e.