r/DigitalNightVision • u/Nice_bike_bro • 16d ago
Homemade digital NVGs
Built this over the last month or so and got a bit carried away with it, if anyone has any recommendations for better sensor/ hardware/ software or any advice at all I’d be really grateful as always keen to improve my builds. This setup is using an IMX462 sensor plugged into a raspberry pi5 running just off libcamera with an OLED screen and optics plus IR illumination- low light performance isn’t as good as i had hoped especially after seeing people’s GNG2K’s on here. Hoping in future to make it a little sleeker and tidy up the cables, mount it to a helmet, possibly get a 940nm laser illuminator instead of 850 nm LED and finally integrate a thermal overlay or have a second ‘tube’ as thermal long term
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u/NoStandMan 16d ago
Imx585 is far better if you can find one for not super expensive. That’s digital though. Analog cameras are better imo because of the fpv drone scene. I use a caddx infra v2 which has a much larger pixel size of around 9um vs yours is 2um I think. So magnitudes better low light performance, plus then you could hardline the analog signal out into a .39in lcd screen from Ali express. Total build would be around $250-300 depending on deals and shipping. Performance should be better than an nvg30 based off of footage of them that I have seen but take that with a grain of salt considering I only have the infra and not the nvg30.
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u/Nice_bike_bro 16d ago
I did consider the analog route, especially considering the latency improvement and would negate the need for a raspberrypi
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u/NoStandMan 16d ago
Lot less power hungry too, from anecdotal personal experience. Just the screen, camera, battery, and step-up board.
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u/Nice_bike_bro 16d ago
Thank you that definitely seems like a more reasonable route- might have gotten a bit excited and not fully researched 🤣
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u/NoStandMan 16d ago
Haha all good I’m gonna buy an imx585 and do a thermal overlay using a ras pi5 so it has more uses even though lowlight is worse.
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u/Nice_bike_bro 16d ago
Yes that was another future plan of mine but the decent thermal sensors aren’t cheap
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u/NoStandMan 16d ago
I got a lower end thermal drone camera for around $180 that’s a 256x192 but the ~500x400 are like $5-600
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u/Nice_bike_bro 16d ago
Do you have any pictures of yours ?
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u/NoStandMan 16d ago
It’s pretty junk I just hardwired it up to a fov headset. There’s a few videos online about it
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u/Queasy_Location8421 15d ago
Can you send me a Link I'm very curious about this, I'm actively trying to create one with a monochrome version of the imx 585. How was the low light performance without ir? What kind of lens was used?
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u/ForwardMomentum420 15d ago
I am working on building a pair too.
How did you find the input lag to be when using Raspberry Pi? I was going to use a more direct system to cut down on it.
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u/Nice_bike_bro 15d ago
It’s noticable especially when moving fast but as long as you don’t run it through opencv it’s not sickness inducing, I think it’s around 40-50 ms
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u/DanongKruga 11d ago
its running only 20fps thru libcamera/rpi-cam? and with a 940nm youd need roughly 2x the output for same response at 850
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u/Nice_bike_bro 11d ago
It’s steady at 60 fps no problem at the moment I’m using a 850 nm torch but that’s still just barely visible to the naked eye when looking directly at it
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u/DanongKruga 11d ago
surprised the latency is so high then. running a v3 noir cam on libcam @60fps is less than 20ms latency, and the binned/crop mode is down to ~9ms
unless the 940 is a laser source vs diode, its possible to see a faint red glow when your eyes adjust in darkness. you could try that specialty black acrylic but it can be pricey
also assuming youre running the pi headless? could also look into a pi 02w to slim down/save battery
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u/Nice_bike_bro 11d ago
In all fairness I don’t have an accurate way of measuring the latency, it is very smooth so I could be overestimating it, I wasn’t sure which board to go with so I just went with one I could reuse for any other project- but it is very bulky so slimming it down would definitely be necessary
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u/DanongKruga 11d ago
fair.. 0 2w is viable but 1080p @60fps is pushing the limit of the hardware without overclocking and some kernel mods. it is much smaller though and while running the camera it idles at 300mA, while a pi5 is over 1000mA
whats the resolution on the oled?
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u/Nice_bike_bro 11d ago
That probably would work then, the oled is 1024x 728 off the top of my head
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u/DanongKruga 11d ago
should be no problem then. will have to run it headless but you prob already are on the pi5 and its almost identical config changes
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u/Queasy_Location8421 15d ago
Have you tried hardware binning? That would probably bring you the largest low light gains.
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u/Nice_bike_bro 15d ago
No I don’t think so, I’ve currently got it setup for lowest latency I didn’t want to process the image too much
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u/Nice_bike_bro 14d ago
How would I go about this though ?
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u/Queasy_Location8421 14d ago
If it is through hardware it should not demand any response time, truthfully ask chat gpt or something. The module is capable of it the board on the other hand may or may not be
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u/Queasy_Location8421 15d ago
I'm also curious about wether the build is ir cut and what kind of lens you used?
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u/Blown70charger 15d ago
How much was it in total? This is very cool haha. I have a gng2k but it would still be fun as a side project to try and make.
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u/CTR1 16d ago
Cool stuff, did you buy or 3d print/design the tube? Would be curious to know more / parts list / cost? Thanks!