Birth of the Blue Missile

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Andrew,
Ive said it before and will probally say it again before this build is done but your electrical skills and knowledge are quite impressive and off the hook.....
 
Forward looking infrared (FLIR) cameras, typically used on military and civilian aircraft, use an imaging technology that senses infrared radiation.[1]
The sensors installed in forward-looking infrared cameras—as well as those of other thermal imaging cameras—use detection of infrared radiation, typically emitted from a heat source (thermal radiation), to create a "picture" assembled for video output.
They can be used to help pilots and drivers steer their vehicles at night and in fog, or to detect warm objects against a cooler background. The wavelength of infrared that thermal imaging cameras detect differs significantly from that of night vision, which operates in the visible light and near-infrared ranges (0.4 to 1.0 μm).
Long-wave infrared (LWIR) cameras, sometimes called "far infrared", operate at 8 to 12 μm, and can see heat sources, such as hot engine parts or human body heat, a few miles away.
I’m using 840nm & 970nm sources.

Andrew
 
67 prostreet,
please forgive me for my usually very technical answers.
With the system I will be able to drive dark or have some extra help in the fog.
Andrew
 
Here is the latest update.
First of all Im starting to notice a pattern here.....all the crazy outside of the box stuff is created in the winter when Im stuck in the closed up garage.
Well, I now have built the two main Infra-Red headlights. They complete the IR lighting system consisting of 92-940nm LEDs & 84-850nm LEDs. This is 244% of the lighting that came with the camera, which is rated for 50 meters.
There is no way I would have been able to get this density of LEDs without the computer for layout.
First pic is of the CAD layout and the back of the the perf board.
Second pic is of the completed arrays
Third pic is with a flash. The IR LEDs are the only ones Ive ever seen with this amount of reflectivity.
The other up date is that the 10.2" rear view mirror monitor I was going to use for the display is not available any more. So I found a 12.2" visor monitor with a viewing field of 11.6"x 3.86" even better.
Andrew
 

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Back from the mandatory holiday trip to visit in-laws. I finally got the trunk lid re-primed and re plumbed the external oil filtration system.
I was going to use one of those on the block oil cooler thermostats but I saw someones system here with the other kind of thermostat and the install looked so much cleaner and I did not like the on block design.
The first pic is the before the rest are after.
I also saw a post about running filters in series and how there could be a large pressure drop. So I used the extra ports at the filter housings and ran individual gauges after each filter. Now I can check the system at each point in question.
Andrew
 

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OMM,
well yeah. The parental unit is a propulsion engineer and the brother in law locates the "Black Matter" we run on.

Are you aware that the energy these LEDs emit is not visible to the human eye. They also will be inclosed with a black infra red transparent plastic so as to blend into the grill.Lets see how close we really can come to stealth.

In the mean time I got the two 6"x9" package tray speakers swapped out, the old ones got filled with water a couple of years age before the glass went in. I went with 4way 680 watt Lanzers. I also got the 1600 watt amp for the rear speakers mounted and hooked up.
Andrew
 

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blue missile said:
OMM,
well yeah. The parental unit is a propulsion engineer and the brother in law locates the "Black Matter" we run on.

Are you aware that the energy these LEDs emit is not visible to the human eye. They also will be inclosed with a black infra red transparent plastic so as to blend into the grill.Lets see how close we really can come to stealth.

In the mean time I got the two 6"x9" package tray speakers swapped out, the old ones got filled with water a couple of years age before the glass went in. I went with 4way 680 watt Lanzers. I also got the 1600 watt amp for the rear speakers mounted and hooked up.
Andrew
Click to expand...

In the words of Doc Brown:

"My God! Do you know what this means?
 
"You keep using that word, I don't think that word means what you think it means."
Andrew
 

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I know you were looking for wider wheels. Weld Craft widens alloy wheels for 225 a wheel. I am going to widen some 10.5s to 12 and that ads 1.5 inch of back space to help
 
Thanks 360,
I may look into that.
In the mean time, the weather chasing me inside has resulted in the completion of the FLIR system.
Pretty good field of view, using just one of the lights, it was intensely bright.
Its a little grainy, Its nice to have non the less.
The one pic is of the shot of the garage with the camera in its place on the scoop.
Andrew
 

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No, otherwise I could use it for the targeting computer.
I actually lost the camera today in that one of the micro cable connectors broke loose from too much handling. A new one is on the way and Ill take the opportunity to improve the mounting arrangement.
The IR plastic turns out to be fragile as glass after you heat it enough to form it. Plan B is already in process.
More later
Andrew
 
blue missile said:
Thanks 360,
I may look into that.
In the mean time, the weather chasing me inside has resulted in the completion of the FLIR system.
Pretty good field of view, using just one of the lights, it was intensely bright.
Its a little grainy, Its nice to have non the less.
The one pic is of the shot of the garage with the camera in its place on the scoop.
Andrew
Click to expand...


Ok now this may sound really stupid but is that camera have night vision capabilities?

Posted via Topify using iPhone/iPad
 
OMM,
Those would be the guys on the corner with squeegees, the LED pointer fits quite nicely into the handle.

Prostreet,
The short answer is yes. Please refer to post 1128 further up the page. After "bench testing" outside 100 yards should be no problem.
Andrew
 
What are you using the IR illuminators for? You must be using standard IR sensitive cameras as well or is there some benifit to using active IR illumination with thermal imaging? Flir are typically cooled or uncooled microbolometer or cooled MCT and use rare element lensing, very different from a CCD imager. All the various ranger and similar PTZ and the hand held flirs I used had nothing to do with active IR illumination. Just curious :) Quite an amazing spaceship vehicle you are building.
 
RN,
Yes this is a system based on a fairly high definition CC camera @ 720 lines. It has a Zero Lux IR chip and responds to LWIR sources.
Long-wave infrared (LWIR) cameras, sometimes called "far infrared", operate at 8 to 12 μm, and can see heat sources, such as hot engine parts or human body heat, a few miles away.
I’m using 840nm & 970nm sources. And in stead of spending tens of thousands of dollars, its an under $300 toy.
As far as usefulness goes we shall see.
In the meantime here are some pics of the progress.
first is the shattered plastic piece.
then I made one out of stainless and will cut a lens to go inside the enclosure.
Andrew
 

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