Im sure this has been asked alot or gone over at least once or twice though I have found nothing on this site about it. I was looking at getting the KX171 camera for my EZ* once I am ready to get all of that. I was wondering though how cool it would be to fly at night and have sight. Is there an cameras roughly the size of the KX171 but are IR and have decent to good picture? If anyone has done anything to there UAV in the regard or knows of such a camera it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks much
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Wayne, the smallest true IR camera that i have seen is the one on the Army's Raven UAV. Its pretty small and lightweight, but like Martin said, IR will probably set you back pretty far.
One alternate approach that Mike W touched on is the camera he spoke of. And since most cameras can see IR light, you might want to rig a small UV laser with a diffuser on it (for eye safety and spread on the ground) to get the range you are looking for. Even in low power, the IR lasers mounted to our rifles would show up like a lighthouse in our night vision goggles, so that may be a route to consider.
I've had fantastic success flying at night with board cameras that have very low lux rating such as this $19 camera from supercircuits. I think that for the price it might be worth at least experimenting with..
Normally there is plenty of natural illumination (from the moon, street lights, etc.) that it works well.
Oh I guess I forgot to mention affordable. Myabe thats another project for me to do. A KX171 camera surrounded by super bright (10,000mcd or so) IR LEDs so I can see in the dark. ;) then again if I am to project the light 100ft or so away I would need something very powerful.
The FLIR Tau is an uncooled IR camera that fits the description, but expect it to set you back at least a thousand dollars. Infrared is still prohibitively expensive.
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http://www.supercircuits.com/Security-Cameras/Fixed-Security-Camera...
One alternate approach that Mike W touched on is the camera he spoke of. And since most cameras can see IR light, you might want to rig a small UV laser with a diffuser on it (for eye safety and spread on the ground) to get the range you are looking for. Even in low power, the IR lasers mounted to our rifles would show up like a lighthouse in our night vision goggles, so that may be a route to consider.
Normally there is plenty of natural illumination (from the moon, street lights, etc.) that it works well.
Also, see this thread.