instructables
3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope)
by MattGyver92
I love light, physics, optics, and electronics. I started
designing night vision optics a few years ago when I
got into playing airsoft with some buddies. After a
couple miserable night games, I was inspired to build
something better than a flashlight. Since night vision
is typically expensive to buy, I chose to build a digital
system and it ended up working out great! Thus, my
love for building optics (particularly night vision) was
born.
You can also check out one of my older digital night
vision optic instructables here:
https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Infrared-Night-
Vision-Device/
Night vision is actually much easier (and cheaper) to
make than you might think and can be done using
nothing more than a few off the shelf parts. Since it's
a digital system, you don't need a tube or a fancy
power supply. Also, unlike real night vision (image
intensified), it can even be used in the daytime. There
are tons of instructables and other resources about
building digital night vision, but it's often hard to make
because of the hardware or lack of a cohesive
enclosure. With 3D printing, I've been able to solve
those issues and experiment with designing a digital
3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 1
monocular that I've named...The OpenScope.
The OpenScope is my attempt to design a simple
DIY digital night vision monocular with a 3D printed
enclosure. It features an adjustable camera on the
front, a 10mm 200mw IR LED for illumination, a
removable battery cover, and a lens collar that will fit
a flexible eye cup (Ninjaflex works good). The video
connection this optic uses could also be plugged into
an input or an output to use the optic in other ways,
like for viewing FPV drone footage, recording video,
using with a wireless camera, and more. Hence the
term, OpenScope.
This instructable will show you how to build your very
own 3D printed OpenScope monocular.
Estimated total printing time is around 20-25 hours. I
used PLA and NinjaFlex for all the printed bits.
This optic is intended for educational and
recreational use only.
Please use responsibly and use common sense.
 1 1

1. The optic can see pretty well in the dark with the help of the IR.
1. The optic can see pretty well in the dark with the help of the IR.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 2

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Step 1: The Design

Here's a few features of the OpenScope digital monocular:

True 1x magnification for easier use when walking (of course you can change this with a different
lens)
Adjustable camera alignment to assist in matching the picture with opposite unaided eye
Space for a built in 9V battery which powers the optic for about 2 hours
Compact form factor
Flexible removable eye cup for comfort
Built-in IR illumination
Modular design to allow batteries, lenses, and parts to swap
Video I/O capability for recording, transmitting, or receiving into the optic
Possibly use acrylic colored filters for tinting the vision to different colors like red/green/amber/etc.

I used SketchUp for the 3D design. I've been using SketchUp for almost 10 years and know how to make the
geometry I need with the tools I have as well as some awesome free plugins like RoundCorner and the STL
plugin.

I started off by modeling the bare electronic components I wanted to use for the optic such as the display, camera,
9V battery, switches, LED, etc. After I found the optical axis of the screen, eyepiece lens, the camera, and aligned
them along it, I placed the mount and started modeling around the parts. I used groups to keep the model
organized and tidy.

I decided to make the front of the optic a separate piece that uses a ball & socket type system to adjust the
orientation of the camera. I'm sure there's other ways to do this, but this was the best solution I could think of at the
moment. I did this because I wanted to be able to use the monocular for both right or left eye use and still allow the
ability to align the image with natural vision in the other eye. I implemented screw in clamps that tighten over the
ball to help secure it in place.

The battery box has enough to fit the 9V and had room to spare for wiring and connections.

The screen and accompanying board were designed to be glued to both sides of a block with grooves to help
ensure that it is inserted the correct way.

The eye cup was an afterthought that I decided would give the distinguished look of a optic. I would also say it
adds some additional comfort when using it.

Finally, I chose to add the project logo and text labels to the enclosure.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 4

Step 2: What you'll need

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 5

Tools and Equipment:
3D Printer: I use a FlashForge Creator for my 3D
printing needs. Any open spool printer that can
successfully print NinjaFlex material should work fine
for this project. The optic is divided into multiple parts
to help with printing size restrictions, support material,
and keeping print times shorter. You'll also need the
slicing program of your choice to prep the files for
printing on your machine.
Soldering iron & solder
Digital Voltimeter: You'll at least need it to check
voltage, polarity, and resistance for troubleshooting.
Heatshrink tubing/heat gun or lighter
JST Crimper Tool: If you're using JST connectors,
you'll absolutely want this to make solid connections.
You can crimp them by hand, but it's a headache and
doesn't work as well. (Amazon product link)
Electronics:
NTSC/PAL Camera ($38): (Amazon product link)
This camera comes with a 3.6mm board camera lens.
(Note that the IR filter will need to be removed)
1.5" NTSC/PAL TFT LCD display from Adafuit
($40): (Adafruit product link)
10mm 200mW IR LED (850nm) ($6.50): (Amazon
product link)

Needle nose pliers/tweezers/hemostats 180 Ohm resistor (brn/gry/brn/gold): (Amazon

Drill bit for chamfering and cleaning screw holes:
(I chucked one in a thread tap handle)
Wire strippers/cutters
product link) This is needed to prevent overloading
the IR LED from the 9V battery.
7805 Linear voltage regulator (12 to 5V) (Amazon
product link):This is needed to prevent overloading
the CMOS camera from the 9V battery.

Screwdriver SPST Toggle switch (Amazon product link)(Digikey

product link): I made the access hole 1/2" to fit the
one I used. I tried a close match on Amazon and
Digikey.
Rectangular SPST panel mount rocker switch
(Amazon product link)(Digikey product link): The
access hole is 14x20mm. Again, I tried to find a close
match on both sites.
Eyepiece lens: For 1x magnification, I use a 38 mm
Diameter, 50 mm Focal Length double convex lens
(Amazon product link). With the 3.6mm F2.0 lens on
the camera, this should get you pretty close to 1x field
of view compared to your natural vision.

Solder, wire, heatshrink tubing, etc.

2 pin/4 pin JST male/female connectors: I

recommend these to help with quickly disconnecting
parts of the circuit to help with installation and
increasing modularity. (Amazon link (4 pin), Amazon
link (2 pin))

I did my best to find everything on Amazon. If you

have trouble sourcing any parts, I would
recommend trying Digikey since they mostly sell
electronic components, have a vast selection, will
likely have the correct variation or package
design that works.
3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 6
Hardware:
Screws (Check your local hardware store):

6-32x5/8" (x8)

6-32x1" (x5)

6-32x1/2" (x2)

6-32x3/8 (x1)

Printing Filament:
PLA/ABS Filament: I recommend Hatchbox black
PLA as it has a low transmission of IR light. This
helps keep IR light from leaking from the front of the
enclosure.

NinjaFlex Filament: This is very hard to print with.

Make sure your machine is capable of printing this
stuff and go nice and slow. This is used to create the
flexible eye cover/cup for improving comfort when
using the optic. If you can't use NinjaFlex, there are
other eye cups you can buy (Like this one from
Amazon) and modify to fit the eyepiece.

Optics:

1 1

1. My soldering work station with a soldering iron, helping hands, solder 1. It's also good to have verious pliers, tweezers, and hemostats-which
and flux, a tip cleaner, heatshrink tube and a lighter, and a JST crimper. are great for holding onto parts since they can latch.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 7

1 1

1. If you want an easier time with wiring, I 1. Eyepiece lens

recommend using JST connectors and a pin
crimper.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 8

1 1

1. The NTSC/PAL LCD display and connected driver board with the 1. The camera and accompanying pigtail with AV RCIA jacks and a round
pigtail plugged in. The pigtail includes a 6-15V power wire, ground, and a power plug.
RCIA video input jack. Be careful with the flex ribbon, since it's delicate.

2 1
3 4

1. 6-32x1" 1. 7805 Linear voltage regulator. Feel free to

2. 6-32x1/2" use something else to regulate the power
3. 6-32x3/8" supply to 5V for the camera. I chose this
4. 6-32x5/8" because of the low cost and small size.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 9

 1

1. This is a 10mm IR LED. It's 200mW, so it's pretty bright and is in the
850nm range, so even though it's infrared, you'll have a slight red glow.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 10

Step 3: 3D Printing Parts

Easily the most time consuming (and expensive
depending on if you have a 3D printer or not) step of
this build, we will be producing our enclosure from 3D
printed parts.The STL files for the enclosure can be
located here on Thingiverse:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2121014
I chose to print my parts in PLA and NinjaFlex. The
PLA is relatively low warp and prints easily with fewer
failed prints. The parts come out strong and rigid. I
used Slic3r to slice my parts for my machine and
created pillar pattern supports with 1 interface layer.
This way supports do their job and are easy to
remove from complicated parts like the main body
and the battery box on the optic.
For cleaning supports out of the screw holes, I used
the closes drill bit size I could find and chucked it in a
hand threading handle.
NinjaFlex is very challenging to print with. I
needed to print an upgraded extruder block to better
extrude the filament without binding or jamming.
Finally, NinjaFlex requires a direct drive extruder to
print. Bowden drive printers require much more work
to use NinjaFlex and success is not guaranteed either
way. Rubber scope recoil protectors can also make a
great alternate substitute for an eyecup.
PLA Settings:
Extruder temp: 220C
Bed temp: 55C
Layer height: .3mm
Feed rate: 30mm/s
NinjaFlex Settings:
Extruder temp: 240C

Bed temp:110C
NinjaFlex is really only needed for the eyecup on
the optic to create a comfortable place to rest the
Layer height: .3mm
optic against your face. It also allows the eyecup to
simply be stretched over a lip on the eyepiece rather
Feed rate:15mm/s
than need screws or threads to attach it to the
system.

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Step 4: How it works/Circuit diagram

Here's how the system works:
Since the human eye cannot see light in the infrared
spectrum, using a small camera that can see IR and
outputting the video to a small screen creates a night
vision system that works like an invisible flashlight.
This low light vision technology is widely used
from business security cameras to the rear view
camera on your vehicle.
The OpenScope runs off a 9V battery and uses a 12-
5V voltage regulator to help protect the camera since
it's only rated for a max of 5V. The 10mm IR LED
provides the IR light source and is powered from the
unregulated side of the circuit along with the screen.
Both the camera and the screen use a composite
analog video signal (NTSC) to send and receive the
video. The composite signal uses a signal wire and a
ground connection to work properly.
I chose to use JST plugs to create connection points
on a few parts of my optic so I can assemble, repair,
replace, and modify components more easily. I also
did this with the video signal and video ground wires
to allow me to use other inputs and outputs with the
optic.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 15

Step 5: Wiring
The wiring is probably the most difficult part of the
build. In the future, it would make more sense if I
could find a way to use a PCB board to eliminate
stuffing wires inside the housing, but for now it works.
I encourage you to look back at the wiring diagram if
you need further reference, since the wiring can get a
bit dense towards the end.
I started by dividing and conquering. Since I used
connectors, I was able to do the wiring in small parts
(more like "modules") and connect everything
together later. The camera and LCD board already
have leads that can be disconnected, which further
simplifies the wiring for now.
1.) Clip the ends of both pigtails for the camera and
screen, being sure to leave plenty of wire attached to
the white plugs that connect to camera and LCD
board.
1 2
1. Trim the pigtails for both the screen and camera, leaving plenty of wire
left for the white plug on the ends.
3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 16
2.) For the battery connector, I connected one lead
straight to my JST plug and the other through my
toggle switch and to the opposite pin on my main
power plug.
3.) I followed a similar procedure for the 10mm IR
LED. After checking my polarity, I soldered a 100
ohm current limiting resistor to the LED and attached
one lead directly to the JST plug, and the other
through my 7mm rocker switch and then to the plug.
4.) I wanted to open up my video input and output, so
I used a 4 pin plug and jumped pin 1 to 3 and pin 2 to
4. This allows for a composite video signal and wire
to be used with a jumper or used with an alternate
plug later to use another input or output.
1
1. undefined
2. Trim the pigtails for both the screen and camera, leaving plenty of wire
left for the white plug on the ends.
 1

1. I used a 4 pin JST connector plug to make a jumper. This is for the input
and output video signals and video ground wires.

1. This is the battery connector and main power toggle switch. I put this on
a 2 pin JST so I can run it to a bigger battery later on if I choose to do so.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 17

 1

1. I used a 100 Ohm resistor to help protect

the LED from too much current.

1 1

1. The completed IR "module". I chose to use a rectangular panel mount 1. These four connections (also the battery connector/switch not shown)
switch since I can mount it from the outside of the access hole. are the first part of the wiring.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 18

Step 6: Wiring (Continued)
At this point I had four 'modules' that I could start
soldering together.
Before you continue, examine the 7805 linear voltage
regulator.
The voltage regulator has 3 pins.
12V (Unregulated) on the left || Common ground in
center || 5V (Regulated) on the right
1.) I soldered the positive leads to my screen and
LED to the 12V pin on the left and both grounds to
the center ground pin.
2.) For the camera, I soldered the 5V+ lead to the
regulated pin on the right side of the regulator and the
ground lead to the center ground pin.
3.) All that's left is the video and video signal ground
1 3
2
1. Unregulated 12V (really only 9V because of our battery) for the LCD
and IR LED.
2. Common ground.
3. Regulated 5V for the camera.
3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 19
connections. Since I used a 4 pin jumper, I soldered
the input and output video signal wires to pin 1 and 3
(respectively) since they're being jumped through the
jumper plug and connect together. The LCD board
pigtail has a white signal ground wire that can
connect to the output signal ground pin on the
connector.
4.) The camera pigtail does not use a signal ground
lead and instead uses the main ground with the video
signal, only needed 3 wires. The white lead coming
from the camera is actually an audio signal line that
uses the main ground as well. Since I wasn't planning
on using the audio connection, I clipped it and
soldered the remaining signal ground on the jump
plug to the main ground pin of the voltage regulator.
By this point, I had a mess or wires and plugs.
1. My mess of wires and plugs.
Step 7: The LCD Display

The NTSC TFT LCD is the heart of the optic because
this is what your eye is looking at when you're trying
to see. I needed a separate part to hold the screen
and connecting board in place in order to use it with
the optic.
This printed part is designed to fit the screen, driver
board, and connecting ribbon cable onto both sides of
a block that slides into the main body.
I used E6000 adhesive to glue the display and board
to the screen block. I'm sure there are other options
for adhesives for gluing circuits to PLA plastic, but
E6000 worked great for my needs and I had some on
hand. I used some toothpicks to spread the glue
evenly on the surface and placed some small rubber
bands to hold the components flat until the glue set.

1. You'll want to glue the screen on a paper plate. I used E6000 adhesive,
but others may work as well.

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Step 8: Connect and test
After I finished my wiring and the glue set on my LCD
screen, I was ready to test the wiring.
Before I plugged anything into my wiring, I first made
sure to remove the lens cover on the camera and
then used a voltmeter to check that all connections
had the right voltage and correct polarity. Try to avoid
shorting your power by touching the pins on your
meter. I also checked my video signal and video
ground connections with an ohmmeter to make sure
they were connected. Once everything looked good, I
plugged the components into their respective JST
connectors.
1. After testing the plugs with the multimeter and checking the polarity,
everything lights up when connected and turned on!
3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 22
When power is applied, the screen should light up
and show the picture from the camera. Also, if you
should see a faint red glow from the IR LED when
power is applied with the IR switch. This is because
the LED is 850nm wavelength, which is mostly IR but
still emits some visible red light. 940nm IR LED's (like
in your remote control) are almost completely in the
IR spectrum and emit little to no visible light.
If you have issues, turn off power, unplug everything,
and check your voltage, polarity, and connections
again.
Step 9: Modifying the CMOS Camera
We're not done yet. While you could technically start
assembling the optic, you won't be able to see very
well with it. This is because the CMOS camera uses
an IR pass filter to give block IR light and give a
better daytime color image.
Since I didn't care about the daytime color picture
because I was planning on using this to see in the
dark, the IR filter had to go.
Removing the filter is actually pretty simple. You'll
need a small screw driver (ideally magnetized). You'll
also want a pair of tweezers or needle nose pliers.
I recommend doing this on a plate or a towel in a
clean, dust-free environment.
1.) Use the screwdriver to remove the small set screw
on the side of the lens on the camera housing. Put
the screw somewhere safe for the moment so you
don't lose it.
2.) Unscrew the lens to remove it. Look on the back
of the lens and into the camera at the sensor. You
should see a orange/blue reflective glass square.
This is the IR filter. I've found some on the back of the
lens and some covering the sensor inside the
camera. I've also destroyed cameras because I didn't
look on the back of the lens and mistakenly removed
1. To modify the camera to see better in the dark, you'll need a small
magnetized screwdriver and a pair of tweezers or needle nose pliers to
remove the IR pass filter.
3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 23
the sensor cover, so use caution!
I recommend examining the photo if you have trouble
identifying it.
3.) Using a pair of tweezers or needle nose pliers,
carefully remove the filter. If it chips, make sure to
discard any glass shards and keep trying. If you're
having trouble, you might want to try using a steel
sewing pin or needle to pry under the filter and pop it
off.
4.) Once the filter is removed, discard it and carefully
remove any stray glass. Inspect the area where the
filter was for dust, residue, hair, fuzz, or smudges. If
necessary, you can try to clean the area with a Q tip.
5.) Replace the lens on the camera, plug it into the
wiring along with the screen, and turn it on. While I
threaded the lens back on the camera, I used the
screen to get the camera picture refocused. If the
picture is cloudy or seems obstructed, turn everything
off, unplug the camera, remove the lens, and
reinspect the lens and sensor.
6.) Hang on to that set screw but don't replace it
yet. You'll want to do that after the camera is
seated in the enclosure.
1. You'll need to remove the set screw in order to remove the lens and
access the filter.
 2

1
1

1. Don't lose this. Seriously. 1. This is the CMOS sensor. It's like the camera version of a retina in the
human eye. Light is focused on this sensor to create the image.
2. Lucky for me, this peach colored square of glass is the IR filter I seek.
Sometimes, this is on the sensor inside the camera and is trickier to reach.
Always check the lens first.

1. It chipped a bit, but I managed to remove it from the lens.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 24

Step 10: The Camera and IR modules
At this point, I was ready to begin the assembly of the
optic. I started with the camera and IR LED housing
on the front of the enclosure.
The ball/socket design was a solution I discovered
while trying to correct the problem of the camera
view not matching up well with my other eye
during use. This way, I can adjust the alignment
and match my view for left or right eye use and it
feels natural while looking around.
On the camera housing (looks like a ball), observe
the small hole on the side of the outer ring of the part.
Once the camera is seated, the set screw hole should
be visible and accessible through this opening. Use
care if you find you need to apply more force to seat
the camera into the housing.
1.) Seat the camera and then used a magnetized
3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 25
screwdriver to replace the set screw through the
opening.
2.) Place the camera and ball housing into the front
cover as shown in the photos. You should see two
screw holes near the opening for the camera ball
housing.
3.) Find the two identical retaining clips and seat them
over the screw holes with the large part facing up as
shown in the photos. I found I had to seat them
without the camera ball first to get them to fit better.
4.) Using two 6-32x1/2" screws, snug the retaining
clips around the ball to secure it in place.
3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 26
Step 11: Installation and Assembly
With the camera mounted, it's time to put the rest of
the optic together.
1.) Feed the IR LED and LED power connector
through the rectangular opening on the side of the
enclosure and out through the front. The switch
should fit nicely into the rectangular opening.
2.) Insert the 10mm LED into the hole on the front
cover next to the camera and retaining clips. I had
trouble installing mine, so I used needle nose pliers to
push the back of the LED for more force. If the fit is
too tight, a drill bit could help widen the hole slightly.
If the fit is too loose, some clear adhesive or tape
around the LED could help hold it in place.
3.) With the LED installed, use the five 6-32x1"
screws to attach the front cover to the main body of
the optic.
4.) Plug the camera and IR LED connectors into the
wiring.
5.) For the LCD screen, locate the slot in the
enclosure that matches the side of the screen block.
The screen block should slide into place. Plug the
screen connector into the driver board.
7.) Locate the disk retainer (it has a flattened side)
and use the single 6-32x3/8" screw to secure it to the
3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 27
bottom of the main body of the enclosure. Tighten
until snug, but is still easy to rotate. This piece is
designed to rotate and help hold the LCD screen from
sliding around.
8.) For the battery box, insert the toggle switch
through the round hole on the side of the battery
cover. For convenience, I've added text labels next to
the switch access for on and off positions. Secure the
switch with the included nut and tighten until snug.
9.) Plug the power JST plug into the rest of the wiring
of the optic and connect a 9V battery to the battery
clip. Feel free to flip the switch and make sure
everything is working before closing everything up.
10.) Carefully pack the loose wiring into the main
enclosure body. It's important to keep the metal
heatsink of the voltage regulator away from touching
the LCD board since this can cause a short since it
acts as a ground connection on the regulator. If
necessary, you could put heatshrink over the tab.
11.) Use four 6-32x5/8" screws to attach the battery
box cover to the main body of the enclosure with the
switch facing towards the back. There should be a
recess in the main body of the enclosure to give more
room for the toggle switch.
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Step 12: Installing the Eyepiece Lens

We're almost done!
To help see the LCD screen more easily and magnify
the picture to a 1:1 ratio (comparable to natural
vision), we'll need to install the double convex lens. I
recommend cleaning the lens with a lens cloth to
remove any smudges.
1.) Without leaving fingerprints on the lens, drop it
into the large round recess on the back of the optic as
shown in the photo.
2.) Using the retaining ring, place it over the lens and
use four remaining 6-32x5/8" screws to secure it over
the lens.
3.) If you printed an eyecup using the NinjaFlex, it
should stretch and fit over the lip on the lens retaining
ring. Feel free to rotate as needed for left or right eye
use.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 32

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Step 13: Going further
Congratulations! You have built a working digital night
vision monocular.
If you want to take the project further, there's a few
more things you can do.
First, you can can filter the color of the night vision for
a more.....convincing viewing experience.
There is a gap in front of the LCD screen block in the
main enclosure body. This design feature is
intentional and allows for a 50x50mm .118" thick
acrylic square filter to be inserted and used. I made
one using a laser cutter and some green acrylic
(since most real night vision optics are green) to
make a filter.
Making a filter:
To install the filter, unscrew the battery cover, rotate
the retaining disk, and insert the filter. Rotate the disk
back and reattach the battery box cover and your all
set for filtered vision!
(Note, the filter won't affect the video signal should
you choose to output it since it's just filtering the light
from the screen).
If you use a filter, you might notice that after using the
optic for awhile, everything you see in that eye will
appear a different color without the optic. This
phenominon is normal and is called a brown after
image. It's similar to staring at an inverted color
image and looking at a white surface to see the
'ghost' of the image colored correctly.
The reason for this is the cone cells in your retina use
more of the chemicals for the filtered color you're
seeing. This briefly alters the color of your natural
vision to that opposite of the color filter you use. A
green filter makes a purple/pink after image. Red
makes a dark teal after image. Amber makes a dark
3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 34
blue after image. ...and so on.
Camera lenses:
The camera takes a 1/3" mount camera lens. The
lens I used for 1x magnification was a 3.6mm F2.0
lens, but you can find other sizes as well that will give
you more magnification and a tighter field of view or
less magnification and a wider field of view. The field
of view affects the quality of sight due to the low
resolution of the LCD display, so smaller objects
might get fuzzier and harder to distinguish. Some
varifocal zoom lenses may fit the camera with some
modification to the housing to allow adjustable zoom
and focus.
This lens has a much tighter FOV and higher
magnification for seeing things farther away (Amazon
product link).
Video IO:
I managed to make an alternate video plug that uses
two RCA jacks for both the output video feed from the
camera and the input for the display. With this IO
capability, you can input video from another source
like a Raspberry Pi, CCTV camera, wireless AV
receiver, drone FPV feed, Super Nintendo, etc. Keep
in mind the optic has a pretty low resolution, so
reading any text might be tricky.
I simply reused the RCA jack that was connected to
the LCD pigtail that I trimmed earlier, but I sourced
some similar ones on Mouser (Mouser product link).
You can also output the camera feed to a recording
device, wireless video transmitter, TV screen, or even
another OpenScope! I even managed to run the input
and output through an Arduino with a Video
Experimenter Shield to overlay text and graphics onto
the input video signal to create a crude HUD with the
optic.
 1

1. Green makes for an authentic night vision experience.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 35

 1

1. The filter slots in right in front of the LCD display.

1 1

1. The rotating retaining disk should help hold the filter in as well as the 1. The green filter at work.
screen block.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 36

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 37
 1 2

1. The original video jumper.

2. The alternative video connector with RCIA jacks for the video input and
output.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 38

 1

1. I used a sharpie to label the jacks so I know which is which.

1. I tested the input with a C-Mount CCTV security camera I bought on Ebay some time ago.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 39

 1 1

1. The camera has menu settings that can be viewed through the 1. I tested the output by feeding the OpenScope camera video to an
OpenScope with the video input. The text is actually quite legible despite NTSC display I like to use for my Raspberry Pi.
the low resolution of the LCD in the optic.

1. I also managed to test using an Arduino and Video Experimenter Shield. It takes the video
input, overlays text and graphics, and outputs the result.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 40

 1

1. The result is a crude HUD that could be useful for showing battery life,
GPS, or other things.

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 41

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 42
 Download (https://cdn.instructables.com/ORIG/F7P/2KIK/IZ6C98K1/F7P2KIKIZ6C98K1.dxf)

http://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F7P/2KIK/IZ6C98K1/F7P2KIKIZ6C98K1.dxf

(https://cdn.instructables.com/ORIG/F7P/2KIK/IZ6C98K1/F7P2KIKIZ6C98K1.dxf)
Download (https://cdn.instructables.com/ORIG/FS2/VEZU/IZ6C98K4/FS2VEZUIZ6C98K4.pdf)

http://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FS2/VEZU/IZ6C98K4/FS2VEZUIZ6C98K4.pdf

(https://cdn.instructables.com/ORIG/FS2/VEZU/IZ6C98K4/FS2VEZUIZ6C98K4.pdf)
Download (https://cdn.instructables.com/ORIG/F86/WSJD/IZ6C98KU/F86WSJDIZ6C98KU.svg)

http://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F86/WSJD/IZ6C98KU/F86WSJDIZ6C98KU.svg

(https://cdn.instructables.com/ORIG/F86/WSJD/IZ6C98KU/F86WSJDIZ6C98KU.svg)

3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 43

Step 14: Final thoughts
I was genuinely impressed by the quality of the night
vision and the outcome of the enclosure design and
assembly. The wiring is extremely tedious and I might
consider using a PCB or at least perf or proto board
to help reduce the mass of wiring.
The 200mw 10mm IR LED is a little overkill for indoor
use and a little underpowered for outdoor use.
Visibility is great so long as you have objects nearby
to reflect the IR light back to the camera. It's easy to
see IR light from security cameras, remote controls,
smartphones, gaming consoles and VR systems, and
more. I've found that the camera is pretty sensitive in
low light and can see pretty well even without IR
illumination.
I was also really pleased with how well the video IO
works. I might try to see if I can hook it up to my
3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 44
wireless video Tx/Rx module and see through a
wireless camera with the OpenScope.
I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading my instructable
and that you maybe even consider building one for
yourself. If nothing else, the project is great for
teaching about electronics, soldering, composite
video, IR light, 3D printing, and even a little biology
with how humans see. As I keep sourcing better
parts, developing parts, finding applications, and
reading comments and feedback, I'll do my best to
keep this instructable and the Thingiverse page
updated.
Thanks for reading, and please consider voting for
this instructable!
3D Printed Digital Night Vision (The OpenScope): Page 45