Night Vision Gauntlet

A few years back I got a pair of Spy Net night vision goggles and they work really well, but it gave me a narrow range of vision and I had to constantly hold them up. So the other day I had pulled them out and thought about how I could solve this problem. The answer: turn the goggles into a wrist mounted device. I already had the night vision goggles so this was a really cheap and easy project, perfect for my first instructable. Now you can be able to see in the dark wherever you direct your arm without having to constantly hold goggles to your face.

Forewarning: You may have to deal with sharp items and potentially dangerous tools along with the risk of damaging your night vision goggles, so I am not to be held responsible for any harm you do to yourself, others, or property by attempting this instructable. Build this at your own risk.

Materials:
Spy Net Night Vision Binoculars
Elastic
Foam sheets
6V battery pack

Tools:
Screwdriver
Hot glue gun
Soldering iron (optional, but helps)

Flip over the night vision goggles. On the back you should see several screws. Unscrew all of them except the one that goes to the batteries.

At this point you should be able to open up the goggles as seen in the picture above.

Now here's the important part: on the side that has the battery pack you will see two wires connected to the batteries. On the battery pack you'll see a positive and negative symbol going to each wire. LABEL WHICH WIRE IS POSITIVE AND WHICH IS NEGATIVE. You'll need to know later.

After you've done that, you will see that there are more screws. Unscrew them (obviously).

Now you should be able to remove the top of the goggles. This should also allow you to remove the glasses-like part (where your eyes go). Take a look at the electronics in front of you. You should see a screen with a circuit board attached to the back of it. Remove those two items from the case, but do not separate them. On the circuit there is a lense. DO NOT REMOVE IT. THAT IS THE CAMERA. You can also remove the infrared leds from their casing.

After taking apart the goggles in the last step, there will the top piece of the goggles with a blue circuit board under it. This is for the switches that let you control the power, color, and infrared mode. Do not remove this board from its case. This will be the base of the gauntlet.

So you should have all the electronics sitting in front of you, still connected to the battery pack. I will say this again: MAKE SURE YOU LABEL THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE WIRES ON THE BATTERY PACK. Once the wires are labeled, remove them from the battery pack and wire them (or solder them) to a new 6V battery pack, matching the positive wire of the device to the positive wire of the new battery pack and the negative wire of the device to the negative wire of the battery pack. Make sure you cover the connections to prevent shorts (I used electrical tape).

Once the battery pack is hooked up, try flipping the power switch to the on position. If it does not power on, then check your connections and try again.

I used a hot glue gun to attach the battery pack to one side and the screen/camera circuit to the other as shown. Make sure the camera lense is in a position where nothing is blocking it. Also ensure that you have easy access to the switches. I then hot glued the two infrared devices to each side of the screen. To hide all the loose wires, you can stuff them underneath the case and glue them down.

At first I had just used elastic to make the arm straps for the device and when I put it on I realized something: pointy plastic hurts. So yeah, I highly recommend that you stick a foam sheet to the bottom of the base to prevent scratching up your hand and arm like I did. After adding the foam, take two strips of elastic and attach them to the sides as seen in the pictures above. These will be the straps that hold the device down to your arm so make sure you have the right measurements.

You can now put the device on your arm and power it up! If the picture is blurry, turn the lens behind the screen, this focuses it. Now you can have night vision without having to constantly hold up goggles or getting tunnel vision.