Infra red light => help needed to build one (or two)

Having an adequate number of UV lights, I decided it was time for an IR light. So I ordered an Osram SFH 4716AS IR 850nm emitter from Kaidomain and took a Warsun MX800 (C8 size, with deeper reflector) to be the lucky recipient. The merger was consummated without major disturbance.
And now. Does it work? Well, at the tailcap I measure a healthy 1.5A at max. And looking into the reflector, I see a well centered dark reddish emitter that responds to the input of the (buck) driver. But that’s all. I don’t have the means or instruments (like night vision goggles) to check if the light really functions as it should. Any suggestions?

I have taken the light with me on a couple of late night dog walks, shining around in people’s driveways and so, but no lights or (car) alarms were triggered. I guess most of those systems operate at a totally different wave lenght, like thousands of nm.

You can try using the camera on your phone, i’m not up to date but some of them used to allow IR through.

Thanks for your suggestion. I’ve tried two (old) digital camera’s and one cellprone. The camera’s only “saw” what I saw. The cellphone performed a bit better. Shining directly in the lens, the light appeared te be a lot more “agressive” than shining in my eyes. But even then, the beam did not lighten up any detail in the surrounding area. When I’m in a destructive mood I’ll try to locate the IR filter that seems to be built in all cellphones, and remove it.

EDIT: I dug up a Logitec C905 portable webcam. Left over from a (failed) communication project in my last job before being retired. The device is good plug-and-play, and walking through the “scanners and cameras” wizard it even gets me an image I can save in a picture. But it is 10AM over here, so there is too much visible light going around. Tonight I’ll try again. But by the looks of it, I seem to have a functioning IR flashlight :slight_smile:

EDIT2: The webcam performed better than the cellphone, but nothing to get really exited over.

I remembered I had an old Maginon (Aldi: type WK1) wildlife camera lying around. It works! It has a pinkish filter in front of the lens that slides away when it gets dark. Then it operates in B&W as an IR camera. And pretty well, too.
Now I can see on the display that my makeshift IR flashlight is really an IR thrower!! Much to my own surprise. And all it takes is any flashlight and an IR emitter.

Great stuff. I hope this technology will get more popular and becomes cheaper.