infrared lighting on a budget

Hi all

I’ve been working on an “infrared lighting on a budget” project over the winter aimed primarily at the amateur and professional ecologist community working on bat surveys, they seem to spend a fortune on IR lighting which should be available for a fraction of the cost (IMHO).

I aimed for £100 and got the complete rig including I.R. video camera for £120.

It works and I’ve even got some nice video of a Lesser horseshoe bat, Lesser Horseshoe bats in a bird hide on Vimeo.

(It was only after making this short I realised that my video technique needs some work / seriously sucks).

Here’s the completed project all written up if anyone is interested.
http://www.mybat.co.uk/downloads/infrared_lighting_V4.pdf

So my next aim is to attempt to improve the battery life, ideally to 3hrs but as the torches are getting a tad warm after 20 minutes I think I might end up cooking the I.R. drop-in’s

I was considering moving away from the torches to something like
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brite-R-CREE-XM-L-T6-LED-Front-Bicycle-Bike-Rechargeable-Light-Torch-Headlight-/271675457869

but I have no idea if they accept a P-60 drop-in without buying one. If anyone has any good ideas I’d love to hear from you.

Cheers

Chris

as a big bat fan (also a fan of small bats, longtime caver)
People in the US have had to stay out of a lot of caves because of the “white nose” infection being spread by visitors.
I just saw a story that there’s some hope of a ‘probiotic’ that can prevent that from spreading.

I had to click past two levels of “privacy prevents showing this” before the video appeared, looks decent.

Yeah, a tripod or monopod always helps!

Hopefully this isn’t too off-topic. yes Sadly it looks like the starting point for white nose syndrome was a cave near New York that was used by a group of cavers from Europe, as all European bats appear to be completely immune to the disease no-one had any idea they where transferring a lethal fungus, it’s been really sad as it’s nearly wiped out the little brown bat and as the bats hoover up huge numbers of pest insects that damage crops it will have a negative impact on the wider environment. Last weeks news is the first positive news I’ve heard in five years so here’s hoping in a few years time you can get back in your caves again and see some bats.

Also I see if I can sort out the privacy settings cos that’s annoying.

All the best

Chris

Very interesting project. Thanks for sharing video and docementation! Yeah, the bats are amazing creatures.

Kind regards

mtbr.com: this searches there for “P60 dropin”

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amtbr.com+“p60+dropin”

you can improve on that search

I am sure I missed it, but what wavelength do you need? They sell some flooders cheap over at Banggood or Fasttech. They look like 12 volt off road fog lights. I can’t remember if they say what wavelength they are. I was gonna orders some to flood my driveway at night. You could also use some old security camera rings. If you had access to some broken cameras or the like.

Hi Hank

Had a play around, nothing that quite fits but a lot of near misses. I think I’ll post a direct question and ask what mtb lights will accept a P60 dropin and see what response I get.

Ric - I’m using 850nm as it’s cheaper and I don’t care about the dim red glow, I’ve got some good results with the big bulky lights, but the problem is they are big and bulky and I already have way to much kit, the 850nm torches are awesome I just need to improve my battery life and make sure they don’t overheat.

PS I’ve noticed this site is slightly addictive, I’m just about to order one of these to try
http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.9.MhPlUE&id=45047831916
after reading a post

and I’m currently hammering a screw into the battery end of an old maglite to assist with stuck battery removal. My stars this week foretell of an expensive new hobby…….