Vehicle mounted thermal

JTPinTX

JTPinTX

Custom Call Maker
I know there are high dollar turn key systems out there. That ain't my budget, lol.

So let me bounce some random ideas out here.

I know there are magnetic base roof mounts out there that have remotes. Folks use them for spotlights and such. If a guy could rig one of those with a picatinny rail, then a Hogster or similiar could be mounted on it. Thermal would be vehicle mounted and remote controlled.

Now what a guy needs is a way to view it. Even though I have a hogster I am no expert on them at all. Is there a way to run a cable to it, bring the cable in through a door or sliding rear window, then hook it up to a tablet or video monitor? Just live view, no recording.

My idea here is not scanning running down the highway at 75 mph. The goal is 10-30 mph cruising on private land looking for sounders of pigs. When approaching potential fields kill the lights, use the thermal to drive with no lights and creep up within stalking distance of sounders of pigs. Also 360 scanning without opening doors, creating lights and noise.

Help me brainstorm on how to make this workable. Ideas, links to parts, whatever.

Friend of mine has a remote control thermal system in his truck, we watch the monitor as he drives, pretty slick, but not a cheap system. I am trying to figure a way to mimic it with my Hogster, yet still be able to pop it loose quickly and use it as a handheld scanner.
 
I have some ideas for you but just leaving to go hunting for the night. I would recommend the Phenom as the thermal because they you can send the video via wireless to a tablet in the vehicle and not to worry about running cords, etc, but again will talk more about this tomorrow afternoon.
 
Well I don't have a Phenom but I do have a Hogster 35, so the Hogster is what I am going to have to use, lol. I do agree wireless would be easier. My extended cab pickup does have a pop open side window I can run the cable through and close it though so it won't be in the way too much. I know I won't be able to do 360 circles because of the cable, I will have to just swing back and forth to not twist it up.

My main problem right now is I don't know what to connect the cable to for viewing. I would like a decent size screen, tablet or larger. But no idea how to do that.

Good luck tonight, I may go out myself! Maybe last chance for a few days, its gonna get really cold for us down south that aren't used to it.
 
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Screen: You will need a screen that can except an RCA video feed. The hardest part is unless Bering has changed their feed it is PAL complaint only. DVRs typically allow PAL and NTSC, but I know I tested it to a TV and the TV couldn't recognize the PAL feed. As mentioned wireless would be so much simpler with no cords and virtually any Android phone or device, but I understand you want to use your Hogster.

Rotating Base: You could use the Night Goggles OWL. It won't let you control stopping and moving it left and right. It will do sweeps back and forth on the Swing setting.

If you wish to control the rotation, I have used the Vello Freewave Orbit. You can mount an heavy pull magnet on the bottom and rotate as you wish. In theory, you could tap a 1/4" x 20 thread hole in a picatinny rail and mount it to the top or buy the TRIPOD PICATINNY RAIL ADAPTER from TNVC.

These are some pics with my old Pulsar Helion XP38:

rotate1.jpg


rotate2.jpg


Video you can download and watch of it rotating.
 
A friend of mine found a good remote pan/tilt head and ordered it in. It has a cable remote and seems like it works real well.

Main thing is I have to figure out how to send video through a cable to some kind of screen or tablet. That is my big hurdle right now. The rest I have figured out.

Also, I assume that since video out and external power use the same port it is a one or the other kind of thing? Either you run external power, or you send video to a device, but not both?
 
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Another option that came to mind is I ran the following DVR for awhile. I liked lots of things about it. It actually allows you to stream wirlessly to an Android or iPhone. You could connect this to your Hogster - Video Out and stream to a tablet or phone.

The two negatives of this device are battery life and flashing reticle.

Battery Life:
If you could find a battery pack and rig up a cord, it would be awesome for this, but it can't use a standard 5V battery pack. I have not tried this but you could try something like this. You may have to figure out different cables but may work. It requires a charge of 7-28V. This would negate having to run any cables to the truck and you could use a tablet or phone. Lots of ifs, but something like this could work. Just from a close look, I believe both use a 5.5mmx2.1mm plug, so the included cable dual cable with the battery pack may go right into the DVR from the battery.

Flashing Reticle:
The DVR transmits and records a flashing reticle. However, you are using it to transmit video so simply turn off the reticle by pressing all three Hogster buttons at the same time.
 

This is a rig I set up a few years ago. I could run it with or without the battery pack. My truck audio unit has an extra video input so I just ran an RCA cable into that. The battery pack is a dual unit with power for the thermal and the pan/tilt unit.

Pan/Tilt units: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/pan-tilt-heads/ci/24941/N/3907816572

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Things are a little easier now with Wifi. I can use the FLIR OTM unit via Wifi into an iPhone or iPad. (The tilt unit has a metal stud sticking up so I have to use the Ram mount balls unless I take time to file it off.)

If you just need to look forward and your thermal has a wide FOV you can use a magnetic base and Wifi into a phone or tablet. This is a magnetic base I picked up at Ace hardware with a Ram mount ball mounted to it but you can find them on Amazon with either male or female 1/4x20 mount choice.

I am using an app called "VLC for Mobile" to stream the Wifi signal from the FLIR OTM into the iPad.

To set this up you will need the Real Time Streaming Protocol Number ( RTSP IP) from the thermal unit which is used for video streaming. Page 14 in the SCION manual will tell you how to find it.
Example: rtsp://192.168.0.1:5004/SCION

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Gman857 .... Kirsch .... when I retire in couple years I want to pay you to put my Flir 64 on hood of my truck. . This is just want I am looking for but no way smart enough to do it myself. Marty
 
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Gman757....Will take a look. This is a great thread for people that have a disability and are allowed to hunt out of truck. This might be a a good thread to pin by moderator and keep at top of forum section. We predator hunters are all getting older and this topic will come up more and more for discussion in the years to come. Thanks again. Marty
 
Man, not sure how I missed some of the update posts in this thread but I did.

It has been driving me crazy trying to get that Hogster to stream to something. I have tried different apps and cables going to Iphone, Ipad, Android tablet, Kindle fire, you name it. Nothing has worked. I did get it to stream through an old car DVD player but it was clumsy and had too many connections to be viable for regular use. However that did show me the possible utility of going direct to a screen with RCA, and cut out the technology loop.

I have a $30 screen on order right now that is supposed to work with RCA inputs, it is for an add on DVD or backup camera in a vehicle. Fingers crossed it is going to work, I think it will.

This is it:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IEYP4UE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If that works, then I think I have the rest figured out and I will order the remote mount. Probably the one Kirsh linked up earlier in the thread.

I also put one of the PVS14 shuttered eye cups on the Hogster so it would not be spilling light out of the eyepiece while it was mounted.
 
The $30 LCD monitor from Amazon works. I have real time video feed from the Hogster 35 to the monitor in the truck. I have to get a good clean install but that is no big deal.

Attacking the remote mount issue is next. That is easier, it just takes money to fix that, lol.
 
Originally Posted By: JTPinTXThe $30 LCD monitor from Amazon works. I have real time video feed from the Hogster 35 to the monitor in the truck. I have to get a good clean install but that is no big deal.

Attacking the remote mount issue is next. That is easier, it just takes money to fix that, lol. I was doubting it would work but looked at the Amazon reviews and saw someone say it would allow a PAL video feed. Once I saw that, I was assuming you would be good. Let us know how it all turns out.
 
I was on the fence about ordering it until I saw that about the PAL video feed. Once I saw that I had a pretty good feeling about it. Cheap easy fix anyways. Wish I would have done that right off the bat instead of jacking around with all that other business trying to get it to go to a tablet. No biggie though, it is working now. And I learned a whole lot in the process too.
 
JTPinTX... keep us posted I am not a wiz bang with this new technology stuff.
Can barley post questions on this forum. Ha ha. You get it proved out will come down and hire you to install one on my new truck in 2 or 3 years when I can retire.
Just hanging on now. You never know could be earlier. Marty
 
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JTPinTX,

You monitor should work fine. If you do ever decide to go wireless. I did some more testing. The FXT DVR does send a wireless signal and does connect to the Hogsters. They do have an Android and iPhone app and I have used both. My big concern with this was how long the battery would last. However, I found a 12v to 5V adapter and this would allow the wireless transmitter to be powered by an external 5V battery pack.

FXT DVR Wireless Transmitter
Wireless DVR Battery Pack Connection

Of course, if you went with the Phenom or SH, it does wireless streaming built in, but just another option for those trying to put something together.
 
I got everything connected up this weekend and borrowed my friends pan/tilt mount just to give it all a whirl and see how it would work. Looks like it is all going to do just fine, so I will go ahead and order the remote pan/tilt unit now.

The viewing screen I bought works great. The picture is really good and the size works well with a suction cup windshield mount. I will leave wiring more or less permanently installed, but the monitor and remote thermal unit on top can be quickly removed or put on.

Driving on something fairly straight is no issue at all. Turning a sharp 90 degree corner a thermal unit with less magnification and wider FOV than the Hogster 35R would be better. No serious issues, it is doable, you just have to slow down and pan back and forth a little. Field scanning with the 35R is great though. All around I think the 35R is going to be just about right for what I am wanting to do. Low power enough and wide enough FOV to drive, but good enough distance image to scan fields real well too.

I did decide that for the way I will be using this unit I for sure need the unit to tilt up and down and not just pan. Things like side hills, pulling up to look over terraces, things like that I do need vertical movement from the remote unit and not just horizontal.

Other mods that go along with this: Interior lights in my truck are disabled when you open the doors (the manual light switches for interior lights do work in case we need light in the vehicle). You can get in and out of the truck without lights coming on or the door chime going off. I also added a brake light disconnect switch so I can kill my brake lights just by flipping a switch on the dash. With headlights off I can drive up and get out of the truck with no lights at all, totally blacked out.

When I get it all fully together and working to my satisfaction I will post some pictures up.
 
https://www.pulsar-nv.com/glo/products/33/thermal-imaging-attachments/proton/

Guys today I have to ask you a difficult question. I would like to purchase this small, handy and inexpensive Pulsar thermal clip-on, which has a large FOV (12.4x9.3) and wi-fi. I would like to mount it with a magnetic attachment, adjustable with a remote control, on the roof of the car of my Croatian gamekeeper, to be able to see the images on a tablet or smartphone inside the car in motion. I would not want to spend too much and obviously (and this is the hardest question ...) I would like to find something available here in Europe. I thank you all for the advice you can give me.
 


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