Hunting & Fishing Video from thermal camera I installed on my ATV

[Super Bee 950]

This setup is perfect for hunting hogs, coyotes, or anything else at night!

I installed an automotive FLIR camera to my Polaris Ranger and the results are better than anything I could have hoped for. If you want to find anything in the area with a pulse, this is the setup you need.

Here is a video driving down a gravel road around midnight. The two minute mark is when I get to an oil field and its pretty cool. At the end I have video of a person on the screen as he opens up the gate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsZfdjDtxas


Here is what a deer looks like at night on the FLIR video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAOcxHpUQXE


These systems come as a complete kit with monitor, cables, mounting hardware and everything else you need for around $3300 bucks. This is about the same price as a Gen 3 PVS-14, exvept the FLIR kicks its butt. ( I have the PVS-14, so I am speaking from experience) Since this is for an automotive application, the cables are long and that is a nice feature. Last night I parked the Ranger outside the tent and watched the video feed lying on my cot inside the tent.

Send me a PM if you want one of these systems. A friend of mine is a dealer for FLIR, and I can get these at a great price.

 

[Sendero_Man]

Re: Video from thermal camera I installed on my ATV

tag

 

[jrhammons]

Re: Video from thermal camera I installed on my ATV

ditto

 

[Phil1]

Re: Video from thermal camera I installed on my ATV

How much power does it draw?

 

[Super Bee 950]

Re: Video from thermal camera I installed on my ATV

The camera draws 2 watts nominal, and 8 watts with the internal heater on.

Monitor draws 8 watts max.

 

[skinney_7]

Re: Video from thermal camera I installed on my ATV

Nice work, how you likin the ranger, i just traded my 700 in for the 800, smooth riding rigs. do you know if you can put a bigger monitor on the FLIR? would be nice having a 12in screen, once again nice setup should be great gunnin down hogs.

 

[Kells81]

Re: Video from thermal camera I installed on my ATV

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: skinney</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Nice work, how you likin the ranger, i just traded my 700 in for the 800, smooth riding rigs. do you know if you can put a bigger monitor on the FLIR? would be nice having a 12in screen, once again nice setup should be great gunnin down hogs. </div></div>

Thats a sweet tool, would love to have something like that on my yote rifle.




We had about 30 Rangers while in Iraq, the 500 and 700's and gotta say while Iraq is a harsh envirement for something like this they did hold up pretty well. I would buy one based on my experience there with them since we drove them every day all day.

Ours arrived still in the crates and we had to assemble. If you buy one at a dealer save the cash and assemble yourself. after the first one we were pumping em out at about 30-45 mins a piece with some teamwork.

Here is pics of 5 we took to Kalsu.
Out of crate you have to put cage on, and 4 tires.

 

[Super Bee 950]

Re: Video from thermal camera I installed on my ATV

You can get a bigger monitor, but I wouldnt recommend it. the 7 inch is so bright at night that I use the red cover to tone it down.

 

[blksno]

Re: Video from thermal camera I installed on my ATV

any adapters to connect to a laptop? if so, you could always just dim your laptop screen way down. With my MacBook pro it goes almost completely black before its out.

 

[knockemdown]

Re: Video from thermal camera I installed on my ATV

Very cool!

We have a FLIR system on the boat. I mounted the camera unit above the flybridge and can control the camera's pan/tilt with a joystick mounted at the helm. VERY nice for those dark nights 100miles from shore! Heaven forbid if one of us were to go overboard, we'd be shining like a glow stick in the FLIR's screen in the inky black seas. And the FLIR helps pick up non-lit buoys coming back inside. Works in the daytime too, but extremely foggy conditions render the thermal sensitivity of the camera nearly useless...

Upon install, I also split the video cable with BNC connectors and have the primary screen as a 8" monitor, akin to those used in many car TV installs. The other end goes to the GPS video input and offers a 12" screen to view from. Definitely have to tone down the contrast to facilitate ease of viewing though...

Nice install on the wheeler!

 

[villhelm]

Re: Video from thermal camera I installed on my ATV

very cool!