I wanted to have the capability to operate in dusk conditions with
the hovercraft so I looked into thermal infra-red cameras. Most of
the suitable thermal IR cameras I could find were made by Raytheon and
were in the $12,000 - $20,000 range which seemed somewhat excessive for
my needs. However, it turns out that GM used a Raytheon IR camera
in their Night Driver system that was an option on certain Cadillac
models. In doing some research into the product, many of the
camera utilized a "differential output" which is not directly compatible
with most monitors (the Caddys had a special display). I even
called a few of the Night Driver upfitters for Hummers and those cameras
were also "differential". However, as always, Ebay came
through (after looking for a few months) and I found one that had a
composite output that was compatible with the LCD display I wanted to
use. After some discussion, Mike Bice agreed to make a mount for
it on the radar mount. He is a good guy! Picture 1 shows the first
IR camera. This camera has a 160 by 120 pixel resolution.
3/06. After more searching I found an IR camera with a 360 by 240 resolution which is what I am now using. It works pretty well but required some modifications to the camera mount as it was not quite the same size as the other one. As I said before, Mike is a good guy!! Pic 2 shows Mike Bice making the camera mount. Pic 3 above shows the new hi-res camera mounted on the radar mount.
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