Hughes Probeye Infraed Thermal Viewer

Brooke Clarke © 2009

Infrared (IR) viewers come in two flavors.  The Near IR viewers work for wavelengths that are close to the eye's red seeing ( 650 nm) ability (hence the "near").  These typically use a Silicon image sensor (1,000 nm still works).  In fact all digital cameras have some near IR ability but typically it has be blocked with a filter so that the color shown has the correct color balance.  Thermal IR viewers are more difficult to make and typically require cooling the sensor well below room temperature using Pieltier, liquid or high pressure gas.

Wien's displacement law (Wiki) of 1893 (Prior to Einstien and quantum mechanics) stats that the wavelength of the radiation from a black body has it's peak:
Wavelength (nm) = 3,000,000 / (temperature degrees K).  More exactly WL = 2,897,768.5 /  (deg K).
Note: degrees K = degrees C + 273 (Wiki)
Note: it was five years later that Planck's law (Wiki) came out that expresses the frequency of the light as a function of the temperature. 
Planck's constant (h)  (Wiki) is a physical constant used to describe the sizes of quanta in quantum mechanics.  The energy in light is not continuous but rather comes in lumps.  It may have been the first step toward quantum mechanics and was needed to express the frequency of light from a black body as a function of the temperature.

Because of this the Sun's surface temperature (5778 deg K) causes the light falling on the Earth to peak at 500 nm, i.e. green.  That's probably why eyes of daylight mamals peak in the green.

Mammals have body temperatures around 300 deg K so peak around 10,000 nm which is far beyond the eye or Silicon camera sensors.

Internal

External

Cable

DDK 025-024 24 male pin		HRS 5 sockets
Probeye Pin	Description	Wire	Batt Pin	Bat Wire	Batt Desc
1, 20		white	1	Brn	Common
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18		Red Black	2	Red	+4.8V
19		Green Black	4	Yel	-4.8V
21		Black	2	Red	+4.8V
22		Black	4	Yel	-4.8V
23
24
			3	Blu	nc

DVM Voltage readings battery (probably dead)

	R2	R3	R4	R5
B1	2.575	0	-2.283	0.000
B2	-	0	-4.85	0.042
B3	-	-	0	0
B4	-	-	-	0

Battery

Calls:
3548192 Infrared Scanner using a Double Sided Inclined Mirror Mounted on Annular Air Bearings, V.M. Farmer, C & JF Knight (Electrical & Musical Ind Ltd),
3510191Optical Scanning System, J.B. Cannon (HRB Singer), May 5 1970,
3563146 Single Lens Panoramic Camera, J.G. Miller (Itek Corp), Feb 16 1971
3475552 Signal Distributing System, K.M. Makino, I.W. Odawara-shi (Fuji), Oct 28 1969
3160751Optical System for Identifying and Tracking Source of Infrared Radiation Emmission, C.E. Dunning (Aerojet-General), Dec 8 1964,

Calls:
3320755 CRYOGENIC REFRIGERATION SYSTEM
3413819 FLOW RATE CONTROL FOR A JOULE-THOMSON REFRIGERATOR3457730

Calls:
3278746GEOPHYSICAL SURVEY METHOD COMPRISING DETECTING INFRARED IN TWO WAVELENGTH BANDS, G. FIAT
2989643 Infra-red Image System, W.W. Scanlon (Navy), Jun 20 1961
3447852 Scanning Apparatus, B.V. Barlow (Smith & Sons), Jun 3 1969,

Calls:
3436546
3468229
3447852
3478662