Thermals side by side.

[Doric]

I have said this before and I will say it again, do not buy a night vision optic be it IR or thermal until you have viewed them for yourself in real world conditions preferably side by side against each other.
On visiting Mike at Ythan Field Sport Supplies on one of his night vision evenings over at Schivas estate near Ellon, Aberdeenshire Mike , Bruce and Russ had everything set up, there was an array of NV and thermal spotters and scopes set on tripods for stable and convenient viewing. Up untill then I was very happy with the kit I had. My Pulsar spotter worked well and was found to be invaluable when on night patrol on the river, the Brucie Vision roof mounted pan and tilt is a terrific piece of kit for river patrols and of course chasing Charlie. The Brucie vision scope performes well. So it was more nosiness and the promice of hot coffee and Dians home bakes that drew me across to Schivas on that cold frosty evening. How glad I was that I made the efort to attend. Preconceived ideas on what I had thought would be the best performers went right out the window. The Hik Thunder with the 50mm lense stood out for me as best performer and was far from the most expensive even compared to units costing near twice the price. It certainly took my eye and Mike has one winging its way north for me as we speak.
If you ever have the opertunity to visit such an evening my advice would be to pull out the stops and get their.
Thanks again to Mike and Diane for the coffee and fancies and organising the event, thanks to Bruce for his expert advice and help in choosing the right unit.

 

[tonyshooter]

Please can you confirm the model of the Hik Thunder that you used.

I am very interested in you report.

Thanks,

Tony

 

[Doric]

It is the top of the range thunder with the50 mm lense. Mike at Ythan Field Sport supplies is a main agent so no prob if things go belly up.
If you want to talk to Mike please look up the web site for a contact number. Delivery time is very good, I ordered it yesterday and it was sent out yesterday.
Expect to pop over to pick it up on monday. Bruce and Russ douglas have put together a few comprehensive youtube vidios on the unit. Look up Russ Douglas 222.

 

[mealiejimmy]

Please can you confirm the model of the Hik Thunder that you used.

I am very interested in you report.

Thanks,

Tony

HIK MicroThunder TQ50

Cheers

Bruce

 

[Doric]

Thank you Bruce.

 

[sauer]

Funny how I never manage to get any of these “fancies” …. By time I get indoors to the coffee bit the fancies are all gone …..

 

[mealiejimmy]

Davie ate them all before you got there

Cheers

Bruce

 

[calgeo]

Whats the Brucie Vision pan and tilt then? I've been thinking of setting up something roof mounted with a hague pan + tilt with a thermal spotter wi-fi linked to a display.

 

[mealiejimmy]

This is the brucievision pan and tilt



It uses a 17 micron 640x480 sensor and 75mm focal length lens all built into a wireless remote operated spotlight. A belt driven potentiometer produces a varying DC voltage which is used to drive small LEDs mounted around the edge of the screen to indicate where the thermal is "looking"
I've built 5 of these using thermal cores and lenses purchased direct from China.
However, I now consider these a bit old hat and just built this

This uses a Hague pan and tilt modified for continuous rotation and with wireless remote control.
The white box contains a 12 volt 5ah lithium battery, the wireless receiver, voltage regulators to power the pan and tilt and the HIK TQ50 via it's USB port
No LED position indicating system, but a green laser mounted in line with the thermal so that when the user becomes disorientated the laser will indicate the direction the thermal is looking. A tablet or phone is hooked up to the thermal via its wifi displays the image.
Even this is a bit big and bulky and I have now sourced a smaller, cheaper and better pan and tilt that has a built in battery that gives (a claimed) 10 hours run time Zifon Yt-1000 Auto Motorized Pan Tilt Tripod PTZ Remote Control Rotating Vid V3 for sale online | eBay
It just arrived today, so a bit of thinking time required to figure out the best power and mounting options for a thermal to go on top

Cheers

Bruce

 

[calgeo]

Even this is a bit big and bulky and I have now sourced a smaller, cheaper and better pan and tilt that has a built in battery that gives (a claimed) 10 hours run time Zifon Yt-1000 Auto Motorized Pan Tilt Tripod PTZ Remote Control Rotating Vid V3 for sale online | eBay
It just arrived today, so a bit of thinking time required to figure out the best power and mounting options for a thermal to go on top

Cheers

Bruce

That Zifon YT-1000 looks interesting, might need to do a bit more looking into it. I was thinking of mounting a trackir tk35 or tk50 on the pan and tilt. It's going on a defender roof so was thinking of putting the pan and tilt onto something like this RAM triple suction mount

 

[Foxyboy43]

God almighty! I am old and particularly pleased nowadays when I manage to change a fuse! I salute you sir - more power to your elbow.

 

[mealiejimmy]

That Zifon YT-1000 looks interesting, might need to do a bit more looking into it. I was thinking of mounting a trackir tk35 or tk50 on the pan and tilt. It's going on a defender roof so was thinking of putting the pan and tilt onto something like this RAM triple suction mount

The Track IRs are good thermal spotters and the Guide app is excellent (very stable and no lag)
It will screw straight onto the detachable mounting plate on the Zifon.
The only thing to check is the location of the USB port if you want to power the Guide from an external powerbank.

Cheers

Bruce

 

[calgeo]

The Track IRs are good thermal spotters and the Guide app is excellent (very stable and no lag)
It will screw straight onto the detachable mounting plate on the Zifon.
The only thing to check is the location of the USB port if you want to power the Guide from an external powerbank.

Cheers

Bruce

Well I just got the Zifon and TK50 mounted onto the Defender roof. Thanks for the tip on the Zifon, it works perfect. Ended up using roof bars because I wasn’t comfortable with the suction cup mount. Took it out for its first try tonight. There’s a bit of lag using the Wi-Fi but isn’t too bad. I’ve got it mounted as far on the passenger side as I can so I might try it over the sunroof and see if it improves. It’s already helped me get a fox tonight.

 

[mealiejimmy]

From some recent tests, it may be the device you are using to watch the video that has the lag
I recently had a HIK TQ50 connected to a phone and 2 tablet computers at the same time and the lag was different on each device.
A new Samsung tablet had virtually zero lag, a cheapo Amazon no name tablet had noticeable lag and my 4 year old Motorola mobile phone was somewhere between the other two.
Good to hear that the Zifon worked - was the pan speed fast enough?


Cheers

Bruce

 

[calgeo]

From some recent tests, it may be the device you are using to watch the video that has the lag
I recently had a HIK TQ50 connected to a phone and 2 tablet computers at the same time and the lag was different on each device.
A new Samsung tablet had virtually zero lag, a cheapo Amazon no name tablet had noticeable lag and my 4 year old Motorola mobile phone was somewhere between the other two.
Good to hear that the Zifon worked - was the pan speed fast enough?


Cheers

Bruce

I’ll try a different device and see how it goes, thanks. I found the pan to be fast enough, it’s got 8 settings and found I had to turn it down for scanning round.

 

[wildfowler.250]

Funnily enough I was weighing up posting a ‘recommend a thermal spotter’ post. So many folk tend to host these side by side comparisons? Difficult to get a proper gauge on these bits of kit when used in the daylight at a shooting even with 50 things going on

 

[Blackwood Outdoors]

Funnily enough I was weighing up posting a ‘recommend a thermal spotter’ post. So many folk tend to host these side by side comparisons? Difficult to get a proper gauge on these bits of kit when used in the daylight at a shooting even with 50 things going on

Never base a decision based on daytime viewing, even extremely high netD units can look amazing in these conditions...the same goes for up close around hard lined building and structures around shop fronts, gamefairs and streets.... some people touting there kit as amazing.... trust me I've tried most of it and I just cringe at some of these promoters and retailer/distributor promotion vids and talk....

 

[Dogtra UK]

Please keep us posted about the Zifon pan and tilt unit.

 

[mealiejimmy]

Please keep us posted about the Zifon pan and tilt unit.

What do you want to know - it does what it says on the tin
It pans and tilts via a wireless remote control
There are 8 pans speeds and 8 tilt speeds, all selectable from the remote.
Pan rotation is continuous - no stopping and reversing
Max tilt is +/- 35 degrees which is more than enough for any situation I can think of
Max rotation speed is not that fast - about 40 seconds for a full 360 degrees. That's fine for spotting from a stationary vehicle but a bit slow for scanning while moving
You can pan at one speed and tilt at another.
It is rated for a maximum load of 1 Kg - but it will handle a fair bit more than that - I had a 5.5kg weight on it the other day and it still worked
It uses a single lithium 18500 battery and 10 hours use from a single charge is claimed.
It has a USB-C port and can be powered from an external powerbank
The remote uses 2 x AAA batteries.

Cheers

Bruce

 

[Dogtra UK]

I noted on Amazon that it also goes by a different name and the reviews are not good.
Basically, if you try before I buy

Cheers.