DIOP 75/250mm F2.3 Lens for MWIR Amber Radiance HS/Galileo Camera

[MrSheep]

Just wanted to post about my latest acquisition! I plugged it into my Amber Galileo and it fired right up. The FOV change and focus still work. The lens looks like it was well taken care of as it still has the front lens cap. I have seen these lenses usually in white but this black one seems to be super rare.

I ordered a 8pin Fischer 104 connector from aliexpress so that I create a cable to power it as a standalone unit. I was able to get it to work with my SC6000 too and the lens is so big I had to use a black foam square as the NUC target haha. Thinking I should make a metal mount for this so it can be put on a Tripod. (I think I need a beefer tripod now lol)

[IR_Geek]

I've only seen the brown ones in person but old data sheets showed black ones in the pictures.    Any idea whats in the filter wheel?  I've seen NUC plates in some.  Gave you an easy way to get a quick 1-point update.

yep, very jealous!

[MrSheep]

Oh wow I didn't even know there were brown ones! And I checked the filter wheels 3 are empty but 2 have some sort of frosted glass ones. I'm guessing it is a NUC filter cuz it blocks IR (cant see through it) when I set the position to them.

[IR_Geek]

Seen black plate and frosted white.  The black plate is NUC and the other may be acting as a 2nd NUC point with a different emmsivity.    If you can see any IR through it then it may actually be a diffuser .. basically blurring out the scene to allow NUC through lens.

[MrSheep]

Yeah I will have to double check later if any IR passes through. I managed to take this out of the filter wheel. (Definitely have to be careful not to drop the screw in there haha)

[IR_Geek]

oh yeah, those dang small screws!   

[MrSheep]

I'm so glad you told me to check. Black NUC plate confirmed haha.

The one thing that is kinda odd about this filter wheel is the filter size. I measured it to be 20mm. Kinda of a weird size because most filters I see online are 25mm or 1 inch, which is a more standard size

[IR_Geek]

Yep, I had forgotten about that.   Had to custom order cut down filters.  Not sure why DIOP did that.    Even fabricated extra holders too.    good memories!

[MrSheep]

That is a great idea! I think it would prob be cheaper to make the custom holders! I would first 3d print them and then CNC the final product. Cuz a small bit of aluminum or filament is prob way cheaper than a custom filter, given that filters can cost several hundred to begin with haha!

My other cooled camera came with some ND filters. I will show them at a later time when I can get to it

[IR_Geek]

some info on the different versions of the DFOV lenses

[MrSheep]

Very nice! where did u find this spec sheet? Couldn't find anything about DIOP when I was searching.

Also I always wondering if there was an in between setting. I know that it goes to 75mm and 250mm But I wonder if there is a way to control it so it acts as a continuous zoom lens (Not sure cuz I dont know how the elements are place inside the lens)

[IR_Geek]

Think we looked into making a 1" filter holder but there wasn't enough room.  The 5 position filter wheel didn't allow for enough room.  Think it would have required changing the entire filter wheel down to a 4 position.

Spec sheet came from the WayBackMachine.  Great place when hunting for old info.   Check Fraser threads.  Should be several links.  He and I data mined what we could.   

[MrSheep]

Ah I see! Good to know, yeah I will take a look.

[MrSheep]

An update on this. I was able to create a cable for this lens. Basically it runs off +15V, -15V and RS232. This was confirmed while looking at the other post about Fraser's DIOP Lens and on the PCB markings on my Amber Galileo Camera. I am able to control the lens via HyperTerminal on Windows 10. I will finalize the cable as the next step. But for now I am happy to finally have this lens working as a stand alone system. More pics to come.

Also I have a bunch of new surprises coming. I have much to post about my new cameras/lenses. One of them being the very rare TFOV lens, which is the big brother to this lens. I believe that it goes to 500mm 

[IR_Geek]

Good to hear on the cabling and looking forward to seeing the TFOV.

[MrSheep]

Yeah I am in the process of finalizing the cable. I am making it simpler too. I hate having a lot of long cables coming out of one plug. Either I make a breakout box. or drill into the DB15 connector and put in smaller connectors like how Pfeiffer Vacuum does it on their TC110 controller. (See attached pic)

And yes I will post about it soon. I think I will need help on the TFOV as well. Because it does boot up and I found the RS232 pinout. However I have no way of communicating with it. Unless I know what the commands are like on the DFOV 75/250mm.

The board on the lens contains a few A/D converters, RS232 MAX3221 Chip, a MCU with an associated 24C04 EEPROM. Wondering do I just dump the firmware to my computer and try to reverse engineer it.