PIE and Haunted Destinations Texas are always looking for new ways to enhance our investigative experiences and techniques, including building some of our own equipment, below we discuss a new invention from one of our own investigators, Jeff Kreuger has developed a new IR light that we are now using in our investigations.

From Jeff

The IR24REC-1 IR Illuminator is a 24x 850nm wavelength infrared LED light designed specifically for use with Sony Night-shot capable camcorders. It is powered by 4 Energizer lithium ion batteries and has a calculated battery life of 16 to 18 hours. Initial testing at the Olle Hotel showed that the light remained fully operational and at 100% illumination for 9 hours of continuous usage in both static and non-static situations. After reviewing the video footage only minimal electrical problems were seen (flickering) and no battery fatigue was observed over the entire 9 hours of usage. While I consider the first light a complete success I plan to make a second IR light in a different configuration of LEDs and with a more reliable wiring scheme.

I will follow-up on this review once I have the second prototype built.

Jeff Krueger

Initial Prototype Breadboard assembly

Final assembled PCB with battery pack

PCB Mounted on the camera - Right-Rear view

PCB Mounted on the Camera - Front View

Now lets take a look at our results

The image above is a demonstrational shot of the standard camera IR, very dark and hard to see due to a single Infra-Red LED emitter.

This image above is a demonstrational shot of the same scene using a SONY HVL-IRM, notice how it only illuminates a small area of the scene?

This image above is a demonstrational shot using our new IR24REC-1, notice how much of the scene is illuminated by our new IR innovation? It is much brighter with more of a flood pattern than the SONY HVL-IRM.

We have been very happy with the performance of our new IR24REC-1 IR Illuminator and look forward to the new revisions, keep them coming Jeff!