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PVS GREMLIN V1 50Hz helmet mountable mini thermal vision monocular

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LWC

@LupusWorax

The newest addition to the DIY low budget family, featuring a 640 thermal core with some basic but impressive features.

Ocena: 5 / 5
Polubienia: 132
Pobrania: 598
Wydruki: 2
Wyświetlenia: 5919
Oceny: 2

Aktualizacja u źródła: 30 cze 2026

Informacje o modelu

Źródło: Printables
Kategoria: Electronics
Licencja: Creative Commons — Attribution — Noncommercial — Share Alike

Szczegóły Pliki (18)Wydruki i komentarze (Wydruki: 2) (Komentarze: 9)Remiksy (0)Kolekcje (163)

Join the PVS420 Discord where you can find the ongoing development of the PVS GREMLIN and much more.

https://discord.gg/Ce9BJ2DK3j

The PVS "GREMLIN" features some impressive specs for its low price including a 640 resolution thermal core, a quick swappable 18350 Lithium-ion battery compartment, external DC power jack, digital zoom, "color" pallets and scene modes, Green and blue color filter, brightness controll and vertical+horizontal picture flip capabilities.

When using an external power source over the DC connector, the max voltage can be 4.2 volts, the power source should also have its own power Switch, depending on how you wire/use your gremlin, see schematics you can find in the pictures.

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!!!IMPORTANT!!!!!!!! ONLY use protected 18350 cells!! There is no internal BMS in the Gremlin!!!!

You can also use disposable one time use CR123A 3 volt Lithium cells but ONLY if you DONT USE the external power supply!!!!!!

Use an external Power source (over DC jack connector) ONLY with the battery removed and dont exceed a voltage of 5 volt max!

I am not responsible if your Gremlin goes up in flames because you ignored this warning!

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UPDATES:

Update:01.01.2026

New firmware for ESP32 with a ton of new features and functions was added ( V2.2.4) +Quick start guide explaining all new features and modes.

Update:07.01.2026

Design update for the 3 way Navigation Switch. It does not require to be glued in anymore. The 3 Way switch can be inserted from the inside now with the cables already attached. In an angle you slot the 3 way switch in and shove it under the ledge that prevents the switch to be pressed inwards. It gets locked in place with a clip that prevents the 3way switch from falling out. Check pictures!

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Runtime with a fully charged 18350 1600mAh (using a 640 thermal core) is exactly 1hour 30 Minutes!

Runtime with a 256 core will be comparable longer as it uses less power.

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Building steps: (STILL A WIP!!)

Take the Main case inner thread ring and press it in until it sits in place nice and leveled all the way in, try to work it in by placing it parallel and dont angle it or you will have a hard time. Align both holes with the indents of the thread ring where you then screw in the grub screw to prevent the ring from turning.

Important! Align it before you start to work the ring in, it will be almost impossible to turn the ring once it is all the way in!

The first thing you want to mount in the case is the DC Jack for external power. Solder a black and a red wire to the IDENTICAL pins shown in the schematics!! Use heat shrink to nicely isolate the leads before placing the DC jack inside the case and securing it from the outside, it's very fiddly and took me a while to finally slot it in. At this point you can already use the TPU plug at the very bottom over the thread and then use the nut to fix it in place, the spring washer is NOT used!

After mounting the jack take the two small push buttons for feature control and check which two pins connect when pressing the button with your multimeter, once done cut off the other two pins on the opposite site and use a file to file down the extent metal contact to make it even with the sidewall.

Solder two wires to the pins , use heat shrink to isolate every exposed part of the two pins and then feed them through the two cutouts on the outer case and push the buttons into their square cutout.

The next step is to mount the spring-loaded battery contact at the bottom of the battery chamber, therefor use a piece of double-sided sticky tape on the back of the contact and solder a red wire to the connection arm of the contact plate, that you then feed through the sidewall into the main chamber.

Next comes the top part of the battery chamber. take a piece of nickel coated metal band about 4cm long and cut a 4mm wide stripe from it. Solder a black cable to the lower part of it and then feed it into the upper pass-through into the main chamber. Try to pull the cut nickel stripe a short way into the pass through, that can be done easily by softly pulling on the cable that is accessible already in the main chamber. The 4mm metal stripe should fit snug into the groove running along the inside wall and needs to reach over the top side of the tread where you fold it over the edge and glue the whole stripe down with superglue (all the way along the metal stripe running inside the groove) Use some tape or foil to isolate the stripe from touching the battery and solidify the stripe in the groove, use additional superglue so the stripe cant to anywhere.

On the top part of the tread place a drop of solder on the nickel stripe to make it the highest point and make sure that when the cap is later closed is the first point that will touch the back of the threaded cap we place the copper disk in with the other not spring-loaded battery contact soldered to the middle.

Next take the springles battery contact and use a sidecutter to cut off the extending tap so you end up with a square the contact "bump" take a copper disk and place the contact on top, use a soldering iron to heat up the copper plate ( this will take a whole wile because copper takes the heat faster away from your soldering irin then it can heat it up, use a surface like ceramic, or something heat resistant, no metal as it will take even longer to heat the disc up, solder the contact in the middle of the plate and let it cool down, then place it in the top cap wtih double sided tape. Make sure the disk applies evenly on the inside, get rid of any 3d printed bump before you place it inside.

Make sure the battery cap still turns smoothly on the thread, with the nickel stripe over the top bend being low enough to not engage with the thread of the closing cap ripping/ pushing it out of the groove it sits in.

Now it's time for the main power switch (you won't be able to mount the main power switch once the camera is slotted in as it is directly behind it and acts as a protection to prevent the button to be pushed inwards. Use some patches of thin cardboard to fill the gap between the back of the main power switch and the sidewall of the thermal camera.) the Power switch uses the cable from the spring-loaded battery contact we placed before (+ pole).

Placing the camera in the main case, the JST connection port MUST face upwards

(WARNING! the shown camera orientation only applies to the Mini2 camera!! if you are building a Gremlinv V2 or use any other camera type, orientation can be different!! Check outside the case before you close it up or you will have to take everything appart again or have to flip the picture by software!!)

like shown in the picture below!! Otherwise, the picture will be upside down when the display is connected and place in the frame. It is possible to flip the picture by software BUT you won't be able to use the software zoom function once the Picture is flipped (That weird behavior is a firmware restriction and I have no clue why that is...)

Connect the 5 pin JST connector to the camera where you can remove the TX line as it is unused. ( BUT is used in the GREMLINV V2!)

PAY ATTENTION on the color code of the cable and how the JST connector is orientated!!! JST cables tend to come with different colored cables or wrong orientation of the JST connector in relation to actual pin outs of the thermal camera!!!!!

Make sure to cover every exposed part of the parts used with kapton , double sided foam tape or heat shrink. When closing up there will be a lot of wires being compressed and that for we have to make sure that there is no unwanted connection between thermal core PCBs, booster, esp, power switch etc.

Next we are going to place the display and driver board into its place. If possible try not to connect/ disconnect the display from the driver board more often then absolutely needed by opening and closing the ribbon cable connector, its very fragile and prone to break off and that would means you have to order a new driver board. Check the pinout of the 10 pin JST connector and remove the "NC" marked wires on the pinout to save space and lower confusion, connect the 10 pin JST connector into the socket of the driver board and bend the whole bunch of wires to the side running them along the side on top of the pcb to the front, use a stripe of kapton tape to hold them in place before wrapping the whole driver board in a nice isolating layer of kapton tape.

The driver board is inserted above the camera, the orientation of the board goes only one way as the extra room for the connected jst connector on the back with the cables bend slot in the cutout you can see on the top back in the printed main case.

Make sure the cable running to the main power switch is not behind the board. Place the driver board with display in its place and you should now end up with the the micro display and wires sticking out towards the opening of the housing.

The placement orientation of the ESP32 is crucial, I had to learn that the hard way, DONT orient your esp with the wifi Chip towards the Displaydrivers ribbon cable socket!! You wont be able to connect to your network as interference/ shielding will prevent you from getting a solid connection!!

Solder the cables like shown on the picture, this way there wont be any problems with breaking cables when pushing in the ESP32 into its place into the "rats nest" You can also use a bit of uv curing glue, or fast curing resin on the back of the ESP32 holding the cables in place even better.

When closing the Gremlin up take special care how you place your cables inside the case. Twist the CVBS+/- cable together to prevent inducing interfeerence from the 5 volt step up power lines resulting in a wavy pattern/ distortion on the display. Same goes for the cables connected to the camera, twist it with the ground cable if possible. Every wire itself acts as an antenna, high frequency from the 5 volt step up module (evenso buffered by a capacitor) can cause this! try to keep the CVBS signal cables as short as possible also. Avoid crossing the signal with a powerline from the step up at all costs, try to run them next to each other in parallel if unavoidable!

...................TO BE CONTINUED????

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Parts list:

The following two camera links are affiliate links. They won’t cost you anything extra, but they help support the project and its ongoing development. This allows me to recover a small portion of the costs while continuing to offer everything for free.

Mini2 Series Thermal core:

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c3A7JYtl

or here

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_ontNcM5

Copper disk for screw cap battery compartment: (23x1mm)

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005004750923794.html

NP18 18x Lens: The WHOLE lens and NOT just the core!!

NP18 Digitales Nachtsichtgerät, Wärmebildgerät, Fernglas, breites Sichtfeld, 18 x 0,39–0,5 Bildschirm mit Schutzabdeckung - AliExpress 502

Voltage booster: REMOVE A, B contact to set it to 5 volts!

1/5 stücke 1,5 A Multi-funktion Mini Boost Modul Step Up Board 5V 8V 9V 12V LED Anzeige Diy Spannung Modul 3,7 V lithium-batterie - AliExpress 502

Buffer capacitor for voltage booster: 16V 680uF 6x12mm

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005006804565476.html