Montana Ghost Hunter

I’m very excited about 2010. The group which I’m a member of, Tortured Souls Investigations, has some great investigations lined up for Spring 2010, which the potential of more local locations. This weekend we kick off 2010 with a great location with lots of local history, so I can’t wait!

I have some plans for new ‘gadgets’ for 2010 as well. Side note, I hate it when people call them ‘gadgets’ or ‘toys’. Can’t we call it equipment?? Not sure why you don’t hear them be referred as ‘toys’ on TAPS or Ghost Lab, etc. Maybe I need to make them to look more like ‘equipment’. Heavy, metal, something with ‘authority’ might be needed. EMF detectors that you need to wheel in with a hand truck.. no we’re talking!

Seriously, I’m interested in making a EMF pump this year as well as some better ghost beacons and illuminators. Along with building some new projects, I’m starting to assemble a little wish list of equipment to purchase. Mel Meters, Data Recorders, etc.

The last 107.5 ghost hunt was Thursday (I’ll be writing something about that later), and we did have some interesting things happen throughout the night. One of the oddest things was related to KII hits during a live EVP session in one of the basement rooms. I’ve used the KII EMF meter on a lot of recent investigations with not a lot happening with it. I did have a unexplained spike at Rankin Hall, but other than that, they’ve all been associated with areas with high EMF (circuit boxes, etc). During that EVP session we did experience flickering and spikes, and we tried to debunk the situation. We took a base of EMF in the area, and all was low, but we were reminded how cell phones could trigger the KII. We did a few tests, and one of the things that we noticed during the live EVP session (which was done via cellphone) was that that the lights would flicker as the investigator would talk in the phone. We were able to see how ringing could affect the KII with a phone being closer than 2′ away.

Today, I wanted to do some research on another EMF gauge (Mel 8704R) and found a great video demonstrating the sensitivity the KII has with phones and 2-way walkies.

So I’ve been kicking around the idea of building a ‘ghost beacon‘. The concept is something that flashes in the IR and UV light spectrum, that might be able to attract some spirit activity. Does this work? Who knows, but it sounded fun and nerdy, so I’m all over it.

I was looking around for various schematics on how to do this, but I stumbled across a great kit at BG Micro, that I thought would be perfect. The kit was the Tiny Cylon kit. Normally, this uses 5 small red LEDs and a 555 IC chip pre-programmed to display various light patterns. I thought it would be cool to replace some of the LEDs with IR and UV LEDs.

The kit comes non-assembled (basically a circuit board, resister, switch, IC and 5 red LEDs). I also purchased a few 940nm/50 degree LEDs and a few T1-3/4 UV LEDs. The UVs are a bit pricey at $1.49 ea, but these IRs are on .20 ea. I would probably try ones with greater degree though. The 940nm make it completely invisible to the human eye though.

The kit is very easy to assemble, just add the components and start soldering! The kit comes with a battery pack (3 AAA batteries) with postive/negative leads so you need to solder those as well.

I initially had some trouble powering the unit. Doing a quick check with my volt meter, I noticed that something was ‘off’ with my incoming power supply. Re-seating the batteries in this case fixed the problem. You can use the switch to change light modes. I believe there are 5 or 6 different modes.

I posted a small video at YouTube showing you how the lights work, etc. You can see it below:

Please let me know what you think, or if you have any suggestions, tips, etc. You can also get a hold of me on Twitter now as well!

So a while ago, I posted a how-to on building a simple IR (infrared) illuminator using a flashlight and colored gels. This is a great, easy way to add additional infrared light to your night shot cameras.

Recently, I was at a investigation at Rankin Hall, and this was my first test of these IR illuminators. Overall, they worked great, but I felt that the light beam was too focused and it created a large spot on the wall when pointed to it. I wanted to ‘wash’ that out and cause more of a ‘flood’ effect. Doing some brainstorming and asking other nerdy friends, a friend came up with the idea of using a fluorescent light cover. I thought this was absolutely brilliant idea, since the flood lights had ‘nubbed’ surfaces causing the light to refract on multiple points on the surface.

I went to Ace hardware and picked up a 2×4 sheet of this material (approximately $7) and took it home. Here are the steps I took to complete this project (this is starting with a functional IR illuminator).

I laid the material on the floor and took apart my flashlight to use the reflector as a stencil.

I used a utility knife to outline the reflector. There is a flat side and a nubby side. I scored the plastic on the flat side. Be careful with this material, it’s very brittle and can crack easily.

Next, I used a Dremel tool with a cutting wheel to cut out a square around the circle. This will give you a more manageable piece to work with. Once that is out, you can cut on your score mark easier. Try not to damage the surface, and stay with in the outline. I used a sanding bit to smooth the edges, but a file would probably work as well.

Next you lay the additional lens in the lens holder. It should be a sandwich. Refraction lens, gels and the actual lens. I kept the nubby side towards the light source.

Here is what the light source looks like.. pretty cool!

I wanted to show you the before and after conditions of the IR illuminator as well. These shots were taken with the IR converted digital camera, using the IR flashlight as the light source. Here is the shot without the refraction lense modification.

As you can see, there is a intense center point. Sorry the photo is slightly blurry, the IR camera should have been on a tripod, since it’s still shooting in low light, but I just wanted to illustrate the ‘spot’. Next is with the modification.

You lose a bit of distance, but the area is more covered with IR light. The beauty with this modification, if you need a beam, you just remove the refraction lense. Very quick.

Let me know what you think!

My friend Andy commented on my GeoPhone project and mentioned that the sensor and kit are unavailable currently.  I’ve been curious how that sensor actually works. I knew there was a magnet and it felt ‘suspended’ since moving it makes a noticeable ‘clicking’ sound.

I found this cool diagram describing how that sensor works. Looks pretty simple, I wonder how hard it would be to make.. I’m guessing the tough part is getting the right frequency.

I’ve been seeing the use of GeoPhones on the various ghost hunting shows, primarily Ghost Hunters and Paranormal State. Basically, the GeoPhone is a device that picks up vibrations and displays the strength by lighting up a series of LEDs. This can be used for ghost hunting by providing a visual interpretation to sounds that are cause physically. For example, you can ‘call’ for taps on the table, and taps are heard, but the GeoPhone could visual display those taps for additional evidence. I’ve also seen the GeoPhone used to register foot falls or foot prints on hardwood surfaces, etc.

After seeing this, I thought it would be cool to create one. I was able to purchase a kit from BG Micro, and I housed it in a left over solar powered walk-way housing. I elevated the sensor at the top of this housing, and bolted the circuit board directly to the inner part of the housing. I also added a 9 volt power supply and micro-toggle to turn it off and on.

I created this small video to demonstrate it’s functionality. Let me know what you think!

Lately, I’ve been doing some light research on ITC or Instrument TransCommunication. This  the technique of using electronic devices to observe paranormal activity. Examples would include shooting footage of static on a TV screen or using white noise or scanning channels on a radio to pick up interesting sounds or potential communication, etc.

This is very interesting to me, but the skeptical side of me wants to dismiss it. It seems WAY too coincidental or a possible form of matrixing either through audio or video. I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter. I’d like to know if it’s hype, or if there is some good evidence out there.

For one, I would like to see some scientific methods applied. For instance, asking the same question multiple times, and receiving the same answers throughout a session, etc. If you have some good examples.. either way, I’d love to read up on them or listen/watch some footage. (continue reading…)

So this was a fun project. Our paranormal group was looking for a way to get some more IR light for or our static video cameras and/or for our rooms that could use a bit more for the hand held cameras. We were trying to determine what would be more cost effective.. buying illuminators or building our own. I already played with converting a flashlight using gels with good success, but I wanted to give IR LEDs a shot.

Searching the internet I found a few IR kits, and settled on a kit with 36-850nm LEDs providing a viewing angle of 50 degrees.

I’m a nerd by nature, so the idea of soldering a bunch of LEDs to a circuit board.. is fun!

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First of all, I wanted to say that if anyone is out there… reading this blog, let yourself be known. Comment or contact, I’d love to hear from you. I definitely would like to meet more people with similar interests. If any of the projects I described here worked for you or if you have any adjustments/enhancements, I’d like to hear those as well!

I’ve been working on a few projects. I recently converted a SVP DC-12DX 12 Mega Pixel digital camera to be a IR camera. The quality is much less then the Digital Concepts project, so I’d like to hear some opinions as to what went wrong with this. I should have that project how-to in a few days.

The other project I’m working on is a IR  illuminator kit. I purchased a IR LED illuminator kit where you need to assemble/solder the parts. I also figured out how to wire AA batteries in series to generate the 12 volts to power the illuminator. I’ll be working on the case for it today. As soon as I have a fully assembled the unit, I’ll be writing a post about it. That project has been especially fun for me.

In a previous post I converted a digital camera to be a infrared digital camera. This allows you to take some very cool photos, and you can utilize ‘night shot’ can capture still images in the dark. To do this, you’ll need a IR light source, the built in flash will be useless.

Various video cameras have night shot IR and I was initially testing the ability of the digital camera to see in the dark using the beam from my video camera. You can purchase various IR illuminators, but I knew there had to be some simple DIY (Do It Yourself) techniques to do this.

After Googling for a bit I found various techniques where you can create a filter for a normal flashlight and create a large IR beam to illuminate a room.  I was able to create a very effective IR illuminator and I’m more than happy to demonstrate how I did it.

The entire project cost around $35 dollars including the purchase of gels and flashlight. I have enough gels to convert several flashlights as well as a few filters for another camera project I’m working on.

Okay, here is what you’ll need to get to convert a flashlight into a IR illuminator:

Flashlight – I used a Brinkmann 6 volt Krypton Lantern. You can purchase this for about $6 at Walmart, etc. I wanted something with a large beam. My goal is to fill a room with IR light.

Congo Blue Gel Lighting Filter (Rosco #382). You can purchase this at B&H here

Red Gel Lighting Filter (Rosco #27). You can purchase this at B&H here

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