I'm pretty sure there are dust particles inside one or both of the lens assemblies. I know the YouTube videos online shows him easily unscrewing both the objective and ocular lenses; however, my PVS does not give at all when I tried to turn. I don't want to break anything - is there something I'm doing wrong?
Night Vision Cleaning PVS-14
- Thread starter Mindreader1
- Start date
FIRST, I'm going to assume this is dust:
I've taken 'em apart to the point you can pull the tube out, it's pretty simple and there isn't much to 'em. Lens comes off and tube falls out IIRC. These were military NODs and technically I wasn't supposed to take 'em down that far but nobody ever told me or said anything. However, they're not generally designed to be disassembled like that by the user and I'm lucky I didn't fuck mine up in the army that one time.
My ITT set was made in a clean room, so it'd be rare to find dust in those. Most aren't and it's not requisite that they are (I don't know if ITT still does it or not, I know Litton and now L3 don't).
I'd call the mfg. and talk to them FIRST, may be they'll take it back and do it for you on warranty. I'm sure even without a clean room that they've got some specialized gear and maybe even a vent hood at build stations. And if all is cool to DIY, they can for sure give you pointers and advice. Like how not to fuck up the lenses on accident. I'd also want a TM on the PVS14 if I had to DIY it, I'm sure one can be found online (the FM that comes with it won't be sufficient I'm sure).
Then call Vic up at TNVC and get yourself a demist shield and a sacrificial window or two and never fuck with this again, plus never have buggered up lenses from cleaning. Wilcox also makes an amber lens, it'll take care of the demist shield in the rear, and it also negates the need of that rubber eyecup and thus won't mist up to begin with nor splash green light on your face. The rubber bumper on it was obviously designed with grunts in mind, I know one guy with a chipped eye socket and another with a broken tooth (don't ask me how) who would've loved that damn thing. Oh, and Wilcox (pretty sure it's them) makes a thread in replaceable sacrificial window that's nicer than the issue one, though be aware slip on shit may not seat all the way with one (like compasses and 3x mags).
SECOND I'm gonna assume these are spots:
If it's spots, those are burned into your tube. You can get two kinds, permanent and temporary. I've had a good scare with a temporary spot before. Sometimes they look like flecks of black dust in the image. They aren't on the lens, they're on the tube. If temporary, turn on the NODs, leave the cap on and let it sit for a few minutes. Then turn it off, when you turn it back on they should be gone. If permanent, they won't be. Next time be more careful with ambient light sources and lasers (reflected laser radiation can do just as much damage to NODs and your eyes as direct given sufficient power). Eye safe IR sources aren't necessarily NOD safe (and eye safe only applies to a glance, not focused saturation of the eyes). If the spots burned in don't go away and aren't too big and don't cover up the center, they're generally considered a blemish but nothing that diminishes performance and new ones and refurbs come with them all the time (unless hand select, then they usually come flawless, worth the shekels IMO).
Hope this helps. Good luck!
I've taken 'em apart to the point you can pull the tube out, it's pretty simple and there isn't much to 'em. Lens comes off and tube falls out IIRC. These were military NODs and technically I wasn't supposed to take 'em down that far but nobody ever told me or said anything. However, they're not generally designed to be disassembled like that by the user and I'm lucky I didn't fuck mine up in the army that one time.
My ITT set was made in a clean room, so it'd be rare to find dust in those. Most aren't and it's not requisite that they are (I don't know if ITT still does it or not, I know Litton and now L3 don't).
I'd call the mfg. and talk to them FIRST, may be they'll take it back and do it for you on warranty. I'm sure even without a clean room that they've got some specialized gear and maybe even a vent hood at build stations. And if all is cool to DIY, they can for sure give you pointers and advice. Like how not to fuck up the lenses on accident. I'd also want a TM on the PVS14 if I had to DIY it, I'm sure one can be found online (the FM that comes with it won't be sufficient I'm sure).
Then call Vic up at TNVC and get yourself a demist shield and a sacrificial window or two and never fuck with this again, plus never have buggered up lenses from cleaning. Wilcox also makes an amber lens, it'll take care of the demist shield in the rear, and it also negates the need of that rubber eyecup and thus won't mist up to begin with nor splash green light on your face. The rubber bumper on it was obviously designed with grunts in mind, I know one guy with a chipped eye socket and another with a broken tooth (don't ask me how) who would've loved that damn thing. Oh, and Wilcox (pretty sure it's them) makes a thread in replaceable sacrificial window that's nicer than the issue one, though be aware slip on shit may not seat all the way with one (like compasses and 3x mags).
SECOND I'm gonna assume these are spots:
If it's spots, those are burned into your tube. You can get two kinds, permanent and temporary. I've had a good scare with a temporary spot before. Sometimes they look like flecks of black dust in the image. They aren't on the lens, they're on the tube. If temporary, turn on the NODs, leave the cap on and let it sit for a few minutes. Then turn it off, when you turn it back on they should be gone. If permanent, they won't be. Next time be more careful with ambient light sources and lasers (reflected laser radiation can do just as much damage to NODs and your eyes as direct given sufficient power). Eye safe IR sources aren't necessarily NOD safe (and eye safe only applies to a glance, not focused saturation of the eyes). If the spots burned in don't go away and aren't too big and don't cover up the center, they're generally considered a blemish but nothing that diminishes performance and new ones and refurbs come with them all the time (unless hand select, then they usually come flawless, worth the shekels IMO).
Hope this helps. Good luck!
Just a thought, there really shouldn't be any dust inside the unit. Before you go through the trouble establish it's not blems on the tube.
