Just picked these up for 99$ shipped. Was described as "display piece" and "nonfunctional".
Set them up on the 12v mode with the included toolkit in the case,put a 9v up to the leads, and they work! I have yet to test them with a proper infrared lamp/light, but both tubes still work (the right side is definitely dimmer and worse clarity..) and the transformer ticks and hums like it should. How did i do? (and more importantly, how do i take these a step closer to the 21st century)
PNV-57 Czech Generation 0 NVG
Nicholas Nguyen
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Owen James
E Y E C A N C E R
John Bell
>how did I do
Well, you bought basically a piece of crap and now own it, so not great
>(and more importantly, how do i take these a step closer to the 21st century)
you don't.
They're kinda cool novelty item, but they will unironically give you eye cancer and are almost worthless as nightvision.
Connor Martinez
I did alot of research and got really nothing about eye cancer. Seems they can generate x rays if they're rediculously overvolted (to the point they'd burn out in the first place). I'm going to be undercoating them and using them for novelty, or night hikes/night metal detecting. I don't actually expect it to be tactical, comfortable, or really 21st century period.
Eli Richardson
will literally give you brain cancer due to the EM coming off the tubes or the voltage regulator or whatever the fuck I totally forget. Donut yoose, flip on armslist and buy some gen1 monocular+skullcrusher kit. NVMT was based when you could buy them for $150 but now they're like $400 for some reason? Looks like the sightmark ghosthunter is your closest match. Or you could buy a chinese digital gen 0 set that will function exactly as well as your PNVs but not give you tumors.
Wyatt Hughes
Here is a post from 2016 from based NVG guy.
"every unit I've tested (and I've tested most of the common types) failed to produce X-rays when powered. As far as I'm concerned, the only way you can get Soviet/Russian NV tubes to produce dangerous amounts of radiation is to try powering them with a retardedly-high voltage, and that will burn out the tubes before you'll have a chance for it to damage your eyes.
IIRC the meme started when slavshit NV units were flooding the civilian market in the early 2000s. Domestic manufacturers couldn't compete with the rock-bottom pricing, so a rumor got started that the export units were dangerous." end quote.
This is pretty consistent with my research. All the transformer box does is take d/c and make high voltage a/c for the tubes. The tubes can produce x-rays above 15 volts ( im keeping it on 12v )
I'm going to have them tested aswell, but it seems the whole radiation thing is a meme. Memes aside, still, they are not super effective, they have fish eye distortion, heavy and awkward af, and I will need to custom mount and wire a power supply+infrared floodlight.
Austin Gomez
Fuck all this, stop being poor and buy a PVS-14
Jason Nelson
cant afford and this is just a hobbyist/novelty item for me, just for fucking around. I can't justify buying nightvision thst costs more than my fucking car.
Jonathan Morales
Do it anyway. You don't need two kidneys.
Easton Sanders
fuck it you're right
Bentley Nguyen
i've found these to be less efffective than a naked eye my man
Hudson Brooks
I bought one a long time ago, but just last week dug it out of the garage and started making a battery kit for it. I wanted to keep it original without modifying it. I found a cable with my extra PC stuff that fits perfectly onto the Czech canon plug. I've got a east german battery pouch, now I just need to buy a small 12v battery and incorporate a on/off switch.
Also, need to have a portable IR light or they are useless.
Luis Barnes
I heard about using motherboard/psu plugs for that, I was either going to crimp on poles to the nvg's connector or directly solder on wire. Nice idea.
Joshua Smith
RIP user's eyes
Isaac Mitchell
i mounted mine to an ops core knock-off using the the VAS mount
Charles Campbell
yea my helmet is a size 56 so its fucking small and i need something more real to mount it to. how hard is it to rip it out of the hat?
Jaxon Taylor
You can take any light source and make it IR light source with those IR filters in the PNV set. But as said before, it's just collectible item, It's not absolutely useless but it's very close to being absolutely useless.
Wyatt Watson
cool man. i've tried to use filters and even with warm lamps, led's they really dont work. i've got a IR floodlight led coming in and hopefully that does something. Also, i've noticed these bastards really dont focus in at less than 4 meters. I assume these shortcomings didn't bother a guy in a fuckhuge tank with massive IR floodlights.
So far, i've got a 12 volt 3.3 AH sealed lead acid battery, circuit breaker, switch, digital voltage readout, 12 volt 30 led IR floodlight 850nm wavelength, and a 12v mini fan. Gonna set up a small battery box with belt clipping, so it can be on my waist, i can flick the NVG's and lamp on, fan will cool the battery and vent the area.
My plan is to also get the "T" connector that has that weird ass european cigarette connector, clip the cig part off, splice the lamp wire into it, then run that into my circuit breaker/switch/volt readout. Saves me on wire, has a nice ass connector for the NVGs, looks nice, etc.
Hudson Howard
You are supposed to use classic bulb light source and it does matter which side of the filter is facing the light. Drivers didn't have massive IR lights, they used those filters clipped in front of the regular car/truck/tank reflectors. And fun fact, try not to damage that cable on top of the hat, it's 14-19kV there.
It's like getting hit by a taser in your head.
Colton Wood
i see. just unscrewed my bulb in my test light, it was LED. Also, the filters are one sided? that's pretty sick. Which way is the right way? The side stamped with the date on the outside? I also know that the transformer's exit wire is indeed not something i should fuck with, it's meant to get the electricity up to what the bulbs can use. I noticed i dont get that ringing noise i see in many YT videos, i only get the transformer ticking. Still, the tubes glow green in the dark and amplify some light. When you look at faint light sources, the light is temporarily burned into the lense. I know you're not supposed to look at light or expose them when they're on to light sources or you'll fuck up the tubes,and lessen the life. I've looked so fucking far and wide for replacement tubes and haven't found jack shit. I'm gonna see if the whole setup works good with the 850nm wavelength floodlight, it seems to from some YT video's ive seen. I also noticed even with the 9v disconnected, the fucking thing maintains the tubes on for atleast a minute or more.
Pic related is my inspiration, i'm using the same light, but using a 12v SLA 3.3amp battery.
My goal is to not permanently modify the NVG's, but it seems i'm going to have to fuck up the cigarette lighter wire if i ever want this to work nicely.
You can see this guy's setup in this yt video:
youtube.com
Josiah Brooks
Update! I got a warm old-school incandescent flashlight, put the filter over it, and voila! it worked like a charm. One thing I noticed though, was some black spots on the lenses/tubes. Not sure if they multiplied in number by the end of my experiments, but i definitely can see how these work with an IR illuminator. I could see across my room, and I busted it outside and with/without the illuminator was night and day. It worked with the filter flipped both ways but I think it definitely let more IR out in one of the positions.
I'm more concerned if, because the flashlight wasn't a super good seal against the filter, I just burned some permanent black spots into the tubes or they where already like that.
Mason Brooks
nigga you just unbolt it and undo the straps
Hunter Barnes
it looks pinned on and shit. i can take it from the arm down so i'll only have the flexible joint w/ nvg, not the old plate