General Introduction
One of the most important aspects about owning Night Vision Devices, is to be able to preserve, store and maintain them during and after use, although it appears as though, this is not a point of discussion between users very often, resulting in many myths and bad habits being born among NVD users, which may lead to very costly consequences.
In this guide, we aim to help beginners better understand how to protect and maintain their devices, so as to avoid damage them and prolong their lifespan, diving in on common misconceptions and myths surrounding these devices.
Protect Your Device
Night Vision Devices can be very delicate if misused, as such, it is incredibly important for users to understand what you should and what you shouldn’t do with your device.
Damage to your image intensifier tubes, housing or lenses can occur very easily if the right precautions aren’t taken to ensure your gear’s safety.
Light Damage
Night vision devices are designed to work in extremely dark conditions, amplifying ambient light by orders of magnitude of thousands of times, making them susceptible to damage if overexposed to bright sources or well-lit areas.
For this reason, modern Gen 2+ and Gen 3 image intensifiers have safety features embedded in them such as Bright source protection, Automatic Brightness Control and Auto-Gating to help mitigate the effects of brief overexposure to light, such as in the case of muzzle flashes, explosions or any other sudden flashing lights.
With that being said, those safety features will eventually fail if the devices is exposed to high light levels for too long, or if the light source is too bright for the protection mechanisms to handle.
For example, modern tubes will usually be able to withstand high output weapon mounted flashlights for brief amounts time without suffering any permanent damage but will suffer blems if left turn on for several minutes in a well-lit room.
Staring at light sources, even if dim, may also cause the image to temporarily or permanently etch into the tube, making it important for us to always keep our head moving to avoid stressing one section of the tube too much if we are required to look in the direction of one.Shock Damage
Shock damage can occur when night vision devices are subjected to blunt force trauma such as a fall on a hard surface. Depending on the force generated in the impact, what side gets hit, but also on the model and brand of the intensifier, blems can form in the screen, almost always permanently ruining the device
Modern US Gen 3 tubes are typically rated to withstand shocks of up to 75 g’s, as opposed to Photonis Gen 2+ image intensifiers, which seem to be much more robust, being able to survive a whopping 500g’s of deceleration!
Shock damage can also be caused by recoil, due to improper use of handheld or helmet mounted night vision devices, most notably PVS-14’s, being used as clip on NV scopes on rifles.
The damage usually occurs when the MCP keeps travelling in the direction of the fall due to inertia, causing it to make contact with the closely spaced Phosphor screen, and generating an electrical arch between the two, thus burning the screen.
How To Store Night Vision
When storing your device, it’s important to pay attention to what you do, as distraction is one of the number one causes of damage when handling NODs.
First, you should always visibly make sure your device is turned OFF via the power knob or button, then it’s important to remove the battery as a failsafe to avoid leaving your device ON.
Lastly it’s ideal to put on lens caps to protect the lenses from scratches, keeping them dust-free and the tubes inside safe from sun rays, which are able to blem your IIT even when turned OFF.
Basic Night Vision Maintenance
When using night vision, it should be a no brainer to remember that NODs, just like any other tool need to be properly maintained to ensure they works as expected every time.
Lenses
Clean your objective and ocular lenses by spraying them with canned air or a hairdryer on the cold setting to remove dust particles, then using a soft cloth or Q-Tips and isopropyl alcohol, gently wipe the lenses following spiraling motions starting from the center, or, if you are a psychopath, you could in theory just rinse it under running tap water (however, we do not recommend this, especially on home-assembled devices).
Battery Compartment
Clean your battery compartment from residues by using a Q-Tip and isopropyl alcohol and scrub away, paying attention as to not leave any dirt behind, as it could cause your device’s power to stutter.
Troubleshooting
If your device is not working properly, it might be worth attempting to follow a few troubleshooting methods before contacting your dealer and possibly wasting money and time on shipment for something that could have required a simple 5 minutes fix.
Device Flickers / Wont Power UP / Low Gain
If your device is experiencing the aforementioned symptoms, inspect the battery compartment for leakages, clean it following our recommended procedure and replace the battery.
If the issues keep happening contact your vendor.
Light Damage
Some forms of light damage may be repaired by attempting a procedure called blackboxing.
If your device recently suffered a blem caused by intense light or lasers, put lens caps on, turn it on, place it in a sealed container and store it in a dark closet.