Professional Soldiers ® - View Single Post - AN/PVS-4 Repair Question

Retired W4 · 10-08-2007, 06:06

I'm no NVG expert, but I have spent a lot of time around them, and spent hundreds of hours with them strapped on my head (mostly AN/PVS-5[modified] and ANVIS-6). The batteries are probably more sensitive to storage conditions than the goggles themselves, especially those used on the older goggles. I have seen whole cases of "new" batteries either not work out of the box, or fail within minutes of turning the devise on. Pretty disconcerting when you are in the middle of a six ship formation and most everybody else is using the same batch of batteries. We determined the massive failures were the result of improper storage (too much time in a container on the Bay of Limon). So the easy route would be to get your hands on some fresh bats.

I used to take our goggles to a repair depot at Ft. Benning for periodic maintenance. They were staffed by DAC (civil service) and/or contractors with the test boxes. BTW purging with dry nitrogen is very important for the health of the tubes. Without a military ID it would be difficult to access a repair depot at, say Ft. Hood, in order to pick the brains of the real experts. That is, the guys who do the repair for DoD.

Good luck.

10-08-2007, 06:06	#4
Retired W4 Guerrilla Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Currently Tucker, GA Posts: 117	NVG's I'm no NVG expert, but I have spent a lot of time around them, and spent hundreds of hours with them strapped on my head (mostly AN/PVS-5[modified] and ANVIS-6). The batteries are probably more sensitive to storage conditions than the goggles themselves, especially those used on the older goggles. I have seen whole cases of "new" batteries either not work out of the box, or fail within minutes of turning the devise on. Pretty disconcerting when you are in the middle of a six ship formation and most everybody else is using the same batch of batteries. We determined the massive failures were the result of improper storage (too much time in a container on the Bay of Limon). So the easy route would be to get your hands on some fresh bats. I used to take our goggles to a repair depot at Ft. Benning for periodic maintenance. They were staffed by DAC (civil service) and/or contractors with the test boxes. BTW purging with dry nitrogen is very important for the health of the tubes. Without a military ID it would be difficult to access a repair depot at, say Ft. Hood, in order to pick the brains of the real experts. That is, the guys who do the repair for DoD. Good luck.
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