Chip,
I really don't know were to start. I'll leave the 'Tier 1' training methodology to you and your classes because I just simply use the stuff 3 or 4 nights a week, just about every week. But it seems to me that your post is attempting to counter what I wrote in my above post. I really try hard to give good technical advice on this forum because I care about the gear that people own on this forum regardless of where they bought it- you, me some dude on eBay. What I don't appreciate is you jumping in this thread and posting something that is not only wrong but bad advice to users here, simply because we both sell these and I sell a version that you do not.
I hate coming in here and talking on the very technical side because I think people come in here to learn about night vision products, not get a long lecture on image tube design but i'm going to do some training for you personally Chip. Get yer Big Chief Tablet and Crayon out so you can take some notes. Feel free to use this info later with all the DevGru guys in your classes...
"Utilizing IR lasers at close or long range will have no more damaging effect on current I2 tubes than any other light source. That is to say, there is no permanent damage. If there was damage being done when lasers were used up close, the military would not be using them."
Its a bright light source Chip, regardless of wavelength. That's bad, Chip. I have hundreds of tubes here with PERMANENT DAMAGE. They are ruined. Many of these are damaged from not direct laser strikes but from reflected coherent light from IR lasers. My countries armed forces destroy tubes every day in this fashion, the only difference between them and civilians is they get new ones issued to them for free.
"The autogated systems in current production tubes will protect the tube and the user's eye(s) from damage"
Even if the autogated circuit in a tube is operating at full duty cycle it will not protect the photocathode from prolonged exposure to intense direct light sources. Stop telling people it will be ok because it won't. Eye protection? What do you even mean here? The user's exposure has nothing to do with autogating protection. Eye exposure is limited because there is a physical object blocking the reflected laser light. An Acme brick mounted to a Wilcox helmet mount has the same protection.
"Lasers can produce faint burn-in on tubes during use, but this is a completely temporary condition that will eventually go away during normal use or can be immediately remedied by putting a fresh battery in the system, turning it on with the lens cover in place, placing it in a show box and keeping it in a drawer or closet overnight. The burn in image will burn out of the tube. No permanent damage is done to the tube or system, nor is the tube life diminished. "
The damage you are talking about is what we call a light burn. This occurs because you have disrupted the delicate cesium-oxygen activated layer of the photocathode. If the exposure is severe even in short duration, it will permanently damage this layer. When a tube is made there is a certain, limited amount of extra cesium left in the tube in order to maintain the balance of this layer. When you disrupt the layer with a bright light source the tube can recover from this damage by trying to run in a zero light condition like you described but the results are entirely based on the amount of damage and the amount of remaining cesium left to redistribute. It does affect the life of the tube, absolutely. Don't tell users that its fine- this is a last ditch effort to recover from a burn. MCP channel depletion is different from this and very quick exposure to light sources affect the tube differently- these will return to normal without doing anything, it can last from seconds to minutes and are considered normal (albeit hard) operation- many times you will see this when you power up a tube while looking at light sources in the distance (streaking)
"A 0.7mW laser is nothing compared to the full power IR lasers used in combat that range from 5-200mW and are employed at all ranges. For instance, most unit SOP's are to turn the laser on and leave it on during actions on the objective. This is because contact (often close) is expected. The operation usually moves at a quick enough pace to not worry about the possibility of enemy NVG's. The biggest thing you have to worry about in this scenario is impact bloom on close surfaces and targets. However, the trick around that is to utilize the infrared illuminator at the same time to fill the image and wash out the bloom. It's the same principal as defeating an enemy who is shining a flashlight in your direction: add more light to diminish his. But, either way, using a laser is no different than introducing a light to the scene while under goggles."
Manufacturers simply use the .7mW output because its the maximum the FDA will allow as eye safe. 5,mW,50mW and 200mW lasers are for long range engagement, target identification and airstrike support. These have nothing to do with a pistol, pistol range or this thread. Depending on the target a .7mW IR laser source can be much too intense which is why you are teaching "the tip of the spear" over there to mask blooming with the damn illuminator. This 'trick' also tends to degrade the overall resolution in a lot of applications. The pistol lasers we are talking about in this thread don't even have illuminators Chip so again WTF is this even written here? Blooming is controlled buy using the proper light source on the target which is why we sell the proper laser for pistol work ranges. I wish they used a lower power laser but the couldn't do it with the laser modules they had spec'd so here we are. No one is shooting 150m with a pistol unless its a really bad day but your own damn website says a .7mW IR laser is used out to 250 yards! Who would think a 250m laser is going to work great at 3m? It doesn't, it blooms out, Chip.
This is applicable to rifle lasers too- for instance the OD filter on the PEQ-15 is used to augment the output of the laser pointer depending on range and target. Instead of having simply hi and low output you now have low-low, low-high, high-low and high-high. Now you can go from CQB in a structure to pointing targets out to air support. All with out blooming or risking damage to NVG's.
"We utilize night vision, lights, and lasers together all the time during searches. No permanent damage."
Hope the readers here experience the same, but I fear they won't with this kind of posts from the NV experts. That's all I got, better get back to training Delta, Chip.
