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Night Vision Safran TAD
- Thread starter Dogtown
- Start date
Yes having a lot of extra brightness can be useful. I was running it at 12-14 last night but streetlights would overpower it so in a bright environment you would need to crank the brightness way higher. You also can’t run an iris very tight with it since it blocks the center of the objective lens so you can’t block out ambient light quite as well.
My TAD arrived in the afternoon way back when, and I couldn't wait until night to test it out. So I went into my garage and pulled the shades. Nothing. Is it working? Re-install battery. Nothing. Crank up the brightness...oh there it is! Faint at 45 even.
That is one weakness, I wish there was some kind of indicator that it is booting up so you don’t just sit there wondering why it won’t turn on when it’s already running on 3 Brightness. I guess maybe turn up the brightness to 25 before turning it off each time but that could be jarring next time you turn it on.
Making the auto-adjust brightness sensor actually work would be a nice touch. As far as i can tell, it doesn't do anything.
Anyone seeing really poor battery life with theirs? Twice now over the past week I’ve gone out with a fresh battery, used the TAD intermittently over the course of a 4-6 hour session, and gotten the battery low sequence. It’s almost as if it drains the battery when turned off just like it would if I was running the unit for the whole session. Seems odd.
I cannot speak to the TAD but all of the PAS 29's, E COTI's all sucked on the single CR 123 battery. Especially in cold weather and they have that dam low battery warning that you cannot dismiss which really intruded on the Par - Tee.
But Wigwamatus and Cory T solved that problem. Get a CUBA from SOK. Best dam money you will ever spend.
But Wigwamatus and Cory T solved that problem. Get a CUBA from SOK. Best dam money you will ever spend.
I’m getting an intermittent low battery warning with my external power setup. Granted, it’s powering both my TAD (via SOK adapter) and my DTNVS (via Alamo NV GDPC), but that seems unlikely since analog I^2 devices hardly pull any juice. Not sure if it’s a power source issue with my Voltaic V25 or something else.
Take a voltmeter and check how many volts you are getting out of the Tad external cable. Probably should be around 3.2 to 3.6 volts. If less than 3.2 volts is coming out of the Tad external cable, it would then be a external powering issue.
Don't know if anyone else got an email directly from Safran about getting their TAD reprogrammed via voluntary RMA. I already have mine in the mail.
O1 seems to have shut down at the end of the year for a week or two. I dunno if they do inventory or some other reason, but the automated email said Monday the 6th they'd be back at it and hoping to get my TAD back soon. Glad it's fixed!! Is the autocal fixed too? I hated how it destroyed the image.
I was told similar last week. We will see. We are now 1 year past projected release date, without functional product. Color me skeptical.
The TAD must be growing on me because not having it for two months I’m actually really missing it (still wish I hadn’t sold my E-COTI). I keep going back and forth about getting another E-COTI, but I have to wonder if something new may be on the horizon in the near future? It’s pushing 4 years at this point, and there are budget competitors (R-COTI looks interesting if they can get it smaller).
I’ve found the detection range on the E-COTI/TAD about 300m, so I wouldn’t expect much of an improvement there, but maybe we’ll see expanded FOV or higher refresh rate to cut down on lag?
I’ve found the detection range on the E-COTI/TAD about 300m, so I wouldn’t expect much of an improvement there, but maybe we’ll see expanded FOV or higher refresh rate to cut down on lag?
Really, I'm just salty about paying $6500 for the privilege of beta testing Safran's kit, at this point. On minute one of ownership, it was clear the item had issues. That was half a year ago. As much as I hate China, at least they know how to make quality thermal.
I’ve gotten burned plenty of times trying to be the first kid on the block with a new toy. Maybe someday I’ll learn.
Yeah, I'm done with this. Either it's in a box fixed 100% headed my way next week, or I'm requesting a refund.
This could be my own lack of experience speaking here, but I'm not upset with my purchase. My TAD worked as I expected it to right out of the box. The performance isn't perfect, but no COTI-type device is. I appreciate Safran taking responsibility by offering software updates free of charge (even if those updates are taking much longer than anticipated). Not many manufacturers seem to do that these days.
Bear in mind, this is my only thermal device so far. My expectations may be too low.
Bear in mind, this is my only thermal device so far. My expectations may be too low.
I agree with you mostly. It is nothing new in this industry for a manufacturer to make overly optimistic claims about new product release dates. The Holosun Iris took a year to arrive. The Eotech OGL was announced 2 years ago and you still can’t buy one (a civ one anyway). It does annoy me that TNVC took full-price pre-orders instead of, say, a $500 deposit; I wasn’t really onboard with giving Augie an interest-free $6500 loan for the better part of a year.
It’s also not rare in this industry for a brand-new tech product to have some hiccups at release. A solid company will fix it which Safran has done. I got more emails from them during the process than any other gun-related device repair I can recall. And ditching it for an ECOTI is just getting another Safran product, and even more expensive. I would only do that if I truly wanted an ECOTI more than a TAD, not as some kind of punishment for Safran.
It’s also not rare in this industry for a brand-new tech product to have some hiccups at release. A solid company will fix it which Safran has done. I got more emails from them during the process than any other gun-related device repair I can recall. And ditching it for an ECOTI is just getting another Safran product, and even more expensive. I would only do that if I truly wanted an ECOTI more than a TAD, not as some kind of punishment for Safran.
This is not a "punishment", it's me wanting product that WORKS. The eCOTI works. The TAD does not. Waiting on Optics One to fix the TAD has exceeded my threshold of time vs. money. Optics One has been nothing but awesome to deal with, and very communicative, but whispering sweet nothings to my inbox does not deliver dead coyotes and protect my animals.
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"My direct experience was that they seemed nearly identical when I used them, except that the TAD image controls are simplified down to presets. Performance felt about the same otherwise. The TAD did have a couple quirks that showed up like on rare occasions the power wouldn’t turn-off unless I removed the battery, or the menu screen scrambled - that’s why this first batch is getting fixed."
Seems your reply got deleted in the site being down - but I got it in my email notification.
Are current TADs any different firmware - and functioning without issues? Nobody seems to have said the problems are fixed. It's still TBD.
Very nervous to put 6k towards something that might work.
Yes so far mine has not had the glitches since the firmware update. However I haven’t run it hard yet. But the glitches were showing up all the time previously so this is already a big improvement.
So far there is no fix, but Optics One deeply regrets the frustration people are having and is working diligently, is the vibe I'm getting.
I’m not certain of that. These aren’t sitting on shelves all over the place, there is only one retailer and devices are sent to TNVC in batches. If you order one today it probably hasn’t been built yet. When they send the next batch to TNVC the devices are almost certain to have the new firmware installed.
I only had a small gap between having an E-COTI for a year and having a TAD, and my first thought when I tested out the TAD was "well, this is basically the same as the E-COTI." The image and performance felt identical in every way. The only obvious differences were physical, lack of external power, and a vastly simplified menu.
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