I get many asking me all the time about making their dual battery 14 into a single. You have a couple options. TNVC sells the single battery housing for 300 bucks. That is easy and it is just plug and play. No soldering required, you just have to move the connections from one housing to another (don't forget the gasket ! many people do ). Another option I have found is for a lower housing shell I see sold on eBay. It is only for use if you already have a dual battery board in good shape. This is a link to the lower housing.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/AN-PVS-14-6015-BATTERY-COMPARTMENT-CR123-LITHIUM-/230713866293?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35b79e3835

This is a cheaper alternative if you are a little handy and can solder a couple wires. I thought some may like to do this easy project so I took some photos as I went along.


In this pic I have taken apart the dual battery lower. You need a 3/8 ignition wrench or a small normal open end. You will need precision tools. You need a flat head bit and a small torx bit to remove the knobs from the switches. The two connections you see that are left are for the power. Use your soldering iron and disconnect the lead from the housing. Take note of polarity as it is important and won't work if you mix it up.


Pic of both housings side by side.


Pic of the two connections you need to disconnect with your soldering iron.


Pic after the wires are removed and also shows the rubber gasket you need to transfer to your new lower housing. Carefully pry it out with a small flat head screwdriver. Your new lower housing does not come with the gasket. It is a separate part if you want a new one.


Now you solder the wires from the new lower housing to the lead that you just disconnected. Again, make sure you have the polarity correct.


After you solder the wires you put it all back together and tuck everything in neatly. Here is a shot with the new lower housing complete.
ETA: At the factory they use a small dab of silicone sealant on the inside of the housing around where the holes are for the switches. It was a very small amount and I assume just helps seal the hole to provide more assurance of any water seepage if submerged. Not a bad idea to reapply some sealant when you do this to insure it is air tight and waterproof.


Your new PVS-14 that now works off of one CR123 battery. Total cost for project is $126 plus shipping for part and about 30 minutes of my time. Easy and fun upgrade for folks that want a single battery but don't want to spend $300 bucks. I am far from any electronics expert and I stink at soldering. If I can do this you all can !

Nice job  bout time somebody tackled this question & took pic's...

Last but certainly not least Go Ravens !!!!  

It is hyper humid here is SE TX; what about N2 purging?

I assemble scopes on a low humidity day and never have an issue. But, the purge screw is located in the upper housing so this lower shell won't affect that should someone choose to have their scope purged. I might also add that this lower shell is not milspec but is well made. It is not made out of plastic or Delrin. It is made out of aluminum and is pretty tough. Many home brew purging methods exist as I am sure you know. Some guys even toss one of those small desiccant packs in with success as an alternative to purging.

So do you get half the battery life?  If not, why?

Tubes work on 3.0 volts. Two AA or one CR123 both produce 3 volts give or take. A true single AA battery PVS-14 lower housing contains a voltage multiplier in the circuit board. That is why you could not use this setup with a single AA board because it would produce 6 volts. You could disable the multiplier but that is for another story.

As far as battery life I would assume a dual battery setup would last twice as long as a single measuring the amp draw. On a lithium CR123 I am not sure what the capacity is of that battery to give an accurate hour usage. I would also need to know what the PVS-14 draws under use. I don't know these figures but I bet my friend CJ7Hawk does. He is good with those math calculations.

Thank you. Yes, I remember now. We talked about whether this would work with the single battery board and you thought it might. I just assumed the circuit doubled the voltage being as it was going from 3.0 volt supply to 1.5 . I was really relying on what the guy said who made the shell. He may be saying that to get his hands on more single A boards cheaply or just to cover his rear. Still should be fairly easy to bypass this boost circuit in the board should it not ? When I put my meter on the output side of the board I was only getting 2.8 volts to the tube.

I am using SureFire CR123 batteries and the battery itself produces 3.15 volts new but comes out of the board at 2.8 . I assume some sort of voltage limiter is included in the board ? This circuitry business is a tad confusing.

Another interesting thing I found when I removed the on/off and gain switches. They throw a dab of silicone sealant around the inside of the hole where the switch meets the inside of the housing. Pretty low tech waterproofing feature ! LOL. I was expecting some high tech O rings and such ! Nope, just smear some clear silicone caulk in there and get er done !! I had to edit my post above as I forgot that little tidbit. So, when they need a 14 to pass those pesky 66ft waterproofing standards I guess you just add more silicone ! LMAO. For that matter just do away with the rubber seal and silicone the lower to the upper ! That will make her waterproof !  

ETAA : Let me fix this so it sounds milspec and professional. The switches are sealed to the inside of the housing using a space age polymer that include silicon together with carbon, hydrogen and oxygen to provide an air tight and waterproof environment for the electronics of your PVS-14. No expense was spared to insure that your PVS-14 stands up to the rigors that nature can throw at it !  

So the single battery housing are a single CR123 not a single AA?  That makes more sense to me if so.

No, the single-battery housing is AA... The one Dino made up is special and is single-CR123.

So what is the appeal of a single battery PVS-14 housing if you are going to get 1/2 the battery life?   The weight savings cant be much.

The single battery model is preferred by those of us, who have broken the battery cartridge on the dual units.

Like Wes1 said the battery cap which also holds the batterys going into the lower housing breaks all the time. They must of had those things ordered by the cases on the battlefield. I broke two myself and I guarantee I am far more gentle than an 18 year old kid.

They also addressed two other issues. The gain knob broke a lot on the dual battery housing so they beefed that up on the single housing. The single battery also has a sealed brass lined tube for better corrosion resistance and I also feel is more water resistant. I guess they just felt that battery length of use was more than adequate for one battery.

They could have addressed all the issues I mentioned and still kept the two battery design but someone thought one battery was better for weight and worked long enough for their needs.

Also, as David pointed out my mod is for using a single CR123 lithium battery over a single AA that factory 14's now use. The single CR123 lithium batteries I have in abundance because of illuminator and flashlight use. They also give much longer use than a single AA and very close to what a dual AA setup would get. AA lithium also tend to be expensive for me and harder to find. I get deals on bulk CR123 battery's online.

Those tabs in the battery cap... They break ! Very easily !