I had been shopping for a new night vision monocular / binocular of some type lately (years ago I owned a pair of Russian gen 1 binoculars, and a gen 2 monocular converted PVS-5). Any way I had been shopping for something more modern on ebay, and online when out of the blue I stumble upon a local brother in law sort of deal, and found out they were trying to sell their PVS-14 to raise money.
Now for the good and the bad, and the reason for this post:
The good, they work, and seem to have a good image with no obvious flaws, and the price was right at about 2/3 of the lowest price I have seen a used PVS 14 sell for on ebay in the last month
The bad, the battery compartment is cracked, it is a dual battery model, and the battery cap only holds on by one ear as the housing is cracked where the other one goes, the battery terminals are slightly corroded, the gain control knob shaft is slightly bent, and I don't know exactly which gen 3 tube is in it (previous owner had them for at least 7 or 8 years, so I suspect one of the earlier tubes). There are a few wear marks , but optics look good, can barely read the markings under bright light, but they are a mil set with an NSN.
Now down to the question, I see I can get a replacement battery compartment for about $250 new on ebay, not sure of elsewhere, should I swap this out, change over to single battery, or just live with the wedged in but functional battery cap, and bent gain knob shaft?
I