So when you get your PVS-14 and you immediately run into your closet and turn it on. Don't be upset if you can't see dick without your IR illuminator. Because in your over cautiousness you turned down the gain to zero and you forgot about it. lol. I was kind of underwhelmed at first and like "this is kinda cool." Then I said "hey what if my gain help..HOLY SHIT!!!!! This is freaking amazing!!!"



Also for the question. So I skimmed through the manual but I lost my damn "panteo productions: Nightvision/IR skill builder" so forgive my newbness.


As far as being useful are there any dangers in having gain cranked up as long as there is there no bright light danger? I assume it will make a larger visible signature and dampen my own natural nightvision. Also Does my Auto-gate....... ummmm auto-gate itself.

Thanks for the heads up.
I just ordered some (finally) and they should be here next week.

My gain stays up all the time unless conditions call for me turning it down. Anvis tubes don't have gain control and they are at a fixed gain. The autogating works all the time. You don't need to do a thing.

I've also turned my gain down at times when i ran just 1 pvs-14 and was walking around. It felt more natural to have my eyes more closely matched. What vic mentioned is one of the other main reasons i ran/run lower gain.

So I can just leave my gain at 11 constantly it i see fit? And get all the cool crackly sparkleness.??

Ah yes we are all newbs once. I got mine, went to a dark room and was very under whelmed, had the ir illuminator on and the gain up and could barely see, thought I got scammed with a gen 1 tube. I went to put the lenses cover on to turn the lights on and realized I never took the cover off....I had been looking through the pin hole the whole time.

I'm very much a noob to personally owned NVGs, a whole different game than carelessly handling Uncle Sam's PVS-14.  

In regards to auto-gating, is there a source that better explains what it is and how it works?  Will it automatically dim itself in a mixed environment (streetlights etc)?

Hahaha I did the same thing I went back in took the lens cap off and was like

I rarely leave my gain all the way up. it gets to bright for me, almost blinding.

when I turn on my 14 I set the gain to what produces the best image and feels right for my eye

I've noticed after years of wearing them, if your brain doesn't want to mesh the two images together it leads to massive headaches. To mitigate this is simple. Once your unaided eye(which should be your dominant eye) is dark adapted, turn the gain down until it's around the same brightness as what you see with the dominant eye. The equal brightness helps me a lot, making me able to wear NODs for longer and more effective.
 

This one goes to 11.  

In my opinion, the advantage of the NV is in removing that night blurriness your eye sees without the help. The NV does that just as well at low gain settings as at high settings.
My particular PVS-14 has a lower signal to noise ratio at lower gain and the contrast at low gain with dark-adjusted eyes is better.

All-in-all, I get the best overall satisfaction, safety, and acuity when, once my eyes get dark adjusted, my gain goes low enough that both eyes seem to see scenes at just about the same overall brightness. "Just about" usually meaning the NV eye sees just slightly brighter picture than the unassisted eye - but an actually clear scene.