So, first of all, just a disclaimer, once again - but to keep everything "above the level," I do not work for AB Night Vision, nor any other company in any way, shape, or form associated with the sales, development, or marketing of NV equipment.  I am simply an enthusiastic user and consumer who had been wanting "something like" the AB Night Vision MOD-3 for quite a while before the MOD-3 was announced, and ended up gobsmacked when it was actually released.  

With that said, I have no idea whether anyone from AB will ever actually see this, or moreover, ever take any action on it - but I figured since they've been coming up, it might be a fun departure from our usual "can I buy cheap foreign NV?" and "who should I buy my PVS-14 from?" and "isn't there some way I can get thermal cheap?" threads.  

So - the premise being - the AB Night Vision MOD-3s are a modular NV system.  There are currently three variations, for lack of better descriptions, let's call them "standard" (PVS-14 optics, non-adjustable gain), ANVIS (ANVIS optics, non-adjustable gain), and Manual Gain (PVS-14 optics).  To my quite limited knowledge, no other variants are currently pending release, but I think there are quite a few possible components that could be made that would take great advantage of the modularity of the MOD-3 system.  

I'd be interested in seeing/hearing what everyone else thinks would be the next "great addition" to the MOD-3 system, and perhaps more importantly, why?  

To explain the options briefly -

ANVIS bridge - something that I find interesting is the fact that while there are a couple of "modified" ANVIS designs out there like the Sentinels or AN/PVS-23 - no one's really come out with a simple, hardened ANVIS bridge to my knowledge.  This is an attractive idea to me because of the potential to reduce the weight of the device up front, use the powered ball-detent mount and the "built in counterweight," and the low-profile of the goggle when stowed.  

PVS-15/PVS-31 style swivel pods - generally self-explanatory, but going the other direction from the above - the ability to swing one or both monoculars out of the way, both to use them one and a time, and to reduce the stowed profile, similar to the PVS-31, and to some extent, the PVS-15.  

Panoramic NV pods - again, pretty simple, we've all seen the GPNVG-18s... and their price tags - pano pods would not be "cheap," per se - but there are a lot of folks here who own a lot more than the equivalent of four MX-10160 tubes - from where I stand, the most difficult thing would be replicating the "fused" eyepiece lenses, but I would imagine that they'd be far from impossible to figure out and fabricate - again, not cheap, but potentially viable?

Fusion and/or thermal pods - whether stand-alone thermal for static observation, or a pod with a "built in COTI," this could be an interesting alternative to the again, impossible to get, and quite expensive AN/PSQ-36.  

Single gain bino bridge - self-explanatory - but the current manual gain MOD-3 version can only be adjusted on each tube separately.  Having used dual PVS-14s - this is not necessarily a huge issue, but it can become tedious if you do find yourself adjusting the gain - a single gain bino bridge would allow the manual gain to be adjusted for both tubes at once.  This might require the design of new monocular adapters as well with manual gain controls, but it is what it is.  

CNVD adapter - stepping "outside" the head-mounted game - the "cheap" CNVD almost seems like the "holy grail" to a lot of folks - some way to use an NV monocular with a day optic and have an effective, passive night sight that doesn't result in unacceptable light loss, unacceptable POI shift, or unacceptable eye relief.  Why not, as an accompaniment to the MOD-3 modular system, some sort of "sled" that you could attach an optical pod to and adjust to collimate the image with the day sight, and use it as an at least moderately adequate CNVD?  Would it be as effective as an AN/PVS-24?  Unlikely - but it would give you an entirely different option to go along with the MOD-3.

Any other ideas?  

~Augee

In first: Pano Pods WITH Fusion!



But seriously I think an ANVIS bridge would be great,

I think Pano Pods would be the next easiest thing to fabricate.

And I think Fusion pods would be the best addition but hardest to design,

Pano pods, or better yet a adapter since I have two Mod 3's. Next best or equally as cool would be Fusion or thermal of some sort. I had a COTI but didn't use it enough to justify keeping a $4k paperweight. If Fusion was added I'd like to see some improvements over the COTI. First a much wider field of view then the 25% the COTI gives you, and color would be bad ass.

I would love a fusion pod (the newer low resolution cores might be good enough?) But an ANVIS bridge or other remote power addapter would be pretty neat.

Anvis style ball detent mount that is capable of utilizing an external anvis low profile battery pack. This was one of the main reasons i almost did NOT go with the mod-3 and almost bought a sentinel. I the end, the mod-3 was a $400 price savings on just the housing parts, which is what won out.

I'd like to see Monocular adapters that work for all styles of mono pods, that way you can practice and learn how to take them apart / put them together in the dark and get familiar with the process. I own all 3 styles of MOD-3 a so i have 6 pods, and each set has a different monocular adapter, which isn't my preferred design, because they make 1 adapter that actually fits ALL of the pods, and i want to say it is one of the adapters that came with my manual gain version.

Another suggestion is to move the IR light further out, so it doesn't cast a shadow off the bridge.

It would be cool if they came with some swag, too - like an AB IR patch, or an AB safety lanyard or something other than the dirt cheap dummy cord.

I actually gave AB a lot of feedback via email when I built up my 3 sets, so I do think they are listening, especially since we're not seeing non-anno'd lanyrd holes on the newer bridges.

Which styles of MOD-3 are your 2 sets?

I want a mono housing with an integrated rail mount, so I can quickly convert the bino's into a monocular and weapon mounted tube behind am RDS, without needing extra parts like twist mounts or etc.

Ideally the MOD-3 would include the bino bridge, a single mono-pod, and a weapon-base pod. You can leave one pod on the bino bridge already setup, and your buddy can use the monocular pod if you need to share, or use the weapon-base pod to go rifle mounted.

Besides all that... PVS31 style bridge, and Pano housings would be phenominal.

Damn augee you should have made it multiple choice

To me(building my first mod 3 this month)

Panos
Anvis bridge
Single gain housing
Fusion

In that order

Man I would love me some cheap panos

According to some focal length/FOV maths I was doing over the winter, playing with 3d printer NV designs...

It should be possible to take the lens CELL from the pvs14 ocular for your primary channels, and either a modified (need to mill the lugs down to slim the whole package down) or a plossl type lens cell as used in CJ7Hawk's DBT-44 printed housing, for the peripheral channels.

Diopters would need to be set during final assembly using shims or some other simplified method, and the FOV would have to be slightly more narrow vs the real GPNVG18.

Eta: because there is room for the glass, but none for the focal adjustment mechanisms.

But it could be done without having to develop entirely new ocular lenses.

i voted for fusion/thermal because that will be my next purchase in night vision gear.  it would be nice to have it all rolled into the mod3 somehow.

Both of mine are the non gain PVS14 model. I almost went with the manual gain model for the second set, but that would have cost me more money plus a very nice PVS14. I was hashing everything over when AZcowboy listed his and that sealed the deal.

Just a FYI for you guys, I was tinkering in the safe this morning and pulled the Mod 3's out. I opened one of the mono pods and found the battery contact coil in one was pretty rusty.....not sure what's up with that. None of the others showed any signs of corrosion, that was the only one. I'll wire brush it and will be coating it and all the others with dielectric grease.

Bud, I'm an English guy... this may as well be gibberish... but you're saying it's possible?  

I know the GPNVG-18 also uses fixed diopter inserts that need to be pre-selected and installed.  



Hmm, just checked all three of my housings, no corrosion issues, though there's a little bit of rust inside some of the external screws from being out in the rain, and not wiping them all down, a Q-tip and some CLP would probably take care of those in short order:




Otherwise, the MOD-3s seemed not bothered at all by Georgia thunderstorms.  

Obviously, all of these are upgrades that I'd like to see in the future - but I'd be inclined to say that among them, the swivel or the ANVIS bridge would be the "low hanging fruit" in terms of complexity for development and initial investment in trying to find a solution for them, though the hybrid PVS-31 bridge that Joe mentioned would be cool, too.  

I wonder that an ANVIS bridge might not be a good starting point given that it could act as a "base" for the other, conceivably heavier additions like Panos and Fusion pods.  

~Augee