Could someone give me an idea of what equipment would be necessary to make this a helmet mounted option?  I  tried to look at some of the PVS14 stuff and my head just swims with the options? Or at least point me in the direction to another thread that can help me figure out what might be needed.

Looks like the Wilcox dual MUM mount will work with the Breach?
Just replace the right side with Breach instead of MUM.

Left eye NV right eye thermal.

I paid for my Breach today.  TNVC said it should ship tomorrow, I will have it Friday as long as FedEx does it's part :)

Can't wait to hear everyone's opinions and start seeing some field usage videos!!!!!

Same.  Fed Ex don’t fail me now

Just a heads up ....received my Breach today from The Night Vision Guy...

Right out of the box it goes into auto shut down after about 10 seconds..not sure why ...but initial impression is the device is going into protective shutdown.

I am pretty P.O.ed right now if this is an example of FLIR and Night Vision Guys quality assurance.

Hoping its as simple as configuration issue but after reviewing the provided operator instructions there doesnt seem to be any settings which determine shutdown parameters.

If anybody has any ideas or has encountered similar issues please reach out to me.

[email protected]

Thanks
Scott

Wow? Your first post. Thanks for the heads up.

Ok..update...

The battery used was the one installed and shipped with the unit. Battery status indicator showed full charge.

However just replaced the battery with a new one. Unit seems to be functioning fine.

Also for those who are considering running with the Wilcox 24 to Armalight #172...got those new today as well and the dovetail still has to be filed slightly in order for the arm to seat in the mount. And the 172 interface to the Breach is also an extremently tight squeeze.

So now that it's working, how do you like it?

Primary attribute thats attractive is its weight.

Also have the FLIR LS64. Both of these were acquired for Search and Rescue (the LS64 about a year ago).

I would say the  performance of the boson chip at 320 has a leg up on the older 640 sensor in he LS64..will do more comparison tonight.

Still havent sorted out how to record on the Breach...may record vid and post later tonight.

And I would sitll like to see (and intend to purchase) the 640 version of the Breach if/when it is released.

Improvements that could be made are battery life...it has only a 90 minute rated life on the single CR123, most of the newer gen thermal sights can scavange multiple hours out of the 123....the boson remains power hungry.

Really is tiny

http://www.spaceaholic.com/csimages/mount4.jpg

http://www.spaceaholic.com/csimages/mount2.jpg

PS..anybody know how to have the images display inline rather then as links?

Scott

Explore a helmet mounted USB battery power pack and a USB-C cable for more runtime, and not having to burn through primaries.

The batteries that came with my PTS233 were ok but why do they send these expensive units with junk batteries. Have never seen these kinds before but am assuming china crap.

Nice, looking forward to the pics.

Copy/pasting this over from the other FLIR thread as Robert had asked me for some feedback:

Finally got the Breach. Did I mention finally? Not in the slightest Robert's fault. He was extremely good to deal with through this whole mess FLIR basically dumped on their dealers and people with pre-orders. Usually when you get the best price on something you end up compromising service, but the way he dealt with the issues and kept everyone in the loop, as well as basically fighting for us instead of just rolling over for FLIR and saying 'oh well' really went the extra mile.

Set it up and ran around with it yesterday for a good few hours; enough to drain the CR123 as well as my on board ANKER battery twice.

My setup is:

Crye Airframe
Norotos Low Sto mount
RQE Bridge
PVS14 Vyper chassis, titanium ring, bunch of upgrades in a dovetail over left (non dominant) eye
FLIR Breach on dovetail via the M clips FLIR said to use

The Good:

Small, light yet rugged unit
Great picture and detail definition
Easy to use, sets up easily, menu is easy and straight forward
Easily connects to an ANKER battery via a cable, and both the battery and excess cable can easily be stowed in your helmet counterweight pouch
When flipped out of the way on the RQE bridge, its like its not even there
Starts up quickly. The NUC click is really obnoxious at first, but as it acclimates, it goes down to where its barely noticeable
Digital compass is a nice touch (when you can actually see it), more on this below

The Meh:

The 'rails' for the M clips are so damn tight, comparing them to anything I've ever put M Clips on, I'd call them borderline out of spec. Usually the clips slide on/slide off fairly easily. With the set screw completely removed, 2 of the 3 rails I basically had to press as hard as I could, multiple times (while hoping I didn't crush the unit) to get the clips on, and getting them off was even harder. This shouldn't be the case here; I guess its a 'feature' that you don't have to worry about it coming off in the middle of the night. Damn Ukrainians.

If the Breach is supposed to be helmet mounted and work in conjunction with a PVS14, whoever tested the units missed something fairly big. If you don't want your Breach to require 100%+ of the RQE bridge's side to side adjustment, you are stuck with basically mounting it so the ocular/eyepiece if as far left as possible (assuming its over your right eye) as the body shape makes the eyepiece hang way too far to the right in either of the 2 other rail positions.

Utilizing the above mounting method, the picture 'rectangle' is long ways up and down, not side to side. I know some prefer that anyways, but this is basically what you're going to have to use.

Breach plus M clip is 1/4" or so (guesstimate) higher up than a PVS14 plus dovetail mount which then significantly limits the range of adjustment/positions available to see 100% through your PVS14 as well as the Breach. When setting this up as the PVS is much more important to me, I made sure I could see through my PVS perfectly and then adjusted for the Breach. I can see about 90% of the screen, which works fine, but it blurs out things like the digital compass and edges of the bottom 2 corners. Not the end of the world, but still. The only way I can see improving this is to get the Breach unit as far back as the mount will let you towards your eye.

Objective/front rubber cover was an afterthought. Will pop off and after some regular use I'm betting this thing becomes useless. Will need to find a long term alternative to this.

Update to the original post since I've had it a few more days. If you are looking to use this with the bridge and run a PVS14 plus the thermal (not together at the same time obviously, because that doesn't work) this setup works really well. The only complaints are that the design of the FLIR body doesn't allow the unit to sit on the same axis/height that the PVS 14 does. Would have thought someone would have figured that out as this was always marketed as a handheld AND monocle. In order to defeat this design flaw, you have to basically move the Breach unit as far back on the M clip as possible towards your eye; the good news is that it wont come off even if moving it past the set screw pocket because the rails are so oversized/out of spec that the M clip doesn't move, even under pressure, on the rail. So apparently its a feature.

Using the PVS14 to move around, observe and utilize with IR/laser per usual and then being able to flip the Breach down to really make sure nothing is there is quick and really gives you an entire different perspective on things. Its now like you have 2 super powers instead of one. I don't bother flipping the PVS14 up when flipping the Breach down, but rather just close my left eye that the PVS14 is over and focus on the thermal. This also allows you to 'stay on target' if you do see something with the thermal that then needs to translate over to the PVS14 and you simply flip the Breach up and go back to your left eye where you now know something you didn't initially see is.

So this pic was of a man at 250 yards using 4x digital zoom? That seems fairly impressive.

Attached File

Gotcha, thanks for the clarification, and thanks for posting the pics as well. Still liking what I see.

What do the I and V values in the bottom left corner represent?

The number of recorded Images and Videos.

Will a rechargeable equivalent of a CR123A run the Breach alright?

There are two rechargeable options that I'm aware of:

Lithium Ion which is 3.7v nominal, 4.2v fresh off the charger.  
I would not attempt this due to risk of overvoltage.

Lithium Iron Phosphate which is 3.0v nominal, unsure of what the voltage is off the charger but I believe it is 3.2v.
These should work, but capacity is abysmal (approximately 1/3 of the capacity of a CR123 battery).

Your best bet is to use an external USB battery pack.

Thanks for the reply. I called TNVC today and was told that it is not recommended, FLIR believes it may damage the core if the voltage gets too low, and if they know that they were used it will void the warranty.

Makes me wonder if this unit is really for me. For how I imagined using it, the Anker battery pack wouldn't be terribly convenient much of the time, and CR123As would be pricey at a battery per hour of use. Decisions...

Straight out of section 2.2 of the PTS-233 manual:   The FLIR ThermoSight Pro scope is equipped with a sophisticated power system that uses two standard CR123A Lithium batteries or two CR123 type rechargeable batteries with voltage from 3.0V to 3.7V.

If Li-ion batts have the potential for voltage greater than 3.7, should probably stay away from them.

Not sure how the core could be damaged by an under-voltage condition unless it is a software/firmware issue.  I would think an undervoltage could occur with any power source.

That was my thought as well. They implied a rechargeable will behave differently as the power is expended.

Thanks for posting that though. I ended up ordering a Breach, it should arrive Saturday. I'll be interested to see what the manual for that says.

I originally had the same concerns before ordering.  Looked at different rechargeable options and just decided to stick with the recommended CR123A.  Buying good quality name brand batteries in bulk are $1 to $1.30.  Works out to 50 to 65 cents per hour.  My guess is most units get used less then 40 hours per year.  About $26 worth of good batteries.

I ordered 100 Energizer ELCR123A 1500 mah for $130 shipped.  About 200 hours worth of use or  .65 cents per hour.  Not worth the risk or hassle  if a problem  occurs on a expensive item even if covered under warranty.    Rechargeable batteries are most likely fine but I will wait and use the rechargeable batteries in flashlights.

Double tap

TNVC external battery solution https://tnvc.com/shop/tnvc-thermal-remote-battery-trb/

Very true. Would I use it more than 40 hours per year, maybe, but if so not drastically more.

How do you like your Breach?

I bought a PTS233.  Just received it Tuesday and have only used it as a monocular around the neighborhood.  So far I am impressed and happy with my purchase.   After using a friend's night vision and thermal I decided thermal would be my first purchase.

Responded to your post  on the Breach because of my similar concerns originally and  both models discussed in this thread.

Came to the conclusion after doing some math.

Battery cost per hour used is cheap.

Having extra batteries on hand is never a bad thing.

I don't want more stuff mounted on my rifle. (External battery pack)

Rechargeable batteries will not save me much for the amount i will use it.

With all the money I have tied up gear it is kind of ridiculous to be worried about the cost of a few batteries.  Should not be a concern to anyone who can afford to purchase these.

Sounds like & looks like from pics that it will work with a MUM or with other units with MUM style rails. Or would it, is the rail located up/down compared to a MUM/N14/etc?

On that note, how close to unity mag (compared to a NV monocular perhaps for rather good reference) is the Breach?

Edit: a quick and dirty mspaint job:


And for people who still run TATM the #172 will lock into place forever if you put it on your right eye. Might be a problem with AKA2 on the right eye due to the bigger adjustment lever. You can get it out, but may leave bad tool marks to the TATM release knob.

Btw, that room with the spacesuit, damn!

https://youtu.be/0JB2k2sy0XY

Not a bad consideration. About as expensive as 12 CR123 batteries, quick release mount, and is rechargeable. I've used this setup for a couple of months now and it has held up and functioned flawlessly. Just another option.

For those wanting an external battery, get the ANKER candy bar sized battery off Amazon for $20. It's the exact same battery inside that TNVC thing they're selling for almost 5x the price.

BTW, is there some sort of trick to viewing your saved images? I go to recording screen and can scroll through the images, hit preview and nothing happens.

I've never plugged it into my computer. lol

Is there any benefit to doing so other than maybe seeing the images (i.e. firmware updates or something?).

The good news is, a few days back I was outside at night letting my dogs out in my yard. At the end of the road that goes past my house is basically just fields with nothing in them; kind of like a subdivision road that just goes off into nothing. Was looking around and saw 2 hot spots at 350ish yards away and watched them and realized they were moving around a bit. Put the dogs inside and went down the road and kept flipping the Breach down every so often to see if it was still there/where it was.

Ended up being 2 giant deer. I got close enough to where I could hear them landing on the ground when they were jumping around (why do deer jump?); probably within 50 yards or less. Took some pictures of them through the Breach, which is why I was curious about viewing the images.

It's amazing what you see with thermal, that with NV just looks like a big dark field. The Sepia palette is starting to grow on me.

My Breach just arrived today; I've barely had a chance to use it but I quickly ran into the same question. Haven't looked into the instruction manual much yet though, I was hoping I was just doing something wrong.

I think the firmware still has some glitches and the preview does not work yet.

Battery icon sucks and is not accurate, and also when you start up the unit even though it stays in the last preset emhancememt settings you were on....it's not really in that preset...it's like it always starts off with a certain enhancement settings and you have to cycle to a new one then back.

One more thing I noticed today...even if you adjust the enhancement settings in 2 different presets to the exact same settings....they still look different when you then cycle between them....wierd but I guess the presents have some parameter attached that is not adjustable.

Minor things I am sure are correctable with fireare updates.

Don't have a breach, have a PTS233. But I imagine it's the same. Turning the gain down is going to help in outdoor alert. You'll have to play around with it for a heat signature to pop without the trees lighting up. I like to operate the gain somewhere between 50 and 80.