So I just acquired an older 90's vintage ITT F5001B PVS 7, and I can't seem to get the IR illuminator to work? From my understanding, you turn the power knob a click to the right to turn it on, and it does turn on, from there you can turn it a very little bit to the right and it should momentarily turn the IR on, but it doesn't light up.....how much to the right do you nave to turn it, it does not want to turn much, do I have to crank it?

How do you turn the IR on permanently? The manual says to pull the knob out, but when you do this, do you pull out directly when the knob is in the on position, or do you have to twist it further to the right from the on position then pull out? The knob pulls out a bit, but it doesn't stay out, it just springs back to the original position, just like the temporary position, is the knob supposed to stay in the pulled out position, because it doesn't?

What am I doing wrong, maybe I need to get more aggressive with the knob, I don't want to break it?

Its got a safety basically, so you dont accidently turn on the ir, and give away your location at the wrong time to enemy with night vision. The ir illuminator looks like a flash light to other night vision.

Turn on night vision, then pull out knob , hold it out, while turning, and turn it one more click for ir mode. Then release knob. At least thats how pvs5s worked for me on active duty.

To turn on the PVS7 turn the knob clockwise to on, to use the momentary IR function continually turn the knob clockwise which will spring back to IR off. To turn the IR light to constant on pull the knob out, then twist clockwise, to turn it off turn counter clockwise. A red led should turn on when the IR light is on. Also when testing the IR function be in a room dark enough so you'll be able to see it very well.

Thanks for the replies gentlemen, all works as it should. The spring tension on the knob is very strong on this unit, and i didn't want to force it initially.