I bought a used MX-11769 that was built before 2011, ITT manufacturer I believe. It has the soldiered on pigtails.

Unknown to me, the used body/battery compartment had a pin snapped off in the place where the pigtail is supposed to attach. When I tried to gently "force it", it bent the pin.

I figured out what happened, and tried to bend the pin back, but yes, it snapped.

I have gotten the hole corrected, was able to pry out the old stuck pin.

But now I have a pigtail with 3 pins.

My soldiering skills suck, but I can try things. There are always people who remove the newer style pigtails from the newer tubes to build BNVGs, so I've seen pigtails for sale.

But my tube is the old kind, so I don't know if they are compatible with the new "L3" removable pigtails.

Can I buy one of the new ones and install it on the tube then put it in the PVS14 housing and have it work?

James in Denver

Thanks for the info. I can do the soldering, but you're saying they won't work even if I do solder them, is that right?

I cannot find the old EGAC pigtails anywhere. There is one seller on fleabay but they are in the UK and conversion and shipping make them EXTREMELY expensive.

I will PM you for a referral.

James

I have a friend over at Parsons Precison that offers this service. I do not get anything for referring people to him. He recently "docked" two of my Omni-VII contract tubes for an RNVG build so he should have some of them in stock. Google search Parsons Precision and he'll be one of the top results.

Website is 2020 with no email (form on webpage for contact).

Do you have a contact email address you could provide in DMs?

If not, I can contact via the form and try that.

Received your referral via PMs and thanks! For your contact, I was able to locate an email address via google search and will email him to see if he can help.

THANKS!

I believe that the pigtail will operate with a prong missing, I have been told that the 4 pins are a redundant system and in actuality it can operate with just 2 pins. I cannot guarantee this is accurate, but if you plug it in and the gain works we'll know.

I'm the OP and just a few updates.

First, one of the recommendations here has reached out but I have not replied because they want to get a picture of my tube, presumably to make sure it's the right pigtail. I need to get my digital camera out or something.

Second, per the comment below, the statement is "kind of" true, the tube still works with less pins, but it's not working as it should.

The pin the broke on mine was one of the "bottom" pins, aka the lower wider set. I tried to solder on a replacement pin, but it didn't really work.

I am able to plug in the top pins and I do, indeed, get SOME functionality of the gain knob. The gain works to about 50% I would guess. It works about 25% turn but the brightness does get decently bright but not as bright as it should.

I know it doesn't work all the way because I used some extra "density foam" in the housing and put it between the back of the pins and the tub housing. It does not interfere with the tube or any electricals, but it puts pressure on the pin plug. Doing this allows all 4 "contacts" to make contact with the battery housing (2 pins and 2 broken ones... yes I broken a 2nd bottom one messing with it).

When all 4 contacts are made, the knob works 100% and gets much bright than my other "older" early 10160 tubes (Omni 3 thru 5 I would guess).

As mentioned to the 2 members who provided recommendations for vendors, this is a "blem" tube, it has a GREAT picture (for my old eyes), but I wouldn't want to spend tons of $ since it has a long streak on it as a blem (left up but off in the sun, exactly like the tube on one of the youtube videos that did this). It also has some slight dimming throughout the edges... so, it's one of the "best tubes" I have. i want to make sure it's fixed reasonably for sporadic/emergency/prepper use, but it's definitely not "operator quality" since I am not and could not be an "operator".... just a "larper" LOL.

James