Tangentially related only, but some may or may not be aware:

The cost of the AN/PAS-29A COTI (not the E-COTI) has been reduced to $5,830 recently from $6,800 previous pricing, making the cost gap a good bit more significant than it has been previously between the COTI and E-COTI.

~Augee

Yep. Well worth the wait. Thanks TNVC! Most useful and impressive piece of NV equipment I have used.

Got to play with both in brush side by side, and show off to a bunch of folks recently. The E-Coti is definitely better with identification and the refresh rate is super nice, but both are still by far the best increase of situational awareness to NV.

Ive played with a couple of other fusion systems and I think the Coti/E-Coti do a much better job of only highlighting what needs to be highlighted.

Ive been recommending to everyone to get a Coti over any other thermal unless you live in complete wide open space or only do completely static shooting. City/Suburbs/Brush/Forrest/Swamp I'd take Coti/E-Coti over anything.

The only ones I would suggest to drive with.

Glad your enjoying the gear and sorry once again for the loooong wait. It was a personal challenge to get the corporate players to align with the starts sorta speak. In the end,  it was very worthwhile for all parties involved.

Thus the interests in this thread from a "few" others.



P.S., I or we ain't "da man". Just a crew who loves NV and will do anything to assist all our amazing customers. In this particular case, I knew a few of the customers beforehand...But I got to know all the rest quite well with emails and phone calls during the whole process.  Seriously, I wish I could talk with every one of our valued customers each and every day but the base has grown a bit since my backyard picture taking days.  

Thank you for the order and the crazy patience you had with all of this. I think I know who this is by the lengthy phone calls days and nights we had.  Enjoy the gear T.

See Augee's response who answered your E-Coti question on Pg. 1 where you don't have to ditch your windshield and still have the best of both worlds.

Fits PVS-14 fine.

Fits most every tube.

List from TNVC: PVS-7, PVS-14, PVS-15, PVS-18, PVS-23, PVS-31, PVS-22, PVS-24, PVS-26, Sentinel, DTNVG, MOD-3

My setup on MOD3 with PVS tubes:



@loco_engineer got my COTI, this is his set up, MOD3 with ANVIS tubes:

Yes Sir on all, she's amazing at what she does and yes very lucky to have her.

Refocus ring used for instant close focus.

Used the RFR early on as we were the sole distributor of it from STS before the Steiner acquisition. Biggest advantage is what you indicated, not light restricting whatsoever, BUT a fixed distance view 6-14" while the Tarsier can dial it in to better distance viewing at multiple ranges (out to the 15-20 yards infinity threshold) but comes at a light gathering hindrance of about 20-30% based on the aperture adjustment needed. There is the trade off.

Would never have seen this guy without E-COTI.

Completely hidden in a spot I never would have scanned with a handheld thermal.

We are working on some things, but no ETA at this time.

~Augee

Thank you for the kind words TD along with your patience as we negotiated many obstacles to get these out.

Come on down to the next Cola Warrior!

Ive only looked through a 20 briefly, so wouldnt mind checking it out.

I have used a PSQ-36 fairly extensively though and much prefer the E-COTI/ COTI on nice duals. I found the PSQ-36 did not do nearly as well of a job with with what it highlighted in any mode compared to the patrol mode of the E-COTI/ COTI.

I dont know if this is a software thing or what, but I found it highlighting all kinds of useless stuff the E-COTI does not.

Especially shooting around corners!

I'm not a fan of the PVS-21s really at all, except for some very very specific applications.

They're novel and interesting, but don't really do much that traditional goggles don't in "normal" use that justifies their weight, expense, and complexity, and in many cases, you can get much better performing tubes in a traditional goggle.

The concept of fusion systems is an interesting one in and that while different people may see the "same" thing, there can be a lot of differences in the scope of use and utility between different people, especially with different missions.

I would go Sentinels (or DTNVGs or RNVGs) with COTI or E-COTI (if you can get one) over the PVS-21 + thermal module any day--the advantage, IMHO, of the COTI and E-COTI are the compact, lightweight, easily removable nature of those devices.

For me, the thermal fusion is a situational awareness tool that augments maneuver, not a decisive identification tool, and to that end, while I would absolutely say E-COTI over COTI if you have access to and can afford one, but I also do not feel substantially limited by the COTI's somewhat reduced performance (it's also $2,000 less expensive...)--to me, the biggest performance benefit of the E-COTI is the ability to link it into C4ISR networks for mission command & control, but again, if you don't have access to these networks and applications, then it is somewhat of a moot point.

~Augee

FWIW, the whole ENVG system and program kind of pisses me off.

There are definitely some benefits to the dedicated fused system, but the ENVGs are fat pig systems to begin with--the ENVG-B looks like it's a little more streamlined (ironic), but the PSQ-20 family is just chunky, and the system orientation is not my favorite, you shouldn't be able to reach your NVG with your tongue...

The thermal is also a power-eater, so that's something to consider as well, with a COTI system you can have separate power supplies so your thermal never accidentally kills your NV.

The ENVG-B fixes some of the form factor issues, though not really the power issue, plus... they're binos, so I naturally like them better , but the biggest thing that really annoys me is the stupid ass proprietary interface and all the proprietary attachments, you need a new mount, new shroud (oh by the way, basically only designed according to the Army 1-Hole pattern and/or a ratchet strap design), you can't mount one to a Bump helmet with a molded in shroud, and attaching them to any other helmet at very least requires the removal of the existing "universal" shroud.

The ridiculousness of it all is that they could have very easily developed a "hot" dovetail shoe and mount that was backwards compatible with existing shrouds and mounts (think a powered G24 that you can still attach "normal" NVDs to)--certain USASOC elements went even simpler with the FGE, simply using the ANVIS-format mount, but no... we're stuck with a chunky, weird, INVG-style proprietary mount and a chunky device that basically wants to sit in your mouth in the prone that's basically only compatible with a one-hole ACH...

Rant off...

Fusion is great, and the PSQ-20 ENVG family has some cool capabilities and performance, but I am decidedly less than pleased with the device itself and the choices that were made in designing it.

For the money, they could have just bought everyone PVS-31s and COTIs like the Marines are doing and have been done with it...



~Augee

Sorry, when I said "modified G24," I meant that uses the L4/Universal shroud interface, and the dovetail interface, not necessarily the design of the mount itself. You've got one in hand--but as far as I knew the ENVG-III was no different than the others in terms of using a proprietary interface/hot shoe mount and shroud versus being backwards compatible with legacy devices... that being said, I'd be just as pissed if they made it backwards compatible with the USGI Bayonet, so really I guess what I mean is I'm just pissed off it doesn't use a dovetail.



It's really more than anything a matter of "the customer got exactly what they asked for," like the RHNO II, which did not come with a weight limit, which is why the RHNO II is so beefy/almost looks unfinished--a backwards compatible mount interface would probably not be too difficult to do, but it was not requested, so they just built another proprietary interface, which means once the ENVG is mounted, the helmet basically becomes dedicated to that one system, and you can't swap out easily without just swapping helmets.

IMHO, ideally you could switch (e.g.,) from the ENVG fusion monocular to a dedicated bino without having to swap helmets, depending on your mission, so, say if you were driving an uparmored Hilux for example, you could pop on your binos, while if you were doing a surveillance mission, you could use the ENVG or something like that.

Once again, the fact that the FGE and Harris I-Aware F6045 goggles can pump similar capabilities into the device while still using a standard dovetail or ball-detent interface more or less proves it could be done... but why do that if the customer (the Army) never asked for it, and you can sell them a whole system that won't work with anything else, making you the only store in town?



Meanwhile, the ENVG-III is definitely an improvement over earlier versions in terms of form factor, but IMHO, the limiting factor, shared by the F6045 is the decision to place the thermal sensor at the 6 o'clock. The big reason for this is the need for a monocular to be configurable over either the left or right eye depending on user eye-dominance, ironically, it's much easier in binocular (or even panoramic ) systems, because you can just put the thermal sensor offset to the side in the center of the device ("tri-clops") and not have to worry about it being configured for left or right eye dominant users--though I think you could create a dovetail device with a center pivot that could allow you to flip the monocular over the left eye or right eye, but still keep the thermal sensor offset to the side, rather than directly below the image intensifier, which creates a certain fixed depth that you can't really avoid unless you move the location of the thermal sensor itself, for example, I tend to wear the COTI off the side of the goggle, not below it, though to be honest, I'd prefer it in the center, but obviously with an add-on device, that's not going to be possible.

A device like the ENVG or I-Aware with the 6 o'clock mounted thermal is always going to be "deeper" than one with a side or center mounted thermal sensor, which can cause it's own problems, ranging from much more difficulty with passive aiming to drinking beverages, of all sorts, out of cans.

I'm game whenever you are for "balling!"





~Augee