Ok, So I was looking into a low end Gen 1 scope for a upcoming night game and I happened across this little gem. It set me back about $30 shipped from Toys R Us. I figured to myself, well it's probably going to blow, but for $30 why not?
Here's a quick run down, I'll go over my background with NODs, some quick pros and cons to this model, my initial mods, impressions and some side by side comparisons with my gen 1 device.
As for my experience, I've used Gen 3 pvs-14's courtesy of One Shepard and their light leader course. If you have the money to blow, this is with out a doubt the way to go. Unfortunately the price tag is alot higher than most airsofters are likely to be able to afford. I know I find myself struggling to afford field fees anymore thanks to the ever rising gas prices. Gen 1 gear is frankly much more affordable; however, Gen 1 is frankly junk. The newer stuff is completely passive. A pvs-14 is fully capable of running off star light alone. Gen 1 pretty much has to have an ir illuminator. This means that you're shining a flashlight around that for the most part only people with NODs can see. This is perfectly acceptable for hunting but not so much for milsim. You don't want those rich assholes getting the drop on you.
This lead me to really put some thought into my night vision needs. Night play in airsoft is mostly a series of ambushes and counter ambushes. I can navigate just fine with my natural eyesight, but what would really rule would be something for 1) IFF, the identification of friend and foe, but not only that, squad cohesion. Nothing sucks more than getting you fire team separated a little bit, then lighting each other up in a blue on blue scenario. 2) something to help with that initial few rounds in an ambush. I use a madbull blackside flare unit. once the shit hits the fan I can guide the tracers in. But I'd like a higher probability of getting a initial hit. Another quirk to night combat is that your sights are essentially useless. You can't see iron sights unless you can afford tritium or can at least justify it's expense. Red dot's are out of the question, they glare to bad at night to see through. Scopes are out too, illuminated ones run into the same problem as red dots. With non-illuminated scopes there's simply not enough contrast to see the crosshairs, unless you have $1500 to drop on an ACOG.
Now on to current toy. This device works by using a little CMOS sensor like a digital camera. It uses a series of IR LED's arranged around the lens to provide illumination. The image is displayed on a little LCD screen in the eye piece. If you have a night shot digital camera, or have seen a night vision security camera at the gas station, it basically works the exact same as those. It's a proven technology; it's cheap and effective. Jakk's Pacific, the maker of this particular toy has actually made a few of these. They made a splinter cell looking set of goggles, some binoculars, and the goggles for one of the COD games. This device has three little nobs, two that you can see on the side and one on the top. The front knob changes the display between two modes. The first is a greenish NOD style vision mode, which is kinda cool. The second is a more traditional black and white image. In the dark the image shows up black and white, but with enough ambient light, the display will show up in color. In both modes though, I've noticed the red laser on my crimson trace still shows up red.
The second knob is the on off switch, nothing fancy. It's the top nob that's important. That switches it between a stealthier low output and a longer ranged high output modes. The way this works is this: the unit uses 8 IR LED's for illumination. They're of either slightly different wavelengths or outputs, but anyway, 4 of them produce no visible light and a lower power IR output, the second set produces a lot of IR, but a little bit of visible red light. I'd post a pic to illustrate, but since digital cameras are sensitive to IR, you're really just going to have to see it in person.
The unit also has a crappy little plastic rail grabber that only seems to work on Nerf guns and a wrist lanyard.
Local flooding of the Mighty MO has canceled the night games I was planning on using this for and my current 7 day a week work schedule is mucking up my plans to take it to the farm for extensive field testing. You're gonna have to settle for my lab testing for now. I'll update as I learn more.
Anyway, my main issues and concerns with this item were that the rail grabber doesn't work, external visibility and effective range. 
I'll tackle the grabber first. For an initial interim solution i simply slide it onto the rail on my m4. I had to pull back on the charging handle and work on it that way. Once it was on I braced it between a small rail cover in the front, and my backup irons in the rear. Here I was pleasantly surprised. I learned the scope amazingly co-witnesses perfectly with my iron sights. Unfortunately, it's not a 1x deal. it actually has a slight zoom to it, I'd say about 1.5x. This means my front sight is generally out of focus (focus is adjustable) but I can tell where the top of it is. Since the scope has no crosshairs, this really does help. This isn't a super stable option and the scope will pop off. Since this initial testing I've made a more permanent mode by adding a steel rail grabber to it. I'll go into details on that in a brief article next time.
For my concern involving external visibility, it was time to do some comparison testing. I grabbed my Gen 1 monocle and headed for the basement, and the bathroom, and the closet, and the bedroom. Actually I tested this throughout the house in a variety of dark and semi dark conditions. I was again amazingly surprised this time. First this little item actually picks the IR illuminator of it's own lights, and the illuminator of the Gen 1 up better than the Gen 1 tube does. That means, with the same IR light source, I can actually see farther with this than I can a Gen 1 scope that costs ten times as much. Second, the LEDs in this puppy are so recessed, that really the Gen1 can only see them if it's looking at it head on. This is really what sold me on this item.
In regards to effective range, the box's claim that the range is 50 feet is only partially true. With it's own built in illumination, you can see about 50 feet. However, what really determines the range is the light source available, making the box very conservative. Vision in the daytime is not a problem. At night an aftermarket illuminator, or IR flashlight, or even a Maglight with a homemade filter will add considerably to your range of vision. What's more, bright lights won't screw up this unit. With Gen 1 any distant light source will cause horrible lens flaring. Some strategically placed cheapo flashlights will render your night vision blind. With this one, it really doesn't matter if the strobe on my tracer is going off or if my teammate lights up his 3000 lumen torch. Since this scope has no light amplification, exterior lights won't bother it.
As far as mods that could be used to improve upon this piece, besides the previously mentioned faulty rail grabber, it does have a functional rail on top. You could mount a little red dot or a illuminator up there. I've kicked around wiring the on-off to a pressure switch. I think a single pressure switch could be used to toggle this unit and a flashlight at the same time with some creative wiring. This piece runs on 4 AAA batteries, so it should be able to share a power source with any 6 volt flashlight.
Since this sees in IR, any of the IFF tabs GLOW when viewed through it. IR strobes are visible, so picking up and adventure light is worth it. Hell, get some IR glowsticks and hand them out to your fireteam. Another aspect to its sensitivity to IR is that non-treated camo will glare white. Military grade gear is generally treated so that it'll match the ambient environment in the near IR spectrum much better. Chinese gear, Condor, Voodoo, or most of the stuff you get from any airsoft retailers isn't treated. So, some people may be easier to spot with this. It sucks to be them. Ask me why I wash all my clothes in sport wash some time.
Anyway, thanks for reading. I'll try to update as I get more testing done, complete mods, etc. I think this will be an ongoing project. Maybe in the future I'll post and article on night games in general. If anyone else has any experience with anything I've mentioned that they would like to contribute feel free to shoot me an email and I'll add it in a future update.
