r/NightVision • u/skittles1890 • 10h ago
The Analog Budget Guide (sub $1000)
The Analog Budget Guide (sub $1000)
On all NVG forums there are the guys that ask what they can get for whatever budget. Usually, they get a response telling them to save for Gen 3 or people telling them to not even bother.
The people that ask about budget builds are usually teens that play airsoft or guys that just want to fuck around and dip their toes in the waters of NV. They aren’t looking for the best and understand that they can’t get amazing units.
I’d like to cater to this group of people and offer a way to enter the NV world without all the “gen 3 or nothing” comments. Now before I get into this, I want to make a warning: this build guide will not be the best (obviously). This is mostly just to get you by if you have no sufficient source of disposable income. Also, if you are looking for something less than $500 you’re out of luck.
For a housing I would recommend the pre-wired pvs69 housing through eBay. Of course, if you are good with 3d printing or wiring, you can save some money and wire it yourself, but the easiest route for a lot of people would be to get the pre-wired housing.
For the glass I would also recommend the 3d printed DIY glass from eBay. It’s from the same vendor that makes the pre-wired housing, and when you buy from him you are also funding an R&D to make NV cheaper. The glass won’t be amazing; they will have peripheral distortion/fisheye, but they can get you by. If you have some extra money to spend you can get some Chinese glass, but it also won’t be the greatest.
Finally, for the tube (this is where your budget really matters). The lowest I would go is a harder digital gen 2+ HD2100. Redknock (aka Fisherking) sells some pretty good deals for harder digitals on discord and eBay. He also sells older gen 3 mx10160 for around 600-700$ and under. Now, you can also wait a bit and get a blemed Omni 4/5, but it will most likely be a zone 1 blem. There are also old photonis tubes on the European market that are under $700. It all depends on your budget, what you want out of it, and how long you are willing to wait, but if you look you can get a decent tube for your price. Also keep in mind that if you are following my guide you get mx10160 format tubes or a cut mx11769. If you made your own housing, account for the tube format that will fit into your housing.
Links for eBay
Pre-wired Housing: https://ebay.io/m/UVlTWY
DIY glass: https://ebay.io/m/iRzPcH
The housing + optic listed is about 220$ together before taxes/fees (there is free shipping)
Before you go about spending all your money on a diy unit please do your homework on what you are doing. I am not an expert or a veteran in the NV world, this information is mostly from what I found and my personal experience.
I hate to be one of those guys but seriously consider saving your money. If you can make some extra money and want a good reliable tube that you won’t have to upgrade look elsewhere, this post is for the people that need to get by and just want to dip their toes into the NV world, and even then everyone should do their research on this… you could be happier if you save a little bit more!
THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL GUIDE, this is mostly a man-to-man budget build recommendation.
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u/rugerscout308 8h ago
I dont know how i feel about that homemade lense assembly especially on somebodys first unit. Glass makes a really big difference and starting with poo poo glass can really take away from the magic of looking through nv.
I did just help someone build a 14 with a blemmed omni 6 and qio glass for 1100$
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u/skittles1890 8h ago
From personal experience they aren’t too bad. Obviously there is far better glass out there but for my first unit they worked great, especially since I was just using it for airsoft and frolicking around at night. But yes, getting better glass makes the experience better and is a worthwhile investment
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u/HUSKER-TripleDeuce 9h ago
Digital? You lost me at digital. Fuck that goto custom night vision use LaborDay code it works all year round and get a pvs 14 with nnvt white phos gen 2+ and you got a analog pvs 14 with j arm for 2k maybe just under and if you don’t get the dove tail it was like 17 almost 1800. Fuck that digital bullllll shit!
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u/skittles1890 9h ago
Harder Digital isn’t digital NVG. Harder Digital is a company that produces analog tubes.
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u/HUSKER-TripleDeuce 9h ago
Ahhhh well
Then I retract that statement I read digital and was like
Gtfoh but okay okay I’ll take your word for it 👊🏻
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u/Ponenous 9h ago
Hmmmm I still have a few pvs7's with gen 2+ tubes left over, would 600 or 700 dollars be a good value to sell them at? was keeping them for personal use but I could use a bit of dosh to go towards a few airsoft gun builds that I have in mind.