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We believe these were used in military aircraft but have no detailedspecs. Made by Rock Island Arsenal and distributed by Lockheed Martin.The NSN number is 6650-01-170-8640 and we have found that thegovernment originally paid $5000-$7000 each for these units. The RockIsland part number is 13074135. This unit appears to consist of a 1"diameter imaging sensor, a vidicon tube, a Minco heater (thatsurrounds half of the unit, and various wires for connection. Theentire unit is 4 3/8" long and has a diameter of 1 5/8". The mountingflange is 2-1/4" x 1-7/8". Next to the sensor are 3 wires (one red,two black) that extend 1-1/4" long). From the middle of the unit thereare 5 wires (two blue, one white, one green, and one red) that extend8" long. On the back of the unit there are 12 wires that group into a12 pin connector. These appear to be unused but have no idea whattheir actual usage entailed.

Tim Wescott · Accepted Answer

Night vision?-- Tim WescottWescott Design ServicesDo you need to implement control loops in software?"Applied Control Theory for Embedded Systems" was written for you.See details at

Wanderer · Answer

Did older type night vision use sensors that need to be heated insteadof cooled?

Mike Harrison · Answer

My guess is it's a vidicon that's intended to be bolted onto an image intensifier, or just a camera lens - if whatever it was bolted to needed cooling that may explain the heater, or it could just be for anti-condensation.

Don Lancaster · Answer

That is a nomenclature.-- Many thanks,Don Lancaster                          voice phone: (928)428-4073Synergetics   3860 West First Street   Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552rss:    email: Please visit my GURU's LAIR web site at

Spehro Pefhany · Answer

wrote:intensifier, or just a cameraor it could just beIt gets pretty cold at fighter-jet altitudes.. -50°C is pretty normal,but I'm guessing it's part of an old anti-missile countermeasuresystem. Just a WAG... Best regards, Spehro Pefhany-- "it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"             Info for manufacturers:  software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:

John Larkin · Answer

And the sad part is that you can buy a color USB camera, with LEDillumination, for about $6 these days.John

m II · Answer

Those Germans have a word for everything....mike

Bitrex · Answer

intensifier, or just a cameraheater, or it could just beMy first thought was also something to be used in military aircraft, but wouldn't something for say, detecting missile launches operate in the infrared? I don't think one would want to have a heater wrapped around it.  My WAG is that it is for the visual wavelengths and that it might be for something like star tracking for celestial navigation/inertial guidance.

Bitrex · Answer

Like it says in the first sentence! I better improve my reading comprehension skills...

habelervin · Answer

Hello.  Recently I have seen this topic about that "tube". I did some research. It  turned out this tube is an EO-MUX aka electro optical multiplexer. It has a n 1xN infrared sensitive diode array inside[where N is a number somewhere b etween 200 and 400 maybe?]. When a mirror scans a row of the field, this th ingy detects the IR light. After that they filter it with analog electronic s then put it on the screen. Basically the military used these "bad boys" o n Apache helicopters they called it the "PNVS"[Pilot Night Vision] system.  It needs an infrared illuminator too. If you think about that, nowadays an  USB camera can do this too. There is no that type of image intensifier tube  in this thing like a nightvision have. Also sorry for my english, its not  my first language.

bloggs.fredbloggs.fred · Answer

It's 30yo antiquated garbage from the TADS/PNVS of the AH-64 "advanced attack" helicopter.

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