VectorIV

Hi Pat, No worries at all and thanks for the update. Give me a shout if/when you have the time to knock something up and let me know the best way to send you the funds for the cables. Best, Matt.

Hi Pat, Have not come across this tool before so thanks for that. very useful for viewshed analysis and they have published some of their code for computing them too, so that's nice That sounds brilliant, for lengths I was thinking maybe 0.5m and 3m; happy for you to adjust price to accommodate your costs. Very happy fo you to use spec 55 and heat shrink. Feel free to PM me here and we can arrange payment. Out of curiosity, what is the silicone cable you use ? Thanks again, Matt

I currently have a very solid goniometer type tripod head that I will use but need to fabricobble a way to mount to the binos to it (previously had a Davro Maksutov-Cassegrain surveillance scope on it) I'm guessing that this along with your mention of a tri-pier you're also Into astronomy? I'm guessing the 0.3 arcseconds is to prevent smearing during photography? I have an ex-Dutch Army Carl Zeiss Halem LRF which uses this type of laser, It can apparently range out to ~40KM but the furthest I've managed is circa 19KM mainly because anything beyond this is impossible whilst handheld and also because trying to find anything far enough away to test it on is rather difficult 😂

Hi Pat, Apologies for not replying sooner. I'm still interested per my original comments. Can you let me know roughly what we'd be looking at price wise for a couple of flying leads, maybe e a longish one and a shortish one ? Thanks again. Matt

Hey Pat, Good point re the tripod and head; as in photography (and life in general), good support makes a world of difference 😂 Also really good point about beam divergence, on my Vector/Viper the stated divergence is ≤ 2x2 mrad which at longer ranges is starting to be quite a big dot! Don't forget the target albedo either, I've found this to massively affect measurements. I'm guessing you work in motorsport or similar if your working with AS/DT/DTMs on a regular basis? I only picked up my crimp tools because I have some surplus mil avionics panels I wanted to wire up and so needed something that could crimp the 39029 contacts (eBay has some good bargains on nice tooling from time to time). Do let me know when you get more connectors in stock; at the prices you mentioned back in your earlier posts I'd be interested in a one or two cables with all the contacts brought out to flying leads - I'm thinking of knocking up a couple of break out boxes or maybe some modular cables so I can connect straight to a GPS, or a tablet, or a trigger, or whatever really rather than having to have a dedicated cable for each device. Thanks again.

Pat, cheers for the heads up on the crimp version of the connector, actually quite helpful to know. Seems they only do it in straight plug and not the fancy 90º which works better on the binos as it's less likely to snag (see pic, that cable is the GPS interface cable, has an HD15 on the other end that plugs in to various military GPS RXs) As you say a good crimp tool would is definitely required - as well the correct turret/positioner. Out of curiosity I looked through my crimp turrets and found a Lemo one; I got all excited for a minute but turns out its the turret for the matching female contacts 🙄.

The Deutsch AS connectors are rather Gucci bits of kit but as you say are £££. I just wish Lemo offered these particular connectors with crimp pins, my soldering of anything that small leaves rather a lot to be desired 😂

Pat, Good stuff. Agree, definitely think it's worth having the reticle simply because it means you still have some ranging capability either beyond max laser range or when the batteries are dead. Your earlier comments about using the buttons to remotely control the 3dis setting got me to thinking that it could be rather straightforward to use an Arduino (or similar uC) to either provide dedicated switches for various modes by sending the requisite number of button presses, or you could go further and use the serial data and build a small remote display for the received measurements. I have come across a number of vendors offering "fake" or rather non OEM Lemo connectors cheaper than the OEM part No's, but I'm not sure how trust worthy they are. Cheers.

Hey Pat, I've attached some photos from the various manuals I have tracked down on line that show the pin outs as well as the data formats in case this is helpful to anyone. Looks as if the data format and the electrical interface is fairly standard across their products (the Vector 21s and 23s use a 12 pin Fischer connector with only 5 pins documented which makes me wonder if anything else interesting is lurking on that connector; sadly I don't have £20K spare to buy a pair to find out). The Vector binos I have are the Leica Locator which is basically a limited functionality Vector 1500 made for GIS and surveying applications and clad in a light grey and orange housing. They don't have all of the functions of the mil spec vectors and don't have the engraved reticle bit they do have the same optics (which are amazing). The other pair I have are Rockwell branded Vipers which are to all intents and purposes Vector IVs but branded to (I assume) be compliant with US Berry act. These have the reticle and the 4-6Km ranging performance of the IVs as well as all the other functions. The cables that I have for each interchange with one another so would I would have thought that it likely be compatible with the 5pin PLRFs but according to your research the pin assignments are different 🤔) I purchased the serial cable from a Chinese company on eBay called tdx-surveying; it was a data cable for a Leica total station and had the wrong keying for the binos but this was easily rectified by sanding off the lugs from the connector (😝) but was otherwise electrically compatible. Cheers, Matt.

Hi there @pat. Very interesting to find this post (signed up to the forum so that I can reply). I have two Vectronix binoculars that use the five pin Lemo connector. Presumably the remote trigger simply pulls the relevant pin to ground to trigger either dist or azi readings? These are pins are enumerated in the manual but the manual doesn't illustrate how to use them ? Would potentially be interested in a cable, are you able to produce one that simply goes to flying leads rather than to a button ? I have GPS cables, Serial Cables but would like something I can integrate into my own remote solution. Cheers, Matt.