Second, Steiner eOptics just loosed information about the new civilian-legal version of their triple beam DBAL-A3 laser pointer/illuminator. The DBAL-A3 Civilian features co-aligned IR and visible laser pointers along with a class 3r visible laser illuminator. This DBAL is targeted at the civilian market and the individual law enforcement officer.
While it's not powerful enough to paint a 2km target for an airstrike, it can do nearly everything else a SOCOM issue DBAL-A3 can do. Breaking down the myriad of buttons, dials, ports and emitters on the DBAL begins with understanding that there are 3 emitters on board. One IR laser, one green visible laser and one IR illuminator that's like an IR flashlight with an adjustable beam width.
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Steiner eOptics says the IR pointer will indicate a target past 400 meters. The 4 mW IR illuminator will reach out to about 200 meters under average, rural moon- or starlight. In lower, say 10% ambient illumination, the laser may reach as far as 300 meters. Conversely, in urban environments with electric lights diluting the IR laser, its reach is somewhat reduced.
The two pointers (visible and IR) are slaved, meaning when you zero one, you zero them both. This means you can zero the IR laser in daylight without needing a pair of NODS by using the visible laser. The beam width of the DBAL-A3 Civillian's IR illuminator is adjustable, unlike the the IR flood found on the competing class 1 civilian version of L3/Insight ATPIAL. The DBAL-A3 Civilian's beam can be adjusted from 95 to 195 milliradian on the fly. (Steiner eOptic says 95 mils equates to a beam that's about 65 inches wide at 100 meters.)
To give you an idea how all the lights, dials and switches work together, I'll explain an example of operation that highlights one streamlined, efficient way to use a rifle-mounted unit under NODS. Basically, you run the unit with both the IR illuminator and the IR laser pointer constantly on. The included Y-cable tape switch is used to momentarily and simultaneously activate the unit's visible laser and a separate visible weapon light (a.k.a. SureFire) if the need arises to whitelight something up.
The way this works is to double tap the button on top of the device to activate both the IR pointer and IR illuminator in constant-on mode. Then assume a firing grip with your support hand on the tape switch. With one tail of the Y-cable plugged into the unit's left (override) port and the other plugged into a SureFire light, pressing the tape switch momentarily activates both visible lights for an on demand white light flood and aiming point when you raise your NODS.
The unit weighs 8 ounces, comes with tape switches and will be available in black and desert sand. Like it's military-only sibling, the units is waterproof to 20 meters, runs on a single CR123 battery for about three hours and has a quick-release Picatinny rail mount. Look for them to hit the market sometime before May, 2015 with an MSRP of $1249.
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