UPDATE!! Modified my red dot sight for fiber optic, no batteries! pics included.

[Mr_Irritating]

I removed the electronics, drilled the led and put a piece of fiber optic in the focal point of the spherical mirror. There are some minor flaws in the tip of the fiber optic but overall it's crisp, bright and well defined.

I wanted to try a green reticle and see if I could create a circle rather than a simple dot. I colored the tip of the green fiber optic with a sharpie then carefully sanded the corner down using a piece of 400 grit sandpaper. Not perfect but drawing on the tip of a piece of fiber optic isn't exactly easy.

 

[MichaelJR]

Pretty impressive. Parallax free?

 

[Mr_Irritating]

Pretty impressive. Parallax free?

Looks to be fairly decent.

 

[MichaelJR]

Looks to be fairly decent.

Get us a range report!

 

[ChevyGuy91]

Dude, that's pretty cool.

 

[Terminator03]

Very cool!

 

[MichaelJR]

What was it originally? BSA?

 

[Mr_Irritating]

What was it originally? BSA?

Tasco. It's labeled a Pro Point but it looks more like their ReDot series. Bought it at Walmart. The electronics were garbage but I bought it for this project anyway. The optics and tube construction seems adequate. Perfect SHTF optic concept. No batteries, always on very resistant to shock, water etc. Some washout when looking at a bright area from a dark room but only in extreme circumstances. BUIS solves that, though.

 

[Business]

pretty slick man

 

[dnepro-mike]

wow
i admire Kulibin spirit something that i lack myself and Boris exhibits in vast quantities.
=

 

[FreeWillie]

This demands a full write up with photos of the modifications. And Sticky status.

 

[Billsail]

Still adjustable for windage and elevation?

 

[Deer Slayer]

Thats pretty awesome. Especially when fiber op sights are going for over a thousand dollars.

 

[atilla]

heh. wow, that is ****in' cool.

 

[boilermaker]

Still adjustable for windage and elevation?

wondered the same thing

 

[Mr_Irritating]

Still adjustable for windage and elevation?

Yep.

 

[noxin]

.

 

[ztargetshooter]

This demands a full write up with photos of the modifications. And Sticky status.

A "how-to" write up would be sweet.

 

[Mr_Irritating]

This demands a full write up with photos of the modifications. And Sticky status.

The concept is pretty simple. The led provides a light source for the 2-way mirror in the front of the optic. The spherical 2way mirror reflects the spread of light from the source (led) back through the optic to your eye. Since the mirror is spherical all of the light reflected from the mirror travels back parallel to the optical tube. No matter where your eye is you are seeing light that's coming straight back. Cool concept and it's actually been around for a hundred years.

All I'm doing is replacing the light source with the tip of a strand of fiber optic. The important part is to place the light source in the focal point of the 2way spherical mirror. That was easy to achieve. Since the led was already in the focal point I simply put the tip of the fiber optic where the led was located. BAM! That simple.

Exactly how you make that happen depends on the particular design of the optic.

In my case the electronics came out easy, from the top by removing screws. Except for the led which wd encapsulated by the tube assembly. The ends of the tube are threaded but they glued them on during assembly which made accessing the led without drilling a hole impossible. So, I drilled a hole. I drilled through the exterior of the tube at an angle so as to punch a hole right through where the front of the led was located. I choose an angle so when I inserted the fiber optic, the tip would be aimed at the mirror.

To keep from seeing the stem of the fiber optic when looking through the sight I colored the outside of the fiber optic that would be exposed inside the tube with a Sharpie, except the tip of the fiber, of course.

I created a channel in the exterior of the tube body to glue the fiber into to keep it from getting snagged on things. Also, the curved and shiny aluminum channel acts as sort of a reflector to help shine light on the fiber. Don't know if it makes it any brighter or not but it sounds good.

In the end the thing may not be the prettiest optic in the world but the dot is crisp and bright, it's resistant to shock, water, heat and cold and the best part is that it's always on and doesn't need batteries.

 

[Mr_Irritating]

http:/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dot_sight

The article in this link might help better illustrate the concept of the reflective sight and hopefully help you see how easy it really was to make this modification.

 

[Billsail]

Might be time to delete this thread and find a patent attorney. I picture this being professionally produced by a manufacturer of your choice.

Keep the cost reasonable please!

 

[Mr_Irritating]

Might be time to delete this thread and find a patent attorney. I picture this being professionally produced by a manufacturer of your choice.

Keep the cost reasonable please!

Trijicon does it along with Meprolight and some others. I don't feel like spending $500 on one, though. My modification cost around 50 bucks, including the original cost of the sight.

 

[Mr_Irritating]

I added a picture to the first post showing the LED housing, the hole I made and the tip of the fiber optic strand.

 

[pacalypse7]

Pretty cool and impressive setup

 

[Jude Thaddeus]

Where did you source the fiber optic wire and is the wire colored from the manufacturer? My wife and I are VERY interested in doing this. Thank you for the write up. Reps inbound.

 

[Mr_Irritating]

Where did you source the fiber optic wire and is the wire colored from the manufacturer? My wife and I are VERY interested in doing this. Thank you for the write up. Reps inbound.

I picked up the fiber optic in a strand about 5 inches long from a local archery store.

Fiber optic strands are made in all sorts of colors which is nice because you can decide which color you want the dot to be.

I don't know the diameter of the fiber optic but the thinner the better if you want a small dot. The fiber optic I used is pretty thin and gave me a dot about the size of a hubcap at about a hundred yards. That's fine for me because for my purposes the sight is intended for engagements of likely under 100 yards anyway.

 

[Mr_Irritating]

.

 

[Mr_Irritating]

I have been experimenting with modifying the tip of a strand of fiber optic to customize the reticle seen in the objective. By placing a very small opaque dot in the center of the strand I can create a circular shaped reticle with an open center. I can increase the size of the circle by heating the tip of the strand and pressing it against a smooth hard surface.

By creating an opaque X on the tip of the strand I can make a reticle comprised of four evenly spaced pie slices with the center missing. The hard part is drawing on something smaller than the head of a pin.

 

[Mr_Irritating]

QAfter quite a bit of range time with this optic I'm happy to say it's performance is beyond my expectations. In the brightest sunlight the dot is crisp and bright regardless of the background. During sunset hours the dot remains bright and crisp, too.

While this optic was created from a low cost red dot I am completely confident it will perform well as long as I have it.

After hundreds of rounds mounted on an AR15 it holds zero perfectly and is quick to aquire. And the whole reason I did this, never needs batteries and is always on.

 

[George D]

Impressive work!