Strange item on the MLU - Real cockpit

[Vctpil]

Hi,

Is anybody know what is the item indicated by the arrow on the F-16 MLU cockpit ? This does not exit on any other F-16 cockpits.

Thanks
Vincent

[Sting]

selfie camera….

[Vctpil]

LOL

[Rybo]

It’s an IR emitter for NVG compatible cockpit illumination. IRL it’s controlled by the NVIS switch on the interior lighting control panel, not sure if that’s implemented in 4.33 as I haven’t gotten that far in the manuals yet

[Vctpil]

Ok, thank you very much.

I’lll check on the manual I’ve just started to read.

Cheers.

[Focaldesign]

@Rybo:

It’s an IR emitter for NVG compatible cockpit illumination. IRL it’s controlled by the NVIS switch on the interior lighting control panel, not sure if that’s implemented in 4.33 as I haven’t gotten that far in the manuals yet

I was wondering how it works, because I don’t have any knowledge of NVG’s actually sending out anything, or receiving anything to make them react on the IR emitting from that ICP part. The other way around would mean the emittor should be a receiver, receiving something from the NVG to know it’s facing the HUD?

So I asked to a source at EBBL and he claims it’s not related to NVG but for the auto brightness of the HUD, nothing more nothing less. But that guy also said, some stuff is there since so long we don’t really know how it works, only that it works.
I still don’t get how an emitter can do that, I would expect a receiver/sensor to measure the brightness of the ambient light and adjust the HUD brightness accordingly, no?
And what about more recent blocks, they seem to have brightness auto switch available too but no such large thing in front of the ICP?

Can you share more details on this?

[Cpt._Allister_Caine]

My guess always was a Lighting sensor for Auto brightness of HUD and/or cockpit illumination.

IR-light-emitter for cockpit illumination would not make sense, because it is facing the pilots NVGs. It would just blind the pilot, not illuminate any of the switches down there.