ACM Eotech 552 review
Okay, I recently purchased an ACM Eotech 552 replica reflex sights from DealExtreme and it was delivered in roughly one and a half week from purchase.
It arrived nicely packaged with a product box that had foam padding inside, the box includes:
- Eotech 552 reflex sights
- Two AA batteries
- A hex wrench
- Lens protector
- Lens cleaning cloth
The first thing I did was to crank the battery compartment open and put in the batteries, it was marked on the scope which side was + and – so inserting the batteries went quick and painfree. The sights chimmed to life immediately. The reticle is a standard Eotech reticle with a BDC (see picture).
Eotech reticle
When I first tried it inside, The reticle was extremely blurry due to ghosting but turning the brightness down to the lowest notch will make it usable indoors with just a small bit of ghosting left.
The scope itself looks beautifully made, nice finish and theres absolutely no wobble to it so it looks and feels rock solid.
I took it outside for some testing in a natural sunlight environment, It’s 20C outside and wont get any brighter any time of the day and the reticle was visible but not that bright when pointing it at vegetation using the max brightness setting, It’s certainly usable but could use some sort of sunshade.
The reticle is definitely a lot more crisp outside in the sunlight where the ghosting is not visible at all.
One thing I noticed straight away was that the reticle is actually not straight, it’s slightly rotated by around 5 degrees to the right so I can imagine myself rotating my rifle to make the reticle look properly in the future which is a bad thing for airsoft weapons with hopup devices.
You are able to switch between green and red reticle color by pressing the NV button.
I haven’t zeroed in the scope yet but I briefly tried the knobs to adjust windage and elevation and they seem to be working okay, it will move the entire reticle rather than the point of impact so to speak. The design on all of these chinese reflex sights are really simple with just a small diode projecting the reticle on a mirror that mirrors it onto your lens.
Reticle
As usual with all these Chinese replicas, The parallax correction is not that good but its not really that important for an airsofter such as myself and will most certainly be sufficient.
The shield that protects the sides of the lens is removable using the hex wrench that is provided with the product box and I think you need to remove it in order to attach the rubber lens protector that is provided, The lens protector itself is a rubber shield that encompasses the sides of the head with two doors on either side of the lens that are spring powered to keep them pointing upwards once opened.
Some people have complained that the lenses are either coated or naturally reflective but has no anti reflective coat on them which is all true however I found that you only experience reflectiveness when you look at the lens from side perspectives but if you look directly into the lens its alright so while keeping the weapon shouldered and using both eyes you will not experience any reflectiveness since one of your eyes are looking right trough the lens.
I should also mention that the sights comes with some trades on it, Personally trades are nothing important for me but its a nice touch and it even comes with the laser warning sticker on the side however the trades are misspelled, It reads: “FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT/MLITARY USE” and theres no eotech logo present.
I have an old classic BSA tube red dot that I have used for nearly a year now and I thought id make a small comparison between the two.
Price for everything: 37.28 USD
BSA Tube red dot Vs. ACM Eotech 552 reflex sights
BSA Red dot
ACM Eotech 552
The BSA Red dot tube sight is cheaper than the Eotech, and can be purchased for around 20 dollars and up. My particular model was 27 USD but came with a both red and green dot just like the Eotech so if you want to squeeze a tight budget the tube dot is definitely for you.
Neither really obstructs the view if you use them like your supposed to with both eyes open however Im not used to the large silouhette of the Eotech so at the present I find it slightly too big but Im sure this is nothing but a mere sake of familiarity.
Tube sight
The reticle on the Eotech 552 is a little weak in full daylight whereas the dot produced by the BSA sight is nice and bright on its brightest setting and is perceived as brighter in general because all the light is focused on one spot whereas the Eotech’s reticle is bigger and more spread out, I also found that the color brightness on the Eotech is not consistent where some parts are brighter than others such as the top half of it being brighter than the lower half.
The screw on the Eotech 552 replica sits nice onto the base of the device and will fasten well and you wont lose it easily, its fast to unscrew and you can replace or move the sights very quickly with no trouble whereas the BSA tube red dot is not as nice in this regard, The screws and the side of the rail pieces are easily detachable which means that once you have loosened them up they will most likely come off and if you aren’t careful you run the risk of losing a piece and they are vital so moving or replacing it is a bit more of a hassle and requires your attention.
The reticles themselves are highly individual where some people prefer a simple dot and the others like the big reticle that the Eotech 552 has to offer. Once again I am accustomed to the dot so I find the larger reticle a little strange to use and right now a bit of discomfort but again this is most likely because of me and Im sure I will change after a few weeks or months of use.
Tube front
As I mentioned before the ACM Eotech 552 replica does not have anti reflective coating or in fact much coating at all, When you view the sights from the front “the wrong end” you are able to spot the red reticle being projected onto the lens by the mirror which is a possible giveaway if you are aiming at someone while under cover. The BSA red dot does not have this problem because they have coated their front lens with something that prevents you from seeing trough it. You are only able to see a faint red light if you look close and carefully and as far as the mirror effect goes I have never experienced this at all.
And now for the looks! arguably one of the most important parts when it comes to gear for an airsofter, The BSA tube style red dot does not score well in this area because of several things, first and foremost it does not look like a real military optics, It has a rather ugly BSA logo on the side and a huge wheel on the top for selecting color and brightness. The Eotech on the other hand scores very well here because it looks almost exactly like its real steel counterpart and is in widespread military use today by many forces worldwide. The formfactor of the Eotech is also larger which makes it somehow look better and more tactic00l than the tube sight.
The dials to zero in both sights works as they should however the Eotech has an advantage because its windage and elevation adjustment screws are exposed to the outside so all you need is any object to turn them with whereas the BSA tube style red dot has two caps you need to screw off from the sight before the two windage and elevation knobs are adjustable, No specific tool is needed to turn them but they may be hard to do barehanded. Neither of the two scopes are able to change zero on the fly but you shouldn’t have to with them so this is not a problem.
To sum it up:
- They both perform the same function
- They cost almost the same, with the tube sight being slightly cheaper.
- The Eotech has ghosting problems, the BSA red dot does not.
- They have equal parallax correction
- The BSA dot is slightly brighter than the Eotech reticle
- The Eotech looks way cooler than the BSA and for looks alone it might be worth the money. hint: wallhanger!
- The BSA scope is harder for removal or replacement than the Eotech
- Battery life is unknown, The battery that came with the tube scope has only started getting a little bad after 1 year of use.
- The Eotech reticle is a little rotated, the BSA is not (its a dot!)
The choice which to buy is a very individual one, but I can say this with confidence: Buy either one, They are both seemingly great piece of items and I’ve had my tube sight for a year now and its without a shadow of a doubt one of my better gadgets I got for airsofting because it improves your target acquisition and awareness immensively.
AKS-74U with Eotech 552
Me aiming
* I reserve the right to be an idiot and forget about mentioning details, just slap me and ill update the post accordingly
chinese MD80 clone, first impressions
I have recently purchased a chinese MD80 video camera clone from Ebay, They run for about 15 US Dollars and are the size of a thumb (see pic below) and records at 720×480@30FPS
MD80
My first impressions of this little thing was that the film quality outright sucked when I tried it in my room, it was blurry and slow.. As it turns out, It needs either strong lightning or natural daylight to work properly,
So once sufficient light is applied the smoothness of the video kicks in and its actually quite good for such an inexpensive and small camera. Most of these units that are sold does not come with memory cards, Mine did (for a slightly increased price) but I suspect its not a very good one,
I will get a memory card with higher write speeds later, According to the various of youtube videos I’ve seen the memory card can make a world of difference and they are fairly inexpensive (20 USD for a Class 6 MicroSD)
I plan on using this little camera as a head camera in the future while I play airsoft, and since its so inexpensive I wont even care about its safety and its size is perfect! Time will tell if it produces any neat results or not.. For now, I have uploaded a small test video of the camera from some brief filming this morning.
The main shortfalls of this camera are:
- The integrated battery whilst sufficient isnt great, and the max size of the MicroSD card is 8gb
- The picture gets a little warped when you turn the camera fast enough, see video above
- Does not work unless there is proper daylight conditions
- Needs good quality memory or else the video quality suffers significantly
- THE YELLOW LABEL CANNOT BE REMOVED OR RECONFIGURED
It might be worth mentioning that the package came with the camera, driver disc, Three different kind of clips so you can attach it to stuff and one power socket->USB charger
All in all, if you want a inexpensive and decent camera I would recommend this. I’ll post more updates as time progresses and I have used it more
First irl scam
I received my first IRL scam mail today, we’ve all gotten it for our e-mails but finding this in your mailbox was quite unsuspected:
Scam letter
Notice anything funny with whom the letter was addressed to? Heres a better picture of that:
Nice address
Notice the nice title above my name? luls indeed! I chuckled when I first spotted that when I brought the mail indoors.
The actual letter inside looks very much like this one except for that the domain was different and as were the prices, They actually wanted to charge me €28 for one year renewal.
This letter looks very much like an invoice, but I had my doubts since the company that issued it is not the ones that provide my domain name and I am not happy about putting my credit card details on a bill from some random company. Turns out its actually a scam, it indeed looks like an invoice but in reality they are offering me the “service” of transferring my domain to their control and then make me pay stupid sums to renew it.
The reason for my address being generally ill-formed (lacking umlauts etc.) is because they took my contact details straight from my domain whois, where I have for instance put “luls” as my Organization name 
So there we have it, My very first IRL scam attempt. In a strange way, it’s a sort of refreshing change for once to get it in paper form rather than spamming my mail inbox. The only question that remains is what I should do with it, Do I write profanity all over it and return it to the given address or do I fill it with something? the sky’s the limit..
How to remove the gearbox, hop-up and barrel from a VFC / Kalash weapon
Finally something new to post on this blog!
I have been looking around for guides regarding how to replace parts for my weapon and as you all know its a Kalash AKS-74U
I’ve found some good guides regarding the actual disassembly of the weapon but I realized quickly that 90% of the disassembly process was completely unnecessary if all you intend to do is replace an internal part inside the gearbox or perhaps swap the hop-up chamber or the inner barrel, thus here is my guide!
lsof.se
I am now introducing lsof.se
a newly written pastebin.. completed as of right now. Consider it beta, enjoy.
New portal
Hello,
I have made a new portal for the development part of winsbydefault.com,
It can be found at:
http://dev.winsbydefault.com
Its worth noting that whilst the wiki is technically an important part of the development section, it is just as well not a part of it, so dont forget about the wiki too!
AKS-74U
I got my very own first airsoft AEG today, An AKS-74U.
Kalash RK-01 to be precise, the 2nd version (full metal and wood).
Here are some pics of the bad boy:
ÖSG Airsoft 04/04/2009
ÖSG (Ölands airsoftförening) airsoft game April 4th 2009 -
Here are some pictures taken by me with my shitty camera, forgive me for the quality.
First picture of me
Second picture of me
oball
DrEvil and Stor-Stuff
FOOD
Group pose 1
Group pose 2
Group pose 3
Group pose 4
Missing an STG-44 (MP44), M14, G3
Also.. a random movie clip:
hpim09431
We are back!
Finally, winsbydefault.com is back.
The domain was lost sometime in February because I forgot to pay the bill, after a few months I was finally able to re-register it and here we are, back in business.
Also, today I have been (for the first time..) out in the woods playing airsoft. It was quite fun, but I had to borrow equipment so I look a bit strange to say the least:
Armed Xealot
and last but not the least, a quick picture of what happens when someone shoots a plastic bullet in your face at 130 meters per second:
Airsoft injuries
Python in Delphi
I’ve been looking for a way to modularize my programs for some time now..
Most of the time, I ended up just using dynamic link libraries but this time around I decided to try a real scripting engine. It was either LUA or Python that I was considering.
In the end, Python won. Sadly, I could not find any decent way to use Python from Delphi that suited me, I found the ‘P4D’ (Python 4 Delphi) project but its limited to Windows only, and as far as I could tell, it simply wont compile on my 64bit OS (yet).
So whats next? Well, I could always just translate the python header files and work directly against the libraries.. But it would be too much effort involved, and h2pas didnt cut it.
I tried a really strange approach, it works.. but, its .. strange. 
What I came up with was this, write the code that actually uses python in C, compile it with gcc and then link the output with the rest of my application.
I have thrown together a quick demo of the idea, it works.. but please dont flame me =/
Download link is here. written and tested in Linux with FPC 1.9.8 (yes, a bit old)