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A Review Of Ron's (Moderator) Homemade Digital Sovereign Meter

C

Critterhunter

New member
A small disclaimer first...A few weeks ago Ron contacted me and offered to send me one of his meters to have and try free of charge. He didn't ask me to write a review of it or anything like that, but when I accepted his generous offer I decided it would only be fair to write a review of it in return. Despite that, if I didn't like what I saw I'd call it as I see it and tell you guys anything bad about I've found with it. I haven't used it in the field yet as it just arrived yesterday, but I have installed it on my GT and I can relate several first impressions so far in relation to that. With further field use I'll update this thread on it's performance, but I'm sure it will work just as well as my Minelab DigiSearch meter from what I've seen so far.

As most of us know, there was at one time several companies making meters for the Sovereign. Everything from digital units with back lights to analog needle style meters by Joe Patrick that would work just like the old analog units that so many people are still fond of to this day. Unfortunately, in the last year or so only Minelab was still making a meter for it. The DigiSearch meter which retailed for roughly $150 to $175 if memory serves. Rather costly for just a volt meter, which in reality is all these meters are. Minelab had made several meters over the years. A bar graph style meter that would put a LCD block indicator on a horizontal screen in relation to the conductivity of the target, as well as a "550" meter that based it's VDI # on a scale of up to 550. Unfortunately many people found that meter to have too much resolution, and so as a result it was too jumpy for some people. Others, on the other hand, do like this meter and continue to use it to this day. As Minelab and other companies came out with a 180 meter scale, which still offered excellent resolution and far superior in that respect than any other detector I'm aware of on the market in terms of the resolution from foil all the way up to copper pennies, people began converting their old 550 meters to 180 via a few changes to resistors and pots inside the unit. If you have a old 550 meter I think Ron or perhaps Rick has conversion kits for this still sitting around.

Anyway, as said eventually the various companies making meters stop making them, and sadly this past year Minelab stopped making it's current DigiSearch meter for the Sovereign as well. If you're lucky you can still find one of these new in the box from some dealers, but expect to pay a premium price for them as they are getting rarer to find than hen's teeth. Some have speculated that Minelab may have discontinued the meter because they plan to also stop making the Sovereign, while others believe the reason for not making the meter anymore is because Minelab may be coming out with a new Sovereign with the meter built in...Or at least supplying the meter in the box with the detector. Many of us are hoping that Minelab might in fact be making a Sovereign/Excal hybrid. A hybrid light weight machine with built in LCD screen (or at least a VDI meter) that would be just as comfortable on land to use as it is in the water. Many of us have looked at the huge success of the AT Pro for this very reason...A light weight waterproof machine with LCD screen that serves equally as well on land as it does in the water. If Minelab could bring such a hybrid to market at a reasonable price like the AT Pro they'd have a huge success on their hands. As good as the At Pro is, it's not going to match the depth of an Xcal or Sovereign, especially in salt water.

But I'm obviously getting way off topic here. Sorry. So back to Ron's meter...As I was saying, currently no commercial company is now making a meter for the Sovereign. Unless you can find one used or the last remaining new stock at a Minelab dealer you're out of luck. Along comes Ron, who decides to start making his own meter out of his house for those who can't find one elsewhere. He is doing a GREAT service for the Sovereign community, and should be thanked for keeping this still top performing detector a viable option for those who would consider buying one but simply have to have a meter in order for that to happen.

So let's get to Ron's meter review in the following message. But first I'm heading out for a cigarette and then I'll get around to posting my initial impressions of this thing...
 
I forgot to mention that in fact there is still one commercial meter being made for the Sovereign called the Insight. This meter is unique in that they remove the speaker on the control box and install the meter there. It's useful for those who like to hip or chest mount their control box, but wouldn't be easy to see for those who have the Sovereign mounted under the shaft in it's normal location. There is also a problem in that it doesn't appear to display VDI numbers when used with the SEF coils, although I hear there is a possible fix for this. All other meters out there work just fine with the SEF coils. Any of these meters will work with any of the Sovereign models, although if you have the Insight meter installed it will not allow you to use another external meter as far as I know. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong about that.

As I said Ron's meter came yesterday and I immediately took it out of the box to examine it. As well as the meter, I also saw included an extension you can put on so that it can reach the control box if you have that hip or chest mounted. The package also include a list of common VDI #s on targets, although I'm sure as with any other of the various meters floating around out there, this meter should work just fine with the VDI charts posted at the top of this forum. As far as I'm aware, none of these 180 meters give different target VDI variations than others do, and so the charts should all work just fine with this meter as well. The only exception to using the charts with the GT is that the GT should be placed in noise band 2, as this matches the response of previous Sovereigns on targets that the charts where constructed with. If you use band 1 stuff in the mid range such as nickles can read a little off compared to what the charts and older Sovereigns say. That's why even my newer homemade VDI chart was constructed using band 2 on my GT.

When I say Ron's meter is "homemade", that's not really doing it justice. Although the unit was built from a store bought digital volt meter, it looks like a high quality commercial product made for this very purpose. The controls on the face of the multimeter have been replaced with a nice smooth surface. The meter has also been altered with a small jack that a plug from the short coil cable (supplied) is connected to. Once again this short coil cable and it's smaller connecting wire that goes to the meter looks of commercial quality. All the connections have been heat shrinked, and Ron even had the for site to install a few small zip ties to make sure no stress is put on the wire where it connects to the short coil cable. Very impressive.

To install the meter on your Sovereign no hand tools are required. The meter has a mounting bracket on the base of it which features wing nuts to fasten easily to the shaft of your detector. I've already seen one guy use this mount to place the meter on top of his hand grip, but mounted on the shaft below the hand grip this meter is still rather easy to see just fine, as it's standing in an upright position mounted in such a way.

Here's how the coil and detector are connected. The short length of supplied coil cable connects to the coil's connector, and then the other end of the short supplied coil cable is then connected to the Sovereign control box. Remember that Sovereign coils come with an extra long length of coil cable in case people want to hip or chest mount their control box, so the supplied cable with the meter didn't (and shouldn't) have to be long in the first place. In fact, this is a very nice feature...As the DigiSearch meter that I use with my Sovereign has a very long cable just like my coils do so that you can still hip mount the control box and have enough cable length from the Digisearch meter on the shaft to still reach the control box. Since I don't hip or chest mount the control box unless I'm water hunting (and thus not even using a meter), the extra length of coil cable from both the coil and the Digisearch meter makes for a lengthy mess of wraps around the shaft. This can be troublesome to some who suspect all this extra cable length coiled around the shaft might be picking up extra EMI noise and thus you might have to lower sensitivity a bit in those situations.

Anyway, Ron's meter doesn't feature this extra mess of thick coil cable. Instead, he provided me with an extension length of the smaller wire cable that goes from the meter to the short coil cable that is supplied. This way you can still keep your meter mounted on the shaft, and plug in this smaller extension wire to reach the short coil cable that would obviously be attached to the back of the control box on your hip or chest. Of course you still have to put up with the coil's cable running from the shaft to your control box, but that's an issue regardless of who's meter you are using. I like the fact that you don't need to use this extension cable unless you are hip or chest mounting, so the length of the small wire going from the meter to the short supplied coil cable is kept at a minimum for those mounting everything on the shaft. This wire cable is wired directly into the short coil cable by Ron, but it features a plug to plug into a jack on his meter, so you can easily remove everything without having to also remove the meter from the shaft...For say a water hunter who wants to just go water hunting using a different shaft and doesn't want to use his land rig that has the meter on it. Of course you could just as easily remove the meter and use the current shaft for water hunting, as you can quickly use your fingers to loosen the wing nuts on it's mount and take it off.

So, in effect, because Ron's meter doesn't have a huge extra length of coil cable attached to it like my Digisearch meter comes with, there is less mess on the shaft to deal with, and you only need to use the extension he supplied if I were hip or chest mounting. The best of both worlds.

The meter comes with instructions on how to calibrate it. There is a small access hole on the back of the meter, which Ron even thought to cover with a sliding door to protect it, that you can then use a small screwdriver to adjust the pot inside to calibrate the meter to 180 over a dime or quarter. This has to be done with any of the meters out there and is has to be done again should you change coils. It's always a good idea to let the machine "warm up" for 5 or 10 minutes before making this adjustment, as it can be off for a bit until things stabilize. Once calibrated this way you'll probably find that you don't need to adjust it anymore with future hunts, so long as you haven't changed coils.

One of the other nice features of Ron's meter is that it runs on it's own battery. The Digisearch and several other meters out there do not, and there is some concern that this might slightly lesson the depth of the detector. Meters that don't have their own battery draw power from the TX coil power output to the coil's transmitter winding. While there is debate as to that really effects performance because the power draw of the meter is very slight, you don't have to wonder about such potential slight performance loss using Ron's meter because it doesn't feed of the detector's power.

With his meter installed on the shaft further down from the hand grip I'm not having any issues with seeing the screen because of it's height, but you could easily tilt this meter via adjusting it's mount on the shaft to say the left side and thus be able to easily see the meter while you are looking down at the coil. Some people in fact prefer setting their meters up this way, because with it tilted to the side you have a clearer view of the coil for better pinpointing or control as you wiggle over targets.

That's all I have to say on his meter at this time. Initial impressions are that it's an excellent addition to my Sovereign, and I might just sell off my DigiSearch meter and use this one for now on....Just alone for the less cable mess of extra thick coil cable wrapped around the shaft from the Digisearch meter, and also because many of you know I'm obsessive about getting the top performance out of my Sovereign via a good aftermarket coil, and if there is even a SLIGHT chance that using a meter with it's own battery might give me a tad more depth, then I'm doing it. I'll also rub a rabbit's foot and find me a four leaf clover for good luck while I'm at it. Hey, my motto is it can't hurt...

More updates on this meter as I use it in the field.

OH, almost forgot...My digital camera is on the fritz, so I couldn't take any pictures. Instead I stole a compilation of pictures of this meter that other people have posted. As you can see, Ron's meter's have been a variety of colors. Mine was red. Enjoy...
 
So far I have yet to use it in the field, so I can't comment on that. However, just by playing with it I suspect it works just as well. I've read others say it works real well for them, so I don't see any potential problems. If anything, I suspect his meter is easier to calibrate than my Digisearch meter. The Digisearch meter can be a little touchy in adjusting it's external pot knob. I often have to play with that thing for several minutes to get it to read exactly what I want. I don't calibrate the Digisearch meter by using a coin, as I noticed that when it resets it will read -506 if it's calibrated properly for 180 on a coin...So I just adjust it when it resets every so often, which usually can be done by thumping the coil against the ground or cranking up sensitivity so it's a bit unstable. With Ron's meter it was much easier to calibrate. I don't know if all Digisearch meters are as hard as mine to adjust. It might be that the POT is getting dead spots in it, as that's why it's important to only adjust these things as little as possible so wait until things warm up. Excessive pot adjustments will eventually create dead spots in them and make them go bad over time.
 
I concur! Ron is doing a great service for the Sovereign community. Now with Ron's meter I can leave those zincs behind. I also love the fact how a Sovereign meter has instant feedback. The moment you hear a beep you see an id number. No lag!
For many years I stayed away from a meter on my GT. Ron's 180 meter has turned my Sovereign into a new machine for me. If you want to cherry pick target is trashy old parks you need a meter.
Ron's meters are extremely affordable and I highly recommend one as well. Ron's 180 meter works flawlessly with my 12x10 SEF coil and my Sunray S-8 as well.

HH
Jason
 
LOL! hey that is my GT in the photo. :thumbup:
 
Yes, what is unique to such a sophisticated digital detector like the Sovereign is that the VDI is tied very directly to what you hear. Unlike other high end digital machines, there is no over bearing software processing that can create a lag in the VDI response to what the audio is telling you. What you hear is what you instantly see. My Explores had this software "lag" between the two, and that's one of the reasons why Explorer users say pay attention to the audio and not the VDI. The Sovereign is as fast as any "fast" recovery machine I've ever used in that VDI respect.

One other thing for now...Every once in a while there is a bit of confusion from Sovereign owners in just how the meter reads what the coil is seeing. The meter is not reading directly what the coil sees. Instead, the RX (receive) coil signal is sent up the coil cable and to the detector. The detector processes the signal and then sends a voltage output back down the coil cable to the meter to display. For that reason the meter is not just some primative volt meter reading of what the coil is seeing, but rather a report as to what the target's conductivity is based on the processing of the detector it's self.
 
OK, got out for a short one hour hunt with Ron's meter. I wanted to hunt longer but a bunch of small kids getting out of school started showing up at this small park/playground type area. In this day and age I don't like hunting around a bunch of kids because of all the talk about abductions and such. Don't want anybody to feel I look suspicious or something and give them a reason to call the cops and get me kicked out of there.

This small park/tot lot is only a few streets away from where I live. Actually about 1 mile away at the most or so. I only saw this park a few years back because I never drive down that side street. I hunted it for about an hour that year with my Whites and didn't pull any wheats or silver, but I suspect there is silver there because the small apartment complex it bumps up against was built for WWII housing for workers who were building tanks at a nearby factory. I suspect that park, since it's right in the back of this small apartment complex, was at least put in when they built the housing so that the worker's kids would have a place to play. The park might even be a bit older than that I guess, but even if it was just built for the WWII workers then that's fine and dandy because that's the early 40's so there should be silver laying around.

Anyway, after hunting it a few years back when I found out the place was there, I sort of forgot about it up until today. Isn't that funny how even a place right around the corner from you can elude you for years, let alone you forgetting about it for a few years after just one small hunt there? Since I owned a Whites for that short hunt a few years back, I was a little excited today to see what my Minelab could do there. After all, if this place was hidden from me having grown up right around the corner and lived here all my life, then what's the chances of much in the way of other metal detectorists finding and hunting this place? It's that hidden. Tucked away down an unassuming side street, hidden behind an apartment complex in such a way that you wouldn't even see it if you were driving past the front of the apartments. The lot is city owned, though....So I felt free to hunt it knowing it wasn't owned by the apartment building.

So anyway, only an hour's hunt. Dug some clad. Was hoping for at least a wheatie to further hint that silver was lurking about, but as said too many kids were pouring into the little park and playground so I felt I better leave. That's a shame because there's a nice large mowed grass area in the back, as well a some decent sized oak trees lining the sides of the little park that tells me it's got some age to it.

A lot of mindless talk to get to Ron's meter. How did it work in this short hunt? Flawlessly! Not a single problem with it. It was right on with some pennies, quarters, and a nickle or two I dug up in terms of accurate VDI numbers, and the same numbers I was expecting that I get with my Digisearch meter. This meter is a winner for sure and it's staying on my Sovereign for now on I think. Just the less hassle of coil cable from the Digisearch meter is a major bonus. Thanks for a great meter, Ron. I'll update this thread with a future hunt to tell you guys how it's working.
 
Here's a few more pictures of Ron's meter I stole from other people's threads. Note that in the one picture that yellow/black box you see is a Sunray probe, and not a part of Ron's meter which is mounted further down the shaft. Also, in the other picture the guy has his Ron's meter mounted on top of his hand grip. Also note in that picture the lack of thick extra coil cable wrapped around the shaft like there would be if using the Digisearch meter, since the Digisearch meter has a long coil cable for use with hip or chest mounting, but if you aren't doing that it's just extra mess spiraled around the shaft. With Ron's meter you simply attach a thin wire extension to the thin wire that goes to the meter if you want to hip or chest mount. No mess and no fuss when you are keeping your control box mounted on the shaft, as you don't need to use the extension then. I really like that feature. You can see in the picture that there is just a short thin wire going from the meter to the coil cable. That's ALL the mess there is, besides of course the coil cable from the coil.

Some people get down on the fact that Minelab and the aftermarket coil companies make such long coil cables for their Sovereign and Xcal coils. People, be glad they do that. This is one of the reasons why the Sovereign is so popular for water hunting, because the coils have enough coil length to chest mount the box and water hunt. Of course you don't need a meter when doing that, and shouldn't be using one because it might get wet, so it's nice to have the extra coil cable length to reach the control box on your chest. Not many machines out there have extra long coil cables like this, let alone the ability to remove the control box and easily chest mount it. Score one for the Sovereign. It's probably the most amphibious (meaning land AND water) machine on the market, besides of course something like an AT Pro. Then there are land hunters who love to chest or hip mount their Sovereigns so the shaft is as light as possible.
 
Ron's meters are well made, lightweight, accurate and very affordable. I hunt 4 or 5 times a week and have been well satisfied with this meter. I have a 2a pro and the GT and have his meters on both. Excellent product....
 
I have meter from Ron. I'm real happy with it. It's easy to install, accurate numbers, seems very stable so far - had it about four months I think, maybe five - and haven't had to change the battery yet. I'm careful to not bend the tab on the mount when I put the rig into the trunk, but other than that, it seems very good. Generally, I hunt at least twice a week, often five to seven times a week, but only for short times on the week days after work. Longer on the weekends. I find my ears cannot distinguish between certain sounds on the GT, but the meter shows me the difference pretty solidly. Only once in a while has it shown me a number and I was thinking it was one thing when it turned out to be another - that has normally been silver/lead; thought it was silver, turned out to be lead. But that's not the meters fault.

Also, I found Ron to be very easy to work with - he made it an easy transaction, and on my schedule. If I ever want another, it will be one of his.
 
looks nice how much are they,I might get one for my gt.
 
I think Ron charges $50 or $60 to make one for somebody, but PM him to be sure and get the details. That's a very good price, as the Digisearch meter was roughly 3 times that price and this meter works just as well if not better with features like less coil cable mess and such.

Ron is the moderator of this forum, so if you look at one of the sticky threads at the top of this forum you'll find one of his messages and can click on his name to email (PM) him a private message to get more details. His handle is "Ron From Michigan".
 
Hey Critter and all, thanks for this thread... I've been on the verge of getting a meter for the GT and was wavering on which one to get... now the decision is made. Thanks all!!

Cliff
 
Glad the effort was worth at least one convert, as it took me a heck of a lot of typing and a good bit of cigarettes to get through that monster of a review. :biggrin:
 
Don't remember if I mentioned it in the review, but people with a GT should use noise band 2 to match the charts and the older Sovereigns, as using noise band 1 can make stuff in the mid scale like nickles read a little off. Prior Sovereign models didn't have the ability to switch bands, so it appears they were all on "band 2" in terms of the frequency shift.

Just thought I'd touch base on the VDI resolution of the Sovereign with the 180 meter. True, all coins above copper pennies are 180 on the meter, but you still have the ability to tell zinc pennies apart, which is the only real thing you would probably want to avoid anyway when say clad hunting. On the other hand, when old coin hunting I've owned machines with the ability to tell you the type of coin above copper penny on the conductivity scale, and that it might be in fact silver, but I found that was VERY unreliable. I've dug many silver coins that read as pennies due to the soil, the coin being worn, it being a bit on edge, and so on. Moral of the story is I don't trust that kind of resolution whne I'm old coin hunting anyway. All I want to know is if a shallow target mixed in trash (so that it might be an old coin somebody missed), or a deep target at extreme depths looks to be a coin...And I'm digging it regardless of what kind of coin the machine might think it is. Dug too many good old coins that read like other coins on other machines due to any number of factors.

Now, when it comes to the low and mid conductivity range, from small foil all the way through pulltabs and up to copper pennies, I personaly don't know of any machine (?) on the market that has as high of resolution in this conductivity range on the scale. This is where it can be useful, as for example it's rather easy to pick out nickles and avoid tabs and such. But still yet, it could potentially be a very deadly weapon in terms of gold ring hunting on land. You can easily note a few pesky pull tab numbers, or avoid a broader range of those with the notch, and still dig all the other close by numbers that those tabs just don't read in the hopes of a gold ring. Since often when ring hunting trash like tabs and other junk is relatively shallow if not just under the surface, there is no real risk of getting a "bad" VDI # on targets here, so the high resolution is handy in being able to avoid specific target numbers and yet dig others that are just a little higher or lower than whatever common trash item is spread all over the site.

With such high resolution in the "gold range" there are several different strategies you could potentially use at a given site to fit the situation at hand. Some sites only have 4 or 5 different tab numbers that are most common there, so you can easily make a mental note of those and dig everything else. Or, if there is a lot of different tabs, you can make a note of the highest and lowest numbers and then avoid that entire range. The beauty of the high resolution on the Sovereign is that if you avoid several tab numbers, you're not really blocking out that much of the conductivity scale, where as on a lot of other machines just blocking out one or two tabs will block out a much broader range of targets due to the lower resolution those machines have.
 
I have both the Digisearch and Ron's metter, to be onest the only difenese is the fact the I will need to replace the battery at one pois on time, but I have compare the 2 at the same time together in line to each other and they report the same numbers, no diference at all.
the only other thing to be carefull about Ron'd meter is the way you handle your dtector, seems like the bracket on the meter is not to strong so if you stand your detector and falls it my brake the bracket that attatchs to the dtector.
other than that is a great unit and the price even better!!
 
If you ever do snap that bracket by a bad fall or something those are pipe hangers from home improvement stores.
 
The pipe hanger bracket he uses may be a blessing. Instead of breaking your meter the bracket will bend. Like Critterhunter said, they are available for $1.50 at all hardware stores. I like how he adds shrink tubing to the mount and the other details. Nice unit! I love mine. Thank you Ron for making them.
 
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