Added a Manual Ground balance to Mojave

[Old California]

Last night, After work spent some time studying the Mojave Low/High Mineral feature. Then, Removed and added the needed components to switch from Low/High feature to Manual Ground balance. No need for the Toggle switch anymore, So mounted the GB pot were the Toggle went.

Completed the mod around 1am, Didn't get a chance to try it until this afternoon. Wow! Works wonderful from back yard testing. Will take it out this early evening at an iron laced site when returning from shopping, before anyone ask how it was done. It's not that hard, you just need to know were to solder the Manual GB wires after removing the trimmer pot. Don't solder these wires were the trimmer pot was, you'll burn up that circuit area. Two other pins link to this trimmer pot area, one pin you can see it connects directly the other had to ohm it find the second pin to solder to. The Toggle Low mineral is normally open, I could have clipped off the Toggle and removed it or remove the Toggle wires completely but instead just taped the Toggle and hid it inside behind the faceplate. I'll probably remove it completely in the future when adding on the 3D mod.

I need to get with Tesoro again, Touch more with the mod. I did mention to the sales person what I had done to the Mojave.

Called them today and ordered another stock Mojave face plate and face decal. Going to remove the insensitivity meter and add another disc pot in the future, with the GB pot in place hardly any room to complete future mods such as 3D discrimination so the Insensitivity meter goes.

To be honest, Almost ruined the board completing the mod. After a point of no return went for it and luckily everything came out ok.

Thanks for looking,
Paul

 

[HaroldILL.]

Dang that is sweet Paul! You ever do a GB mod. On a Golden uMax? I always heard it would mess up the Tone .I.D.? Thanks.

 

[Sven]

I did a bunch more testing with the Mojave and sort of determined the sandy and dirt mix soil with black magnetic sand thrown in hampered the Mojave. The detectors that I have and other Tesoros I had all had manual GB that helped out a lot. Thought about doing a GB mod like you have done but, too many other projects in the works, decided to sell it. My wife needed a new computer so put the fund towards it.

 

[Old California]

Hello Harold,

Yes, I've done a couple of Golden uMax GB mods before. That was many years ago, and yes it does affect discrimination defending on the unit. However, You'll get a more properly tuned unit and in many cases more depth and better iron separation. That is what I notice, in some cases with unit's excelling with Gold jewelry using tones it may be best not to add a manual GB.

If we're to purchase a tone Tesoro strictly for gold jewelry hunting, and it was a preset GB unit. I would not add a manual GB, this is from experience. I would only add a GB for better performance in tougher, with Gold jewelry hunting most finds are surface so no need to add a GB to mess up the tone/notch feature.

Keep you Golden uMax stock, in the long run it'll hold it's value and still have an edge hunting with tones.

Thanks Harold,
Paul

 

[Old California]

Hello Sven,

Yes, I almost bid in your unit after almost ruining mine last night.

Learned a little more today with the GB mod, so if I was to do another Mojave GB mod in the future the next will go smooth without last night's issues. And just removed the Toggle switch in a few minutes ago, hate having something dangling inside a housing. Which is why I would like to speak with someone at Tesoro, I'll call them again soon have a couple of questions with the Low/High mineral feature.

There were two ways I felt Tesoro went with the Low,/High mineral feature. Either way I knew adding a manual GB was possible, luckily my first approach was the right one.

Heading out in a few minutes, old relic site pounded to death see what the manual GB can pull out.

Take care Sven,
Paul

 

[Old California]

Sven,

If possible, You may want to get another Mohave in the future. I think we share the same type of soil conditions we need a manual ground balance, areas mineralization changes quite rapidly.

Adding a manual GB was a game changer for my area, and today added a second disc pot for gold jewelry hunting with a toggle switch to check the target between both discrimination pots. Now, The Mohave is setup not only for serious relic or farm hunting, it's setup for gold jewelry or cherry picking coins from school yards.

With your knowledge with electrical components, you'll have the Mojave modified for your type of hunting. Think about it, the Mojave is a good detector. One of my best Detector investments in my career, one of my favorites as well.

All the best,
Paul

 

[Sven]

I am pretty well covered using my Deteknix Quest Pro and the older Teknetics Mark 1 which out-do the Mojave in our soils.
Too bad there's a need to modify the Mojave to get it to do what we want it to. These days find it it harder to find time to do/finish any projects.......

 

[odancoiler]

Old California/Paul. I will be purchasing a Mojave in the near future. I would greatly appreciate if you would post in detail how you completed the GB mod. Especially since you stated you nearly destroyed the board. I do not wish to repeat that near mishap. I have locations near by which run a high GB on my AT Pro and MXT. With readings from 90-98%. Any help would be greatly appreciated... TM

 

[odancoiler]

Paul/Old California,, Seeing how this USA newer SMD board. Could you pleas post a step by step showing the mods you and Sven have accomplished with the Mojave, with pictures . I can be a little heavy handed at times, and clumsy. Also have you ever thought of doing a threshold on the Mojave ? Every machine I own runs a threshold,except the lil ace 250 I purchased for my grandson .I’m just too used to a threshold I guess. I’m sure others and myself would benefit greatly from yours and Sven’s hands on experience. Thank You . TM

 

[Heinyhunt]

That's just plain awesome

 

[lrademac08]

wow love the picture of your mod. I have been interested in the Mojave as well as it seems Tesoro hasn't produced anything new in a decade. Am curious where you got the analog meter from and how hard it was to modify and setup? how accurate is it for V.I.D.
why do you called the sensitivity control the insensitivity control? how much better is the ground balance versus the previous switch? does the Mojave only produce 1 tone or multi-tone? one reason I migrated from Tesoro to some other brands was having varying audio tones for targets. even with my current V.I.D. machines, I usually just listen to the tones, chirps, warbles, etc.

great job on the mod!

have you done any mods on other detectors?