Battery questions for Elite ??

[Wilberorce]

Are there any battery pods that can take advantage of the new high Ah (2500) recharbles for my Soveriegn Elite or do I have to stick with a 10 pack drop in?

Where can one find these pods for all I can find and have is the 8 battery pod for alkalines?
Or
What MAHA pack and charger do you reccommend?

Thanks

 

[Rick(ND)]

8 of the Alkaline (1.5 volts)will give you 12 volts, 10 of the Rechargeable Ni cad or the Nickle hydride (1.2 volts each) will give you the 12 volts needed to run the Elite. 8 of them will only give you 9.6 volts and not enough to run the Elite at all or for a very short time.
I believe Minelab uses 10 of the AAA batteries in order to fit in that pack and why the Mha is lower.
Minelab is the only place I know of to get these rechargeable pack, but if you are great at fabracating you may be able to build some kind of a pack useing a factory alkaline pack and running a plug in to a pack you can hipmount or tie on the detector some how.
Myself I use the factory rechargeable on my GT ,I have a alkaline pack for a spare if the rechargeable goes dead while in the Field, then recharge my pack and put it back in the detector when I get home and save the alkaline pack for a spare.
With my XS and XS2 I had a extra rechargeable pack, but with the Elite and GT I don't.

 

[Wilberorce]

Thanks Rick for that advice. I have all kinds of acid/led batteries and so could probably use your idea in adapting these as well.

Some Elite users like Funkyoldude highly reccommend MAHA brand batteries and chargers but I do not know what models or if they are custom made or what. I called the company but still have not recieved a reply.

 

[funkyoldude]

Here's a link to MAHA PowerX Batteries:

http://www.thomas-distributing.com/maha_2500_rechargeable_batteries.php

Good Luck

fod

 

[Wilberorce]

Thank you funkyoldude for that deal but how did you adapt them to work in your Elite?

MAHA just told me they can make the plastic wrapped paks but I just realized that the Elite has hard plastic pak.

Thanks

 

[funkyoldude]

It's Like Rick said, you need to consider an external battery pack made of 10 AA cells in order to achieve 12volts when using NiMh batteries. Some time ago, I posted a message that suggested using 4 small 3 volt (I think), rechargeable Lithium Ion Digital Camera batteries mounted in a Minelab Nicad battery pack, but I never got around to building it.
I have changed my view over the year, and I really like my present set-up. Like Rick, I have one Minelab NiMh battery pack in the Elite, and one on the charger. After about 10 - 15 hours of hunting, I swap them. I also carry a spare fully charged Nicad AA pack with me, just in case I need It. Works great, no problems, no hassles.

Have a Happy!

fod

 

[Wilberorce]

Thanks Funkyoldude and I took Rick's suggestion and just ordered some 10AA battery pods with two wires coming out out of them. I gues now i need to figure out I will connect them to the two metal thingys inside the elite's battery compartment.

Your video lithium pak is a great idea and Doc's minelab sales has just come up with a similar sytem for the Minelab SD and GP models but selling them for like $277.00 a piece not including the batteries.

I wonder how a 12V metal hydide system like I am buying would work on the Minelab SD2000 series detectors that are usually used with lead/acid?

Since I am planning to take some trips in remote areas I would quite a few of the stock packs but I dont want to pay $65.00 a piece for them.

Thanks guys for all of the input!

 

[Wilberorce]

I have found that some packs especially the hard cased kind as in the Elite often have diodes, thermisters,etc.. so a simple adaptation may not be possible.