By accident, Came across an ED 120 feature with the Mojave.

[Old California]

By accident, Turned my Mojave discrimination from an ED 180 to an ED 120. Was replacing the Mojave face plate and front decal with a new set from Tesoro, took off the insensitivity meter and went back with the original setup when the parts arrived this afternoon.

One of the discrimination pot wires came off the circuit board, so I soldered it back on. As many times I've opened and worked with the Mojave, I've memorized where all the wires go. However, In this case I soldered that wire on the wrong area but it worked. Until, I noticed it was now an ED 120 setup instead of an ED 180. Worked great, but it was now an ED 120 setup. This was after remounting a second discrimination pot underneath the lower left panel, And resoldering a different GB pot.

Not knowing I had soldered one of the discrimination pot wires to the wrong area, I went over the entire board trying to find out what went wrong. Then, I seen my mistake and soldered the wire to the right area. ED 180 back again, Wow that was a good mistake a blessing in disguise. Now, I'm thinking of looking at other Tesoro models having ED 120. Wouldn't it be great it one can disconnect and resolder that same wire to the other side of that same circuit transforming an ED 120 to an ED 180.

My next mod with the Mojave will be to allow the unit to go from ED 180 to ED 120 with the flip of a toggle switch, I'm curious to see what the differences are for coin shooting, I know ED 180 will be my type of feature for the older site's I hunt but maybe ED 120 has a edge that may benefit my type of hunting somewhere?

What a neat accident, Really like the Mojave it's become one of my favorite detectors. Pictured below, Is the most current setup and most likely change again in the future. Manual GB in place of Low/High Mineral Toggle Switch area, Second discrimination pot is for Gold jewelry hunting with a toggle switch below the housing for quick trigger access to check target.

Will post how the ED 180 to ED 120 mod goes soon, hopefully have it completed before my next day off.

Thanks for looking,
Paul

 

[amberjack]

I do believe that is called a "happy accident" used a lot in the art world as in when painting but sounds like it works in electronics also

AJ

 

[Old California]

Thanks AJ,

Looked up the definition of "happy accident", you're right several different definitions were listed all very similar. One of the top definitions was (When something unexpectedly good comes from what would otherwise be considered a mishap).

In a way was funny as well, When I found my mistake had a smile ear to ear seeing my error. Yet, It was a good learning experience error bringing an unexpected ED 120 feature to light, still smiling from all this.

Thanks again,
Paul

 

[slingshot]

That COULD be interesting if it at least allowed some lesser discrimination on my Silver umax between bottlecap and a/m.

 

[Old California]

I agree, it's nice having a little less discrimination at times.

Had a few minutes to add on a toggle switch, Well it worked but not as planned. When I flipped the Toggle to 180 discrimination, it operates great ourside no issues. But, When switching to 120 discrimination it works but hears more ground noise even when adjusting GB again. Didn't like that, so more is needed to get a true 120 discrimination feature with smooth stability from the Mojave.

Sorry gang, going to hold on future possibilities of converting to 120 discrimination. Be happy with what I have, Manual GB and second discrimination pot for checking gold jewelry signals that's plenty.

Fun anyways trying
Paul

 

[JJdigs]

Very cool....love hearing about your modifications.

I myself have been working on a few whites classics. Mostly experimenting with different values resistors and potentometers using the Mr Bill mods as a starting point. I liked the idea of a intensity meter on my Whites, so iam working on that. I'm also trying to work out dual disc, so I will not have to do as much thumbing. Also adding a tiny led digital 2 digit numeric volt meter. And I have a 10 turn and 3 1/4 turn potentometers that I want to try out instead of the other style pot most use on the bill mods for the added ground balance knob. I picked up a whites blue max 256 coil I think it's a 11" coil. I need to use 6b coils because I'm working with 3 different whites classic that use the 6b coils. Of course all three are hardwired coils. So I need to set them up so I will be able to switch out the coils on two of them. I'm going to keep one hardwired. I'm impressed with the proformance of the 8" coil, so the 11" should hit those old silvers and large cents fairly deep around the old homesites I love to dig at deep in the woods here in new England ! Well I have all the parts, I already switch out the resistors on the board for added depth and that worked great...now I just need to clean up my work area and do the rest !

Once again you do great work and thanks for sharing !

 

[Old California]

Thanks JJdigs,

Good to hear others like you are involved with modifying detectors, I remember the White's 6b coil type and may have a few of them laying around. Mr Bill sure helped a lot of us one way or another, hope retirement is treating him well he deserves it.

I used to promote the 10 turn pot, and I still will with the finer higher kHz models but now with a regular detector I'm ok with a good regular type potentometer. For my type of hunting, As long as I can manually ground balance as ground conditions change a good regular potentometer is fine.

Please share your White's mods when you're ready, the more others share the better. Helps encourage those on the sidelines itching to tackle a mod of their own, We all benefit from others.

Thanks again,
Paul

 

[Electricfrontporch]

"Happy accident" is like that other old adage....... $%#@^&%*

Been enjoying all your incarnations of the Mojave!
Definitely a fun rainy day pass time.
I'm on my second modded compadre and after seeing JJdigs whites classic post,
I'm making plans for the next project..........I'm hooked
Gonna need detector mod re-hab.......haha

Thanks for all your posts

Noah

 

[Electricfrontporch]

Sorry for the inappropriate reference.
Thanks for editing that Elton.

Noah

 

[JJdigs]

My problem is ....is trying to ground balance with no all metal/threshold ...I bought a whites sl hard wired one knober that was already nodded with the gb knob. I have read how to powerbalance. But I really see or hear no difference... When I bob the coil I get some feedback audio responce no matter where I adjust the knob.

 

[Cameraniac]

My problem is ....is trying to ground balance with no all metal/threshold ...I bought a whites sl hard wired one knober that was already nodded with the gb knob. I have read how to powerbalance. But I really see or hear no difference... When I bob the coil I get some feedback audio responce no matter where I adjust the knob.

I too was wondering how one would manually ground balance a detector that has no threshold. What if you wanted a negative or positive balance? How would you know when you've achieved it? There's probably a simple answer, but I'll be darned if I don't know what it is.

 

[Old California]

Same here, I've always had all metal threshold detectors. So it was new to me getting used to ground balancing with disc mode with these recent Tesoro purchases, as long as ground conditions have some mineralization it helps.

Hang in there, I'm right there with you guys learning how to GB in disc mode.

Paul,

 

[Old California]

I'm still learning myself, IT helped me with a test garden of buried coins. I've read Monte's GB power balance, but yet to go out and try it. Recently, Purchased two Tesoros and one of them has no manual GB, after I add on a GB going to compare my Mohave and Cibola with Monte's power balance.

Take care,
Paul,