If you search the modifications forum for "dongle" there was a thread on this a few months back. Way I hear it there have been just simple plug pin adaptor cables around for a while to use Bounty Hunter or I think Fisher and Garrett coils on the low frequency Whites units for years (XLT, QXT, QII, 6000, etc), but because they only switched pins around they didn't really mate the coil to the machine well to provide good performance. There are certain specs of a coil, despite it's size or shape, that all have to be pretty much identical to work properly as to what the machine expects to see.
Now, the dongles? At least the ones I heard about a few months back sounded to be relatively new, and I'm thinking perhaps because they are dongles and not just cords they might contain some added electronic components to mate certain brand coils to the low freq Whites units better. Way I hear it there is a dongle for Fisher compatible coils, Garrett, and I think one other brand which might be Bounty Hunters.
I had been waiting and hoping to hear of any positive results, because if perhaps a Fisher compatible 12x10 SEF coil worked well then it might breath new life in both depth and separation (unmasking) to the old low freq Whites line. One of the reasons I sold off my beloved QXTs or QXT Pros (same machines, and I owned several over the years) was that there were no larger coils than the 9.5" stock coil to push depths deeper.
Yes, there was the 12" concentric made by a third party, but I owned two brand new ones which were highly unstable and I had to send back. Then there is the 14 or 15" Whites coil, but always heard it was beyond the point of no return in terms of size to increase depths on coin/ring sized targets. Besides, in my mineralized soil and sands, I wanted a DD coil to help smooth the ride out and penetrate my soil better, in terms of opting for a larger coil in the 12" or so range.
So if that dongle makes a SEF 12x10 do for the old Whites what it has done for my current machine, I may have to throw one of those QXTs back into my line up and see just what it can do to push it beyond the already good depths it was able to achieve in my soils. The thought of a razor sharp DD line on the 12x10 combined with the lightning fast recovery speed of the QXT is reason enough alone to think about it. These days I don't really rely on recovery speed for unmasking and feel sweep speed is the more important factor in terms of that, but there are days I want to swing fast in heavy trash and just move and no doubt the QXT can keep up on those days.
So if anybody has used such a Dongle please chime in, or if you are shy about that then shoot me a PM. Please remember that we were granted permission to discuss these dongles so long as we didn't provide links or mention names, since they are not a sponsor. I cleared that before I made the post in the modifications forum.
PS- Lord knows I've owned many QXTs and QXT Pros over the years, which far as I could tell were the same machine with perhaps the Pro being a tad hotter, allowing about 2 clicks higher sensitivity setting. Regardless of the dongle thing, one day I'm going to add another Quantum back into my line up. They make great scouting units for flying through the woods fast to cover ground and locate areas of activity, and also as said on days you just want to get up and go they have a very fast recovery speed, especially for a computerized detector of their day and age.
Fantastic machines with just the right amount of computer controls to max out performance yet without getting you bogged down in settings or software lag when hunting. Besides the lack of larger DD coils, my only other complaint was a lack of a VDI #. The 8 zones are fine for me when old coin hunting, but when I want to split hairs on pull tabs when after rings I just wish there were numerical ID #s down the scale from say foil up to zinc penny or so. Nickel or ring hunting wasn't an easy thing to split hairs on with no assigned numerical target ID based on conductivity, but rather just the 8 zones.
PS- You would think that Detech would make the SEF coils for the low freq Whites units. There are probably more coil compatible models of those machines out there than most other detectors, and Whites sure sold a ton of them over many years. Detech seems to pride themselves on making their coils for some pretty obscure machines, and some of which have long since been discontinued and were never super popular in large numbers such as the Musketeer. I would have thought by now they would have tapped that untapped market, where there is a lot of coil compatible units out there used to this day and a distinct lack of coils, both large and small, in terms of selection to choose from. Those old Whites were already stable as a rock, and these SEF coils are the most solid performers I have ever used, so I would think they might compliment each other even more so in that respect.
Final thought- Those low freq Whites could really punch pretty deep in my minerals. I just can't help but wonder what the combo of that low freq and an SEF DD coil, since DDs also help to ride over and poke through mineralization, might do in terms of depth and unmasking potential in my soil. Yea, probably those dongles aren't doing any real magic inside them, but if they did, and it worked....Man...Everything old in terms of machines is new again.
