Critterhunter
New member
About a week or so ago I was digging through some old threads elsewhere looking for some info on certain internal specs of Sovereign/Excalibur coils for a project I have in mind in making a 4x3 or smaller extreme sniper coil.
Anyway, that's when I ran across an old post from a guy who back engineered the transmit circuit to the coil. He said it's a very delicate type of setup that probably won't stand up to abuse. Obviously shorting the right wires in the coil cable can smoke a detector, but he was talking about it never being a good idea to plug or unplug a coil on the Sovereign while the machine is powered up, simply because of the sudden load being put on or removed from the circuit. He said it's design isn't as robust to where it should always be able to handle the stress in that respect.
Makes perfect sense, as when loads are added or removed to a circuit there can be a momentary current spike. That's one of the reasons why some fuses are rated to handle a momentary spike in current for things being powered up, but will blow if the increased current draw continues for more than a few short seconds.
Just throwing it out there what this guy said after he reverse engineered that part of the motherboard, because in the past I've seen some suggest plugging or unplugging coils from the Sovereign while it's powered to try to track down a problem with it.
Should also note, I remember a while back somebody was mentioning a weird problem they were having with their Elite I think. Turns out the stock Minelab coil plugs are well known for those two crimp type fingers in each pin hole on the plug for splaying or deforming and making some random issues with the machine that might even mimic the low battery alarm.
So besides checking the obvious- the battery and it's contacts, be sure to check your coil plugs to make sure things don't look funky with the pin holes. Usually an electrical issue with a device is related to a loose connection due to a bad wire crimp, cold solder joint, or oxide build up at one of the non-soldered connections. Always look for that before thinking some component has gone bad. One of the things I do is start wiggling parts on a board or wires (grounded so no static charge risk). Found many cold solder joints or bad crimps or connections that way in the past on things.
Right now I've got an issue with my truck where the oil pressure gauge won't work until the truck warms up a few minutes. It's not an oil pressure issue because the dummy red check oil light would come on if it was. I'm pretty sure it's not even the sensor, but is being caused by a intermintent short or dirty connection on the plug for that sensor, because the gauge will sometimes flick up and down real fast. Too fast for a mechanical issue but exactly what an electrical one would do. Just have to find the darn thing to clean it.
Anyway, that's when I ran across an old post from a guy who back engineered the transmit circuit to the coil. He said it's a very delicate type of setup that probably won't stand up to abuse. Obviously shorting the right wires in the coil cable can smoke a detector, but he was talking about it never being a good idea to plug or unplug a coil on the Sovereign while the machine is powered up, simply because of the sudden load being put on or removed from the circuit. He said it's design isn't as robust to where it should always be able to handle the stress in that respect.
Makes perfect sense, as when loads are added or removed to a circuit there can be a momentary current spike. That's one of the reasons why some fuses are rated to handle a momentary spike in current for things being powered up, but will blow if the increased current draw continues for more than a few short seconds.
Just throwing it out there what this guy said after he reverse engineered that part of the motherboard, because in the past I've seen some suggest plugging or unplugging coils from the Sovereign while it's powered to try to track down a problem with it.
Should also note, I remember a while back somebody was mentioning a weird problem they were having with their Elite I think. Turns out the stock Minelab coil plugs are well known for those two crimp type fingers in each pin hole on the plug for splaying or deforming and making some random issues with the machine that might even mimic the low battery alarm.
So besides checking the obvious- the battery and it's contacts, be sure to check your coil plugs to make sure things don't look funky with the pin holes. Usually an electrical issue with a device is related to a loose connection due to a bad wire crimp, cold solder joint, or oxide build up at one of the non-soldered connections. Always look for that before thinking some component has gone bad. One of the things I do is start wiggling parts on a board or wires (grounded so no static charge risk). Found many cold solder joints or bad crimps or connections that way in the past on things.
Right now I've got an issue with my truck where the oil pressure gauge won't work until the truck warms up a few minutes. It's not an oil pressure issue because the dummy red check oil light would come on if it was. I'm pretty sure it's not even the sensor, but is being caused by a intermintent short or dirty connection on the plug for that sensor, because the gauge will sometimes flick up and down real fast. Too fast for a mechanical issue but exactly what an electrical one would do. Just have to find the darn thing to clean it.