Hi, I,m neil I,m new to the site, can someone help with imfo on sovereign battery, thankyou

[neilsaxon]

Hi, I,m neil I,m new to the site, can someone help with imfo on sovereign battery. i have just bought an old THE SOVEREIGN detector, it does not have a battery, someone has modied the battery wires to take a single 9 volt fire alarm battery, as soon as i turn the machine on it makes a beep but not work at all, i,m thinking that there is not enough power with just a single 9 volt fire alarm battery to power up the machine propley, can someone please help ..thankyou kindly, neil..

 

[DiggerODirt]

Without actually seeing the machine and the mods done to it, it is hard to give any advice...Can you take some photos of the mods?

HH,

 

[bootyhoundpa]

welcome neil.... i would suggest you post your question on the soveriegn -excal forum further down on the home page...im sure someone there can give you a detailed answer..... but yes i believe you are right about not having enough power.... the alkaline battery pack takes 8-1.5volt aa batteries so do the math that comes out to 12volts i believe.... would probably be best if you could find a compatible battery pack... good luck...

 

[neilsaxon]

Hi, thankyou for your reply, ive realised the connector from the battery compartment is actually for a battery pod which holds 8 batteries, thankyou for your reply, do you know of any mods to improve the performance of this machine, its the early minelab Sovereign..thankyou..

 

[neilsaxon]

-- moved topic --

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Neil,welcome,the Sovereign is a great detector,one of the best.There is a learning curve with this unit so be patient.The Sovereign needs a 12 volt system to work correct.There are lot of alkaline battery packs out there and easy to wire and make your own.The Sovereign has been modded more than any detector,but word of wise don 't fix which isn't broken.Good Luck&Happy Hunting Ron

 

[Rick(ND)]

If a person is new to the Sovereign and you buy a used one it is wise to have it checked out by someone that knows how the Sovereign works to see it is OK or you have a problem right away. The Sovereigns take a 12 volt power supply to work properly, must only use the BBS coils as no other type of coils will work. Like Ron says that these Sovereigns probably get modded more than any other detector, but most of this has to do with the stuff other than circuity work of the main brains of the Sovereigns. Some feel they know more than the people that design the Sovereign and try to do some mods that actually hurts the performance and then sell them to those that don't know how a Sovereign works. Over the years I have tried all the different Sovereigns, some new and some used and when buying used I have learned to ask if any internal mods have been done to the control box and if so what it was as I got a few that I knew right away they were not right and the the performance just was not there and had to put them back to what they were designed for by Minelab . There has been some great modes done to the Sovereigns by those that use them like the remote pinpoint switch, those well balanced shafts Plugger makes so it makes the Sovereigns so much lighter feeling. Those that are making the water units look like a great mod too of the Sovereign, but for the control box like Ron says "don 't fix which isn't broken"
From experience as I say I have used those that have had some internal mods done and none compared to the performance of the stock Sovereigns as they come from the factory.

That my opinion anyway from 15 years with the Sovereigns.

Rick