I ordered a SEF 12x10 today now i figured out how to do the MOD on my target meter.

[deepdiger60]

I used to have a SEF 12x10 for my GT but it never worked with my target meter unless i did a simple MOD inside my control box where the meter is where the speaker used to be , it seemed a bit complicated but i did it today i took a very small circuit board jumper from a old PC and jumped together the J-1 and J-2 pins on the inside of the meter and used a friends SEF coil and bingo!!! it works now i can see the numbers on the meter a silver quarter comes up 180 !!! its prefect . I has been bugging the heck out of me and Critter thought i was crazy LOL . That coil was my best coin and relic finder on my DFX for years very deep finds . Now iam happy all set with a few new coils for this season . HH Jim

 

[fsa46]

Jim, You're having way to much fun.

 

[Neil]

I like this coil alot also Jim. Got em both for my Sov and my Etrac/Explorer, various sizes. The manufacturer made them all center mounts too, like they should be

Only downfall Ive found is wading, they dont push through the water well, to much resistance. Another hunter told me they have another downfall in that their detection field extends too far off the coil. I noticed it today, picking up cans on the beach a good 6" off the outside of the coil. Im gonna have to pay more attention to that, see how it is on other coils and also what effects that has on locating finds.

 

[deepdiger60]

I had the same problem with my DFX Neil it was difficult to PP a target with the SEF if it was deep even more so but hey it,s a powerful coil it takes awhile to get used to it . Jim

 

[deepdiger60]

Frank after seeing your beach finds today i think your the one having more fun NICE !! Jim

 

[Critterhunter]

Back in I think 2010 I saw the possible fix he put out for that speaker hole meter to make it work with SEF coils. The coils would work fine, just that particular meter wouldn't ID targets with them. It involved the jumper solution you used. I haven't read into the specs on that off the shelf volt meter (found at many electronic supply outlets) for a long time, but I suspect maybe what that jumper does is ground the other ground being used in the coil cables. Perhaps the SEF coils aren't using one of the two grounds in that coil cable, which I think from memory was a throwback of a redundant ground being used for the older pre-amp circuits in older coils? Just a guess, but if that's the case then by grounding the other ground for the meter you'd then have a working ID. Just a stab in the dark as to why the fix works?

Far as I know, you are the first person I've seen try that possible fix for that meter and see that it does indeed work. At the time I read of his possible fix, he didn't have an SEF coil to test it on. Great to hear you've got it working with the SEFs!

By the way, I had also read a long time ago that that meter wouldn't allow you to use a external meter anymore. Somebody a while back I saw pics having an external meter plugged in and it worked just fine. Both meters were IDing targets exactly the same judging by the sample pics posted. Was that you perhaps that posted that several months back?

All the meters and coils, far as I have heard, will work with all others. It was just the SEF coils wouldn't ID on that particular meter.

As a side note- I was skimming through some threads elsewhere, and somebody referenced his other analog meter could show slight differences between clads and silver coins. Anybody have any confirmation of that fact? A long time ago I thought by calibrating my Digisearch meter to just barely go 181 on a silver dime, I could then scan over a clad dime and get 180 from it. But, later on down the road I re-tested that and wasn't seeing it anymore. I suspect the reason why the silver dime was going 181 was due to it just being easier to jump right up to that, while a clad dime would too but took a bit longer, and I quit sweeping before it reached the 181 mark.

On the other hand, I hear the 4th digit on that speaker meter you got there can show you scaling between two numbers. IE: 145.5 # versus just going from 145 to 146? If so, then there is a good deal of conductivity scaling between the 180 numbers, which I guess there would have to be if Minelab made 550 meters at one time that had a larger scale than 180. The big question is does that "in between" scaling end when the machine hits 180, or is everything above that just "180" in voltage? Or, is there enough scaling between a 179 and 180 # to show clads versus silvers? I kind'a doubt that now, but still it's an interesting question, having just read about at least one guy elsewhere saying the analog meter could show him distinctions between silver and clad. First I ever heard that though, so I'd like to hear any confirmation or disproving on that either way...

PS- I ran across a post where a guy had built a cool little digital meter for his Sovereign that had some built in software. He could press learn/reject and have the meter ignore certain voltage numbers or accept them for display. He also could assign custom target labels to various voltages (target ID #s).

Then I see there is a (different) off the shelf computer color display volt meter meant for industrial applications. IE: It's not a commercial product meant specifically for the Sovereign, just like that speaker meter is an off the shelf volt meter too...Which features two different screen sizes you can buy and comes looking very much like a car GPS unit you stick on your windshield or dash.

This off the shelf volt meter is pricey at over 100 dollars, but the perks might be worth me buying one to build myself a Sovereign meter. You can plug it into your computer and assign different screen formats and analog or digital (or both at the same time) displays, custom colors and target labels for voltages (target IDs), and even alarm sounds for them.

Think of say assigning an alarm for a fatty indian which IDs right in the middle of the tab range for instance, or say an alarm for certain gold coins way down the scale, or say assigning red colors to "trash" target IDs and green for "good" target potentials. The alarm to grab your attention in a sea of tabs might alone be reason to make some good finds. What about even an alarm for nickel numbers? Even though nickels sound a fair bit lower in tone on the Sovereign an extra alert when scanning through a billion tabs can't hurt. I know when I use the notch rarely to silence tabs my nickel count goes way up due to me noticing them more. And being able to assign custom target labels to IDs would I think be a first among detectors.

I read the specs on that off the shelf meter and it takes a wide range of DC voltage inputs so building a small battery box for it would be rather easy. I'd probably run it on a lipo, and I think you can even set the low battery alarm for various battery types on it. Only issue I see is that if I'm reading the specs right with a 2V scale for the Sovereign (roughly) you can't get as fine of resolution as the 180 meter. I may have read the specs wrong though so I can't say that's for sure. Sooner or later I'm going to look into it again and perhaps build one if the resolution thing isn't an issue. I don't want to go down in resolution from what I'm used to on the 180 meter.

 

[deepdiger60]

Critter i get 181.5 with silver dimes Barbar,s Rosie,s and Merc,s , 180.0 clad dimes as far as iam concerned that is fine, with seated dimes i have 6 different ones each time i get 178.0 different amount of silver used back then . Coil came yesterday it works great . Jim

 

[Critterhunter]

AHA! So I wasn't imagining things when I could just tweak the Digisearch meter to teader right at just over 180 to 181 on a silver dime, and then though when scanning a clad dime it would still 180. That's very cool that your meter can see the distinction with the 4th digit. That tells us that the "in between" scaling on sub-180 conductivity targets appears to carry over to above a 180 target as well. Higher conductivity/higher voltage output to the meter. Very cool. That would then seem to confirm that that analog meter I heard somebody making reference to being able to split hairs somewhat on silver coins might also be true.

Now that makes me want to make another meter with the 4th digit, but I can often tell various clad types from the reaction of the meter, as well as what might be silver. Besides the slightly varrying sounds (silver sounds a bit sweeter to me), silver dimes or quarters jump to 180 more "effortlessly" and quicker than clads. Clad quarters though tend to do that, but don't have quite the sweet higher sharper pitch to them sometimes that I can hear. Also the clad quarters are more broad in both sound and target size than a dime to me. Can't always tell that but sometimes. As for copper pennies, many for me linger in the 178 or 179 area and never make it to 180, or if they do make it to 180 it's a bit more slugish.

All the above said, I've owned machines that could split hairs on silver versus clads and often dug silver dimes that read as pennies or such due to being worn, on edge, minerals, dry conditions, masking, etc. When I'm old coin hunting at public pounded sites, I've got two rules I live by when being picky- If it's shallow I only dig it if it's mixed in trash, so it might be an old coin others have missed, or if it's deep enough *in my soil* to be out the range of other detectors. Like say 7" or deeper. In either of these two situations, I don't care what kind of coin the machine thinks it is because I'm digging. Bigger net catches more fish so to speak. Plenty of sites I've hit have had all the silver cherry picked yet there are still many wheats laying around at depth or masked. Very risky passing those. Dug plenty of silvers that read as wheats, and even as low as zincs at some sites.

The other reason why I like the "one size fits all" type of thing on the Sovereign, is that I cut my teeth on that big net using the QXT Pro. Dug a lot of great stuff in the coin zone that it lumps all coins above zincs into, just like the 180 meter on the Sovereign does. I also like the fact that less resolution in this respect makes the ID less "floaty" when I'm after a deep one or one mixed in trash. Found a high resolution on coin types often would try to talk me out of digging, being that it floating around made me suspect it was junk. When it's deep, or when it's shallow but in trash, I just want the easiest lock on "this is a coin" for me to see. Easier to wiggle a coin response out of those coins if it's not sliding all over the road on me.

Far as sub-copper penny resolution, only coin I care to ID distinctly is zincs when they are around by the billions and I don't have time to dig every one. The 180 meter IDs those easy enough. It's only for the foil to copper penny range where I like high resolution. That's where often I'm in the mood to split hairs on stuff, trying to avoid a common trash item like say tabs while going after rings, relics, buttons, or say those other odd old coins that read well down the scale. In the right situations that can be deadly. Is anybody aware of any machine with higher foil to copper penny resolution that the Sovereign 180 meter? I've never owned, used, or read of one that is. I'm talking *conductivity* resolution here, where fine distinctions in that can be seen in that soil to copper penny range.