I want to put a 3x18 cleansweep on my compadre

[Gunnar of bradford MN]

can you do that >?it would be less money than buying a umax need advice broes

 

[JB(MS)]

Changing coils on the Compadre
by Ralph Bryant

Go inside the Compadre and remove the strain relief that is located at the control housing. There are wrench flats (nuts) on both the inside and outside. Once that is loose, snip the coil wires between the coil cable and the PC Board, leaving enough on the board to identify what goes where. Cut the orange, grey, purple, and black wires that attach to the PC Board. Note that the black wire is actually soldered to the ground/shield wires in the coil cable.

Then, remove the 5-pin plug from the coil you want to use. and strip the outer covering back about 2 1/2 inches. Separate the orange, grey, purple, and blue wires from inside the ground/shield wire mesh, being careful to keep the mesh intact. Just twist the two sections together into a single strand.

Once you've done that, remove the coil wire from the Compadre housing and the hardware from the replacement coil. Thread the replacement coil cable back through the strain relief sections like you removed the original, and then solder each wire back to the PCB or to the sections of color-coded wire that you left on the PCB when cutting off the original coil cable..... orange to orange, grey to grey, purple to purple, and the ground/shield mesh to the black ground. It's actually just as easy (or easier) to remove and replace one wire at a time from the PCB while soldering each cable wire back directly to the PC Board points. Be sure to either wrap or use a piece of heat-shrink tubing on the exposed part of the mesh ground/shield part of the wire to avoid ground contact with the PCB inside the housing (red covering in photo). Also, the extra BLUE wire in the coil cable is not used, so just snip it off close to your strip edge where the other wires come out of the outer cable covering.

If you would like to have interchangable coils option, connectors can be installed in order to change out different coils on the Compadre. To do that you will need the Switchcraft female side of the coil cable connector plug (the part that fits in the control housing itself) and then the male end used on the actual coil cable. Just be sure to match the color-coded wires up to the standard scheme used on all of the land coils. Although the 5-pin plug hardware is used, only 4 pins are actually used. The standard pattern is as follows:

Pin 1 = Orange
Pin 2 = *not used
Pin 3 = Purple
Pin 4 = Grey
Pin 5 = Ground/Shielding (center pin)

The pins and female recepticles are numbered on each insert for easy referrence.

Also, the hole in the Compadre case where the stock cable strain relief passes through will need to be enlarged a little to accept the female side of the plug hardware. The housing is basicly the same as all of the uMax housings and everything will fit just fine.

The Switchcraft part numbers (if not outdated) are as follows:

5-pin Male coil cable plug = SL415M
5-pin Female control housing plug = SL405F
Strain relief spring for cable = SL05

 

[Bill in Texas]

Since it is hard wired, you need to ask Tesoro how much it would cost to have the coil changed (to keep the warranty). They have a technician there that also runs a "metal detecting business" close by. Bill in Texas

 

[tc8745]

n/t

 

[tab-nabit]

"The Switchcraft part numbers (if not outdated) are as follows:

5-pin Male coil cable plug = SL415M
5-pin Female control housing plug = SL405F
Strain relief spring for cable = SL05"


I went to a local electronic store a few months ago to get some more of those Switchcraft connectors and the fella said that there isn't much of any demand for them, and they are thinking of not stocking them anymore. The bins were empty - empty!!! Someone must have bought them
He did say that there is another brand name (can't recall brand) and that he thinks its the same but better quality. Of course he didn't have them:veryangry: I need to check back but haven't done so, or hit the other few electronic places locally.
I don't know but may have some with the ton of odds & ends I have in HAM Radio gear. I thought i did by some but I'm not 99.9% sure.
Anyway I don't know if its just this one place or elsewhere but if demand doesn't hold on the connectors, the supply may fall short of demand.

 

[morelic55]

Since there is so much interest in coil swaps on the Compadre, I don't know why Tesoro won't just make it with the plug..................What, $5 more in cost?

 

[tvr]

$5 parts, maybe $8 to $10 added to assembly costs (labor plus cost of labor like insurance), cost to revise the manual, another part that could break increases warranty costs ... so instead of a street price of $152 for a new Compadre, it now is probably approaching $175 for the street price. That doesn't leave much differentiation between the Compadre and the Silver. It also is putting it close to the competition's entry level detectors that have more bells. I can see why a choice was made to make it minimalistic and yet perform very well.


and JB(MS) Thanks for posting the how to change it!!!! I have pasted that into my on-going notes collection.
tvr