Meter, to convert or not....

[stpauli914]

I just got an original 550 meter from a Minelab Elite that I am mounting to my new Sov. GT. I have heard a lot about converting it to a 180 scale instead of the 550. Could I get some pros and cons to this? Also if that is what is the best thing to do, then can anyone recomend who to have do it?

Second question:
How accurate is the meter when using it in conjunction with the WOT on a Sov. GT?

Thanks in advance!

Aaron

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

To answer the last question first. The meter can be set to 180 on a quarter so I am assuming here that its as accurate with any coil!
I use my converted meter on 5in coils through 12x15 coils and they all set at 180 and go.
Now as far as the conversion goes. Right after me and a buddy did mine he said ..... Why did you do that? I said everyone has a 180 and there's great charts all over the place to compare too! He says Oh, you know that 550 is a better resolution meter........... right? Huh! Ya you'll be able to see more better separation of targets, that you won't see with the 180. Do the math! Ya I guess he would be right. Think about it , with the 180 penny dimes quarters show about 180 you cane see 178 and 172 on different year pennies but for the most part 180 is a coin. With a 550 ( I don't know) maybe a quarter is 550 and a dime is 548 ect..... I have since bought a brand new 180 meter and and going to re-convert my 550/180 back to 550 and see! Maybe this helps you? Maybe someone know about the 550 more than I do and I'm wrong? The 550 was said to be jumpy on numbers? steve

 

[goodmore]

Plain and simple. I thought the 550 bounced around too much.

 

[stpauli914]

Thank you both! I think I will use it a few times at the 550 setting and see how I like it.

Thanks again,
Aaron

 

[Rick(ND)]

The 550 meter on the Elite was a little bit more stable than the earlier ones were, but still for me it jumped around more to get a good reading on the deeper targets. On the shallow targets it seem OK , but when it come to deeper ones i didn't care for the ID of it as it seem like it was all over the place.
I like the 180 as I know the numbers i want and by doing the Sovereign wiggle I could work the numbers up and could tell a IH penny from a copper penny, IH read 176-177 while a copper penny would be 179-180 while many of the older screw caps would read more towards the 177-178. On the 550 the number bounced around more and would overlap one another for me.
I guess some of this is what you learned the Sovereign with the 180 or the 550, but I have used them both and if I get a 550 meter the first thing I do is convert it to the 180.

 

[MickTwin]

I had the 550 mounted on my XS-Pro 2 for six months. After Rick(ND) was able to get me a conversion kit (it's an easy job - 1 hr. tops even for this carpenter) it was like I got a brand new detector. I tried to understand the 550, but the numbers jumped around too much. The 180 makes hunting a lot more enjoyable!

 

[Neil]

To answer the last question first. The meter can be set to 180 on a quarter so I am assuming here that its as accurate with any coil!
I use my converted meter on 5in coils through 12x15 coils and they all set at 180 and go.
Now as far as the conversion goes. Right after me and a buddy did mine he said ..... Why did you do that? I said everyone has a 180 and there's great charts all over the place to compare too! He says Oh, you know that 550 is a better resolution meter........... right? Huh! Ya you'll be able to see more better separation of targets, that you won't see with the 180. Do the math! Ya I guess he would be right. Think about it , with the 180 penny dimes quarters show about 180 you cane see 178 and 172 on different year pennies but for the most part 180 is a coin. With a 550 ( I don't know) maybe a quarter is 550 and a dime is 548 ect..... I have since bought a brand new 180 meter and and going to re-convert my 550/180 back to 550 and see! Maybe this helps you? Maybe someone know about the 550 more than I do and I'm wrong? The 550 was said to be jumpy on numbers? steve

Steve on the 550 meter a quarter/diime/copper penny are all gonna read 550(if you set the meter up by using one of those coins). That would be great if you could tell a dime from a quarter or copper penny from a dime but you cant via the meter.
Like goodmore, rick and the others say the 550 flat out jumps around to much which is why the 180 meter came about in the first place. 180 points is still great resolution. the sovereign is limited on both the high end of the disc scale and low end, it starts out knocking iron out at 0 disc and combines all the high conductive coins on the top end, it looses its resolution in those two places with both meters.
as far as the 550 helping you in the middle range, say seperating up pulltabs and stuff, well, as beach hunters we know we dont do that for a very good reason.
gold falls into to many spots for a beach hunter to take that chance.
From my experience I would think even less numbers would be fine(less than 180) since we are really only concerned with knowing ranges and maybe some numbers that show us say when its a nickel or a dime. the 180 meter by minelab or sunray both do not jump around much so those work well enough.

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

Like I said I did not us the 550 too long a few weeks, I was guessing. I have used the 180 for over a year now and like what I see. Rarely does a penny show 180 unless its very shallow. Copper pennies will tend to show 180 and zinks that are shallow. Any zink that been in the ground more then a few months will never show 180. The 1970's bronze pennies seen to always come in at 172 with any depth. With my older converted meter I can set it to 181 or 182 on silver quarter and most of the time a clad will read 180/1 air test! In the ground its always another story. Rarely do any coins come in at 180 after 4 inches unless they are flat to the surfaces! On the beach the zinks are wasted in a week or so. Can't count how many zinks I have dug a 16/18 inches that sounded like gold only to find a 1/8, 1/4,3/8 of a zink. Happens 10 times a hunt. Like I said I am going to re do the 180 back to a 550 and use the new 180 and just see what happens with the 550. With some testing I can get the 550 to smooth out.

 

[Neil]

I wonder if something is off on your meter also STeve. zincs should be about 176, never in at 180(havent had a meter on in a few months but I think it was 176). Also critter used to post setting the meter to 181 and seperate up clads from silver but I never saw that in any of the 180s Ive owned. as far as depth, they should be pretty accurate, even down deep, unless theres another target mixed in. agree with you on the corroded zincs, they often have the right size and sound to be thought of as gold. My 180 meter is a digisearch and Ive got one from an elite that is still at 550 that I havent converted over yet.

 

[goodmore]

My meter can be fooled on really deep targets, but over all it is very reliable. It is the meter mod in the speaker hole. I always use minimum discrimination. The knob turned all the way down. Good tone means dig. I use the meter to back that up. But I don't let the meter over rule the tone.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Zinc pennies, early wheaties and IH will read 176 and can bounce to 177. On clad verses Silver the meter will read the same numbers, but once experienced with your Sovereign you may hear a slight difference. Tones and meter reading go together for me as I use them both when I hunt. I have seen where the numbers will change when very deep and the signal is small, but most will ID if you swing over just that signal and watch the meter trying to get the numbers as high as you can, but remember it has to be a good tone to, the ones that are trying to make it.

Rick