Not impressed with the Mojave

[slingshot]

Sven, I notice 4 wires on the Compadre disc pot. Is one of them on/off/battery test? 200k like the Silver? The Silver just had three wires. I'm thinking of installing a tab check switch like on my Silver. Thanks.

The disc pot is also stacked with a on/off switch, so it has two leads just for that. Dual purpose, independent function pot, eliminates the need for a separate switch.
Picture gives you an idea of its workings. When you first turn the switch, the spring loaded contact pins will release and touch each other turning on the detector.

Thanks-that's what I thought. Never hurts to double check if one's an amateur. Still,I had a blast messing with my Silver.

 

[juit]

nice

 

[Sven]

This make me want to mod my compadre even more, im just want to know on the 10 pot for groungbalance what turn would be the stock setting

You need to measure the resistance at where the factory trimpot was set. Your best bet is to set up a toggle switch with a fixed resistor that matches the trimpot setting, then switched would engage the 10 turn pot for manual GB and disconnects the resistor as per my post. There's other tricks you can play around with when it comes to single, 3 3/4 or 10 turn pot to dial in GB. I am working on some mods now. Think my Mojave might get some.

I was curious as to whether or not the Mojave would be a good candidate for a manual GB mod. My Mojave wants one of the ten turn pots, like the type that is used on the Mirage.

I don't think so, there is no threshold or noise to reference to when ground balancing, from what I can currently hear. The GB is factory set slightly negative as it will pick up hot rocks when the toggle is in Low. Then slightly positive when it High, hot rock is no longer heard. I wouldn't touch this type mod, nor attempt to adjust the trimpot. My guess is the trimpot is set to slightly negative, when switched to High, ground balance bypasses the trimpot and goes thru a resistor that has a ohm value as if the trimpot was adjusted slightly positive. All I did was take a two minute sneak peak at the circuit board and see how much room was inside.

The only mod I would think that might be useful is a 2nd disc control and a selector switch like the Tejon. Or a coin check switch. Other than that, I would say leave the Mojave alone. Use it as it was designed, it still has a wonderful discrimination circuit that many will love. After playing around with the Mojave tonight for a bit, didn't find any fault with it, reminds me somewhat of the Eldo umax I had a number of years ago.

Think some of us have to resist the urge to tinker...LOL, myself included. Just enjoy using it as it is, think we all have other VLF detectors that we can use with features we think we need to have most of the time. Weather permitting going to take the Mojave out to play this weekend. Just attached a pair of Deteknix wireless headphones to the Mojave, didn't notice any lag when comparing them to a wired set. They sounded great. We'll be using the wireless.

 

[Stoof-tabsallday]

Well said Monte

 

[Cameraniac]

This make me want to mod my compadre even more, im just want to know on the 10 pot for groungbalance what turn would be the stock setting

You need to measure the resistance at where the factory trimpot was set. Your best bet is to set up a toggle switch with a fixed resistor that matches the trimpot setting, then switched would engage the 10 turn pot for manual GB and disconnects the resistor as per my post. There's other tricks you can play around with when it comes to single, 3 3/4 or 10 turn pot to dial in GB. I am working on some mods now. Think my Mojave might get some.

I was curious as to whether or not the Mojave would be a good candidate for a manual GB mod. My Mojave wants one of the ten turn pots, like the type that is used on the Mirage.

I don't think so, there is no threshold or noise to reference to when ground balancing, from what I can currently hear. The GB is factory set slightly negative as it will pick up hot rocks when the toggle is in Low. Then slightly positive when it High, hot rock is no longer heard. I wouldn't touch this type mod, nor attempt to adjust the trimpot. My guess is the trimpot is set to slightly negative, when switched to High, ground balance bypasses the trimpot and goes thru a resistor that has a ohm value as if the trimpot was adjusted slightly positive. All I did was take a two minute sneak peak at the circuit board and see how much room was inside.

The only mod I would think that might be useful is a 2nd disc control and a selector switch like the Tejon. Or a coin check switch. Other than that, I would say leave the Mojave alone. Use it as it was designed, it still has a wonderful discrimination circuit that many will love. After playing around with the Mojave tonight for a bit, didn't find any fault with it, reminds me somewhat of the Eldo umax I had a number of years ago.

Think some of us have to resist the urge to tinker...LOL, myself included. Just enjoy using it as it is, think we all have other VLF detectors that we can use with features we think we need to have most of the time. Weather permitting going to take the Mojave out to play this weekend. Just attached a pair of Deteknix wireless headphones to the Mojave, didn't notice any lag when comparing them to a wired set. They sounded great. We'll be using the wireless.

Forgot all about the need for a threshold. lol! That could be what makes me feel like the detector is lacking, and in need of modding, It's the lack of a threshold. Probably from too many years of using Minelab BBS/FBS detectors? Anyhow, thanks for not laughing out loud at me ... lol!

Wireless is on the list. - HH

 

[juit]

But monte wrote articles of ground balance a compadre

 

[amberjack]

I agree it does something's I like and I have others that do other things I like..how's that for vague

AJ

 

[ken ward]

I am remaining optimistic lol. I guess the worst part is I really had no budget so I could of bought any Tesoro.
Just wanted it to be simple (no manual ground balance) for my daughter.

Don't worry about all the talk here. No matter what detector comes on the market, You get people that love it. Some hate it. Some just want to pick it apart.
Your daughter will love it and she will find many nice things with it.
Let us know how she likes it and post a few pictures.
Tell her good luck and have fun..
KEN

 

[After-1-]

A report on a Air Test and no report on a Real Word Detecting with the detector-----------Jeezzz---------after1------

 

[Sven]

A report on a Air Test and no report on a Real Word Detecting with the detector-----------Jeezzz---------after1------

Did you not read the fact that I was going to take it out for real world hunting this weekend??

 

[After-1-]

I did read that and I thought this is not like you to make such a post. I don't mean any harm , just my thinking .------------after1-------------

 

[Sven]

I did read that and I thought this is not like you to make such a post. I don't mean any harm , just my thinking .------------after1-------------

LOL, I know, that's why I included a smiley, being sarcastic, talking fingers don't always verbalize the way the intent the same for everyone.

 

[slingshot]

I am remaining optimistic lol. I guess the worst part is I really had no budget so I could of bought any Tesoro.
Just wanted it to be simple (no manual ground balance) for my daughter.

Don't worry about all the talk here. No matter what detector comes on the market, You get people that love it. Some hate it. Some just want to pick it apart.
Your daughter will love it and she will find many nice things with it.
Let us know how she likes it and post a few pictures.
Tell her good luck and have fun..
KEN

The Compadre has outdone a lot of higher priced detectors-depth is good enough to not be a liability. I would love to have a Mojave but I can't afford to just buy ANY new detector to suit my fancy unless it's a radical design in technology. I have 10 detectors at my house from 1965 to present and got off that need-to-buy bug 5 years ago. Also, at 70 years young, my 1965 Garrett Hunter will probably outlast me.

 

[Sven]

Did some more bench testing in my dirt box and pulled out an other ID machine. Apparently brass .22 short casings target ID as junk with low iron ID numbers, similar to very small gold targets.
If I lower the disc on the Mojave to almost bare min in the iron zone, it will report with audio, just barely at 4" in the dirt.

Sunday when it warms up some, I will drive around and hunt with it.

 

[slingshot]

Did some more bench testing in my dirt box and pulled out an other ID machine. Apparently brass .22 short casings target ID as junk with low iron ID numbers, similar to very small gold targets.
If I lower the disc on the Mojave to almost bare min in the iron zone, it will report with audio, just barely at 4" in the dirt.

Sunday when it warms up some, I will drive around and hunt with it.[/quote

I left 3-4 25 cal. shell casings at a basketball court. The Ace barely gives a sort of skip in audio, the MX5 a warble, and the Compadre rapid little beeps that indicate multiple targets. Some detectors overlook them- 2" deep.

 

[bigtim1973]

Looking forward to Svens results after his first hunting experience with this Mojave. I was interested in getting a new compadre with the 8" coil. I am tossing the idea around still between this mojave and compadre. They both run on the same frequency. Does the compadre not work out in high mineralized soil condition? Is this why the mojave was introduced in the first place? curious to your answers who have used both.

 

[Welgund]

In my Colorado soil that is highly mineralized and full of alkali the Mojave is a lot more stable and deeper than my 8 in compadre. I only used my Compadre in the campgrounds in the mountains because it would be to noisy in the valleys due to the alkali. The Mojave I can use in both areas now with the switch on high in the valleys and low in the mountains.

 

[Stoof-tabsallday]

The Mojave was brought out in response to everyone modding their compadres. So they made it like a modded compadre with changeable coils with the added benefit of the ground switch in case you run into bad soil.
I have pretty mild soil do my compadres run great.
But the compadre is still a great option for the smaller budget as long as your soil is mild enough

 

[Whimpster]

Got out today for few hours...worked an old school and a soccer field, ran the Mojave all day... great little detector on Canadian clad... but best of all I got a couple silver!!
1910 quarter and a 1931 dime
$24.55 in clad...coffee money for the week...think the Mojave is a keeper
I did have a problem with the 7" coil...it seems to false when I hit the ground with it....put on my clean sweep coil and it worked fine...it's a clad vacuum...good for the top 4" to 5".... tried the 5.75" that coil worked great.
May have to call Tesoro in the morning and see what they say....I suspect a bad coil or cable.
Most of my finds were averaging 4" to 6"...although the two silvers I found were 6" to 7"...nice stable detector..set the discrimination just below the L in foil.
Over all the Mojave has worked well on Canadian clad....dig a lot of trash as well....pull tabs and a ton of foil...
Still like my Bandido ll µMax tones the best

Whimp,

HH.

 

[BarryL]

The Mojave was brought out in response to everyone modding their compadres. So they made it like a modded compadre with changeable coils with the added benefit of the ground switch in case you run into bad soil.
I have pretty mild soil do my compadres run great.
But the compadre is still a great option for the smaller budget as long as your soil is mild enough

This is what I stated earlier in a post it being a supped up Compadre either way I own both and think I will keep them