Opinions on SunRay DTI 2 meter

[lovepulltabs]

Hi, I'm going to pick one up tomorrow for my original sovereign. Did some research and the SunRay meters seemed the way to go if you like to use a meter on your sovereign. Right now I'm using the minelab meter that was an option for the original sovereign, no numbers only led scan. I'm sure I'll like this one better, any opinions from users of both minelab and SunRay meters?

 

[lovepulltabs]

Somebody out there must be using a SunRay meter, maybe not.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Maybe one of the reasons why you are not seeing some response is most don't have a Sun Ray meter as they have not been made for several years now. Those that have them maybe haven't read the forums yet or haven't responded yet as finding these meters are like trying to find hens teeth. The meter you have is the older bar meter, so anything better is a set up. Sun Ray made these DTI meters back when Minelab only had these bar meters and the DTI were a very hot item as you could see a actual number of the tone you were hearing. This made it much easier to tell what was under the coil. Minelab in 1998 decided to make a DTI meter and used the 550 numbers and many found they didn't like these as well as the Sun Ray DTI meters while some liked them as it was a improvement over what Minelab had before. These first 550 meters used on the XS2 and early XS2a were not as stable and numbers would overlap some from my experience with them. Later on the later 550 meters used on some of the XS2a and the Elite were more stable and a better one, but many still were doing a mod to them to make them 180 meters like Sun Ray had. Sun Ray quit making the DTI meters as many were doing the mods to the Minelab digital meters and Sun Ray was getting into building other items to help out other detectors as the DTIs were not a hot seller as what they had been. Minelab now makes a 180 for the new GT as they seen that is what people liked more and these meters will work on all the Sovereigns from what I understand, but these sit lower and hard to see compared to the Sun Ray meters which is still what many of us like to use, but very hard to find a good used one anymore.

Rick

 

[Anonymous]

n/t

 

[John(H)]

Maybe one of the reasons why you are not seeing some response is most don't have a Sun Ray meter as they have not been made for several years now. Those that have them maybe haven't read the forums yet or haven't responded yet as finding these meters are like trying to find hens teeth. The meter you have is the older bar meter, so anything better is a set up. Sun Ray made these DTI meters back when Minelab only had these bar meters and the DTI were a very hot item as you could see a actual number of the tone you were hearing. This made it much easier to tell what was under the coil. Minelab in 1998 decided to make a DTI meter and used the 550 numbers and many found they didn't like these as well as the Sun Ray DTI meters while some liked them as it was a improvement over what Minelab had before. These first 550 meters used on the XS2 and early XS2a were not as stable and numbers would overlap some from my experience with them. Later on the later 550 meters used on some of the XS2a and the Elite were more stable and a better one, but many still were doing a mod to them to make them 180 meters like Sun Ray had. Sun Ray quit making the DTI meters as many were doing the mods to the Minelab digital meters and Sun Ray was getting into building other items to help out other detectors as the DTIs were not a hot seller as what they had been. Minelab now makes a 180 for the new GT as they seen that is what people liked more and these meters will work on all the Sovereigns from what I understand, but these sit lower and hard to see compared to the Sun Ray meters which is still what many of us like to use, but very hard to find a good used one anymore.

Rick

....................................................RICK, LOVEPULLTABS,...........................I like my SunRay Meter a lot more than the ML 550 meter!!.......................If you can find one it is worth the money.........................lucked onto mine by my trading and selling buddies!!.........................................................Very good to use in a park a or school yard .....................not needed on the beach!!..........................................................................HH.......................Joe

 

[Rick(ND)]

n/t

 

[lovepulltabs]

I'm sure that I'll really like the DTI2 meter. The bar meter was very little help. I've just been concentrating on learning the sounds of the machine and I thought a good meter like the SunRay would help speed the learning process up a bit. I've pretty much got down the sound of a good coin signal except for the old beaver tail pulltabs, sound almost exactly the same to me. Also haven't found any coins deeper than 3-4", do deeper coins sound different? Thanks to Rick and all who have posted to this thread.

 

[lovepulltabs]

Had a chance to use the DTI II meter I bought from Rick, it seems to work very well, I think my battery may have been going dead, it's the old rechargeable that came with the original sovereign, the one that has memory to recharging. How do I tell when the battery is going dead. I was getting a weird sounding threshold at times and then it would come back to a normal sound, does this have anything to do with the meter or is the battery just going dead? I've only used it about 4-5 hours and I was actually suprised that the old battery still held a charge at all. Thanks for any advice.

 

[Rick(ND)]

When the battery give a low battery alert it may shock you as it is a differnt tone than the others. It is like a loud screach then go back to normal threshold, the in a little while it will do it again and keep doing it more often untill the threshold just get loud and you can not turn it down. First time it happend to me I thought my Sovereign was broke, but put in my alkaline pack and it was just fine and charged up the rechargeables.

 

[lovepulltabs]

Thanks Rick, the battery was going dead. Put in the alkalines and no more problems with the threshold. Does anyone still sell new rechargeable bat. packs for the original sov.? The meter is awesome, thanks for selling it to me.

 

[Rick(ND)]

I knew you would love that SunRay DTI 2 meter and wish they were still made as they are the best there is.
On the rechargeable battery Minelab dont make this battery anymore and SunRay also have quit making this battery too, so being it is a plug in one I would check at places like Interstate battey or Batteries Plus and see if they can make you a pack using your old one as the size and the plug you need. Get the Nickle Hydride ones and there is 10 of the cells in it as each cell is 1.2 volts so 10 make it 12 volts which you need. This is what the factory ones are as it has to have 10 rechargeable in order to work correctly.

 

[Rick(ND)]

n/t