Update on meter/detector/S-12 problems..........

[Art (NWOH)]

Talked to Ralph a while and decided to try a few more things.

I was having problems with the S-12 reading very low and sounding bad.

Since adjusting the Elite meter up internally, the S-12 will calibrate now.

It does read 66 low of what the other coils do with the Elite meter but reads the same as the other coils do on the older XS meter. ............reasons unknown.

Not a problem now since I tweeked the Elite meter.

As far as sounding bad, it sounds perfectly OK now. Before I called Ralph, I took the coil connector apart because I expected him to ask me to check out the job I did when shortening the cable.

Everything looked good and was wired right. Suspect that there may have been a short of some kind when I re-assembled the connector after shortening.

Even tried cooling the coil in the fridge and letting it set in the sun for a while to test for heat sensitive problems. Worked fine !!!!!!

Sooooooooooo..........

Ralph was willing to have the coil checked out in case they had a problem. Real sighn of a good and reputable man.

Will not be necessary now.

Got ahead of myself a little and suffered from some self inflicted wounds it would seem.

Thats the rest of the story, as they say.

HH

 

[funkyoldude]

The only thing that makes sense to me is a change in inductive reactance and or resistance of the coil. If the coils draw different currents they might affect the power supply output for the meter. My new homemade meter uses Nimh batteries and I don't depend on the Transmit coil supply. I believe (but I'm not sure) this is also true of the after product meters, (i.e. Sunray, Patriot, etc.). This might explain why changing coils has less effect on the meter reading.
Just a big fat guess you understand, since I know nothing about coils, the Sovereign transmit and receive circuits etc., and I don't have the equipment for testing them.

Thanks for the input.

fod

 

[Rick(ND)]

I graduated a 2 year of Electronic Training at a state college of science and feel this has something to do with the inductance of the coil windings to the resistance of the coil windings and voltage drops is why there is a differnece in the numbers with differnt coils. If you have a S1 probe on the Sovereign you will also see that the numbers will be differnt when trying to use the probe for IDings as these windings are differnt then the coils. This why we have a control to calibrate the meter and even Joe Patricks Patriot meter has a auto calibration control that has to be used whan you change a coil.
Those that do a rescaling of the 550 meters and dont set the external calibration control to center postion and set the internal one to the 180 on a copper or clad coin may find that you may not beable to calibrate some of the coils as it wont go high or low enough.
This is what I feel some of the problem is from what I understand, but no expert. I have seen where differnt coils will cause some of the numbers to be a good 5-8 numbers off on a 180 meter. The Sunray DTI has a bigger number spead while the rescaled 180 meters have less and easier to calibrate as a little turn of the controls make litte difference while a little on the SunRay DTYI makes a big difference on numbers.

Rick

 

[Art (NWOH)]

Simply drawing more or less current is not the answer.
My Detech coils pulled considerably more current than the others, but had no effect on calibration.

I can hook up one coil on my old meter,calibrate it, then switch to any other coil without the reading changing by any more than one digit.

Same on the new meter, except with the S-12.

New meter is somehow different from the old one. If it has a serial number, it must be 666.

Never saw posts about trouble with the older meters, but have seen several with the Elite meter.

As long as it will tweek to the right place so that all the coils can be calibrated, then it don't matter.

HH

 

[Art (NWOH)]

Hey Rick.

The only thing that I can think of is that there may be a high freq parasitic oscillation that is getting back to the meter.

This could play havoc with the power supply diodes.

May have different kind of diodes in different meters. Not going to tear them apart to find out.

Everything is functional, so won't worry about it any more.

HH

 

[Art (NWOH)]

Most of this may be of my own doing.

By shortening the coil cable, it changes the cable's inherent resistance, inductance, and capacitance.

If I had left it alone, there probably would not have been any problem.

By chance, I may have built a resonant circuit that would not have existed.

Sometimes I really hate myself.

HH
Art.

By the way, is it ever gonna rain again? The grass crunches like you're walking on potato chips.

HH

 

[Rick(ND)]

Art,

We have had nothing but rain here, sometimes 3 and 4 inches at a time so many area are swamps now and being it is so wet we have mosquitos like we never seen before. I will see if i can get a shipment of rain your way as we have more than need right now. Like to send you the mosquitos too, but you probably have more than you need too.

Yes changing some of the things we do can make something better and some worst. To me shortening my coil on the 8 inch coinsearch was the best thing I did as to me it made a difference in performance, seems better.

 

[Art (NWOH)]

The dirt was in pretty good shape for a week or two right after I got the GT. Just about right.

Since then has gone bone dry and stayed that way. No can dig holes. Grass die plenty quick, Keemosabee.


More hot dry weather with only a small chance of rain in the forseeable future.

Only thing growing is the buckhorns in the lawn. Weed spray don't even work right now.

Did try something with the Elite alkaline pack...... Put a fresh charge on a set of 1800 mah ni-mh batteries and put them in the GT. Turned it on and let it run. Almost made 3 hours.

The things I do while trying to keep cool.

HH