Volume Control for Whites MXT

[OneAcre]

Has anyone succesfully added a volume control for the MXT E-Tracker's speaker? If so, how?

Recently I've been enjoying the therapeutic simplicity of my older bfo and tr type machines for shallow targets in the parks carrying only a pinpointer and probe for recovery. Volume control is necessary to avoid attention, oddly my older machines have this feature.

I already have volume controlled earphones as well as an inline earphone volume control for lightweight headphones when doing serious hunting with the MXT. Something that could be spliced in the positive speaker wire would be nice.

 

[Picketwire]

A 10k potentiometer in one of the speaker wires should work. A logarithmic taper would be better than a linear one in this instance.

 

[OneAcre]

Is this something you have done or know of having been done succesfully? There are only a couple sites that i could find showing this.

This one uses a 1k pot:

This one uses a 1k pot as well: https://www.instructables.com/Garrett-ACE-250-MOD-VolumeLCD-LightGround-Ballance/

A couple forums recommend a 10k pot as you did.

The speaker on the Whites MXT is 16ohm / 0.3watts if that helps.

Some say it is better to place the pot at the amplifier rather than the speaker. My feeling is icontrolling the speaker should work well since headphone volume controls are made that way.

I was hoping for someone with experience over time to weigh in verifying the workability of this preferably on the MXT.

 

[Picketwire]

No, I do not own a MXT. It looks like no one here has modified their MXT in this way. I would suggest trying. Like you say, headphones do this. Potentiometers are cheap enough to buy both 1K and 10K. If you are proficient enough to solder one in, you are proficient enough to go back to the way it was. Since you don't trust me or the video or your other references, the only way to be sure is to try it. Don't drill a hole for the pot until you are sure it works. I have a few different pots but none 1K or 10K. If I did I would send you one for free.

 

[OneAcre]

My only fear is there may be a good reason why there are no verified volume mods for the MXT that I can find.
This detector has special meaning for me or I would just do the mod to find out.
Your response is MUCH appreciated, it's more an overabundance of caution than a lack of trust.

 

[Ism]

Go to https://www.geotech1.com/forums/forum Type in "MXT" and "volume" in the search bar. I found a couple posts there by people who have added volume.
Hopefully that helps.

 

[woodbutcher]

Why not just buy a external speaker with volume control that plugs into the the headphones jack? They do make them, I bought one for the D2 lite..then you can mount it with 3m tape or Velcro, and not damage the machine

 

[OneAcre]

Ism...
I started a thread at detectorprospector.com titled Volume Control For MXT. Forum member Geotech gave a very complete response with diagrams.
Thanks to all here who responded!
...OneAcre