There seems to be much interest still on the TDI-SL mods that our friend Reginald Sniff made. I often find old emails in my junk box from people trying to get the mods. I apologize for not replying as I find them late and often busy with day chores.
I will share what I still have left from my conversations with Reg many years ago. Most were over the phone as he had difficulty typing on the keyboard. I took notes and why I have the last picture with a summary of the three mods.
Correspondence
Reg,
Thanks for the picture. I do have a few questions regarding my early model SL.
1- you had mentioned in another thread about doing something also with D20 and D21. We spoke only on changing C20, C21 and removing C56. What is the purpose of the D20,21 Mod?
2- Are C20,21 Polarized? what is the direction of flow ? ( thinking about building a board with a toggle switch to change from OEM to modified.} just in case the mod has an effect on my using my BIG coil.
3. If I did a board would the cables running from the capacitor board to the detector board need to be shielded?
I just ordered the Reidman battery.
Thanks
Gilbert
EMAIL sent by Reg in response:
I mentioned mods added in 2015 to the SL to correct a problem in Australia. The mods to correct that problem included D20 and D21.. The D20 and D21 were part of that mod as was C56. You can remove D20 and short out D21 with a simple jumper to complete the Aussie mods. This will smooth out the ground balancing a little.
If you use the proper caps, C20 and C21 are not polarized. Do not use polarized caps.
I don't recommend a board to be added. Just tweak the Delay a little if the cap mod increases the sensitivity too much.
On the latest pic I sent you, you will see an arrow pointing to C42. Adding a jumper across this cap will increase the gain and make very weak signals more reliable. Adding a jumper is easy. Simply look for two test points TP2 and TP31. They are near C42. Simply add a jumper from one test point to the other jumpers C42 and takes care of the problem. C42 and R75 are a high pass filter that isn't needed and causes problems. Eric added them when he had a drift problem and thought they would help. The drift was coming from some place else he later found out.
Reg
( caps being removed are C20 &21, .47uf and will be replaced with .22uf. Use 50v Panasonic, or Rubicon Stacked Metal Film Polyester type ) from another post by Reg
Picture sent by Reg
My Summary of all three TDI-SL REG mods
Gilbert