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Equinox 6" Coil Connector Repair...Update,Fixed!


microsniper

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Hello!  My 15 year old son recently broke his Minelab Equinox 600.  The 8 pin connector snapped just like many of you have described.  The company is telling us we would need to buy a $200 replacement head to fix the issue.  I was happy to find this thread and my husband is handy so we're hoping to find a cheaper solution.  We found an M-12 8 pin female connector on Amazon but we are struggling to figure out if there are any that would actually come pre-loaded with wires so we can splice the old wires with the new.  Has anyone been able to find this? If so, would you be willing to give me a source or a link? If not, if anyone has advice on what type of wiring to order and also how to load the wire into the connecter that would be SO helpful!  My son is obsessed with metal detecting and is so bummed that he wrecked his pretty much brand new detector that he worked really hard to save money for.  Hoping we can find a more cost effective fix to get him back out in nature and exploring! 

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Can you tell us more about "the company" who told you that you'd have to just buy a new coil?  (Presumably Minelab, but which part of Minelab?)  This is inconsistent with what another poster was told by the Minelab Repair Center (click on what I just underlined to see that post) in Pennsylvania USA when he asked if his coil cable connector (with pins jammed into it -- inaccessible now so can't be removed) could be repaired.  They said they'd get back to him on the cost of that repair.  (I'm assuming they wouldn't have said that if the 'repair' was to buy a new coil!)

2 hours ago, wolfe07 said:

We found an M-12 8 pin female connector on Amazon but we are struggling to figure out if there are any that would actually come pre-loaded with wires so we can splice the old wires with the new.

On page 3 of this thread PimentoUK actually suggested this splicing method might not be the best choice.  I quote him now:

23 hours ago, PimentoUK said:

I have seen connectors with a short 30cm length of cable all ready moulded ... but you don't want their particular choice of wires / shield ( probably some industrial sensor standard? ) , so they are not as good as they may first appear.

Because the detector must be sensitive to extremely weak signals, shielding of cables can be quite important in blocking out unwanted interference from other sources.  Trying to splice shielded cables isn't often satisfactory which I think is part of the reason he recommends against what you are asking about.

In the "old days" when detectors weren't quite as complicated some detector companies (White's being an example) would even sell the end user the parts for DIY repair/modification.  I don't know if something that simple is even possible or whether a Minelab Repair Center would be willing to do that.  Sit tight and let's see what other responses come in.

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I'll try and get on a better computer tomorrow , and add the necessary wiring info.

Update:
Attached is a diagram of the connectors, both plug ( control box ) and socket ( end of coil cable ) , showing the pin numbering.
The wires connect as below:


Pin 1 : TX hot (Shielded wire inner conductor)

Pin 2 : TX cold (Shielded wire outer)

Pin 3 : Brown

Pin 4 : Red

Pin 5 : Blue

Pin 6 : No connection

Pin 7 : Green

Pin 8 : Yellow


All the small wires are very thin, and may cause reliability issues in the screw-clamp. I recommend you extend these wires by soldering to 10mm length of heavier gauge wire, such as 7 x 0.2mm , applying heatshrink sleeve over the solder joint.


EQ_Connector1.jpg
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  • 11 months later...
On 3/2/2023 at 12:46 PM, GB_Amateur said:

Because the detector must be sensitive to extremely weak signals, shielding of cables can be quite important in blocking out unwanted interference from other sources.

Any ideas on where to get this Shielded cable from???  OR, does anyone have a junk Equinox coil I can get the cable off of? 

Thanks

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12 hours ago, midalake said:

Any ideas on where to get this Shielded cable from???  OR, does anyone have a junk Equinox coil I can get the cable off of? 

Thanks

The Geotech Forum members here can probably answer that.  I did just cut into a Garrett Infinium coil I have laying around and was surprised its shielding wasn't particularly robust -- just a thin foil layer.  I'm more used to Gigahertz signals which require closely woven braid.  Maybe the kHz region is much more forgiving...?

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There are detector coil cables on Aliexpress, they have GM1000, GPZ, GPX 6000 etc.

Applicable to metal detector: gpz7000 sdc2300 gold monster 1000 (aliexpress.com)

I haven't seen an Equinox one, but I haven't tried to find one either.

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