Jim in Idaho

If you're going to sell a lie, sell a BIG one! Jim

Well guys, I have not given up on Whites. I really like my GM24K, and my modded 2013 TDI SL. Both are rock-solid, and perform well. I just scored a Miner John 8 x 12 for the TDI, and was amazed at the sensitivity. Outdoes the 12DF, and that's saying a lot. Other than one coil issue, which Whites handled easily, I've never had an issue with my Whites machines, other than typical wear on a couple of components. I've also got a DFX, which was the earliest dual freq. machine, and a GM2 and GM3, both of which are still working great, though I've replaced a pot on each. If my machines aren't the latest and greatest, I don't care. They work. And, after being self-employed my entire adult life, I believe in rewarding companies that have great customer service. And Whites has set the all-time world record in that department, and has forced their competitors to improve theirs. We all benefit from that, regardless of brand purchased. Jim

Don't need to cut a channel, Karelian. Just replace the factory cover with something thin...like a section of vinyl notebook cover. When I made mine, which is almost exactly like yours, I used a section of plastic milk jug for the cover. Jim

yeah, I like it. I'm taking the prototype, and my aluminum unit, to Salmon today. Going to run some dredge tailings through mine, and work some ugly material through the proto...has clay in it. All this will be dry running. Will get some new video if all goes well. Jim

Yeah...I thought I did, back in December. https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/8349-its-official-my-patent-has-been-published/?tab=comments#comment-83666 JIm

LOL...I thought I did. I'll have to check. Jim

You're welcome< Randy, of course. I was just thinking about you this afternoon, and wondering if the GMT showed up. Glad you like it. Hope you find a bunch of nuggets. Stay in touch, Jim

Had to walk Heidi anyway, so grabbed the TDI and did the tests. The 7.5DF lost the deep target, Some, but not a lot of difference on the shallow target. The 12DF couldn't see the deep target anyway, but could still see the shallow target. Now a couple of things to keep in mind. One is that when I did the initial battery tests a couple of years ago, It seemed to me that the smaller coils didn't gain much by the higher voltage...a little, but not much. Second is that where you see the benefit of all these mods is at the fringes. You're stretching the limits so to speak. So, if you have a strong target at 16v, you're still going to have a decent target at 12v. But, a weak target at 16v may be gone at 12v. The shallow target was not at the fringe with the 16v pack, but the deep target was. Shallow target could have been an inch or more deeper. Even the 14" 350 Super Pulse coil could see it. My pack was at 11.8v just now. One thing that surprised me the other day was that in previous tests, using the 1 grain gold bar, in air tests, the 12DF was the most sensitive. But in the in-the-ground tests, the 7.5DF, and the Sadie were both better. I haven't come to a conclusion about that. I didn't have time to do a battery comparison on the in-the-ground gold bar. When I tried that with the 16v, I could get a repeatable signal at 2 1/2" with the Sadie, and 7.5DF. Couldn't see it with the 12DF at that depth. Jim

I have searched all over, and looked at hundreds of connector images and can not find anything that matches the TDI. Anybody know what the connector is called? EDIT: I said TDI, and I meant the Goldmasters....sorry about that. Jim

No problem, Jim, but I'm leaving tomorrow for a prospecting trip, and may not get to it until I get back. Jim

I did both of Reg Sniff's suggested mods to my 2013 model TDI SL. I also use a 16v battery pack. I was testing it yesterday on pieces of nickel. I buried a 1 gram piece at 6", and a 1.84 gram piece at 10". The TDI saw both with the 7.5"DF coil, and the 8 x6 NF Sadie coil. The 12"DF coil could only see the 1 grammer....same for the Super Pulse 14" 350. The signal on the 1.84 grammer was faint, but repeatable. I'd definitely have dug it in the field. The signal on the 1 grammer was strong with both the Sadie, and the 7.5DF. Could have easily been deeper. Jim

TDI SL draws about 500ma, so about 3 hours of use. Jim

Can you charge these in series at one time? Ben nlce to hook a 12v pack up to a 12v charger, and charge them all at once. Or do they have a special charger socket? Oh...I see...they charge 4 at a time...nifty. Jim

I should have posted that. I was using the 8 x 6 NF Sadie. But later on, I tested it using the 12"DF, which has consistently been the most sensitive coil I've used on my SL, and results were identical. I gained about 3/8" on the 1 grain gold bar. It's not alot, I know, but definitely a gain..

This mod has been done at the factory on all SL's made since 2015. So, only applies to earlier models (mine is 2013). It consists of removing the diodes D20, and D21, and capacitor C56. You also have to install a jumper across two of the three diode leads on D21. I'll post a pic showing what I did. The effects of this mod are much more subtle than the sweep speed mod. Maybe a 5-8% gain in sensitivity in the air test on the 1 grain gold bar. But, still some gain, though I had to be paying attention to hear it. This mod should not be undertaken unless you have some serious soldering skills. The components are REALLY tiny....like 1/8" wide, or maybe 3/16" at the very most. Getting the jumper in place is tough...took me 15 minutes of fooling around to get it soldered in. The mod pushed my air test distance on the 1 grainer to 3 1/4", without headphones. Might have done a bit better using the hp's. there is also a slight increase in ground noise to contend with, but nothing that really bothered me. In really ugly ground, it may be worse. We'll see. In the pic, the red triangles are where the diodes were. On D21, you can see the jumper under the lowest leg of the triangle. That jumper is 3/16" long. The straight red line, on the right, is where C56 was located.

That's not a "plug in" for the SL model. It is for the original TDI series. Jim

On my buddy's 'Nox we had the same problem. in our case we finally figured out that if you have the "remote" gizmo turned on, the headphones won't "pair". You don't need that gizmo for the MineLab headphones to work. It's for using other brands of headphones. If the 'Nox senses that gizmo is turned on, it won't search for the MineLab headphones. Once we got that figured out, it worked perfectly. Jim

A guy in our local club is selling his GMT for $100. Has health issues. Great price for a really capable gold detector Jim.

Here's a link to the buck converter I use as a charger:DROK buck converter Here's a link to the battery management controller:Tenergy battery management controller Battery Junction also has the batteries

I don't know of any videos that are specific to the SL. There are quite a few videos on making up the packs. It's just a matter of getting it all to fit into the Whites pack. You have to basically gut the Whites pack. Tale out all the plastic that holds the 8 AA batteries in place, along with all the wiring, excepting the contacts at the end. The batteries will fit in pairs along the sides, leaving room in the middle for a Tenergy controller, which is long and narrow. The Li-ion cells you want are the Panasonic, or other quality brand of 18650 3400 mah, or as much as you can find. The cells can be glued in with hotmelt glue. The cells are tool thick to use the stock cover. You have to ditch it,. and use a piece of thin vinyl or plastic as a cover. The just wire it up as the instructions with the controller say. Not really complicated, but having soldering experience is a big help, and some electronics understanding. For a charger I use a buck converter that will run off anything from 8-64 volts, and has controllable output of both voltage and current. You can find them on Ebay. I generally only charge mine to 16v., and I don't charge at a higher rate than 1 amp. I often use a wall wart as the power supply for the buck converter, but using that, I can only charge at a .5amp rate. Jim

To my knowledge RNB does not make a 4-cell li-ion pack for the TDI SL. They DO make a 3-cell. The only builder of 4-cell packs is Reidman, and I haven't found his sales online lately. I did hear he was booked-up temporarily, however. He would NOT ship overseas, however, in any case. The best way to get a 4-cell pack is to make one, or find somebody local to make one for you. I just built one for my own use. Cost about $50.

I have not. They look interesting. But, you won't get a voltage boosth from them...only 8 will fit in the TDI SL. But they might be the nuts in my GM24K. Nobody makes a lithium rechargeable pack for that. Jim

This mod is just to accept a wider range of sweep speeds. Jim

Nope. What you want to accomplish with the SS mod is a less critical SS on tiny items, without losing any sensitivity to the those items. I'm not sure it would make any difference on most beach targets.

Did you do the sweep speed mod on your SL, Mark? Jim