mh9162013

On 7/14/2020 at 6:17 AM, RobNC said:

At times the vibrate function works and in the middle of use may stop but the beep still works. All this without any button pushes or adjustments.

Never mind. I saw one of your posts which makes my response moot. Sorry about that.

11 minutes ago, PimentoUK said:

However, a few tiny self-tapping screws through the lot wouldn't be a bad idea, except they would rust, so a bit of paint would be needed.

Rusting shouldn't be a problem as long as you use stainless steel.The problem is that if they penetrate the OEM endcap from the top, that could potentially lead to water intrusion. Also, if they stick past the endcap too far, they might interfere with the 9V battery inside.

Screwing into the sides of the endcap might work, though. You have far more plastic to work with.

How would you bond the "T" to the endcap? Is there a solvent that would work? I think, given the forces needed to twist off the endcap, a solvent would be needed, not just an adhesive or glue. Or maybe some kind of mechanical way of attaching it.

Another idea is to attach a thick, round disc to the endcap. I'm thinking this disc can be 6 to 10 mm thick. Then in the middle you can cut/etch a line so you can use a coin to twist off the endcap, kind of like what the F-Pulse has.

I dunno how durable this would be. You'd need a very durable material if you wanted to keep the round disc as thin as possible. However, I doubt a hard enough material would be able to be solvent-welded to the OEM endcap.

16 minutes ago, PimentoUK said:

When running on a standard PP3, you are presumably adding a rubber/plastic etc insert into the extended cap ?

If I had to do that, yes, I'd use some sort of insert/spacer.

As for the end-cap being slick, I hear you. The endcap on the Pro-Find 35 was a little bit better, but it was still a bit of a hassle.

I noticed that adding some silicone grease (which is a necessary part of maintenance) to the o-ring can help a little bit with the difficult endcap removal.

10 minutes ago, PimentoUK said:

It might be an idea to add a link to the original thread on this topic, so folks can remind themselves of prior discussions.

Cylindrical lithium cells are available in AAA size, thought they usually refer to them as '10440' size ( 10 x 44mm), and they are very similar in length to PP3 9V batteries. Two of them would make a decent PP3 substitute, the capacity of them seems to be about 350mAh, adequate, though not excellent. But they would at least be removeable individually for charging, so there would not be any constraints caused by having them made up as a two-cell assembly.
Whilst thinking about making my '2 x foil-pouch cell' PP3 substitute, this AAA idea seemed workable.

I'm trying to stick with cells I already have. I have more than a hundred of LSD AA and AAA cells (mostly Eneloop) for all my devices (flashlights, controllers, homemade battery banks, radios, etc.), so I try to stick with my standardization of choice.

I just finished the next iteration of my 9V to AAA battery adapter for my Pro-Pointer AT (Carrot). You can read about it in my blog post that will be uploaded soon (see my profile for the link, if you're that curious), but most of the "juice" is in the pictures.

In case you're wondering (or you don't recall my prior blog posts about this building process😞

1. Yes, waterproof integrity is maintained.
2. Yes, the performance when using this adapter is identical to using a regular 9V battery.
3. Yes, this can still use a regular 9V battery.
4. Yes, runtime is less than with a regular 9V battery, but should be enough to get you at least a full day (8+ hours) of run time. I estimate this will get you about 1/3 of whatever an alkaline 9V battery will get you.
5. Yes, this can run on other types of AAA cells, including NiCd, NiMH, lithium (primary; think Energizer Ultimate Lithiums) and alkaline.
6. I did this modification because I like tinkering and because I really hate 9V batteries.

Background info of prior builds: 

4 hours ago, phrunt said:

I guess they're actively working on it, at Fisher pace.

😄

4 minutes ago, Badger-NH said:

We should guess like they do on The Price is Right.

Closest to the actual date without going over gets a free Impulse unlimited.

My "bid" is early 2023.

2 hours ago, PimentoUK said:

It's a series connection. BUT some of the circuit is powered from one battery only ( likely the audio stage ), so you can't just create an 18V battery and ignore the centre-tap.

That explains a lot, thanks! 

Looks like I have a bit of brainstorming to do...

I've successfully removed 9V batteries from my Garrett Carrot (which now uses AAA batteries) and I've started on the process and getting rid of 9V batteries in my Fisher F2. 

I've taken the approach if trying to use a single battery to power the F2. A while back, I read from somewhere that the F2 ran off two 9v batteries running in parallel. However, this means that if I use a single battery for the F2, it should work (assuming the single battery has the ability to provide the necessary current). But when I try to use this set up, my battery gets warm. I eventually realized that the Fisher F2 is NOT using a "pure" parallel setup. If it were, it would not be creating a short circuit in my single power source setup. 

So my question is: how exactly is the Fisher F2 power wiring arranged? It's not parallel and it doesn't appear to be in series, either.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks!

1 hour ago, Optix said:

I have an opportunity to buy a like new ACE 400 for $100

That's a good deal on a decent detector. I'd go that route. Then use the money you saved on a quality pinpointer.

On 5/3/2020 at 1:30 PM, mn90403 said:

Years ago I thought of a competition of sorts of getting metal detectorists together to go through a 'course' which would be akin to a test garden.  BYO detector and see who could 'tell' what was and what wasn't at each stop on the course.

I've thought about that too, although it wouldn't be a course, but rather, a set location.

I imagined it could be a small plastic kiddie pool filled with dry sand and say...6 out of a total of 10 possible buried objects, such as a clad quarter, clad penny, clad nickel, silver dime, silver quarter, sterling silver ring, 14K gold chain, pull tab, iron nail, skeleton key, etc.

Each competitor would get point(s) for correctly identifying the object (without digging it up, of course) with a tie breaker being the shortest time taken to complete the hunt.

4 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Technically that is not supposed to be possible. Minelab stipulates in the program 15% off map, and the dealer has to submit copies of the paperwork for reimbursement. Not all dealers have qualms about adhering to policies however.

That's good to know, thanks for the additional info.

What Steve said: contact the deal directly, but do not reveal your pressing need for the machine ASAP. You can mention it after you agree on a price, but whatever you agree on will most likely include USPS Priority Mail at best and if you need something by Friday, you'll want overnight or two-day shipping which could cost a pretty penny.

I'd be surprised if you're able to get the 15% military discount on top of another significant cash discount, but I could be wrong.

I'm guessing you could get the 15% military discount plus free overnight shipping. That's the best I imagine you can expect. And because shipping is important to you, you might have better luck finding a dealer that's close by, like the next state over.

9 hours ago, palzynski said:

As it is not documented by ML I will forget about powering my Vanquish with a power bank for the moment 🙁 , I will carry on using lithium AA batteries even they are not rechargeable,  15 hours autonomy with the lithium is quite good  🙂 ...

Concerning the battery vs li ion reliability, actually since I use my Vanquish I had a few accidental power shutdowns due to little impacts , for example when putting the detector down on the ground before digging . I suppose that such micro impacts move the batteries a little bit just enough to stop the electronics. I have added a piece of foam between the batteries and the cover to block the batteries ( see pics below ) and it looks like it has solved the pb.  I would not have had this issue with a li ion battery I think ..

Your issues seem to relate to that particular battery's physical shape, not chemistry.

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

It can't possibly know the difference.

I would agree, but apparently there's a difference between the power bank and the wall wart that the Vanquish can detect. I was wondering if it's current delivery capability. 

So maybe the wall wart can deliver 5W, but the power bank can only deliver 1W or something? If that's the case, it would have to be a really cheap power bank.

On 5/26/2020 at 3:22 AM, phrunt said:

Yes, it can.  The vanquish will power on with no batteries if you plug in it's usb port to a power source, you're onto something there 🙂

So the Vanquish will run off a USB wall wart, but not a power bank?

On 5/26/2020 at 3:20 AM, palzynski said:

A li/ion integrated battery would have been lighter , more reliable

The reliability is debatable.

50 minutes ago, kac said:

I suspect when other pp's act up it could be just low battery power.

I got the impression that one of the issues with the F-Pulse was that it glitched/froze when the batteries couldn't provide enough power to it at certain times. I think I remember reading that someone had issues when using regular alkaline batteries, but when using primary lithium (like Energizer), it worked perfectly.

9 hours ago, kac said:

Be nice if ML just made it rechargeable in the first place.

As long as they are user replaceable common cells, I would definitely agree.

21 hours ago, kac said:

Batteries put out near full power until they run out instead of fading in power like alkalines do.

Besides rechargeability, that's an awesome benefit, right there.

14 hours ago, Dances With Doves said:

I have a feeling that after the Apex release that minelab will pull a new rabbit out of the   hat.Nox  multi  Iq2 or     vanquish  pro with ground  balance  plus all nox frequencies without waterproof.

I could see something like this...but I don't think it would result in a Vanquish Pro. Instead, there might be an new and improved Equinox (Equinox 1000?) and/or maybe a "cheaper" version of the Equinox line, such as an Equinox 400 or something. This Equinox "400" might be the equivalent of what you call the Vanquish Pro.

On 5/22/2020 at 12:32 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

"fully submersible? 80% of people don't do that"

Huh, I wonder what would happen if you applied the same logic to insurance.

To be fair, I get what he's saying. But I think there's a lot more to the desire for waterproofing than just detecting underwater.  And yes, I'm sure he knows that. But he's spinning the best he can (and I don't blame him; he's just doing his job).

On 5/22/2020 at 12:32 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

"battery not designed to be user replaceable"

Ugh

3 hours ago, EL NINO77 said:

If Garrett didn't count on "possible software update" at Apex, he wouldn't put a mini USB connector there ... but a magnetically charging connector ...

To add on to what Steve said, it could have been cheaper to use a miniUSB port instead of something else.

But more importantly (in my opinion) is that Garrett didn't want to require a proprietary plug/cord to charge the Apex in the field. Just bring a typical battery bank that many people already have (which will almost assuredly come with a micro or mini USB plug, as well as possibly other plugs, such as USB-C).