PimentoUK

Quote:"I didn't post what detector I'm using, ... I think the results would be similar with any detector and its various coils" The machine used IS important. Many modern machines, such as the Equinox / Manticore / Deus / Deus2 ,and more, have electronics inside the coil. The Equinox/Manti have a pre-amplifier, plus a 'security chip' that ( as well as security) identifies itself as a "15cm circular DD" etc. The Deus1 & 2 have half the detector in the coil. As a result, you should not expect them to behave the same as a simpler detector with 'plain' exchangeable coils. For example: The Equinox small coil may have a higher gain pre-amplifier. The control box may read the coil ID data, and implement a higher sensitivity or gain , to give an accurate "depth gauge" readout, or to compensate for the inherent lower signal levels produced by a smaller coil. The Deus doesn't even have to use consistent coil winding inductance/resistance values across the range of sizes, as both the transmit and receive electronics are integrated. As this thread is about the Legend, I can't say what N-M have done with their coils. There may be X-rays out there ( I'll check "Strick's" thread later ) that give some clues?

It could be that they put more design effort into the XTerra Pro's single freq choices than they did on the Equinox. That is to say ... the Equinox single-freq options are a bit basic. Probably because they are not the "main act", Multi-IQ , which no doubt got plenty of development work done on it. There are doubtless some tricks that can be performed to improve salt beach performance of single-freq machines - the NM Racer machines were generally thought to do unexpectedly well on salt. I recall some technical discussion on the Geotech1 forum: the Racer had a variable-gain pre-amp circuit, that was automatically controlled by the micro, and this enabled it to always run at optimum ( maximum ) gain, regardless of the wet ground signal level. Such a process can easily be replicated in an Equinox/Vanquish/XTerraPro, as it's pretty much all done in software.

It's interesting that you've found the XTerra Pro to perform well. It makes me wonder what the "design strategy" for it was. Take an Equinox, and make a stripped-down cheaper version of it.... or make a detector that behaves like the X-Terra range. No doubt either is possible, the microprocessor brains is surely capable of plenty more that what the finished product does.

I think a pre-owned Equinox 600/800 would have been a wiser choice. The Xterra Pro is basically an Equinox with the best features removed. I use a '600 , and find it an excellent all-round machine, though it does have its 'negatives' as you are doubtless aware.

It's definitely old. It does resemble Tombac, that has corroded heavily. The makers mark ( touch mark ) is three alternating keys, inside a beaded/dotted circle. Similar items for guidance: PAS spoon1 PAS spoon2 If you fancy browsing through thousands of spoons, this link should work: lots of spoon

"Wouldn't square cuts also have the same benefit?" Yes, but .... even if you laid the square holes in rows, and offset each alternate row by half a square, you would still end up with a pattern that was not 'uniform'. There would be a weakness in one direction, a strength in another. Compare this to the 'hexagonal close packed' arrangement, that round holes and hexagons give. Furthermore, the internal corners of a square hole are an engineering weak point. They would need to be radiused in the corners. And the same applies to hexagons, to a lesser extent. Laser-cut holes have a rough finish on the cut surface, which is a weak point for crack formation - all cracks start as micro-cracks, and grow. So a smooth cut, polished surface would be the ideal one. Also, consider the fact that square holes have a diagonal dimension 41% greater than the face-to-face distance, so they may let objects through that you would like to trap. A hexagonal hole has a corner-to-corner dimension only 15% larger than the face-to-face distance.

Bearing in mind these holes / slots are CNC laser cut , I believe the hexagonal hole is slightly quicker to cut than a circle. Hexagons also have a slight technical advantage, they can be packed closer together, without getting the problem of the metal getting too 'thin' from hole to adjacent hole.

Plenty of familiar British bits there. The pot lid is for cherry tooth paste: toothpaste lid

"I doubt anybody would complain if you did a second post with a few close ups ???" I agree, there's some cool bits there, many of which are familiar to us UK detectorists. Re: the two weights below the clay pipe stems: The rectangular one with the annulets design is an Apothecaries weight, similar to this example: Apothecaries weight The dimensions and weight would pin down the exact weight it's supposed to be. The circular weight is a coin weight. S and P indicate shillings and pence, the I and 3 show it's One shilling and Three pence, which would be a quarter of a (five shilling) Crown, an uncommon denomination. V R will indicate Queen Victoria ( Victoria Regina ). Some related reading, & see the comment at the bottom: Coin weight

I looked at the link, and saw those attractive photos, with the old maps etc as the background .... they seemed familiar. The answer is at the bottom of the page: "You have no authority to use my photos and I will have my solicitor contact you. Belinda Downie Friday 17th of March 2023" Belinda is a well-known coin dealer ( Coinworks ) , Mr Paulsen has just lifted her photos wholesale for his article.

@Jim Hemmingway I don't use Chrome, but here is a website guide to turning on/off scripting in Chrome: https://www.lifewire.com/disable-javascript-in-google-chrome-4103631 disable-javascript-in-google-chrome Other options are: Use the most recent version of Chrome, that works OK with your version of Windows ( if you tell us what Windows you have, we can work out what Chrome is suitable ) Using an additional different browser ( you can keep the Chrome going ) Suggested choices are Mozilla Firefox, and Opera.

I didn't bother detailing it all, especially as it would be irrelevant to iPad type folks. But seeing as you've kinda done it anyway, here's my version: Open a new tab, and type in About:config in the address bar. Then 'Bookmark' that page, so you don't have to fanny about typing it every time, simply choose it from your list of bookmarked pages. In the about:config page's search box, type 'ja' ( without the quotes ), and at/near the top of the ja..... options, is 'javascript.enabled'. Double-click will toggle it's 'Value' true/false ( ie. On/Off ) Keep the about:config page tab open, so it's there ready for when it's needed. I'm sure there is a Firefox browser add-on that simply gives you a button for scripting on/off, which may be useful to some people. [ it used to be a drop-down menu option on Firefox at one time, under 'Options', but in their wisdom, they broke it.]

Just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents: As Steve knows, I have an outdated PC, which struggles with some things. I've had this 'thin wide useless text box' problem for many months, since September, perhaps. It can be crudely resolved by turning off Javascript. I then get a full text box, but zero in the way of top-menu niceties, like basic font size/colour/italics/bold etc options. And external html links don't auto-parse, so just appear as plain text. As 'BB-Code' is no longer supported here ( on new posts ) I have to use my dodgy html skills to get some features to work ... or wait until I get on a more modern computer, and edit the post. Turning off Javascript is a bit of a fiddle .. some browsers have it as a simple option on the top menus. Firefox is a pain ( these days ), though I've got it sorted out. Update: for what it's worth, I turned on the 'web developer' debugging feature on my Firefox. The scripting errors it spits out in the area of the 'posting box' all seem related to 'jquery' and 'jqmigrate'., which looks new-ish, I don't recall seeing it before: JQMIGRATE: jQuery.fn.bind() is deprecated JQMIGRATE: JQMIGRATE: jQuery.cssProps is deprecated

Dropping onto a hard surface is bad news for pinpointers. The ferrite rod has probably cracked, in which case, it's terminally damaged, unless you are patient and skilled. But even with a rebuilt search-coil, it may need recalibration - which is the tricky bit. The earlier black Propointers had a 'master calibration' function built into them. The AT doesn't; it may be that it's done when the software is burnt into the microprocessor. But there's nothing the user can do. Additionally, the vibration-motors are fragile, and they can break out of their retaining clip.

I always utilise my detector in a boustrophedonic fashion. It's a scientific fact that boustrophedonically surveying the terrain is optimal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon The concept of metal-detecting with drones came up on another forum once ( Geotech1, likely ). I pointed out the XP Deus could probably be persuaded to operate at long range, if the 'remote' unit was modified to use a high-gain antenna ( parabolic dish / waveguide 'cantenna' / Yagi array), the hard bit was getting the drone to fly close to the ground but not too close.

Please repeat the question in French , perhaps we can translate your words better. Repeter le question en Francais, s'il vous plait.

I've tried to track down which model that is. It appears to be this one, but modified: 'Gold hunter smart': https://uigdetectors.com/gold-and-metal-detectors/gold-hunter.php?la=en Notice on this guys machine it has an additional 'homebuilt' box with three 'controls' and badly-fitted knobs, stuck onto the top of the case? Also, the cheesy 'radar dish' antenna has been removed. They suggest 3000 US dollars retail price. I wonder if someone even more enterprising than GER is buying these devices, adding 5 dollars worth of extra 'electronics' and re-selling them at an even higher price, like 6000 dollars ?

To create a shorter distance between grip and elbow cup, an alternative is to drill a new hole for the control box. It can be moved back 20mm comfortably, which is the equivalent to moving the elbow-cup forwards one position. Up to 23mm back is possible before the original hole becomes uncovered and it starts looking less pretty. The hole diameter is 9.0mm ( the same as that for both elbow-cup holes ), I recommend using a drilling guide to make the hole, eg. an aluminium / plastic plate with the correct size hole in it to ensure the drill bit stays on-target. I think drilling the hole slightly under-size, and taking the time to open it out to 9.0 by hand-filing is worth the effort. This then allows you to make sure the hole is centred exactly right. Something like 8.0 - 8.5mm would seem appropriate. For you US folks, 5/16" is 7.94mm; 11/32" is 8.73mm.

It may be worth looking into skateboard bags. Most skaters tend to use 'normal looking' backpacks that have external straps to hold the board. But there are bags that contain the board, and obviously they are long. For some guidance: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391894272614 https://www.dcshoes-uk.co.uk/all-weather-25-l-large-skate-backpack-for-men-ADYBL03004.html https://www.nativeskatestore.co.uk/accessories-c3/skate-backpacks-bags-c28/skateboard-bag-black-p45886 You really need to visit a sports shop in person, preferably with the detector, to truly see the pro's and con's of bags.

I have though of another way of doing your 'bush fix' , which involves the use of spring-loaded test probes. These things are used in the electronics industry to make test fixtures for PCB's. There are also smaller variants that are used as connectors in equipment. Three examples: *Some ( older ) cellphones used these probes to make connection to the battery pack. *The charging clip for the XP Deus coil has two of these type probes. *The Equinox USB cable uses them to connect to the control pod port. An example of a manufacturers page: https://test-probe.jp/en/product/battery_contact_and_connectors/spring_connector_pin_&_spring_pin_connector.html and https://test-probe.jp/en/product/normal_probes/ It is possible that one of these probes could be fitted into the coil free socket, so that it presses onto the stub of the broken Pin 5. I have no idea where ( in the USA ) you may be able to obtain such probes easily. If you can obtain a broken Deus coil charging clip, you may have some success in salvaging a pin, though they are one of the main failure points of the clip.

I too thought a 'replay' feature had some uses. Some posts of mine on Dankowski's forum in 2014: "Regarding the visual display: I can see some use if you were able to store the previous few seconds of audio data, or raw data. Then if you heard a sound that alerted you, you could grab a trigger-switch, and review what it looked like in a visual perspective. You could replay the audio, too, I guess, so you could determine if it was how you though on the first hearing." ------- "Re-reading the above posts, and when I read my line: "You could replay the audio,.. so you could determine if it sounded how you though on the first hearing" And it occurred to me that replaying in 'slow-motion' might be useful, so you can pick out the details, like the subtleties the original poster mentioned - raspy, clean, clipped, slight iron buzz etc. In principal, if your raw data is stored, then the detector could do a more thorough analysis/processing of the signal before it presents it to your ears at half-speed (or suchlike). In practice, I find it straightforwards enough to just re-sweep / pinpoint etc to get the repeat and home in on the target. But as the implementation of the 'slow-audio-replay' feature is just a button-push, it's not the most far-fetched idea." ------- "I've posted previously about 'capturing' sweep data. Originally, I had thought a 'replay' function would be useful, where the past 5 seconds of data could be re-heard, and perhaps at slow-speed. Then it occurred to me that if the data is already stored, it can be analysed more thoroughly : it's not essential to aim for low latency such as 80 msec; and the peak of the signal can be determined after-the-fact, rather than having to do it real-time. But this can be extended to intentionally storing a slow sweep ( to gather more data ) then analysing it, and re-playing it at 'normal-sweep' rate." -------

Nice to see that alternative Li cell fitted in OK, good work. Keep the old cell, the protection PCB is re-purposable. Any single unprotected Li cell could be wired up to it, to create a protected one. [ As the Geotech1 Forum is currently accessible, I will promote a thread on it about E-cigarettes/Vape devices, especially disposable types. Useable, fully-rechargeable Li cells can be salvaged from these heavily-littered items.] https://www.geotech1.com/forums/forum/technology/general-electronics/16907-e-cigs-vape-pens-puff-bars-trash-tech

There's two signals coming from the coil. They are a 'differential pair' , moving opposite to each other. So if a target causes one signal to increase( to a higher voltage ) by 10 millivolts , the other one decreases by 10 millivolts. The control box measures the difference between the two signals. So if one is 'floating' unconnected, it may partially work seeing only one signal.

My earlier diagnosis of the pins that failed was wrong, I've corrected the post. It's going to take some work to fix, but parts cost is low.

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.