palzynski

Thanks for the UK conversion kit info, Great idea , would like to get one before the brexit 🙂... Btw I mostly use a V10 coil on my 540 . I only use the V12 in specific cases , for example when finishing an area to go at max depth ( I noticed that the V12 goes 3 or 4cm deeper than the V10 on big coins on my bed tests ). The V12 is too heavy for me to be used during long outings . Attaching 100g at the back yes I will try this and let you know .... For me the V10 is by far far the best coil of the Vanquish coil set , it is powerful and light . I dont understand why ML does not sell the 540 with a V10 as stock coil , like it is the case for the 340 and 440 ...

Sorry but I do not see the advantage of a 3D printing armrest vs the stock one. I have no problem with the stock Vanquish armrest which I find tough enough , just my opinion ...

Ok thanks for the armrest pics but not really interested by that because it will not lighten the Vanquish I think . I would rather be interested by a new control box design even if I know that it will probably never be done because too complex ... Btw I recommend to replace the Vanquish lower and mid shafts by carbon shafts ( see Testing The Vanquish 540 - Page 9 - Minelab Metal Detectors - DetectorProspector.com ) . This is quite easy to do and it significantly improves the vanquish balance . I went detecting with my 540 today and the Vanquish is really more fun to use with these carbon shafts than with the stock ones . btw I have seen on this forum someone making carbon shafts for the Equinox , probably he would have customers for a Vanquish carbon front shafts package ...

Yes please post pictures ... thanks ...

Hi Making a waterproof Vanquish would be too complex and expensive to do to my opinion. Because the control box needs to be entirely redesigned from the front digital display to the rear part of the box ...

Thanks for this very detailed info ... So yes the only way to significantly lighten the Vanquish is to redesign the control box . A thinner control box would require less plastic than the current one ,with the use of a Lithium or Li Po, this would perhaps save 150 grams vs the current 4AAs cb. Adding to this a lower and mid carbon shafts and you obtain a Vanquish + V10 coil at a total weight of 0.95kg vs 1.2kg for the factory machine, this means a 20/100 improvement of the detector balance , not bad ... Concerning the 7.4V lipo experimentation, yes it is a little risky to plug this in the Vanquish , I am not sure that I am ready to sacrifice a 340 for that ... 🙂

After thinking a little more about all this , the most interesting thing for me , and probably not too complex to make would be a "lite" rnb like battery pack. I would say max 70grams incl. the plastic cover ( instead of 150g for the current rnb li ion pack , and instead of 124g for the 4AAs stock nimh batteries system) . This would replace my relatively expensive AA lithium batteries and probably interest other Vanquish users ... btw I know a little about electronics and I have a question , is it easy to convert a li ion 3.7V output into a 5 or 6V voltage output ? Does the electronics converter consume a lot of power for doing this ? thanks ...

- Concerning the control box redesign , I think that the front part ( the screen display ) can be kept like it is , only the back part ( containing the batteries and loudspeaker ) needs to be redesigned to my opinion ( the part that integrates the li ion battery + loudspeaker ) . I would be ready to sacrify a 340 to test a new lighter cb ... On the other hand I would never ask to anybody to do that job knowing the amount of work to be done ... For sure you would better spend that time detecting in the field with your Vanquish ... 🙂 - This cable extension ( PimentoUK s post ) is a great idea , this because when using a cable extension the control box could be mounted at the rear of the machine under the elbow , improving the Vanquish balance. The drawback is that the Vanquish screen could not be seen any more. However I often rely on the audio then I can afford not to see that display.... And it is probably simpler to make a cable extension than redesigning a cb ...

- Concerning the battery pack accessories , there is a thread that willl probably interest you : Is Anyone Using An Rnb Lithium Battery For The Vanquish? - Minelab Metal Detectors - DetectorProspector.com This RNB lithium battery for Vanquish is a great design because a li ion battery is more reliable than multiple AAs . Unfortunately for me, this high capacity pack( 36Wh / 33hours duration) is heavier than the stock AA system so it does not solve the Vanquish balance issue. Actually for me 12hours duration is enough , then for sure I would be interested by a RNB pack or a similar design with an only 12Wh capacity/12hours duration, because this would be lighter than the 4 AAs nimh - Concerning the battery pack at the rear near the elbow , frankly speaking I dont like this solution because this means that there will be a cable between the battery at the rear and the control box. Then the rear shaft cannot be taken apart/compacted any more . And this will be a problem when you want to put the Vanquish in a rucksack for example , where the telescopic shaft is a great feature. And also you still have this heavy control box ( even empty ) , then I am not sure that this will improve the balance a lot . For me the neat solution is to redesign the cb but clearly it is not easy to do ... Btw now most of the entry level detectors : for example Nokta simplex , Quest X5 , X10 , etc ... now use thin control boxes with integrated li ion batteries . This Vanquish 4 AAs power system is clearly outdated ...

Hi Glasswalker , I also have a Vanquish 540 , since June 2020 ...A very good machine but I find it a little heavy ( 1,2kg with a V10 coil ) compared to my Deus ( 0.75kg ) , soI tried to find ways of lightening it .... - First I have replaced the middle and lower shafts with carbon shafts , saving around 100grams. - Second I use non rechargeable liithium ion 3000mah ( non rechargeable / 15grams each) , instead of the 2500mah Nimh stock batteries ( 28grams each ) , saving 50grams. Look at Testing The Vanquish 540 - Page 9 - Minelab Metal Detectors - DetectorProspector.com With these improvements my Vanquish V10 weights 1.06kg , Now the only way to save more weight would be to redesign the vanquish control box , using a lithium ion integrated battery instead of AAs, like the thin control box of the Garrett Apex . For info the current "bulky" Vanquish cb weights around 400grams with the 4AAs . A new control box with an integrated li ion battery would probably weight only 200/250 grams . However redesigning the cb means probably dozens(hundreds) of hours of work , and personaly I would leave that job to the Minelab engineers , perhaps for the next version of the Vanquish ... 🙂

Last status on my faulting Apex ( false signals ) , my dealer ( Lutece detection in Paris ) has contacted the European Garrett support,based in Germany From what they said there are actually a few faulting machines that have been sent back by customers . For some of them , the pb came from a faulting coil . So they asked me to send my Apex back to them for analysis. Then it looks like the situation in Europe is similar to the US. A positive thing ,the Garrett support is reactive and they listen their customers ... 🙂 I will continue to update this thread as soon as I have more infos ..

Congrats Chase for the gold coin , happy to see that your Deus is doing a (very) good job ... I am not surprised btw the Deus/Orx are outstanding machines . I started to use XP with a Goldmaxx in 2007 , and I am still a fan of XP 13 years later ...

Probably because NEL has spent more time on the coil design and testing than the genuine manufacturer...

I just had a look on this RNB pack on internet and I watched one or 2 related videos ... Very nice product which increases the Vanquish power from 12Wh ( 4nimh AA 1.2V 2500mAh ) to 36Wh ( rnb pack 6V 6000mAh ). Which means 33hours duration with the rnb instead of 11hours with the 4nimh , quite good ... The rnb pack is just a little heavier than the 4 nimh batteries ( rnb pack 150grams , 4 nimh + cover 120grams ). I hope that rnb will propose an other option with a smaller capacity Vanquish rnb pack like 3000mAh ( 16hours autonomy ). It would be lighter while still providing a good autonomy. I would not be surprised if ML propose such a product for the Vanquish in the future , because integrated li/ion batteries are much more reliable and lighter than multiple AA batteries

Hi , could you post a pic of this RNB battery thanks ... Is this battery rechargeable ? For info I often use lithium AA non rechargeable batteries for my Vanquish , they work very well 15hours autonomy but unfortunately not rechargeable ...

The Orx is a simplified version of the Deus , less settings , 4 programs instead of 11. However their results in the field are almost the same because they use the same coils , and for the XPs wireless most of the electronics "job" is done inside the coil . The only difference I can see the Orx multitone is limited to 3 tones , no "fulltones" available ... But this is not a pb, when in an "interesting" area you dig everything which sounds good ...

Probably you would even improve you results using the "Deus fast" nr 3 program instead of "basic1" nr 1 . And yes the 9inches HF coil is a must in iron trashed sites , especially when running at 30khz .... HH ..

Hi Monte , what do you mean by "garrett were quick to take care of the problem" ? what did they do exactly ? thanks ...

Thanks for your post Shelton , From the posts I have seen in this forum up to now , for sure I am not the only one having this pb ... However I am not sure that the pb is related to power lines ... Now it would be interesting to have the Garrett's US support answer on this ... btw I will try to recontact the French Garretts local support on this issue tomorrow ..

Good news ...I am looking forward to see if that solves the pb ...

Yes you are right El Nino the pb is not simple and trying an other coil is a good idea , however I dont want to spend more money ( and time ) on this issue . I hope we will have news on this via UtahRich who has contacted the Garretts support. Lets see what they say ...

Yes perhaps the Apex control box box plastic around the housing is too thin and flexes due to the coil connector wiggle . On the Vanquish the control box plastic is quite thick so the coil connector mount does not flex for sure ...

I forgot to say that on my Apex it is always difficult to insert or remove the coil connector into/from the control housing . The connection is too snug. Phrunt on the Vanquish the coil connector is also mounted on the PCB see pic below ... But it is very easy to insert or remove the coil connector on the vanquish, no snug at all. btw the vanquish connector and housing are bigger than on the Apex , I do not like small connectors like on the Apex and Equinox too fragile to my opinion I prefer bigger ones like on the Vanquish...

I will inform my local dealer about this new info btw

Yes I agree the Apex audio on target is not very accurate unless the target is shallow. I agree that this is not good , especially when you compare with a Vanquish or Equinox. On the other hand I found that the Apex has a better iron filtering than the MLs ... It is quite good on nails beds , apart from the falsing issue ...