chiil

This is the one I bought. Appeared to be new when it arrived, as described. Worked without any issues, and had the words "SHARP" stamped on the back metal plate. Since my wife accidentally threw the other LCD that came in the package - I ordered another one. https://www.ebay.com/itm/334078637655?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=cc9bpcpcs7u&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=j1_eyyGOQFq&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I believe heat - like leaving it in a hot car during the summer. I bought my v3i used and it developed the lines within a month of me having it. It's hard to say how the previous owner stored the detector. Maybe someone else can chime in with their experiences.

Well, the two replacement screens arrived. One works. The other has the same black line through the display. Unsure if this is a quality control issue as one functions as it should. 75% OOB with issues. I'm not even sure I want to try to have the one screen that's bad replaced. EDIT: Contacted seller and he suggested providing me a refund for a single LCD. He did not want the previous units back. Great seller! But it sucks that there were issues. In the meantime while I was waiting for these screens, I did order some "NEW" screens from another seller on Ebay. Both arrived, and were new screens from Sharp. Both worked perfectly fine. I ended up installing one of these two screens. The other screen most likely ended up in the trash, as my wife thought the packaging was garbage and tossed it. 😞 Oh well. My V3i is up and running again... and I have one spare screen now.

Seller has agreed to send two replacements. Doesn't want the old displays back. Will report back when they arrive.

Wow, didn't realize this thread would get this much attention. To answer a few questions. Yes, I did try adjusting the position of the ribbon cable. However, I don't believe the cable itself is the issue based on what I found here. I decided to sacrifice one of the screens I purchased. It's not a back-light issue at all, but seems to rear its head when the smaller ribbon cable is connected. I believe its the LCD screen that is faulty. Attached is a shot where I removed the LCD from the assembly. You can see the line that manifests itself when the back-light is present. I hope that means it's not a timing issue, but rather, just some bad LCDs. I've reached out to the seller to see how to proceed. If he asks for the LCDs back, I may have to cancel the return as I've already disassembled one of them.

Yes, just got back from a work trip... and the two new screens were waiting for me. Plugged in screen 1 and found a large black line. Well that sucks. Plugged in screen 2 and similar results, although the black large line is located elsewhere on the screen. Tried re-seating the ribbon cables several times, and playing with them to see if the results would change. Nada. Found the issue is really with the backlight, which is fed from the smaller ribbon cable. You can see in one of the photos I disconnected the LCD input and the black line remains. If I remove the smaller backlight cable, and keep only the LCD input - there are no issues except for not having a backlight. I'm wondering if these are just a bad batch or something. I've reached out to the seller to see if he'll accept a return or send me two additional screens as replacement.

I picked up a few of these last year... great, runs forever with Lithium 18650 cells and I bought a separate charger for the cells on Amazon. https://www.ebay.com/itm/285292247354?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=qPKu6nnjQWC&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=j1_eyyGOQFq&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY Mine came from the Ukraine, and arrived without issue even with the on-going issues over there.

My DFX-300 begins with 0145 and shows 2010 in the corner, first digit is the last digit of the year and next three is the day of the year. 145th day of 2010. My TDI-SL begins with 8239 and shows 2018 in the corner. My V3i begins with 3143 and shows 2013 in the corner. My guess is yours is the 73rd day of 2008 - since it lacks the four-digit year in the top right corner, but follows the same nomenclature. If it had the four digit year in the right hand corner I would guess 2018, but it doesn't.

Just a heads up. My screen started to develop the dead pixel lines. Nothing that won't stop me from using it, but I figured I would check around to see if I could score an economical replacement screen. Centreville Electronics does have them in stock, but they're running about $140 + shipping... which is about $150 for a DIY screen replacement. I ended up opening the V3i and saw that it's running a Sharp LQ035Q7DB05 screen. Ebay had a few listings, but this one seemed to be the closest when inspecting the photo. The original Sharp's LCD has two ribbon cables, one large and one small. I traced out the smaller ribbon cable and only two of the leads are being used - same as the listing. I'm quite certain this LCD will work... and for around $30 + shipping. I ordered two and will report back if all goes well. https://www.ebay.com/itm/263099618885

Hopefully when Jeff gets feedback of the failure... and if it indeed ends up being the Tx FET... I'm wondering if a heatsink could be added to help mitigate any future failures. Similar to one like this: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1515 Edit: I'm not a EE... but looking at these FETs, looks like the heat is dissipated from below. I'm guessing it couldn't hurt to place a heatsink on top of the FET - but how effective it would be is another issue.

Link to the information. According to Carl... "There are a couple of 16V caps in the audio stage but they are on a regulator that maintains 11.2V regardless of battery. I did that so audio volume remains the same if you use a bigger battery."

Oh dang. Sorry to hear that. Isn't the SPP based on the SLI? I recall Geotech stating the SLI could handle up to 20V, and possibly 25V. I wonder if something else popped.

I bought a TRX that showed up on ebay with a buy it now of $100 that was listed for about 10 mins, seemed lightly used. Then saw that Centreville Electronics NW had a brand new one for $150, so I scooped that one up as well on an impulse buy. Previously, I had been using my Sun Ray DX-1 probe religiously with both my DFX and my new (used) V3i. I didn't like how the the V3i operated with the DX-1. Every time I found a target, I'd lay the detector down, then pull off the DX-1 probe and have it close to the ground, then do the funky pin-pointer lock step on the V3i (toggle and enter button combo). Too many steps on the V3i for my liking. It was so much simpler on the DFX. Also, using the DX-1 probe on the V3i felt heavier and unbalanced whereas on my DFX it felt tolerable to swing around. Decided to use the TRX with the V3i and boy what a joy it was to use. I took it to Carter Lake Reservoir on Sunday with the family. Found some clad and pennies, no silver. And a ton of lead fishing weights, probably a couple pounds of that stuff. Just thought I'd share my experience. Gabe

Nice job! I haven't been able to get out and swing this week.... nor last week. Hopefully I can get out as the days are getting shorter now.

Interested in? As in your are selling your TDI SL?

Would all previous posts be archived? Or tossed? I still love my White's detectors...

Thanks for confirming!

I picked up a used V3i and was curious if there were any hardware changes and/or software changes across the production run. I remember many moons ago, when I decided to buy my DFX in 2010, there was a program to send in the Spectra V3 and White's would upgrade it to a V3i. I assume it was a software update to make that happen. However, aside from that, were there any other software updates later in the decade? Thanks, Gabe

Thank you! Much appreciated.

Can someone kindly share the PDF? Seems the link is broken and I just picked up a v3i. Thank you!

In one of the french forums... someone posted this... with a threshold bump protector.

Thanks Geotech! Thanks some great information, especially from someone who worked on this specific product. Here is a photo of the PCB (thanks to pjrough) - with the capacitor locations as Geotech pointed out.

Jim: Thanks for the info! My machine is the SL special edition (tan box), with the later High-Q coil. I assume I'm covered with both the mods you have mentioned. Geotech: Thanks for the input! Having scoured the 'internets' it seems many of the threads mention to not exceed 16V on the SL version. That is definitely good news! I have been undercharging my Li-On batteries to about 14.8V. Sounds like we have plenty of headroom to bump that a bit. I remember having looked up the components, and they didn't quite match what other were saying in the forums. I think the caps are panasonic (1000 E FK) 1000uF, E=25V and FK series. Voltage regulators look like Fairchild FQT7N10 - but I could be completely wrong. All I remember is that the voltage specs didn't quite match up to what I found on mouser/digi-key.

Cascade: Here's the link, hopefully I'm not breaking any rules posting cross-threads from other forums. I use Google Chrome's (right-click) translate to english to convert the text. https://www.forum-sud-prospecteurs.com/t7997-Adaptation-TDI-SL.htm Definitely a lot of info posted in our forums - just don't recall some of the specific ones being mentioned in the above link. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough. I remember hearing about the sweep speed mod, and the battery pack. edit: one more thread about lowering the pulse delay below 10uS. I believe it was discussed in our forums, or sending it off to Reg to perform the mod. However, this individual shows where/how he performed the work on the PCB, specifically for the SL version. https://www.forum-sud-prospecteurs.com/t9026-White-s-TDI-au-dessous-de-10us.htm

I came across a french prospecting website where some interesting mods had been done to their White's TDI SLs.... for instance: 1. Removal of resistor R86 within the gain circuit - providing a boost to the gain control. They believe this was to make it stable, for less complaints. Removal of this resistor provided additional gain reserve. They had some good results with their testing. 2. Placing thick o-rings under some of the pot knobs. Helps to add some friction and avoid dials turning themselves accidentally, especially with the above modification. 3. With a single +16V battery pack, there was feedback that depth seemed to increase on the TDI SL. However, this came at a cost of over-driving the 16V rated power capacitors as well as other circuits on the board. Potentially shortening their life, by running them full time. The moderator seems to have been able to add another battery pack in series (6V) with the 12V pack, and use a toggle switch to drive the voltage above 18V temporarily. This "boost mode" was done as a method of improving a faint signal on-the-fly. Just a flick of a switch, double-check that faint signal, and then back off. Ultimately, it seems they were discussing driving the coil with it's own 18V external battery and using the standard 12V battery pack to drive the rest of the board (logic). Basically driving the pulses in the coil without going through the voltage regulator, via a large MOSFET. Unsure if they actually were able to do this mod. Anyways, just thought they were some interesting ideas those french detectorists were messing with.