Looking For Whites TDI Mod Info

[Steve Herschbach]

On 11/30/2023 at 7:38 AM, Compass said:

I thought that there would be a bigger reaction to this schematic but perhaps I'm missing something. The TDI Pulse Scan and TDI Pro have intrigued me for some time and now a Pulse Scan is on its way to me.                              My understanding is that this mod will smooth out a "warbly" threshold thus allowing the detectors to be operated at a higher gain for better performance. I'm no expert when it comes to electronics work but adding these additional components doesn't look too daunting of a task. However, would the detector need to be "calibrated" after the mod was done? If so, then maybe it is beyond my current capabilities. Perhaps I missed it but I didn't see any specifications for those additional diodes and resistor unless it's obvious to some of you by looking at the pictures?                Anyways, I find this whole subject of detector mods strangely alluring like some magical secrets only known to a few people.

The primary market for ground balancing PI is the gold prospecting market. The reason the mods get little interest except from a select few is that they add only very small gains, if any, and come nowhere close to closing the gap between the TDI and machines like the GPZ 7000. White’s did not go out of business because the prospecting world was lining up to buy the TDI, and it’s for no other reason than it being outperformed by other detectors in the primary gold prospecting market. I know fans of the machines hate hearing stuff like this but it’s the simple reality of things. The TDI still has owners for a few niche uses, but you guys have to face up to the fact that there are a vanishingly small number of you out there. Out of that small number the number that want to play around with the guts is a handful of people, nothing more. I say all that as a person who used and did as much as I could to help promote the TDI back in the day.

TDI owners are like a group of old muscle car owners who are fond of the machines from “the good old days” but technology marches on, and the memory span for once great detectors is extremely limited. It’s really hard for me to get my head around the TDI coming out in 2008 and here we are in 2023 with it already being a relic from the past, but that’s just the way things are when it comes to electronics and technology in general. I’ve still got an iPhone 4 sitting around someplace, makes phone calls just as well as the new ones. Any takers?

[karelian]

Some folks love looking at images of circuit boards, U16 as requested.  Reflections on the Tdi Pro machines as we near the end of the year 2023. Have used the machine for a while I can say that it is a competent and reliable unit. It is versatile and lends itself to a variety of tasks, whilst being master of none. Most importantly for me it is a fun machine that I enjoy swinging. It does it's best work on the beach and is capable of decent performance on the goldfields.

If prospecting is the main game them you should be looking at Minelab and the new generation of PI detectors, smaller, lighter and well balanced. For me that means GPX6000 or Axiom. Perhaps even a clean GPX5000... if the price is right and some are...

All the best. Hope the images are of some use to those who are interested.

[phrunt]

Obviously, this is the modding going on here, I wonder why the pin lengths were covered in solder on the resisters.

 

 

I would have put a dab of hot glue over some of that if it was me, looks a bit scary.  Hard to tell zooming right in though.

[RickUK]

Must admit mine has and never will get modified and the sole reason is that i dont do nugget hunting with it,it's sole use was to be used for hoard/artefact hunting and even then only on occasions.Only ever use it in straight PI mode with mainly GPX coils because of the cost aspect as the machine sits around most of the time,but on occasion when it does come out too play it does earn its keep.

The machine is that clean it looks like it just came down the Whites production line a few hours ago,i wont ever part with it and also it does exactly what i wanted from it when i wanted a hoard hunter,this task has been split between the TDI Pro and my Nexus machines which of course has total discrimination.