Hacking The White's V3i

[Geotech]

True, once David moved on from White's the MXT became a dead end. But then I had a guy take all that assembly code and convert it to C and put it on a modern 32-bit processor. It took 2 years to get it done. That's how MX5, and later the MX Sport, came about. The MXT code is about 2% the size of the V3, that's how daunting the job would be. But just hacking into the code transfer, yeah I suppose that could be reasonably done.

[☠ Cipher]

It would certainly take a lot of dedication and skills that exceed any I currently have. I also have no interest in dealing with China hackers. I'd just like to see the V3i able to communicate with other V3is, a PC and vice versa. As many machines as have passed through my hands, the V3i is a machine that I do not plan to part with for the foreseeable future. I just love the whole concept and wish it were taken a little further. I am baffled however at the talent Whites has let get away from their stables. I don't quite understand it. I can easily see a day where FT sits on top of the heap. The talent is there and now the facility is there. I wish you and everyone there all the best Geotech. Big admirer of the work you guys have done.

[Norm S]

All that hacking is fun for those of you that want to tinker with codes etc. Since I bought my E-Trac my V3i has been benched for the most part.. I spent 3 yrs learning the V3i and on my 2nd yr with the Etrac. I pretty much just like to work with what you have while in the field detecting.. 

I am amazed to see how many people are into the hacking. Actually I think it is cool but not for me

[☠ Cipher]

Guess who just bought two fully functional non-updated V3s? This guy! My purpose is multi-fold. I'm curious to see the peer to peer data coms in action. So I'm going to load one full of all the popular programs, plus the ones that work great for me here. Then I'll transfer them from one to the other. Next I want to compare and contrast one of these V3 models with my own V3i to see if there really is a difference between the tracking and ground balance ability from the V3 to the V3i as some have suggested. I want to compare them in other performance tests as well. Where I'll take them from there I'm not sure. A local technical institute instructor is fascinated by these models and their ability to communicate wirelessly. I could keep them both and sell my V3i, or I could sell them to a hunting duo. I may even decide to try different keypad combinations to access hidden menus I'm assured exist. Any way you look at it, fun will be had haha.  

[Steve Herschbach]

Sounds like a really great project. The possibility you are one of the only people in existence that can give this early (first?) communication system a real life test makes it all the more exciting. Thank you for anything you share on the subject.

[☠ Cipher]

I kind of realized the significance of what I was purchasing at the time, but it wasn't until your last post that it really hit me how unique an opportunity this is and how much can be learned from it. It's not often I see a V3 that hasn't been updated, and when I do it's never priced like these were, and never in pairs. Anyone that would have them in a pair or singly likely wouldn't know the history behind them or the significance of putting two together. Here not only do I have two original V3s in the same room, but also a V3i to contrast them with. When you're into flipping electronics it's always tempting to move everything along quickly to keep the capital freed up, and there's a good chunk to be made here, but any thought of doing that before I get some answers for the whole community is now gone. I think I have a better perspective on the responsibility of having these stars aligned. So if you or anyone else have any requests or ideas for testing and comparison etc., feel free. This is going to be a lot of fun. 

[☠ Cipher]

One idea I'm having is the possibility of hybriding, where it might be possible to affix a V3 box to my V3i. They can share coils and screens, if I could afix them back to back or even build an expanded box two accommodate both boards with splitters and a switch it would be possible to toggle back and forth between them. If there truly were a significant difference in tracking/ground balance between them, if whites slowed the tracking in the i update as has been suggested, in harsh or changing terrain I could toggle to the V3 board. If I could sell the other V3 to a hunting buddy later down the road when I'm done with all my experiments (or if I could convince my gf she is a treasure hunter too Haha) we would be able to use the peer to peer data. Personally I think if Whites were thinking outside the box they could hybrid many machines. Who wouldn't want a machine where you could toggle back and forth between an MXT and V3i for example. Or a DFX and V3i, MXT and DFX. 

[EL NINO77]

 

Another step forward - how to use the Signal probe function to repair a coil that is out of signal tolerance ... I degraded the signal value below half the value and removed the overload ...

[Cal_Cobra]

I assume the headphones are running on unlicensed 2.4GHz, and that the data stream is not encrypted (wouldn't make a lot of sense to encrypt it), so if those assumptions are correct, you could simply use a wireless sniffer to see what's being xmited between the V3's.  Heck even if it is encrypted, it's so old, that the encryption method was likely cracked years ago.