GPX6000 coil dongle removal.

[detectormods]

Has anyone pulled the dongle out from the coil and mounted inside the detector? Install a 5 pin socket and be able to use all standard coils?
is the dongle different for mono and DD, or does the detector just sense the coil connection or moe change.

https://youtu.be/q_3bWUh_A6Q Video on the subject.

[Altra]

If the scheme is the same as the ML Equinox, it should be possible. That security chip is a 3 pin device (sot-23) that requires +3.3v and ground. The third connection is the data pin. Sort out which pins are which. Ground and 3.3v should be easy. The data pin will probably be a thinner lead and track towards a processor and away from the Tx/Rx sections.

One question after watching your video. You mention the security chip is in the coil. I seem to recall that on the PI machines they are molded into the coil connector.? This may have been only the Zed? Remember guys were making a cheater cable to plug normal coils using the original cable and connector. It's been a few years so I could be mistaken.

[Altra]

I found the info I recalled for the7000

See post #6 by phrunt with photos. May lead you to more info


https://www.detectorprospector.com/f...l/#comments

[detectormods]

I found the info I recalled for the7000

See post #6 by phrunt with photos. May lead you to more info


https://www.detectorprospector.com/f...l/#comments

Thanks for the link, i am yet to work out if the gpx6000 chip is in the coil or plug , it is a customers detector and i cannot go full investigative as it will cosmetically make the detector look ugly.

[Carl-NC]

Likely to be in the plug as putting even a tiny PCB in the coil is a big no-no.

[Skippy]

It's sufficiently small that it could be 'hidden' by a ferrite bead , if embedded in the coil. However , in the plug is almost certainly the location, it avoids having a custom cable to carry ( two ) extra wires to the coil.

[detectormods]

There is an X ray of the of the coil floating on the net, there is a small board in the coil.

[FOMA]

I assume the key is on the board. Just like on all Minelab coils. EQUINOX, VANQUICH, CTX3030. On this board, not only the key, but also the signal processing circuit. You can only take the key and transfer it to the block. But to use coils without a key, a processing circuit is needed anyway. Pulling out the processing circuit completely does not always work without loss of sensitivity.

[Skippy]

Quote myself: "The security IC is sufficiently small that it could be 'hidden' by a ferrite bead , if embedded in the coil. However , in the plug is almost certainly the location, it avoids having a custom cable to carry ( two ) extra wires to the coil."
It seems I was right and wrong. The X-ray images ( of many coils ) are in a thread on the DetectorProspector forum. A forum member, Chuck Strickland has used a veterinarian portable X-ray machine, with excellent results. Among his 'patients' is a NuggetFinder 12" x 7" for the '6000. The image clearly shows the electronics hidden inside a square cross-section ferrite tube. The ferrite's primary purpose is to obscure the solder-blob joints of the coil windings to the coil cable, but you can make out pcb solder pads for a SOT-23 device ( the serial memory IC ), and the coil cable clearly has two thick wires, and two thin ones ( for 3V3 power and Data ). There may be a power rail decoupling capacitor there, too ( it would be good practice to do so ).
Here is the thread, and 12"x7" coil image:
https://www.detectorprospector.com/f...ur-coil/page/7
https://www.detectorprospector.com/u...f3c04c8f6e.jpg