Whites Classic, II, III, ID, and IDX Modifications

[minewhites]

Same here in France I can not find much information.
I think install the mods except ground balance.

Bonjour, je maîtrise si mal la langue anglaise que c'est une aubaine pour moi de rencontrer un français sur ce site. De plus je ne connais rien à l'électronique, ayant acheter les livres mais pas trouvé le temps de me plonger dedans.
Si je ne m'abuse la version SLX en France a été réalisée à la demande de l'importateur France Détection chez qui j'ai acheté le mien. Le réglage sur "sol minéralisé" remplace une résistance qui subsite après les modifications proposées par M. Bills. En restant sur "P" et en remplaçant VR1 cela devrait fonctionner, à mon humble avis.
Avez-vous réalisé les modifications?
Si oui avez-vous constaté une nette amélioration en profondeur?
Dans votre pseudo, 57 est-il votre département de résidence comme c'est mon cas?
J'espère que vous ferez un petit tour sur le forum pour satisfaire ma curiosité.
Au plaisir de vous lire.
Cordialement.

[Qiaozhi]

Bonjour, je maîtrise si mal la langue anglaise que c'est une aubaine pour moi de rencontrer un français sur ce site. De plus je ne connais rien à l'électronique, ayant acheter les livres mais pas trouvé le temps de me plonger dedans.
Si je ne m'abuse la version SLX en France a été réalisée à la demande de l'importateur France Détection chez qui j'ai acheté le mien. Le réglage sur "sol minéralisé" remplace une résistance qui subsite après les modifications proposées par M. Bills. En restant sur "P" et en remplaçant VR1 cela devrait fonctionner, à mon humble avis.
Avez-vous réalisé les modifications?
Si oui avez-vous constaté une nette amélioration en profondeur?
Dans votre pseudo, 57 est-il votre département de résidence comme c'est mon cas?
J'espère que vous ferez un petit tour sur le forum pour satisfaire ma curiosité.
Au plaisir de vous lire.
Cordialement.

Please read the forum rules -> Basic Rules of the Forums
and make your posts in English.

[minewhites]

Please read the forum rules -> Basic Rules of the Forums
and make your posts in English.

Ok Sir I translate with Reverso...........
Hello, I master however badly the English language it is a chance of a lifetime for me to meet French on this site. Furthermore I know nothing about the electronics, having to buy books(pounds) but not found the time(weather) to plunge me inside.
If I am not mistaken the SLX version in France was realized at the request of the importer France Detection to whom I bought mine. The regulation on " mineralized ground " replaces a resistance which subsite after the modifications proposed by mister . Bill. By staying on "P" and in the replacement VR1 it should work, in my humble opinion.
Did you realize the modifications?
If yes you noticed a clear(net) in-depth improvement?
In your pen name, 57 is it your department of residence as it is my case?
I hope that you will make a small tour(ballot) on the forum

[scrungy_doolittle]

Vr1 is not on the board in the picture. VR1 is the empty pot at the top of the board. This appears to be either a factory build this way, or it has already been modded, and I think it has already been modded, because the label on the box is not painted on, but stuck on. I've never seen whites do that. Do not install VR1 on the board.

[KRinAZ]

The finished control box of my IDX Pro. with "Mr. Bill's" modifications.
[ATTACH]28084[/ATTACH]
Nice job TH'r - may I ask where you got those 0-100 stickers for the pots? - thx!

[KRinAZ]

Today I scored a decent and working Classic ID - complete with 8 new AA batt's - for $70 - yea! Checked it out and did some detecting with it - checks out as working fine.

So on the way home I stopped by a nearby Radio Shack and got all the pots and resistors needed for the Mr Bill's mod (thank you again Mr Bill!) - and since I have seen posts where folks are asking where to find the parts - here they are (all but the SAT switch, also except the 375K resistor for the slower SAT Speed, see below):

271-0312 - 500 pack of 1/4 watt resistors (I needed some extras anyway haha) (has all but the 375K which you can make by series or parallel creations from this pack) - $14.49
271-1716 - 50K Linear Taper Pot - $3.49
271-0092 - 100K Linear Taper Pot - $3.49

For the SAT mod I'd like a variable control (like my Whites Goldmaster GMT has) (I'll mark the position for the factory SAT speed and mark it as "P" in Whites tradition) - so I'm going to try out using a 180K resistor in series with a 250K linear taper pot - should give a good wide range of SAT speeds, we'll see...

And, question on one line I'm not clear on in Mr Bill's instructions - "If your detector uses a ID meter, open the meter case, and replace resistor R28 (3.9 meg) with a 10 meg resistor. This aids in increasing the meter response depth."
My question is - what is meant by "...meter response depth"? I'm just not getting the meaning of that. On my Classic ID (which of course has the ID meter) what will this mod actually do? - thx!

PS - I like kt315's post on the Radio Shack wiki ref - made me laugh

[KRinAZ]

Additional questions - looking over the schematic I noticed it appears the Sensitivity control is only enabled in Disc mode, off for All Metals mode, hmmm. I verified this is how my Classic ID operates - Disc makes no difference in All Metals mode, but does work in Disc mode. Looks like simply jumpering U2 pins 10&11 would make the Sensitivity control always enabled.

So the question 1 - has anyone run the All Metals mode with the Sensitivity enabled? If so what was the outcome - good or bad to do?

And question 2 - the manual sometimes refers to the mode switch as All Metal/Disc and sometimes as GEB/Disc - implying that in All Metal mode the GEB is active, and in Disc it is not - is this so? and is this why the threshold disappears when in Disc mode?

I hope Q2 isn't a dumb question - I'm used to gold specific detectors (GMT mostly & Gold Bug II also) and so don't use any sort of Disc, so these treasure hunters and their Disc modes are new to me...

[Lucas26]

I changed out R7 with a 51k and R24 with 2.2M have not added the ground balance or the threshold pot's yet still in the mail turned on machine and it was beeping and going crazy when I turn up the sens it would beep non stop. The detector would not pick up any targets at all replaced R7 with 100k from factory and it was back to normal. I lost my slight hum of the threshold by adding the 2.2 meg I can only assume so I adjusted the threshold trimmer got my slight hum back didn't touch the gb trimmer and the air test added 2.5" to 3" to depth and the tone is smoother on deep targets. That is air test my ground is frozen solid with feet of snow right now but as soon as the ground thaws I want to get out and test in real world conditions. I cant wait it is a whites classic lll sl and air test is producing digable signals at 11.5 inches on a dime if I didn't see it myself I wouldn't believe it that seems to be it tho even with a quarter the gain over a dime is only 1/4 of an inch that is kinda puzzling to me have not tried any larger coins.

[Koala]

I changed out R7 with a 51k and R24 with 2.2M have not added the ground balance or the threshold pot's yet still in the mail turned on machine and it was beeping and going crazy when I turn up the sens it would beep non stop. The detector would not pick up any targets at all replaced R7 with 100k from factory and it was back to normal. I lost my slight hum of the threshold by adding the 2.2 meg I can only assume so I adjusted the threshold trimmer got my slight hum back didn't touch the gb trimmer and the air test added 2.5" to 3" to depth and the tone is smoother on deep targets. That is air test my ground is frozen solid with feet of snow right now but as soon as the ground thaws I want to get out and test in real world conditions. I cant wait it is a whites classic lll sl and air test is producing digable signals at 11.5 inches on a dime if I didn't see it myself I wouldn't believe it that seems to be it tho even with a quarter the gain over a dime is only 1/4 of an inch that is kinda puzzling to me have not tried any larger coins.

My home made Classic tested with a English copper or iron clad 2p is 15" with a 10" coil Diameter of coin is 25.9 mm

[Qiaozhi]

My home made Classic tested with a English copper or iron clad 2p is 15" with a 10" coil Diameter of coin is 25.9 mm

Wow, that's a small coil.
I guess you meant to say 25.9 cm.

That's a good result for a 2p coin.

[Lucas26]

My home made Classic tested with a English copper or iron clad 2p is 15" with a 10" coil Diameter of coin is 25.9 mm

Thank you Koala I have done some more air test today. After reading your post I went to my world coin jar and the only large copper I have is a 1943 Australian Penny I did get a solid repeatable signal at 15 to 15.5 inches the problem was I had to move the coin much faster than I would swing the detector in natural hunting conditions. That being said I did get a good solid signal at 12 or 13 inches at about my normal swing speed. Maybe after I do the self adjusting threshold mod I can slow it down enough to get repeatable signals at that depth at a more natural swing speed. Still with just replacing R24 with a 2.2M I am very satisfied with the test results hope it carry's over to ground hunting. I must say that my sens was turned all the way up and was quite stable with being inside. I am very new to this forum and it has been a wealth of knowledge. I am using the stock 9.5" coil.

[Koala]

Interesting about the swing speed. Have to re try mine at some time. In the real world of an iron infested field it really likes a slow swing. Can winkle out targets right next to iron. The only problem I in counter is iron with a hole in the centre gives a good signal. A horse shoe will give a broken sound over the centre and a good signal near the open end. Using different headphones makes a difference. Some are better at hearing the difference between a good and bad signal. Also some are louder on the very faint signal in all metal mode giving you an extra 1/2 to 1 depth


Was really please with my detector until I repaired a golden mask for someone. That was getting over 7" on a tiny Henry V cut half with a 7" coil

[Blissterd1]

I successfully completed the GEB/Thresh mods on my Classic III and IDX Pro and am confident that it's all working well. (I would also like to know where TH'r got those cool 1-10 dial decals!) Having had my HAM Tech license for many years and also having great soldering skills, I wondered if I might be able to pull of the last Mr' Bill mod that I don't know much about and have yet to find the secret to. That being the "beef up" of board level components. Something tells me that this was more than a swap of R7 and R24 with 51k and 2.2M resistors. I am thinking that he might have actually swapped an op-amp chip and more. Any ideas? Has anyone had that last mod done in addition to the two pots and two resistors. I am certain that electrolytic caps have weakened a bit in the 15 or so years but that couldn't make that big of a change. I'd sure like to know what he changed!

[Blissterd1]

The finished control box of my IDX Pro. with "Mr. Bill's" modifications.
[ATTACH]28084[/ATTACH]

Where'd you get those cool dial decals?

[Blissterd1]

SAT is SAT and has not a relation to the depth. if you use JFET opamps (if no so change its on JFETs) you need to operate not 100's kOhms but MEGAOhms, in the SAT. 1...2M may be good. you second mod would be an RX opamp in a coil. for that you need to open a coil and insert a board inside on manner that greedlab does it always and why wins any testing on the gives much better depth than normal.

good luck

I would VERY MUCH like to know more about these opamp and JFET mods! I have heard about U4 and U8 (maybe others) being switched out for better components. And that coil mod sounds insanely cool! And a pre-amp in the coil? How cool is that? I am a HAM tech and that sounds just like how we bring in radio signals from around the world. Pre-amp at the antenna, not the radio! Please point me in that direction!!