Minelab sovereign gt mod

[ionut_mtb]

Hello, does anyone know something about MSR mod for sov gt? I?ve sent Steve Cox email, quite far from my country, this is what he answered:

It reduces the noise at various stages and allows the signals lost to be processed also gives better noise rejection like when near a pylon, depth gain is up to 3 inches .

1. Just mod nothing else ?45 plus del.
2. Mod, service and delivery ?95 plus any parts.

[Math]

Im not sure what Steve does in this mod but i know lots of guys with Sovs here in the UK have had the mod done.
Ive an old Sov XS its my favourite machine i use most of all but its been bashed around a bit and was well overdue
for a service.. the list of jobs and mods to do on it were mounting up and when it started acting up when i got it out
to charge the eve before a dig i decided i must spend some time on it.. didnt make the dig so i spent the day sorting
it.. replaced the on/off volume and the threshold pots, fitted a disc/all metal handle switch, cut down the extra long
coil cable on the 8" BBS coil and fitted a new plug on it. Gave the board 2 rounds of cleaning with a small art brush and
white spirits - amazing how much grease and muck had accumulated on it! Finally i pimped it up with some St George
and Welsh dragon stickers..
What a difference i noticed straight away just testing it indoors.. that weekend i found a Saxon Sceat with it.. a tiny
11mm silver coin and my first Sceat in over 20 years detecting, thank George and the Dragon and the spirits

[Math]

Hello again ive had a think about reducing noise on the Sovereigns
I did build a similar multi frequency design using a quieter TX drive
and found noise is greatly reduced at the RX front end by using a
smaller capacitor for C1 which is 1uF standard.. its the first one left of
the coil wires to the board usually blue and is connected to coil pin 4..
marked J1-P4 thats the 2nd pin wire to pcb along from it.. to the right
thats looking down the board as if to your coil..
Other side of C1 goes to 4K7 resistor joined to pin6 of the LM833 RX amp (IC1)
I think its capacitor C103 on the old XS and not sure what its numbered on the GT
Ive not tried this on my XS but i will test it out shortly..

If your using an aftermarket coil without the coil preamp in youll be able
to reduce this capacitor lower than if your using a Minelab coil.. you may
get it down to below 100nF

[ionut_mtb]

Im not sure what Steve does in this mod but i know lots of guys with Sovs here in the UK have had the mod done.
Ive an old Sov XS its my favourite machine i use most of all but its been bashed around a bit and was well overdue
for a service.. the list of jobs and mods to do on it were mounting up and when it started acting up when i got it out
to charge the eve before a dig i decided i must spend some time on it.. didnt make the dig so i spent the day sorting
it.. replaced the on/off volume and the threshold pots, fitted a disc/all metal handle switch, cut down the extra long
coil cable on the 8" BBS coil and fitted a new plug on it. Gave the board 2 rounds of cleaning with a small art brush and
white spirits - amazing how much grease and muck had accumulated on it! Finally i pimped it up with some St George
and Welsh dragon stickers..
What a difference i noticed straight away just testing it indoors.. that weekend i found a Saxon Sceat with it.. a tiny
11mm silver coin and my first Sceat in over 20 years detecting, thank George and the Dragon and the spirits

hello!
I will definetly give a clean to the pcb. Things that i noticed when using the gt: deeper in disc mode / pinpoint or fix same depth, allmetal not so deep but i want to do the mod switch on the handle to be able to identify iron. Coil connector moving (hipmount) give false signal sometimes although i run the cable to a small loop and tape it to the lanyard. I want to build new shaft from china carbon tube to make it more light, carbon armrest, aluminium handlebar extension with rubber gripp. Coil, i have 10? stoc and 15? coiltek(quite heavy). Maybe i will try detech ultimate 13 if it is more lighter or build one.
I asked on minelab bbs owners on fb but no one answer regardind the msr mod. Only joe beechnut gave some advice on excal, which i think is the same with sov.
Definitely deeper, stable and better disc than xp deus that i owned for 5years. One thing that bother me is the threshold. After finding a target the detector change threshold tone depending on the target conductivity and keep sounding for more than 10s.
I also modified the battery and instaled a 3x18650 battery holder.

[nejdet]

Hi Math, would you like to take some pictures. Thank you!

[Rom_1]

c103 on old xs and also on gt

[Math]

Hi, yes thats the one thanks, ill have this mod done on mine by tomorrow eve and will post some pics of the scopes then.
Ultimate 13" is a great coil and is super lightweight for its size.. no heavier than the standard 10" Tornado on the GT
Yes the threshold tone changes to the tone of the last target youve passed over.. i dont think its possible to change that on any of the internal jumper pins.. theres a thread here on Geotech with details of those jumper pin positions and trimmers
I lower the tones on mine on the internal tones trimmer pot.. i prefer a nice low tone for iron and foil and i run the sensitivity lower rather than higher so ive always got that threshold as i sweep.. that threshold will drop out as your coil front edge approaches iron thats how i identify iron and just use the all metal/disc switch for pinpointing.. itll shrink the signal to a nice size so you can recover the target in one dig saving time. Theres an inland site where im down to zero sensitivity to keep that threshold.. its very irony Roman type ground and a line of big pylons across the field too but still found Roman bronzes, hammered silver pennies and cut halfs which sound more broken when i turn the sensitivity up so dont worry about lowering it.. i sweep slow to medium and dig every noise (no matter how faint or jumpy between tones) that doesnt drop that threshold out on approach..
Good luck its a great machine.. the XP Deus is too

[ionut_mtb]

Hi, yes thats the one thanks, ill have this mod done on mine by tomorrow eve and will post some pics of the scopes then.
Ultimate 13" is a great coil and is super lightweight for its size.. no heavier than the standard 10" Tornado on the GT
Yes the threshold tone changes to the tone of the last target youve passed over.. i dont think its possible to change that on any of the internal jumper pins.. theres a thread here on Geotech with details of those jumper pin positions and trimmers
I lower the tones on mine on the internal tones trimmer pot.. i prefer a nice low tone for iron and foil and i run the sensitivity lower rather than higher so ive always got that threshold as i sweep.. that threshold will drop out as your coil front edge approaches iron thats how i identify iron and just use the all metal/disc switch for pinpointing.. itll shrink the signal to a nice size so you can recover the target in one dig saving time. Theres an inland site where im down to zero sensitivity to keep that threshold.. its very irony Roman type ground and a line of big pylons across the field too but still found Roman bronzes, hammered silver pennies and cut halfs which sound more broken when i turn the sensitivity up so dont worry about lowering it.. i sweep slow to medium and dig every noise (no matter how faint or jumpy between tones) that doesnt drop that threshold out on approach..
Good luck its a great machine.. the XP Deus is too

I sold my deus because is not good in mineralised ground (not seeing coin at 20cm or seeing it as iron). Ultimate 15 just came on the market. Aprox 800grams. less sens equal less depth and, i don’t know if it’s ok or not but i keep sens close to max almost every time, even if i get a lot of changes in the sound.

[Math]

Less sensitivity equals less iron and ground noise.. how that equates to depth on coins etc depends on the type of ground youre searching, how much irons in that ground and ultimately how much of that noise you will ignore with your ears.. Max sensitivity means iron and ground noise is louder than good deep targets. I recommend you read the manual re setting up the sensitivity and threshold levels according to the ground youre detecting on.. and send it to Steve at MRS to get the depth mod done.. as far as im aware only he and Minelab have access to the microprocessor code to alter the disc and ground timing signals needed for any component changes on the board to reduce noise and increase depth. ?45 is a very reasonable price for the work involved and depth benefits.. compared to the price of a 15" coil for example.. and everyone i know has been very happy with Steves work. Good luck

[ionut_mtb]

Less sensitivity equals less iron and ground noise.. how that equates to depth on coins etc depends on the type of ground youre searching, how much irons in that ground and ultimately how much of that noise you will ignore with your ears.. Max sensitivity means iron and ground noise is louder than good deep targets. I recommend you read the manual re setting up the sensitivity and threshold levels according to the ground youre detecting on.. and send it to Steve at MRS to get the depth mod done.. as far as im aware only he and Minelab have access to the microprocessor code to alter the disc and ground timing signals needed for any component changes on the board to reduce noise and increase depth. ?45 is a very reasonable price for the work involved and depth benefits.. compared to the price of a 15" coil for example.. and everyone i know has been very happy with Steves work. Good luck

If i have to make the machine quiet it means that i have to work in automatic sens or adjust sens pot around minimum which means less depth. (But stable threshold) Msr mod is about changing the code? Or other components? Cost of the mod plus shiping to uk and back will be around 150?...

[Rom_1]

Hi, yes thats the one thanks, ill have this mod done on mine by tomorrow eve and will post some pics of the scopes then.
Ultimate 13" is a great coil and is super lightweight for its size.. no heavier than the standard 10" Tornado on the GT
Yes the threshold tone changes to the tone of the last target youve passed over.. i dont think its possible to change that on any of the internal jumper pins.. theres a thread here on Geotech with details of those jumper pin positions and trimmers
I lower the tones on mine on the internal tones trimmer pot.. i prefer a nice low tone for iron and foil and i run the sensitivity lower rather than higher so ive always got that threshold as i sweep.. that threshold will drop out as your coil front edge approaches iron thats how i identify iron and just use the all metal/disc switch for pinpointing.. itll shrink the signal to a nice size so you can recover the target in one dig saving time. Theres an inland site where im down to zero sensitivity to keep that threshold.. its very irony Roman type ground and a line of big pylons across the field too but still found Roman bronzes, hammered silver pennies and cut halfs which sound more broken when i turn the sensitivity up so dont worry about lowering it.. i sweep slow to medium and dig every noise (no matter how faint or jumpy between tones) that doesnt drop that threshold out on approach..
Good luck its a great machine.. the XP Deus is too

Hi, did you test your mod ?

[ionut_mtb]

Hello again ive had a think about reducing noise on the Sovereigns
I did build a similar multi frequency design using a quieter TX drive
and found noise is greatly reduced at the RX front end by using a
smaller capacitor for C1 which is 1uF standard.. its the first one left of
the coil wires to the board usually blue and is connected to coil pin 4..
marked J1-P4 thats the 2nd pin wire to pcb along from it.. to the right
thats looking down the board as if to your coil..
Other side of C1 goes to 4K7 resistor joined to pin6 of the LM833 RX amp (IC1)
I think its capacitor C103 on the old XS and not sure what its numbered on the GT
Ive not tried this on my XS but i will test it out shortly..

If your using an aftermarket coil without the coil preamp in youll be able
to reduce this capacitor lower than if your using a Minelab coil.. you may
get it down to below 100nF

i've noticed most of the vlf detectors have 220nF. are you saying that my coiltek allterain 15" does not have preamp inside?
This is schematics i have but not sure what kind of sovereign it is.

[profesor]

soweregin TX output stage is wrong. The schema in the web does not work incorrectly. I would be glad if you draw the correct one.
Thank you.