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I always Had a Love Hate relationship with My mark-1's I've owned. Loved
the ATI but hated the discomfort of a Hip-Mount and having all the cords hanging while have to constantly rearange the Control housing. So I decided to do something about it. Below is the detector in various stages of the Modification.
I first started with this unit below.
Another Photo of the Coil Connector and Toggle Switch
First thing i did was remove the Side Labels with a Hair dryer and a small tool to get behind the label while carefully heating the label and removing it at the same time. Then I remove all six screws from the bottom of the Detector after removing the control Knobs and pushed the control switches down while pulling on the top housing. After removing the Housing I cliped the Red & Black wires to the meter from the circuit board,leaving a half inch or so on the board so I'll know where to soldier the new wires later. The Meter itself
will push out of the housing from the inside of the top control housing.
Wires from the Analog meter
I then carefully measured and cut a piece of hard Plastic and sealed it the area where I removed the meter.
For support in the Top Red case I Epoxied a 1/10" thick piece of aluminum.
This is needed so you don't crack the plastic case when mounting the detector to the rod assembly. You "SHOULD NOT" use the aluminum support that is holding the Potentiometers or you will break a soldier connection or Possibly break the circuit board. Also in the picture below you can see the two screws that i epoxied into the aluminum housing support after drilling two holes at the proper place.
I then Installed another Teknetics Connector where the Toggle switch was for connecting the toggle switch and and the meter wireing from the upper rod assembly
After installing the new connector I first soldiered the red & Black wires from the connector to the Board for the analog I.D.
I then soldiered the other three wires from the connector to the wires That I cut when I removed the Toggle Switch. Not all wires here will be exactly color coded so you will have to make your own diagram when you do this so you won't get confused later when soldiering the male connector to the lead cable that connects to your meter toggle Rod Assembly
From here you want to make ABSOLUTELY SHURE that the wires ar installed
so that the top cover will install correctly. There is little clearence between the circuit board and the bottom housing so if the wires are not routed correctly on of the wires could be Pierced by a Soldiered component from the bottom of the circuit board....BE CAREFULL!!!!
Heres a finished photo of the Control Housing. I still have to install the stickers after I have finished drilling the holes for the mounting hardware.
I had to put it hack together so I could find the Perfect Balance spot while
I temperarly mounted it to the rod assemble with velcro. after finding the best place to mount the rod assemble I then removed the top case and
drilled the holes and epoxied the nuts to the top aluminum support strip.
I didn't get any photo's of the Rod Assembly internal wiring conversion.
But you will have to alter the meter housing for the toggle switch.
The toggle switch still switches to the same direction for all metal and discriminate as located on the meter face. I hane include some photos below
of the rod assembly.
Below is how it looks when You use the detector in the regular Hip-Mount
configuration.
This is a Photo of the U channel where the excess Cable will be stored when
using the mark-1 in the HandHeld configuration
This is the finished product. I still have to get some thumb screw to replace the Phillips screw that i used to mount the control housing to the rod assembly.
The picture below shows the rubber Bushings I used to help releive any stress that might cause any problems further down the road.
Now Thats A MARK-1 ready for Spring!!
the ATI but hated the discomfort of a Hip-Mount and having all the cords hanging while have to constantly rearange the Control housing. So I decided to do something about it. Below is the detector in various stages of the Modification.
I first started with this unit below.
Another Photo of the Coil Connector and Toggle Switch
First thing i did was remove the Side Labels with a Hair dryer and a small tool to get behind the label while carefully heating the label and removing it at the same time. Then I remove all six screws from the bottom of the Detector after removing the control Knobs and pushed the control switches down while pulling on the top housing. After removing the Housing I cliped the Red & Black wires to the meter from the circuit board,leaving a half inch or so on the board so I'll know where to soldier the new wires later. The Meter itself
will push out of the housing from the inside of the top control housing.
Wires from the Analog meter
I then carefully measured and cut a piece of hard Plastic and sealed it the area where I removed the meter.
For support in the Top Red case I Epoxied a 1/10" thick piece of aluminum.
This is needed so you don't crack the plastic case when mounting the detector to the rod assembly. You "SHOULD NOT" use the aluminum support that is holding the Potentiometers or you will break a soldier connection or Possibly break the circuit board. Also in the picture below you can see the two screws that i epoxied into the aluminum housing support after drilling two holes at the proper place.
I then Installed another Teknetics Connector where the Toggle switch was for connecting the toggle switch and and the meter wireing from the upper rod assembly
After installing the new connector I first soldiered the red & Black wires from the connector to the Board for the analog I.D.
I then soldiered the other three wires from the connector to the wires That I cut when I removed the Toggle Switch. Not all wires here will be exactly color coded so you will have to make your own diagram when you do this so you won't get confused later when soldiering the male connector to the lead cable that connects to your meter toggle Rod Assembly
From here you want to make ABSOLUTELY SHURE that the wires ar installed
so that the top cover will install correctly. There is little clearence between the circuit board and the bottom housing so if the wires are not routed correctly on of the wires could be Pierced by a Soldiered component from the bottom of the circuit board....BE CAREFULL!!!!
Heres a finished photo of the Control Housing. I still have to install the stickers after I have finished drilling the holes for the mounting hardware.
I had to put it hack together so I could find the Perfect Balance spot while
I temperarly mounted it to the rod assemble with velcro. after finding the best place to mount the rod assemble I then removed the top case and
drilled the holes and epoxied the nuts to the top aluminum support strip.
I didn't get any photo's of the Rod Assembly internal wiring conversion.
But you will have to alter the meter housing for the toggle switch.
The toggle switch still switches to the same direction for all metal and discriminate as located on the meter face. I hane include some photos below
of the rod assembly.
Below is how it looks when You use the detector in the regular Hip-Mount
configuration.
This is a Photo of the U channel where the excess Cable will be stored when
using the mark-1 in the HandHeld configuration
This is the finished product. I still have to get some thumb screw to replace the Phillips screw that i used to mount the control housing to the rod assembly.
The picture below shows the rubber Bushings I used to help releive any stress that might cause any problems further down the road.
Now Thats A MARK-1 ready for Spring!!
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