Silver Sabre

[Sean Goddard]

Some of you might have spotted a great way to "up" the depth of the standard Tesoro Silver Sabre Plus. If not here it is!

Take the BOTTOM of the 1K resistor from the sensitivity control and replace it with an 8K2 with the other end connected, not to ground as before, but to the cathode of the diode nearby on the circuit board (-5V0). VOILA, now, wwhen you turn up the "sensitivity" to maximum, you will gain upto 2 inches IN GROUND over the standard Silver Sabre Plus.

Also, you can cut the PCB track which supplies the +5V to the transmit oscillator, and run the oscillator directly off the batteries. This gives an extra 1" too, so now your "old" SS+ is as good as a modern Tesoro machine, but for zip increase in price.

ENJOY!

[Goodrat]

Re: Silver Sabre

What is "8K2"? Do you mean 82K ?

[Dave Emery]

Re: Silver Sabre

The guys in Europe are ahead of us as usual. OK, you could identify a component as 8.2K. However, it is too easy to lose the decimal point. The Europeans got clever!!! 8.2K became 8K2. There is absolutley no way that you can lose the decimal point when you label the components in this way. 1.2M becomes 1M2 and 6.8K becomes 6K8. You have to admit tht this is a vastly superior method of writing part values on a schematic. The 24 hour clock is also a vastly superior way to indicate time. It is however completely lost on most Americans!!! We are indeed an ignorant lot!!!

[Goodrat]

Re: 82K

OK, I see.
At least we sometimes write 8R2 for an 8.2 ohm

[Goodrat]

I wonder...

if connecting the TX to the batt would cause a problem with inconsistancy of depth while the battery drops. Although the NiMh batteries tend to stay at a constant voltage until the end of the charge.

[mike]

Re: 82K

is it a 8ohK2m ? or a 2.hm8oK ?

[Sean Goddard]

Re: Silver Sabre

Not really Dave...We too have our stupid people over here in europe, most people call them politicians ;-)

[Sean Goddard]

Re: 82K

!!

[Siliquae_Sid]

if connecting the TX to the batt would cause a problem with inconsistancy of depth while the battery drops. Although the NiMh batteries tend to stay at a constant voltage until the end of the charge.

Hi Good rat, I'm re-opening this post.

Right, the resistor value IS 8POINT2K (8.2K) and Yes, the battery voltave will cause a drop of in performance, just like the real machine does. Afterall, the regulator cant give out more than you put in can it? Also, with this mod, the working life on a set of batteries is extended.

[Goodrat]

Battery

Yes, but the normal machine will work exacly the same until the battery gets to about 6 volts due to the 5v regulator (except for the audio volume since the output is fed by 9v).
If you bypass the regulator it will work different from 9 to 6.

[Siliquae_Sid]

Yes it does, but only to give extra depth. Once the battery falls to around 6V it works the same as a standard Silver Sabre, but then the whole thing packs up as the regulator is NOT an LDO variety.

One thing that can be done is to add a DC-DC converter to "UP" the Tx supply voltage to around 15V DC (the 2N2907 can take up to around 28V before it blows up). This will give a Tx voltage of around 40V Pk-Pk. Only thing is you have to alter some of the "filters" too to smooth out the operation. Also, you MUST split off the signal to the zero crossing converters which feed the demodulators and drop the output to 5V Pk-Pk (a 10K / 1K potential divider works well) otherwise the detector is unstable.

Do the above and you have a Tejon, or whatever piece of re-vamped machine Tesoro are claiming is "new" (Bah, more Bovine Faecal Matter).

EVERYTHING Tesoro have done in the last 25 years has been a Silver Sabre with a few mods, but then, hey, if it works....

[Largesarge]

Sean:

With regards to your 10/23/04 post, that condition is endemic to the world as a whole. We here on the eastern side of the pond are infested with them also.

[Mrand]

8K2 = 8k2 = 8.2k = 8200 ohm Similar 2u2 = 2.2uF etc.
Mrand

[steve chappell]

Help with Depth Mod PLS

Some of you might have spotted a great way to "up" the depth of the standard Tesoro Silver Sabre Plus. If not here it is!

Take the BOTTOM of the 1K resistor from the sensitivity control and replace it with an 8K2 with the other end connected, not to ground as before, but to the cathode of the diode nearby on the circuit board (-5V0). VOILA, now, wwhen you turn up the "sensitivity" to maximum, you will gain upto 2 inches IN GROUND over the standard Silver Sabre Plus.

Also, you can cut the PCB track which supplies the +5V to the transmit oscillator, and run the oscillator directly off the batteries. This gives an extra 1" too, so now your "old" SS+ is as good as a modern Tesoro machine, but for zip increase in price.

ENJOY!

Mod1 ok

Have Fitted 8k2 resistor which works fine however with extra depth, however was confused initially as their is no diode nearby on my pcb. Pls e-mail me a picture if possible of which diode / where?

Mod 2 No Success

Have Cut PCB track at junction of 1.5k and 15k resistors where they common to +5v and wired both to +9v Have
Now lost 2"depth. Pls clarify extra depth mod of applying +9v to Tx Circuit.

Have meanwhile reconnected as original and depth has returned.

Pls give simple details how I can understand how to do this mod for extra depth via +9v

Regards

Steve

[steve chappell]

Yes it does, but only to give extra depth. Once the battery falls to around 6V it works the same as a standard Silver Sabre, but then the whole thing packs up as the regulator is NOT an LDO variety.

One thing that can be done is to add a DC-DC converter to "UP" the Tx supply voltage to around 15V DC (the 2N2907 can take up to around 28V before it blows up). This will give a Tx voltage of around 40V Pk-Pk. Only thing is you have to alter some of the "filters" too to smooth out the operation. Also, you MUST split off the signal to the zero crossing converters which feed the demodulators and drop the output to 5V Pk-Pk (a 10K / 1K potential divider works well) otherwise the detector is unstable.

Do the above and you have a Tejon, or whatever piece of re-vamped machine Tesoro are claiming is "new" (Bah, more Bovine Faecal Matter).

EVERYTHING Tesoro have done in the last 25 years has been a Silver Sabre with a few mods, but then, hey, if it works....

Hi, actual easy instructions of how to do this would be greatly appreciated as an update project !! I have applied +9v but the machine depth is worse?

regards
steve