MINE_LAB -F1A4 -A/OK- IMOP..

[hoadlies]

HI STEVE,DON,Siver Dollar,& ALL MEMBERS ..

BARRY here from ''Australia'' I have been Crook, & had to have some tests etc .But the last test ''ANGIOGRAM'' returned very good results ,!!! I suddenly felt better HA.HAAAAR..

OK I now have 3x detectors MY DIY built ''IDX'' with much help from the Forum & Its more skilled fellows THANKS-GUYS..
A WHITES GMT-3,,,, A second hand EX army M/L-F1A4 mine detector [Cheap in OZ]..

The wife & I took 3-4 weeks holiday to our Victorian-Gold Fields ,But alas we truck very bad weather very cold wet foggy etc Hence only got about 4 hours detecting ,,..

My results were dissapointing [NO-GOLD-FOUND] but plenty Nails ,bullets[22 leads] Casings ,a couple hot-rocks ??? Maybe something inside ???? not cracked them yet..

ALL 3 detectors,work well the deepest is the F1A4 with a 14'' mono coil & very ,Very Quiet in the mineralized Vic Gold-Fields .. I highly recomend these detectors If you can Pick up from Surplus ,Mine cost AUD $690.00 ..They come with an 8'' mono coil as std ,SO to fit any m/L coil you need to exchange the army socket to a 5 pin Std M/LAB one..

ALL the Best to ALL,,,,,,,,,,,,,,BARRY..

[golfnut]

Sorry to hear you have not been well Barry, sounds like the ticker is running like a swiss watch

tough on the detecting..

I pulled a complete 0.303 round from the river with a 1929 year.

Yesterday eve got a bronze coin form a roman settlement which had a saxon style porcupine design. Had to leave it with the landowner!



I hope to do some river snorkelling and detecting, made a waterproof case for my canon snappy from a sandwich box and a skylight filter!

Got shorty wetsuit now, waiting for opportune time to do it. I would like to rediscover the footings from the roman bridge crossing.

Im off to watch some vintage aircraft flying with rest of fam.. S

[Silver Dollar]

Good to hear from you again Barry! I had a military metal detector in a big wooden box, Hmm I wonder where it went to?

I just ordered an IDX board, I'm hoping to put it in a Bounty Hunter Jr. for my daughter. I got an old Bounty Hunter Tracker ID 505
at the Flea market last week for $7. I'm going to use the coil off it for the Jr IDX machine.

I made a couple of coils yesterday both to the Minelab specs (1 mh TX 14 mh RX). One is a 9" and the other a Big Foot 9x12!
I'll use those on my TGSL as it's not working too good (so could use some tuning) and is easy to mod for the Minelab oscillator.

I did find an interesting thing lately. The speaker makes a huge difference. I gained 2" on my Bandito with an old CB radio speaker
and found the TGSL was giving 5 - 7" with one speaker but 9 - 10" with a different one.

If your having circulation problems you might try some CoQ10 it will help everything flow better.

We were planning on going to the beach today but a hurricane is on it's way by so it might be a bit rough there. No PI working
yet to bring so just as well. I'll have to think of a better place that I can bring my detector to go to...

[sinclairuser]

hi barry, nice to see you back, glad you are ok, the minelab you got are really good, i understand its based on 2xxx series detectors though i could be wrong on that, they have introduced a hobby market version of that machine too, but at the price the ex military ones are available for i dont see the point, like you said just put a hobby style coil connector on that, a review i have read about your machine and its hobby counterpart suggested the ex military one is more robust.

[greylourie]

For anyone living in Oz, they are a real bargain.

[Davor]

Makes sense. Vallon is a preferred military tool lately.

[hoadlies]

HI TO ALL & THANKS for the replies & good wishes ..!

YES,S/USER,, the F1A4 M/L supposedly has very similar circuitry to the 2100 & 2200 etc..

IT is quite heavy as it uses 4x Dcell's for ease of army-use ,,where as the commercial models have remote battery supplies, worn on your belt ..

I made a little amp for mine using a LM386 chip ,But I am to add AGC to it as when you hit a large target [drink cans-large steel objects it go very loud ..

YES STEVE I can agree with you on the different signal frequencies & speaker selection that improves those slight signals ,,
You can have the Diving on your own unless the water was 20c deg plus HA.Haar..

I am hoping to try-out in some Close to home Minor gold fields only 1 hour from my town ,But needs a 4WD vehicle ,That I now have a Cheap s/H toyota 4 runner ..
DAVOR yes mate they are very sensitive & go deep ..

S/Dollar stay away from those ''Hurricanes'' Wow the US has some Wicked tornadoes????..

CATCH you All LATER ,,,,,,,,,,,BARRY..

[detectormods]

I think the F1A4 is very similar to the SDC2300, the F1A4 is a good detector when mods are carried out.

[hoadlies]

HI Detectormods,,, What mods do you feel would be good ??????
crystal frequency change????? Your Your,front-End Gain Mod..
Please Explain


BARRY IN SA..

[detectormods]

There are a few you can do yourself, to change the transmitter timings find the 2 very small smt resisors near the eeprom and remove, cut the tracks under them to allow access to the address lines of the eeprom, by making these address lines high or low you can change the prom code to get different programs for the tx/ rx timings. Adding volume, tone and threshold are easy to do. gain can be added by putting a dual pot connected across 2 set gain resistors on the opamps just after the integrators. I have added front end variable gain and it works well, currently i am doing a batch of them for customers.

[Mechanic]

Nice, so I should get mine back soon so I can copy the mods....

[detectormods]

I thought by changing the dc bias between v+ and v- was not a bad idea to vary the threshold.

If anyone is interested on how to mod up a F1A4 i can put up a pic by pic how to do it.

[Mechanic]

You know, I have lots of pictures of you handy-work I can post too, including your vga.
So how about when you are ready to post your hard work, I will post mine.

[hoadlies]

There are a few you can do yourself, to change the transmitter timings find the 2 very small smt resisors near the eeprom and remove, cut the tracks under them to allow access to the address lines of the eeprom, by making these address lines high or low you can change the prom code to get different programs for the tx/ rx timings. Adding volume, tone and threshold are easy to do. gain can be added by putting a dual pot connected across 2 set gain resistors on the opamps just after the integrators. I have added front end variable gain and it works well, currently i am doing a batch of them for customers.

HI PETER,, That's a GREAT generous-OFFER-MATE,,Any help to improve the F1A4 ,would be Greatly appreciated ,,As My pockets are not as Deep as some of your Customers..

YES some step pics would be Great,,,, I am not too bad at the actual desoldering & general pc board work ,But lack digital knowledge [actual theory] my projects have mostly been analog units for guitar effects etc,valves,amps,preamps such as tape echo-units , solid state echo-multi-tap..Fet preamps and on it goes..

I am sure I could handle the F1A4 alterations with some help from you..

I recently [at75 Yold HAHAaar!!] have taken up an interest in Gold Metal Detecting a bit late in life But I want to do I t ..but my budget does not allow to buy the specialized M/Lab units ..
MAYBE if I found some'' Gold'' things would be different ,,WISH-HAHaaar..

I like to build things ,But only do this more my own use..

TODAY I received Your parcel containing the LITZ wire,Cable,& gold 5 pin Plug THANKS,,, I hope to build a Mono coil ,I will post results here later..

DETECTORMODS .com,,,, Sell LITZ-WIRE by the metre plus the special Cable from coil to coil plug on detector unit [Good pricing]!!!!!..

LOOKING at your Videos on the Modded SD2000 impressed me so I will be on the look-out for a used one when my pocket allows ?????..Wow that's a DEEP seaking unit after your Mods..

GOOD time to work on the F1A4 as weather here in Sth-AUST is lousy as is Vic,But it will soon get better,,

LOOKING forward to your next posts ..MATE..GOODONYA..

I see your site has changed & Forum seems closed?????

CHEERS MATE & ALL ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,BARRY..

[detectormods]

Good to see you got the goods Barry, some (most)of the work on ML detectors is tricky, one mistake and it can bring tears to your eyes..if something goes wrong it can be a real pain to rectify. I just remembered that posting how to do's with electronics entices some people to blow up their detector and thus you can get married to other peoples problems..I have spent many countless hours of repair by email and its not a good idea. Im sure that you could do some of the changes but maybe you can send it here and i can do all of the difficult parts of the operation for you.

The forum is going back up, the website has been upgraded (modded) to a new design... just have to implement all the new changes.