My “new” Dual Field PI & hanging out with OldBeechnut (OBN)

[Sand Sifter]

Pictures don't bother me, just Happy I'm still getting out and enjoying life. And Amen to being Blessed by the Lord....
Had the grandsons this past week, I was able to win a few games of Magic, notice I have to use two pairs of glasses.. that
really is a sign of old age...
View attachment 75883

Well Joe, I guess I'm officially "old" lol. I haven't worn glasses since I had radial keratotomy done to my eyes like 25 or 30 years ago. But in July, I had to renew my driver's license so I had to look at the letters through the viewer. I saw them all except 1 small letter in the lower left-hand corner. It looked like it was very light gray, I knew there was a letter there so I ask the lady if she could darken the letters. Nope she said, handed me a form and told me to go to an eye doctor. Went, and now I have 2 pairs of glasses. One for driving and long distance, I use these to drive, watching TV, and while shopping. The other pair are for close up and reading. Man, what a PIA having to carry 2 pairs of glasses with me. I wear the long-distance ones and carry the readers in a soft case in my shirt pocket. Should see me at a restaurant switching between glasses to read the menu, then switch so I can watch the game on TV, then switch back to readers to check my phone, then back to long-distance so I can see the TV, lol.

 

[Sand Sifter]

I would return the audio back to factory.
The audio on the Sovereign's is supreme.

Can't say for sure, but I think the mod was done to the processor, so I'd have no idea how to put it back to factory. It's not something that can be adjusted by a trim pot. I've been using it that way for the last 14 years, so if I changed it, it would probably mess me up, lol.

 

[Odanscoils]

Can't say for sure, but I think the mod was done to the processor, so I'd have no idea how to put it back to factory. It's not something that can be adjusted by a trim pot. I've been using it that way for the last 14 years, so if I changed it, it would probably mess me up, lol.

If I remember that mod was a jumper wire.
I'm sure it would be quite visible.
Could look up the mod.
Most likely still out there.

 

[Sand Sifter]

If I remember that mod was a jumper wire.
I'm sure it would be quite visible.
Could look up the mod.
Most likely still out there.

Man OC, I went through my file cabinet downstairs yesterday and found all sorts of treasure hunting treasures. I had a couple stacks of treasure mags, Western & Eastern, American Digger, etc. I had subscriptions so I'd get hard copy mags via snail mail. About a dozen of the Western & Eastern Treasure mags were still in the clear plastic, I had never opened/read them. As I looked them over, I noticed the cover of the May 2015 edition, and low and behold, right on the front cover is Field Test: Testing the White's Surf Dual Field. Perfect timing, as now that I have a Dual Field, I'm gonna rip the plastic and read that test report, lol. I also found a bunch of coinshooting and beach & shallow water hunting books I had bought, including 2 Clive James Clynick books: "Shallow Water Metal Detecting - Lessons from the Pro's" AND "Pulsepower - Finding Gold at the Shore with a Pulse Induction Metal Detector", even has a pic of a Dual Field on the cover! Not sure & can't remember why I bought the Pulsepower book back then as I didn't have a PI and wasn't even thinking of getting one, but I'm glad I did. I probably just did a quick read, but now that I have the DF, I'll be going back through the book like a madman, looking for tips, tricks, hints, anything to give me an edge. I think I'm also gonna get a copy of CJC's specific book on the Dual Field, heard it's a great book, so more tips & tricks for Dual Field owners.

BUT, as far as mods go, in addition to the Treasure mags, I found stacks & stacks of printed posts I copied from the forums back around 2011/2012/2013, with Minelab Sovereign mods, and probably other mods, DIY, detecting stuff, etc. Back then, I was ravenous for Sovereign mods and was scouring all the forums. There was a great guy back then I used to chat with named "Critterhunter" who had a Sov GT. He posted all kinds of mods for the Sovereign's and became somewhat "famous" for his handle mounted switch mod for the Sov GT, that allowed switching between discriminate & all metal modes. The GT was more complicated to set up a switch for, but he found a way to do it. He also did a write up with instructions for installing a round meter in the speaker hole, similar to what Joe Patrick did. Critterhunter didn't know Joe or his mod, he happened to see the meter when looking online, so he set out and figured out how to do the mod himself around the same time Joe Patrick was doing the same. If I recall, I think Joe Patrick got a bit miffed, he may have thought that mod was his and his alone, and there may have been some heated words on that thread, lol. I remember chiming in to let everyone know that Critterhunter didn't "steal" Joe's mod, he figured it out all on his own. You can plainly see by his posts in the thread, where he documents all his trial & error experiments until he found a way to get the meter connected and working.

So, back then, I'd open up a Word doc, and copy the thread with instructions on how to do the mod, all the replies, questions, answers, etc. Basically, what I found yesterday was all those mod posts I had copied, kinda like my own Sov mod archive I made from forum posts during those years. I grabbed a ton of mods and If I stacked all those papers in one stack, it would probably be about 3 feet high. Had a B&W laser printer back then so I could print and print. Now that I know I saved all those mod docs, I'll go through them to see what all I saved. I should have the meter mod, Critterhunter's switch mod (discrim/all metal), waterproof connector mods, build a straight shaft, and on and on. Maybe I'll find something regarding that audio mod.

 

[Odanscoils]

WoW. That's Cool.
I haven't a clue where all my old treasures magazines are.
I know I have a bunch of posts saved on a computer somewhere.
Be curious to see what you find.
Personally I love the GT just the way it is.
That silver and gold zoing zoing sound is sweet music. Unfortunately so is molten aluminum.
Good Luck.

 

[Sand Sifter]

WoW. That's Cool.
I haven't a clue where all my old treasures magazines are.
I know I have a bunch of posts saved on a computer somewhere.
Be curious to see what you find.
Personally I love the GT just the way it is.
That silver and gold zoing zoing sound is sweet music. Unfortunately so is molten aluminum.
Good Luck.

A lot of the "mods" back then didn't involve electronics, i.e., making changes to the circuit, they were more like "improvements" or "customizations", like adding rubber "boots" over the switches to keep sand out, wiring up the search coil with a waterproof connector to the control box, to keep sand out and as insurance for unintentional splashes of water, making a straight rod for the Sov's. The last Sovereign Minelab made was the GT, that one came from the factory with a straight shaft, but my Elite and prior Sov's all came with an S shaft, so a lot of "mods" involved customizing, improving, that type of stuff.

I followed 2 guys back then, Critterhunter & OldBeechnut (aka OBN or Joe). Critterhunter specialized in Sov mods and OldBeechnut was primarily involved with Excal mods and converting Peltor ear protection muffs to waterproof headphones. I followed both those guys extensively back then, as they were doing mods/improvements that I was super interested in. I can't find Critterhunter anywhere, so don't know what became of him, but I have reconnected with OldBeechnut/OBN/Joe, and it was his modded Dual Field I wound up getting.

 

[Cameraniac]

A lot of the "mods" back then didn't involve electronics, i.e., making changes to the circuit, they were more like "improvements" or "customizations", like adding rubber "boots" over the switches to keep sand out, wiring up the search coil with a waterproof connector to the control box, to keep sand out and as insurance for unintentional splashes of water, making a straight rod for the Sov's. The last Sovereign Minelab made was the GT, that one came from the factory with a straight shaft, but my Elite and prior Sov's all came with an S shaft, so a lot of "mods" involved customizing, improving, that type of stuff.

Those were the days. I loved modding my Sovereigns. Even though it was a heavy beast, I sometimes wish that Minelab would bring that detector back.

 

[Tony from Tidewater]

Joe(OBN) is a great guy! He’s smart and very generous!

 

[Sand Sifter]

Those were the days. I loved modding my Sovereigns. Even though it was a heavy beast, I sometimes wish that Minelab would bring that detector back.

In my profile pic, I'm wearing my Sovereign Elite in a Minelab pouch high up on my chest, so really didn't feel the weight, but it was a tad on the bulky side. Inside the pouch, I have the Sov inside a long plastic bag and used a twist tie at the bottom of the bag and sealed the bag by wrapping the twist tie around the coil cable & plug. Although I never pulled the trigger until just recently with the Dual Field, I've always really liked the look of the Whites PI's and Beach Hunter 300, loved the waterproof box AND really LOVE the yellow coil. I'm sure the guys in Florida could take or leave that coil, but they have much clearer water, the ocean waters here in MD & DE are dark/murky, so once you get in about a foot or more deep, you can't see your feet, which means you can't see your black coil, so trying to pinpoint and place your scoop in the right location to dig is challenging and becomes a weird dance by trying to place a foot behind or to the side of your coil, then placing the scoop in front or side of your foot, while hoping a wave or tidal current doesn't knock you over while you're trying to balance yourself while performing this extra foot work. The yellow coils have much higher visibility and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to see that coil through the murky water at least a foot or two down. If I can see the coil, or at least an outline, it would be a lot easier to place the scoop in the right location for digging, no fancy footwork needed, lol.

My personal IDEAL Minelab, and what I would LOVE to see would be an upgraded Sovereign GT, with faster processor & electronics for faster recovery speed, and possibly even greater depth, maybe redesign the circuit to use more SMT components to shrink the size of the circuit board, and then fit that smaller/updated circuit board into a White's Dual Field or TDI BeachHunter type waterproof box, or even a Garrett Sea Hunter PI type box, along with a straight shaft with waterproof switch on grip to switch between discrim and all metal modes, along with a yellow-colored coil. Oh, and please make sure that the control box and coil both have actual neutral buoyancy, not "near neutral" so that we could snorkel and dive a few feet underwater if we wanted without floating like a cork. Lastly, this is an idea I've had for years, but I'd like to see them use either a 3-turn or 5-turn pot for the threshold, so we could really micro adjust the threshold. The 3 or 5 turn pots would allow us to micro adjust the threshold into areas of the resistance band that aren't accessible or possible with a standard pot.

Yeah, many will say we still have the Excal's, but I just like & prefer the layout of the box. The Excal's were priced higher than the Sov's, probably due to having to redesign the Sov circuit to become 3 separate thinner circuit boards so that it could squeeze inside the waterproof tube. So, the waterproof Sov using a single smaller circuit board inside a White's or Garretts type waterproof box could be manufactured and sold for less than an Excal, and it would be easier to get to the circuit board and components. I'm not diving so don't need waterproof down to 200 feet, 25ft would be plenty, anything more would be an extra margin of safety. When I got my PADI Scuba cert many years ago, I think I was limited to diving to 40 or 50 feet, so really don't even need 100-200ft waterproofing. The Dual Field's box is waterproof to 100ft, the TDI BeachHunter to 25ft, either would be more than enough for shallow water beach hunting, snorkeling, and light diving such as in a lake under a diving platform. That would definitely cover all of my bases. Minelab, please make it so!!

 

[Sand Sifter]

Joe(OBN) is a great guy! He’s smart and very generous!

I'll second that, and "very generous" is actually an understatement!!

 

[Rick(ND)]

If I remember that mod was a jumper wire.
I'm sure it would be quite visible.
Could look up the mod.
Most likely still out there.

That mod was a simple one as the tones were maxed out and there was a jumper wire I believe to make it a singe tone which defeats the purpose of the Sovereigns and multi tones. This mod I feel was made more for those that didn't like all the different tones. I bought used Sovereigns that people didn't like and so many had the mods done and didn't like them. I always ask if the mods had been done before i would buy them, those that never had them done and had the right price I would buy, those that had the mods done I wanted to check them out before I buy as some were screwed up bad. The ones that were the simple mods from some dealers I just turn the tones back to what were set from the factory, some didn't have the jumper wires, so they weren't silent search. I seem to always have a used Sovereign around and would check the tones to match one another.. While having them I did my mods of them buy putting the rubber boots on the toggle switches and putting some shrink whap on the plug in on the battery connectors on the XS.
To me like the tones on the factory setup on the Sovereigns, didn't like the single tones, but seen where on the GT could see where there is time I could use it, but not often for my coin hunting . I like the different tones for IDing each and everything the coil went over , sometimes real slow and like the 180 meters as they were very much more accurate for the tones that were real close, the 550 over lapped too much.
Now back to the mods and what I had seen I had a real nice Sovereign XS with the factory setting and did some field test on my test garden and copied what it could do, then i sent it down and had the mods done to the control box and did this again after i got it back and my copper pennies and up sounded real high pitch and with my bad hearing of high pitch couldn't tell the difference in the zinc pennies and the copper pennies plus my nickels sounded like pull tabs which is understand able with the tones set that high, plus I was used to the reg tones. where the difference was some loss of depth on the deeper target in the test garden. When this was done I switched it back to the original and did the test again as I turned the tones back as the original set up and everything was back to normal with the tone and the 180 meter numbers were right on as before. The mod I did like was a fellow (cant remember his name right off hand) he was making straight shaft and moved the control box back under the arm cuff and made the Sovereign feel real light, but adding my S-1 Sun-ray probe did make ti a little heavier and he made me a extension so I could move the control box back further to balance it more and I turned the V clip so the controls were easier to switch it to all metal to check the pinpointing plus to see if there was any iron close to the target.
As you see I like my Sovereigns and feel they have done well for me, but they are slow moving at times which some dont have the patience to go slow and listen to all the tone changes, some think you move the coil faster is the way to go to get better depth (one someone mention that was on the BBS forum) argued with me on going slow to get the depth, then when you get that slight tone change you do the Sovereign wiggle which is the fast swing over the small area where the slight tone is and get it to start climbing to the correct tone. If you were swinging fast you would never had heard that slight tone change to know there was a deeper good signal so you would have walked right over it. This is something I tried in a old park we been hitting for years and many says it worked out, I went around the old merry go round just to see if there was some real deep coins. I did well for being worked out as I picked up a few mercs and got one iffy signal and knew it was deep, but it was iffy and repeatable so I stated digging and checking with my S-1 probe, but wasn't close enough for it to be seen with the probe. I went though the gravel then dirt than some fine sand and found a standing lib quarter and had a V nickel a little deeper. Done I measured I had hole I dug 14-16 inches down. It took me over a hour and a haft to go around that merry go round so slow and listen to every little tone changes and check it out.
At one time I wanted to travel around the country and some that had a problem with the Sovereign to help them understand it better, many of those I helped with E mails took a while in some cases, I remember one out east that was hunting with one of my used Sovereigns and was ready to give up, but told him to stick with it as it takes time mostly and gave him tips and after a few time he was doing great and the people he was detecting with didn't want to detect with hm anymore as he was getting all the good targets.
The bad thing now for me is getting out to use my detectors as I had a triple bypass done around 12 years ago and had both my knees replaced around 6 year ago and know it is very hard to get up and down and seem to wear out too fast, last time out my Grandson was watching me and had to help me up as I couldn't stand up and when he got me up I fell right over. I will be 78 in a couple of month and not real ready to quit yet.
I keep watching these forums and enjoy all the great finds everyone if finding.

Good luck and hope to see someone find a gold coin in a well worked area.

Rick