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Can I use NIMH batts in the Sovereign??

J

JohnNZ

New member
I bought a used sov elite off ebay
was supplied a batt pack, charger and 8 NIMH batts. No rechargeable 12V pack.
Will the Sov work OK off 9.6V?? (the battery pack is 12v)
I seem to remember reading that an earlier sove regulated the 12V down to 10V, which would put 9.6V too low..
any comments?
thanks
JOhn
 
The Sovereigns all take the 10 1.2 volt batteries in their rechargeable packs. Many will try the 8 rechargeable in their alkaline packs that hold 8 and may work for a little while, then go to low battery alert.
Maybe this is why the guy sold it as it was going in to the low battery alert and thought the detector didn't work right.
 
As 10 of the AA will not fit in the Sovereigns alkaline pack, I don't think it will in the Elite pack either, so you must have made a pack and made a connector to hook it up, so you didn't put the wires on backward and fried it did you??
The Sun Ray rechargeable pack has 10 AA Batteries in it and the Minelab nicad pack for the original also had 10 AA batteries in it, so we know 10 rechargeables will not fry the Sovereign if it is connected correctly as the Sovereigns need 12 volts to work.
 
Here is post from a couple of months ago about how some rechargables that you can make a battery pack from that will fit in the Sovereign.
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,422145,422209#msg-422209
 
A fully charged 10aa pack can exceed 13.5v intially and I think that is what did in the FET @ Q7 location on the board. I will post pics as I need to confirm 2N7000/replacement as posted in the schematic on the Mods page. http://www.geocities.com/sovereignmods/xspowerersupplyschematic.pdf




[attachment 46410 Picture052sm.JPG][attachment 46411 sm.JPG]



My bad I could not feel worse, hooked up bassakwards:rant:
 
All the rechargeable pack for the Sovereign use the 10 cells so it will have 12 volt operating voltage. I know a freshly charged pack may read over 13 with a multi meter, but this is not a load voltage you get with a multi meter and will read higher. The Sovereign does need 12 volts to work correctly,Some will work for a while before giving a low battery alert, some will not work correctly either and lose depth and not respond correctly too I feel. Just think the alkaline pack take 8 AA batteries that are 1.5 volts each which we all know will read over 1.5 volts each on a multi meter so the pack too will read over 13 volts and this is what Minelab uses for a alkaline pack.
Over the last 10 years with the Sovereigns we have seen many have different problems with the Sovereigns only to find out they were using 8 rechargeable Ni cad or nickle hydride in the alkaline pack and when they put in 8 of the alkaline the detector worked fine. Back a few years ago I remember someone doing some testing with using 8 of the rechargeable in the alkaline pack only to see it didn't have the depth and didn't respond right with the 9.6 volts instead of the 12 volts required. It was then tried with a extra cell so it had 13.5 volts and found that didn't increase the depth or performance as the Sovereign has a internal voltage regulator so the voltage is regulated to a certain voltage if too high, but can not bring a lower voltage higher then what it is to meet the required voltage.
In all the Sovereigns I have sold and bought new and used I have never seen one with a FET problem, but there is always the first time for anything.In all the detectors I have used in the last 34 years the Sovereigns have been the most trouble free detectors I have seen. I had one new one with a bad sensitivity control right out of the box and one used one someone tinkered with and shorted it out as they didn't know what they were doing, it was so bad Minelab was unable to repair it.

Good luck with your original Sovereign and if you have any problem or wonder on the Battery voltage give Minelab service dept and call and I bet they have seen problem of low voltage by those trying to run 8 rechargeable in the alkaline packs.
Now on the Explorers this can be done as the factory pack have only 8 rechargeable (9.6 volts) in them and the alkaline pack has 8 of the 1.5 volts (12 volts) but with the voltage reg it only uses the 9.6 volts it needs to run.

Rick
 
Read my post below that says all Sovereigns need 12 volts to work correctly. Do you want to take a chance of missing some great targets, I don't and seen many people that do have a problem doing this. The Sovereign is one of the only detectors that this makes a difference as it does need the 12 volts.
 
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