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Detectors in a Pelican Case

E

Eric Foster

New member
Hi All,

I am in the process of re-housing the electronics of a Vallon P.I. mine detector and plan on using a 1050 Pelican case. I would be interested on hearing from forum members who have used this type of case. i.e. problems; reliability; is the gasket good; does the purge valve leak; any tips on drilling holes, etc. I am going to use two18650 Li-ion cells (not Chinese!) for power as these take up relatively little space.

Eric.
 
Hello Eric...yes I can answer some of your questions.

I had your Goldquest SS in a Pelican case for quite a few years. The whole unit fit perfectly once the metal belt clip was removed. I think it was the 1060 case. I never had a leak issue and used it down to a few metres underwater. I used it in the breaking surf as well.
Is the gasket still a complete rubber liner (lines the entire bottom half of the case and rim) as it works very well. The top lid can't "miss" when contacting the rubber surface. I remember the purge valve being a one way valve that lets the air escape when it is subject to warmth. The air escape valve is one way only (from inside to outside) so when dunked in water won't draw water in. It is a thick walled case and survived a few drops.

I had two holes drilled (headphone at top and coil cable at the bottom) at a plastics fabrication shop (only charged me $5) because I ruined the first case as I used a regular sharp drill bit and it ripped and splintered the plastic. I remember they clamped the case in a drill press and used a particular drill bit that was run at a low speed and wasn't a typical sharp bit as this will splinter and grab the plastic. Anyhow, two very neat holes were drilled. The drilling motion was more of a boring motion so left a very fine white powder as it drilled. They may have also used some water or drilling lube when making the holes as this cools the plastic. They took their time as I recall....wow, 10 years ago since I had this done.
So yes, I had great faith in the Pelican case and never had a drop of water get inside. I also remember them having a very positive locking/clamping force.
I will see if I can find some photo's.

I hope this helps.

Nice to see you back !!!
Tony
 
Hi Tony,

Thanks for the information, which is very helpful. It was particularly the drilling which I am a bit concerned about as I know polycarbonate tends to splinter and crack.
The liner is still a complete liner but they have changed the design so that instead of smooth sides it has corrugations, which is a nuisance. They say this is to give additional shock resistance when used to carry cameras, phones, etc. It reduces the internal width somewhat so that my electronics will not quite fit. I have an earlier unused case, purchased a few years ago which I was going to use, but the latch broke a couple of days ago. I bought a new case and will swap over the plain liner from the one with the broken latch. I will also use that one to practice drilling. I have a mill/drill so you can feed the drill very finely into the material and I will run at low speed. I have some slot drills as well which have a flat end although it depends on whether I have the correct sizes. Also important, I can clamp the box down very firmly to the bed.

The Vallon detector has a very good performance on coins and rings and seems immune to the effects of salt water. It has ground balance too, so can be used on iron mineralised ground and volcanic sand beaches. The search coil and shaft are already sealed for water immersion and the cable runs all the way up inside the telescopic shaft, even inside the coil swivel.

Eric.
 
I use cases made by Underwater Kinetics. http://www.underwaterkineticscanada.com/products/cases/index.php?product_id=70
They are not only waterproof they are submersible to 30 feet.

Use of proper drill bits for plastics will drill beautiful clean holes.
http://www.eplastics.com/plexiglass_lexan_plastic_drill_bits

http://www.bertram31.com/proj/tips/drill_acrylic.htm

I have a guy here where I live that sharpens drill bits, he can also put a custom cut taper on any drill bit to drill plastics. Bonus for me since I also needed a very long drill bit to
drill coil ear holes in larger search coils. Plastic drilling bits can not be bought in longer lengths.
 
Eric,

I'm not familiar with the Vallon PI detector but I know the White's TDI generates so much heat that it can't be enclosed in a pelican case. What type of battery is used in the Vallon?

ROBOCOP
 
What causes the heat? Is it when the batteries are charged whilst inside the Pelican case? The TDI electronics creates very little heat, and I used to run its predecessor, the GS5 inside a plastic housing with no problems. My re-housed Vallon will use two 18650 Li-ion batteries in a holder which can be removed for charging as they get quite hot at a 1A charge. The Vallon in its original housing uses three D size alkaline cells, although three D size re-chargeable cells could be used instead. My first attempt at a rebuild is in a Hammond case, but I want something to take into shallow water.

Take no notice of the #####Fire batteries. They are a joke, and I now have two cells in parallel from a TDI battery which give over 12 hours use.

Eric.
 
Eric,

I don't know what causes the heat I assumed it was typical of the unit and assumed it was battery related. I have 2 batteries and switch them out. Sometimes I open the battery door to let the heat out when in use. I plastic bag it on the beach and leave the bag open by the battery door. Do you think my machine is defective? When I open the battery door and touch the silver metal next to the battery it's too hot to the touch. What do you think could be the problem? When I charge the batteries they are always cool to the touch. When I run the detector it's not really the batteries that get hot as it is the metal next to it, the chassis maybe, capacitors, resistors? Maybe I need to send it in for a checkup?

ROBOCOP
 
Is it the TDI pro or the SL? The SL uses a different battery pack.

If it is an SL, I have one and can check it out, but have never noticed anything get as hot as you describe.

Eric.
 
It's the original TDI. I just called White's about it (Manassas, VA) and described the problem and he said it sounds like it could have a short on the board so I'm shipping it up on Monday.

Thanks for commenting on it, it woke me up that it probably had a problem.

ROBOCOP
 
Hi Tony and Sven,

I thought I would attempt drilling the case myself, bearing in mind the points that you raised. It worked out OK, by clamping the case very firmly; tilting the clamp base so that the surface being drilled was level, and using the following succession of drills:- Small centre drill to make a pilot hole; 1/4in drill on all holes to give a central swarf outlet, then a stepped drill slowly wound down on the fine feed to the correct diameter for each component. I tried white spirit and meths as lubricants but found the best was to do it dry on the second lowest drill speed.

Next was cutting holes in the liner where the control and connectors were situated. The liner was placed in the case and the outline of the holes marked with a Biro. A block of wood was cut to fit inside the removed liner and circular paper cutter that has a scalpel type blade used to cut the hole against the firm surface give by the end of the wood block. The cutter is adjustable over a wide range of diameters.

Nothing is wired up yet except those components that are already wired together in the Vallon detector. A couple of those will have to be removed and new connections made to my connectors. Great thing is that it all fits neatly in this size of case.

Eric.
 
Looks good!!

I also did something a bit different, after drilling proper size holes, I tapped the plastic holes for the pots and switches.
I just felt it gave a little bit better sealing than just using the Hex seals. Used a bit dab of Marine Goop on the pot, switch base, to insure
some extra sealing from the inside. Maybe overkill................not going to leak.

By the way, could not obtain the coax like you used, looks like it was discontinued as you said.
But, did find a source that carried coax that was similar, just green in color. Looks great with with black braided sleeving on my land PI's.
 
As professional as you are going to get really.

Now to find some more Vallon detectors !!

Does it have the overall firepower of the Aquastar ?
I am guessing not the 10µs delay nor the current to the coil?

It looks great....:thumbup:
 
Hi Eric,
just curious ... have you tried building a completely wireless set up ? The unit sealed in a box semi permanently. Let me shed some light. There are now lithium batteries that can be charged just by placing the battery within a certain distance of the charger. The box could be placed directly on the charger. no holes, sockets, or opening the box. headphones and coil with the transmitter/receiver inside the box。 。no wires. no pots or holes in the box. There is also a simple way to have several different "controls" that are fully functional from outside the box without holes or having to open the box to make adjustments. All the wireless signals might cause some interference but a little tinkering will solve that problem
 
stephenscool said:
Hi Eric,
just curious ... have you tried building a completely wireless set up ? The unit sealed in a box semi permanently. Let me shed some light. There are now lithium batteries that can be charged just by placing the battery within a certain distance of the charger. The box could be placed directly on the charger. no holes, sockets, or opening the box. headphones and coil with the transmitter/receiver inside the box。 。no wires. no pots or holes in the box. There is also a simple way to have several different "controls" that are fully functional from outside the box without holes or having to open the box to make adjustments. All the wireless signals might cause some interference but a little tinkering will solve that problem
Click to expand...

just realized this is similar to a deus except for.the external controls
 
That's the way to go.

Inductive charging should be relatively easy and is becoming popular on various domestic items. Interference would not be a problem as the detector would not be operating during the charging process. Can you do a fast charge I wonder?

Operating the controls remotely would be interesting, particularly for shallow water hunting. Wireless phones would be great and is already on some detectors, but again hunting in a sea water environment may be problematical.

It is good to push the boundaries and try out different things to make treasure hunting easier and more productive

Eric..
 
I have my tdi in a Plano box. Using wireless headphones with it. I have made a simple system where I can adjust the controls from outside the box. I had to use a cable clam for the coil. It's a salt water environment but I don't go past stomach deep. Right now the only time I open the box is to recharge the batteries. Submerged headphones would more than likely need some trial and error and the signal would.more than likely need to be adjustable /flexible to deal with the different environments
 
That is what is stated in the spec. and being a military grade detector, you would expect this to be the case.
Having completely disassembled and reassembled several units I am reluctant to submerge the whole unit for the following reasons.
The seach coil, swivel and up to the first coupling connector on the shaft, is all properly O ringed and sealed, so I would have no hesitation in submerging the coil and shaft up to that first coupling. Such is the quality of build that I would expect it to be OK for considerably greater depths. The battery housing, main case, control and connectors are all O ringed and fully sealed but for some reason the LED indicator and push button panel is not fully sealed. In fact there seems to be small holes that would let the water in. It is certainly safe to use in knee deep water and could take considerable splashing from waves going over the whole unit, but for true shallow water searching the control unit wants to be in a belt mounted case like the Pelican. I will post a picture in due course as I am just finishing a unit rebuilt this way.

Eric.
 
Eric Foster said:
That is what is stated in the spec. and being a military grade detector, you would expect this to be the case.
Having completely disassembled and reassembled several units I am reluctant to submerge the whole unit for the following reasons.
The seach coil, swivel and up to the first coupling connector on the shaft, is all properly O ringed and sealed, so I would have no hesitation in submerging the coil and shaft up to that first coupling. Such is the quality of build that I would expect it to be OK for considerably greater depths. The battery housing, main case, control and connectors are all O ringed and fully sealed but for some reason the LED indicator and push button panel is not fully sealed. In fact there seems to be small holes that would let the water in. It is certainly safe to use in knee deep water and could take considerable splashing from waves going over the whole unit, but for true shallow water searching the control unit wants to be in a belt mounted case like the Pelican. I will post a picture in due course as I am just finishing a unit rebuilt this way.

Eric.
Click to expand...

That sounds great Eric, thanks for the detailed response. Pics would be much appreciated when you're done with the project!
 
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