PATRIOT METER

[beau61]

Have it on my Sov GT. Very accurate, just use it land hunting. Wondering if a anyone else uses one.
Like hunting with tones so don’t use it all the time.

 

[Rick(ND)]

I tied 2 of this meter in case the first one was bad, for me it wasnt for me, but some really like it, but no longer being made. the one thing I did like about it was the back lite on the meter as very good. I bet that they are hard to find anymore and do wonder how many were sold as you dont see any advertised anymore used.

Rick

 

[michael NY]

Have it on my Sov GT. Very accurate, just use it land hunting. Wondering if a anyone else uses one.
Like hunting with tones so don’t use it all the time.

I hunted with the original meter with tremendous success then moved up
To the Sunray DYI III meter works for me. I rember the patriot meter was kinda expensive even back then.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Yes they were quite expensive and well built, but tried many different meters and I too found the SunRay DTI meters work the best for me. With the Sovereign the 180 meter is right on and those close tones the numbers could tell the difference between the zinc penny and copper one, The zinc penny would read 176 to 177 while the copper would be 179-180 and those early wheat and the IH read the 176-177 also, but deeper sounding . the nickles seem to read 144-145 for me and the 146- 150 was the round pulltabs and the beaver tail would be 141. I never could do that with any other meter, so I used to do the mod on all the 550 meter to make easier to tell the difference like the 180 meter as the 550 numbers would overlap on the numbers, infact the GT came out with the 180 meter as they too seen it was a better ID.

Rick

 

[beau61]

Had to take it out, been a while. Have 6 coils for the Sov, used the GT.
5 of the coils are Minelab coils and one Cors coil for the GT. All Minelab coils were spot on with the meter, very accurate. Cors 13”/12” coil didn’t work well at all, wouldn’t calibrate. No problem calibrating with Minelab coils. Good meter. Cors coil did work well on GT, just not on the meter. Body mounted the control box.

 

[Sand Sifter]

Yes they were quite expensive and well built, but tried many different meters and I too found the SunRay DTI meters work the best for me. With the Sovereign the 180 meter is right on and those close tones the numbers could tell the difference between the zinc penny and copper one, The zinc penny would read 176 to 177 while the copper would be 179-180 and those early wheat and the IH read the 176-177 also, but deeper sounding . the nickles seem to read 144-145 for me and the 146- 150 was the round pulltabs and the beaver tail would be 141. I never could do that with any other meter, so I used to do the mod on all the 550 meter to make easier to tell the difference like the 180 meter as the 550 numbers would overlap on the numbers, infact the GT came out with the 180 meter as they too seen it was a better ID.

Rick

Rick, I have one of the 550 meters for my Sovereign Elite, just never used it. I remember about 12 years ago, there were a lot of Sovereign mods on the forums, and I think I copied one for the 550 --> 180 mod conversion. If I recall, I think it only required replacing 2 resistors? Is that the mod you did to your 550 meter?

 

[Rick(ND)]

Rick, I have one of the 550 meters for my Sovereign Elite, just never used it. I remember about 12 years ago, there were a lot of Sovereign mods on the forums, and I think I copied one for the 550 --> 180 mod conversion. If I recall, I think it only required replacing 2 resistors? Is that the mod you did to your 550 meter?

If you have the 550 meter the first thing I do is put some holes in the decal where the screws are as the decal is hard to save if you try to just the the decals off to get at the screws, there is 4 small screw under the decal. next I take the nut off the adjusting control on calibrate it. the meter should come apart and then read the resistor of one of the resister as they made a early model and a later model depending on which one you have and the instruction will tell which one to use. then there is another resistor that also has to be changed. Then the replacing the adjusting pot and before putting it back together you have to set it up with the Sovereign and put the control at center, Now there is a coarse calibration control on the circuit board of the meter and this is the one you try to get adjusted to get the 180 on a dime or a copper penny by swinging it back and forth a little in front of the coil. when this is done it is ready to put back together. The reason to set the control in center before adjusting the coarse calibration is so it is center so if you have to change the calibration because of heat or something you are able to turn it on way or the other.
You should be able to solder with the right equipment or have some one do it for you. I believe I still have some of the kits around with everything you need plus the instruction around if you need them. I have done several of them myself as if I buy a Sovereign to sell and it has the 550 meter before I sell them they are made 180 meters as I feel they are the best.

Rick

 

[Sand Sifter]

If you have the 550 meter the first thing I do is put some holes in the decal where the screws are as the decal is hard to save if you try to just the the decals off to get at the screws, there is 4 small screw under the decal. next I take the nut off the adjusting control on calibrate it. the meter should come apart and then read the resistor of one of the resister as they made a early model and a later model depending on which one you have and the instruction will tell which one to use. then there is another resistor that also has to be changed. Then the replacing the adjusting pot and before putting it back together you have to set it up with the Sovereign and put the control at center, Now there is a coarse calibration control on the circuit board of the meter and this is the one you try to get adjusted to get the 180 on a dime or a copper penny by swinging it back and forth a little in front of the coil. when this is done it is ready to put back together. The reason to set the control in center before adjusting the coarse calibration is so it is center so if you have to change the calibration because of heat or something you are able to turn it on way or the other.
You should be able to solder with the right equipment or have some one do it for you. I believe I still have some of the kits around with everything you need plus the instruction around if you need them. I have done several of them myself as if I buy a Sovereign to sell and it has the 550 meter before I sell them they are made 180 meters as I feel they are the best.

Rick

Thank you sir!!

I agree about the 180 meters being the best. I've seen a lot of comments about the 180, and how it's so accurate, that it can distinguish between a Zincoln and a copper penny, and between a nickel and a pull tab, even beavertails.

Great tip about punching holes where the screws are, will definitely save a lot of headaches and will look better as well. I'll be doing this myself, I used to build hand-wired guitar amps years ago, so I have a workbench with digital soldering station and loads of resistors, capacitors, diodes, wire, you name it, lol.

 

[Rick(ND)]

The resisters are precision from what I have seen so I ordered them in they are I believe they are 1% tolerance.

I am glad you have some electronic experience so you can do it correctly and think you will like the 180 mod.

Good luck and let us know when you get it done and what you think about it.

 

[Sand Sifter]

The resisters are precision from what I have seen so I ordered them in they are I believe they are 1% tolerance.

I am glad you have some electronic experience so you can do it correctly and think you will like the 180 mod.

Good luck and let us know when you get it done and what you think about it.

Thanks Rick.

Yeah, the original resistors look to be 5% carbon films, but I’d probably use 1% metal films and then would use my digital multi meter to measure each and cherry pick the ones with the tightest tolerances. I might also swap out the other resisters while I was at it (keeping their original values) and replace with 1% metal films, just to tighten up the entire circuit.

I’ve saved a ton of mod’s and detecting posts over the years and found a post I saved from a guy named chopz54 who posted his instructions for doing the 550 -->180 meter mod back on 1/31/2012.

He swapped out R1 & R2, replaced with 1% resistors (looks like metal films), and also swapped out the pot, which was 10K, and replaced with a 1K pot. He didn’t specify if the pot was audio or linear, but I’ll assume it’s a linear pot based on its function. Although an audio pot might allow for more granularity and tighter adjustment in the earlier ranges, but I’ll have to look at the original pot to see what ML used.

I also saved a pic he provided (attached), that shows the 2 possible resistors that may be in the R1 location, along with R2, and also shows what values to replace them with. Based on one of his images, it looks like he used a 10K & 1M.

Also, just for grins, I attached a pic of another meter mod that was going around back then. This mod replaces the Sov’s speaker and uses a meter that fits directly into the speaker hole. I never used the speaker on my Sov, just headphones, so back then, I was also looking at possibly doing this mod. IMO that would be a very clean and convenient meter mod for the Sov, as the meter would be self-contained within the Sov’s control box, so no need for a separate meter to attach and mount to the shaft.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Looks like you did your home work, plus it looks like you have the good instructions I used and sent with the kits I made up as they did work great.
The meter that was put in the speaker spot was one I had thought to do to mine, but before I had a chance to send one of mine in the person went out of business. my concern on that one is the number were small and could be hard to see (getting old)

Rick

 

[Sand Sifter]

Looks like you did your home work, plus it looks like you have the good instructions I used and sent with the kits I made up as they did work great.
The meter that was put in the speaker spot was one I had thought to do to mine, but before I had a chance to send one of mine in the person went out of business. my concern on that one is the number were small and could be hard to see (getting old)

Rick

I think I know why he might have gone out of business. If it's the guy I'm thinking of, his name is Joe Patrick. I saved copies of a lot of Sovereign mod threads posted on forums back around 2010 - 2012. I'm looking at a post I saved from 2/7/2010, from a guy that posted that there was a company in the UK that was also offering the meter in the speaker hole mod.

But I think what might have also contributed was that a forum buddy of mine at the time, Critterhunter (OBN knows him as well), also made a bunch of posts on how to do the mod. The meter itself is commercially available, so anyone can buy, but he did the research on the electronics and figured out how everything should be hooked up. I have all his posts with his research, observations, how to do the mod, etc. He didn't copy Joe Patrick; he did a ton of his own research, figured it out on his own, and posted his findings as he went along.

On 1/23/2010, one of the forum members replied to one of Critterhunters Sovereign Meter posts and said that it looks like Joe Patrick was really pissed off at Critterhunter. I guess he thought Critter "stole" his "meter mod design/idea", but Critter replied that the meter was a voltmeter, commercially available for anyone to purchase, and you can't "patent or trademark" a use for a voltmeter, there's nothing proprietary there. Critter didn't have a Sovereign with JP's meter mod, so he didn't get to see the mod firsthand, he only saw a pic of the meter installed on a Sovereign, so there's no way he could have tried to "reverse engineer" the mod. He figured out how to do the mod on his own, by researching and trial & error.

I know he did all the research himself, as he made many posts in the very beginning as he started trying to figure out how to do the mod, and each time he did additional research, he posted that research and the results, so he didn't copy JP's mod, he just saw a picture of the mod, thought it looked cool, then went off on his own journey of trying to figure how to do the mod himself. Back in 2010, 2011, 2012, there were a TON of mods posted on the forums for Sovereigns and also Excalibur's. Critterhunter did a lot of Sovereign mods and posted them, including a handle mounted pinpoint switch for the Sovereign GT, OBN did mods for Excalibur's, like how to add waterproof connectors to other coils so that they could be used on the Excalibur, thereby allowing coil swaps. I have copies of both of their mods they posted on the forums 14 years ago.