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Sovereign meter Question

M

Minas man

New member
Just did the meter conversion from 550 to 180 so now I am on to the calibration. Is there a resting number that is displayed when detector is away from EMI or in a house. it seems to be between the 30s and 55 depending on the both pot adjustments. It is stable on a number when at rest in the house but I can not get the 180 on a USD quarter or a dime and numbers are very jumpy. Never knew that there is a low battery display on the meter.


Minas man
 
First thing when doing this conversion is to calibrate the course adjustment before putting the meter back together. hook it back up to the detector which should be in disc and the sensitivity set to auto so it don't false as much so the meter will not be jumping around, adjust the control on the back of the meter to center position and then adjust the control inside the meter to get 180 or close to 180 as you can, so a 178-182 or so will work, but try to get it to 180. This is done by swing a coin by the coil a little back and forth trying to get the best signal and numbers as you can. If you cant get it then you may have put in the wrong resistor as there is 2 different 550 meters and in the kit should be both of them so once you know which one is in your meter you know which one to use. Now you can turn it off and put the meter back together and when you use it with whatever coil you are going to use the control on the back of the meter can be adjusted to 180 on a dime, quarter or a copper penny made before 1982.


Rick
 
Rick I have followed the instructions in the kit and on the forum, so I might have a bad solder connection and I will check the resistors. Note that the new pot has a an alinement tab that has to be ground off or a hole must be made in the plastic case to allow the PC board to mount correctly and kit does not tell you this. This did not become evident for me until I tried to tighten the new pot in the case and the pot shaft coming out the back was on an angle. A real head scratcher until I took it out and noticed the a alinement tab.
Is there a Number or a range of numbers that will be displayed when the detector is set up as you describe, Rick before the test coin is used?
Another note: This is a job for good eyes and a magnifier. I put on my +3.25 glasses and also used a 10x loop to see. Looking back I should have used my lighted articulating magnifier to do the solder job as it is very sensitive, so live and learn. Now you know I am over 50 years old.....lol.

Minas man
 
Minas,most pots have that tad,I usually remove these,a snip with wire cutters and file the reminder down.HH Ron
 
Ron I used a Delta bench top belt and disc sander to remove the tab, specifically the 1 inch belt and its gone in secords. Tab removal was not listed in the instructions so that is why I mentioned it.
Doing testing again and it seems that the numbers bounce around a lot mind you I have never used a VID on any machine and never used the 550 as I was beach and shallow water hunting. Have only had the sovereign a month and picked it up in Florida but now am back to the frozen snow covered Atlantic Canada.
So how stable are the numbers so post to be? Are unstable numbers a sign of another issue?

Minas man
 
On the kit the Pot should look the same as the one that was in there for the 550 meter, if not I wonder if it is the wrong one as those I got for the kits I sell look the same. They mount the same too so you just got to desolder the one that is in there and put the new one in and re solder it again as it only goes in so far into the circuit board. On the numbers that is shown I am not sure the range that is shown before the course calibration control is set, but I believe after it is done correctly the range I believe is around 170-183, but not 100% sure. There has to be enough to adjust it to 180 for which ever coil you use and any change in the temp change. The resistors are 1% tolerance where most are 10% so they are very important to use the right ones. Another thing is the soldering of it as you use a solder pencil not a gun and do not use acid core solder or flux solder as it will ruin the circuit board. check your solder on the circuit board so you do have a good connection and no solder bridges across 2 points where it should not be.
The meter is really a voltage meter and runs off the tones of the Sovereign, so if the numbers are jumpy the tones should be too and why I will set the sensitivity to auto so it is easier to set up the calibration. The meter and tones will read what the coil is seeing, so if you have any interference it will show up on the numbers on the meter which can cause the numbers to be erratic. The best way is waving the coin by the coil not real slow and not real fast, but doing this I try to keep the tone as steady and smooth as I can and watch for the highest number as that will be what you are trying to get 180 on, if it goes 180 and bounces to 179 that is OK too.

Good Luck and keep us informed.

Rick
 
Hope I didn't toast the circuit board with my old soldering iron. My last soldering was 35 ago and the boards back then were not like the fragile boards of today.
The soldering pencil is the correct tool for the job for sure. I will trouble shoot to figure out why the strange read outs.
Thanks Rick

Minas man
 
I have bought these kits from three different users.Rick ND is one of these people I have got kits from and his was flawless,once the resistors and the pot was installed, the meter worked perfect for a 180 meter.There are a lot of parts sold by China that don't meet the specs needed to make the mods operate correct or as expected. Those who make these kits up right must know their suppliers well.With the tabs not filed off means or suggest lack of attention to detail.I have bought kits that.( once installed would not work because the parts used were no good.I would start again with new parts and supplier,by the way a grinder to fix the tab will melt your pot.Use very fine silver solder(20w-25w iron) with a fan or respirator for the smoke from your soldering(not good to inhale smoke that contains metals).Hope this helps,good luck Ron
 
Ron the kit was bought off of the big online auction site and came from MA with 4 pages of instructions and a card with pictures of the 3 possible existing resistors, 2 for R1 and 1 for R2 and there replacement was positioned opposite on the card and it was easy to follow. I checked the new R1 on a meter before installing and it was bang on 15k but the R2 was a 1m resistor that measured 1015k on the 2000k meter setting. The listed tolerance is 1%.
I did my sanding in a below freezing atmosphere so I hope I did not blow the pot but it appears to have a good range during the calibration. What I mean by that is that meter range using the new pot is about 10 so when parked in the middle I have 5 + or - to play with.
I guess it is the jumpy numbers that is vexes me.
I know I have a lot of EMI in the house so could that be causing the numbers to bounce around? Meter is stable when no coin is passed over it but when test wheat or Quarter is passed over values bounce like crazy with out locking onto a number. Coins are taped on a each end of a yard stick.
Machine is set to discrimination and auto sensitivity.
Thanks

Minas man
 
Minas,with your information you got your kit from a good dealer.Still the tab should have been removed before the kit was shipped.We all make mistakes and I have done a few myself.Are you a new user with the Sovereign or the meter?The meter should respond with the tones of your Sovereign.Listen for the tone change and recheck your meter for a change.The 180 meter on the Sovereign is one of the most stable visual ID meters out, bounce on nickles and other targets are predictable and most of the time can help further the ID on targets.HH Ron
 
I am new to the Sovereign Ron and the meter. I only have a couple of weeks in Florida on the Gulf coast with it and am now back Home in Canada. Bought used and read Draytons & Clives books. I have 5 years with a Tesoro Vaquero so I found the Sovereign very easy to learn not that I know it all but its sounds are not a total mystery. The Gulf beaches are cleaner now and I am getting educated. LOL.
The 180 kit looked good but no solder was included but was on the list in the packet so I used some flux core stuff that I had and that was probably not so wise. Solder could have fallen out and I did not notice.
Above freezing today so might hit the beach.
Modern Canadian coin is ferrous so I will do lots of testing as US coin make up is different.
I can use the single tone if I want but I like various tones as that is more information.

Minas man
 
Ron,

Very good info as this is what i would have said too as far as if he is new to the Sovereign meter as some figure it is suppose to lock on to a single number when a coin is waved across the coil. The number will vary as the coin is going across the coil and when the tones is the highest the numbers are the highest, so you want to keep the tone as high as you can when you read the numbers.
Too bad it wasn't tried with the 550 numbers to make sure the meter was working correctly before the mods were done, then if it was then we know it was something that was change in the mods. If it didn't work right then we know there was a problem with the meter or maybe the cable running to it or possibly the Sovereign itself as a bad connection on the voltage going to the meter.
I did run into one meter one time that seem to jump around more and harder to calibrate before the mods and still did after the mods, but switched it with another meter off one of my used Sovereigns and it was OK and the one that was jumpy was good on the other Sovereign, so I just left them that way. It was a odd one as I only seen it once and still don't know what caused it, but they both worked good when used on a different Detector.

Question for Minas Man?? Are the tones nice and smooth when running the coin by the coil back and forth, if not the number will be jumpy.
If you are in the USA I can check and see if I have one of Ron's meters around and can send it to you to try so we can see if it is the meter you did the mod on or not.

Rick
 
That maybe your whole problem as it is not made for electronic soldering and the acid in the solder will eat up your circuit board and leave a residue so it can not make a good connection, one of the first thing we learned in electronic. I hope you can clean up the board and get that acid off of it before it ruins it.

Rick
 
What would be the cleaner? WD-40 or 90 % alcohol??
 
I was thinking the same as you and this is what I came up with, I bought switch covers and so attempted to install when I was on the beaches in Florida, but the threads were not correct so in that process could the switch have turned 180 degrees as I did notice at the time that it could rotate 90 degrees? There is a key-way slot in the switch and it is at the 12 position on both switches.

Minas man
 
Don't use a oil base product as it will conduct and wipe out everything. If you have a Radio Shack or Electronic store there is a cleaner for circuit board that should work and will dry with no residue. Sometimes even cleaning them the acid from the solder will still start corroding the circuit traces.

Rick
 
Minas,the Sovereign will work great at the beach without a meter.The tones on this detector will tell you a lot.LOL a Excal or Sovereign at the beach will result with a good hunt.Good Luck Ron
 
Ron can those switches rotate 180 degrees?
 
I don't think the switch would turn 180..I remember putting the covers on mine and they didn't turn that much.The switch covers are often on e Bay for sale for the set but I don't remember the price.Its too bad you couldn't try someone's 180 meter then you'd have a better idea on yours......John.
 
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