Minelab Sovereign detectors - tips, settings, questions

Nice pick up. One thing I would get for it now is a straight shaft. Having the excalibur was a lesson learnt. PaulMarr has te straight shaft and he can detect a lot longer but he also doesn't have the control box mounted to the shaft. I'm sure it will suck out the gold in no time

Sa_bogan said:

Nice pick up. One thing I would get for it now is a straight shaft. Having the excalibur was a lesson learnt. PaulMarr has te straight shaft and he can detect a lot longer but he also doesn't have the control box mounted to the shaft. I'm sure it will suck out the gold in no time

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Thanx. was in my limited budget. i'll try the pouch set up for now, and mbe look at a straight shaft later. need to get a post hole digger now. HH.

Hi All,
Brother has a Minelab Sovereign Detector XS 2a Pro with a battery pack that is no go.
the pack is a semi sealed cartridge with a pair of spring contacts on it.
Can you advise where he can get one let me know.
Cheers,
Doug

Rechargable nimh type pack or just battery? If its only battery remember you can always buy a batt pack catridge from jaycar for a temp fix

Rechargeable type.
Appears to be specific to this model.

This one ??? Try miners den online store

It looks like the Sovereign used a Metal Nickle Hydride battery pack. I don't know much about detectors, but in radio use, it is common to "crack" the pack and replace the individual cells therein. As there are a few different battery configurations (tabbed etc), you need to crack the pack to see what you need. Replacements can be got from a number of suppliers.

New generation batteries have a much better current rating, and so this should improve the life of the pack no end. An alternative would be to use modern rechargables in the AAA Alkaline battery adapter, if Brother still has it. Either of these options would be much cheaper than the alarming prices in the link above. The cells can be got quite cheaply.

None of the packs illustrated above is suitable for this model Sovereign. Here are the relevant sections from the Owner's Manual:



It's impossible to make out any detail in Minelab's poor quality scan of the manual, but the 2x AA alkaline battery holder packs might be a standard size/shape that Jaycar or similar would have on their shelves.

What part number are you after Tathradj ??

Doug , does he have the holders to run AA's ?
It would be easier to get them rather than the nicad pack .

Standard AA set up.

Thanks to all from my brother Allan.
He does have the Double A packs for it so I suggested to use two sets of rechargeable's in it.
Almost the same setup as my GT16000. LOL
I remember you could get a nicad pack for it but I did not worry about it.
Doug

Also check this thread... PhaseTech has some good battery set ups for the sov

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=10595

Tathradj said:

Thanks to all from my brother Allan.
He does have the Double A packs for it so I suggested to use two sets of rechargeable's in it.
Almost the same setup as my GT16000. LOL
I remember you could get a nicad pack for it but I did not worry about it.
Doug

Click to expand...

Just a heads up, if you're using 1.2v rechargeables, you need 10 x cells. Those AA holders only fit 8 batteries so must be 1.5v batteries to give you the required 12V.

I can covert any spring contact control boxes to run the plug in style battery packs, as per the picture above.

Cheers

Thanks for that.
My Brother has your contact details.

The XS2A Pro I am borrowing off a mate has Sub C type cells in it. If you are handy with a soldering iron you can buy them cheap off ebay or Jaycar and the solder tabs and replace the sub C's in the pack.

I was talking to my mate and we were discussing if a small 12v gel cell would work if wired into the box. You can get those gel cell batteries tiny now for around $40.

Anyone tried this?

Any battery pack will work as long as it's 12V.

I can make these lightweight battery packs in a Low Self Discharge 950mah (good for detectors that don't get used much), or a 1200 mah standard NiMH.
They are about half the weight of the original packs that use AA cells, and much longer run time than the original 600-700 mah Ni-Cad packs that were issued with the detectors.

Hi fellow detectorists, I love using my sovereign gt beach prospecting particularly in the swash . And have found some great items over last few months which I will post here. i have just received a ctx3030 however not used it , after being impressed by one on the same beach . Note all the pics are from the get itself many from the swash . Does anyone else on prospecting Australia still use a gt or old vlf detector? I seem to be the only one dukeing out with the new machines at the moment. Argh seems I can't load images as yet , as they are to big . But finds include several silver 1951 king George 6 pence coins, diamond necklace which was white gold and 1 Carratt , the sovereign did not detect the necklace but the pendant with diamond , sterling silver ring , diamond earring pair and a rose gold and gold pendant . That's why I love the sovereign and love detecting , have done a little detecting inland. As soon as I figure out how to minimise photos or members have advise I would love to post them here. But as previously stated I was wondering if anyone still uses a sovereign gt

Danny

Gday Dan, welcome to the forum.
usually on a camera Izoom in to 2.0 (-2X) and my photos load in ok, I just take wider photos first so that when I zoom in they look right for the job.