Machine Mods. Upgrades to a machine.

[MangoAve]

Each machine leaves just that little extra to be desired. Through the late nights detecting and almost not making it out of the woods before I couldn't see any tree or obstacle in front of me gave me a clue what was needed. Always catching the cord on my pinpointer or the arm rest or almost chopping the cord with my serrated trowel gave me another idea to help a bit with the difficulties faced during detecting. I chosea way to do upgrades that wouldn't void the warranty.

First I was getting annoyed with the obstreperous cord for the headphones. I first tried to run the volume control cord down the arm cuff which leaves a plug at the end for headphones. It helped but I still had issues. I no longer caught the cord with the trowel nor did it catch on the brush or branches, but now it caught on the pinpointer and the lack of length made it hard with digging. The machine had to be placed a certain way on the ground to give me the most length to kneel and dig, but standing up was almost forbidden. And we all know when digging on a hill and the machine wants to roll away even though it seemed to be placed in a stable manner. Now the machine wants to tug on your head as you are digging. The simple upgrade was to just go bluetooth. I had all sorts of 1/4" jacks or a coversion to 3.5mm jacks but I didn't own one that converted size and was a right angle. I wanted to have the transmitter protrude as little as possible, and I wanted length to be minimal as anything in the jack can spin. I also decided based upon how items can be charged with similar connectors. I got a 1/4" right angle to 3.5mm female jack. A receiver, which I have as a back up to be used with any headphone, came with a 3.5mm male-male so it worked perfect. Then I got the transmitter. I bought a set of bluetooth headphones and a set of bluetooth earphones. The earphones are more confortable and block noise, but the headphones allow you to hear anything around you so I carry both. Headphones were only $20, transmitter $30, receiver $15, and earphones $35. Yesterday just the transmitter and headphones lasted something like 7 hours no problem. The pic is only headphones and transmitter/jacks.

The other aspect apparent that needed to be done was adding light. I saw another add a light to the shaft for the search coil. One night around 8p it's barely light outside and I had to try to use the light from the moon to try and see the display. It was time to finish up that night anyway, but to be limited like that and to only search in one direction.... I ordered the flashlight holder and a CREE LED mini flashlight for the shaft. The holder was onl $2 and the flashlight $15. I was toying with the idea about adding a light to the display. A thought to add something internal did cross my mind. A resistor and switch and LED could be added somewhere near the front, balanced across both batteries. I didn't bother trying to check if an LED near the front pointed toward the side of the LCD glass would be suitable because I didn't want to cut into the housing to mount a switch. It could be done, but the other option was more apposite. I just ordered a book light. Searching through a ton of possibilities with bulky 3-AAA compartments with a clip, yet the machine has a small lip too small for anything to securely mount to, I could foresee hitting it on anything and it falling off all the time. I finally found a flat one. It was much bigger when I finally got it making me wonder which size books people be reading with this monster. The light is flexible so it can be pointed toward display when I need it on, but moved up when I don't need it to see the possible target indicator better. I found something similar to velcro so the light can be deteached. I added a velcro strip for computer cables to the search coil wire near the housing as well. The light was only $3. Here is what it looks like.