Bounty Hunter Tracker IV - Mod 1, Disable Meter

[TCosbyJr]

Modification tutorial to disconnect/remove the Bounty Hunter Tracker IV meter "Target Indicator".

After using the metal detector for a few days it became apparent that the MD meter was worthless (unless you are hearing impaired) and does nothing beyond draining batteries. I read about others doing it on the forum so I thought I would take pictures and create a brief tutorial of how I did it.

Typical standard warning - use these instructions at your own discretion. I am not responsible if you are injured, damage your metal detector, or anything else that results from you following these instructions. It worked fine for me, and should for you as well.


#1 Remove the coil cable.
#2 Remove the battery cover and batteries.
#3 Remove the two screws.


Set the MD handle off to the side, and place the MD electronics box on a table.
#4 Remove the four screws.


Turn the MD electronics box upside down so the headphone jack is at the top.
#5 Pull out the face-plate and electronics board (PCB) enough to disconnect the two meter wires. You can unsolder or cut them, then push them to the sides to ensure they are no longer connected.

That is all there is to it for this modification tutorial. Just reverse the steps to put the MD back together, or if you want to do another of my modification tutorials while it is still apart now is the best time.

[Captain Silver]

Nice job! When I started out with a Tracker 4, I clipped the wires to the meter and also to the speaker, as all they do is drain power. Using headphones only got me 25-30 hours out of a pair of 9V's...

[HarveyH48]

Hate to break it to you, but those meters current draw is so small, it really won't make a whole lot of difference. The speaker is probably the only major waste. I can understand that the meter isn't actually displaying any useful information, and likely just moves to the sound in the headphones or speaker. I'd have just left the meter alone, someday I'd probably want to sell it, or gift it, and would want to hear about the broken meter, or have to go back and hook it back up.

[TCosbyJr]

Originally Posted by Captain Silver

Nice job! When I started out with a Tracker 4, I clipped the wires to the meter and also to the speaker, as all they do is drain power. Using headphones only got me 25-30 hours out of a pair of 9V's...

Thanks. I saw that some clipped the speaker as well, but I left mine intact as my niece likes to use it some (so we can both hear it from the speaker). So far the batteries are no problem, but if they become one I'll get some nice rechargeables .

[TCosbyJr]

Originally Posted by HarveyH48

Hate to break it to you, but those meters current draw is so small, it really won't make a whole lot of difference. The speaker is probably the only major waste. I can understand that the meter isn't actually displaying any useful information, and likely just moves to the sound in the headphones or speaker. I'd have just left the meter alone, someday I'd probably want to sell it, or gift it, and would want to hear about the broken meter, or have to go back and hook it back up.

Even if the battery usage is minimal I didn't see ant point in leaving it connected (as it is a annoyance). If the need ever arises I can get it reconnected in about two minutes so no problem; however, if you seen my other modification your know I don't worry about reselling it. As it would be much harder to reverse the other mod cleanly - HH.

[Ictinike]

Originally Posted by TCosbyJr

nice rechargeables .

I just picked these exact ones up a few weeks back for my Tesoro and so far they work pretty well both in the detector and Garrett PP..

If your thinking about these I can say, thus far, I've been pretty happy with these Tenergy and they charge up around 10.5~10.8v on a full cycle and don't drain too quickly like other 9v rechargeable's. Make sure they are the 200~250mah ones as in your link tho..

[TCosbyJr]

Originally Posted by Ictinike

I just picked these exact ones up a few weeks back for my Tesoro and so far they work pretty well both in the detector and Garrett PP..

If your thinking about these I can say, thus far, I've been pretty happy with these Tenergy and they charge up around 10.5~10.8v on a full cycle and don't drain too quickly like other 9v rechargeable's. Make sure they are the 200~250mah ones as in your link tho..

Thanks for the feedback, glad to see they are working for you. They seemed like the best bang for the buck, and with four batteries I'd have a backup set.

[Ictinike]

Originally Posted by TCosbyJr

Thanks for the feedback, glad to see they are working for you. They seemed like the best bang for the buck, and with four batteries I'd have a backup set.

Yes sir! I have 2 in use and 2 backups fully charged and waiting. The nice thing about these is they hold their charge while not in use and will go some time before they start to drain on their own.

One of mine was acting a bit weird in the detector but I let it fully drain and recharged and so far so good on all 4. I can't say how long they'll last but for the under 30$ cost w/ shipping it won't take too many outings to pay for them compared to regular alkaline which ran me 2-3$ a pop.

[TCosbyJr]

Originally Posted by Ictinike

I can't say how long they'll last but for the under 30$ cost w/ shipping it won't take too many outings to pay for them compared to regular alkaline which ran me 2-3$ a pop.

The best place for Alkaline batteries I found was at local Lowes. The Alkaline batteries only cost about $10 for 8 batteries or $23 for 25 batteries, here is a link to them.

Not sure why there have been so many bad reviews on their site, I haven't had a single problem with them at all and I'm still on my first two after about 15 hours of MDing.

I figure though once I run out of this pack I'll try those rechargeable batteries - after all I had to have something to get my MD working the day I bought it.

[Ictinike]

Actually.. I wanted to update this as I incorrectly stated the ones you linked were the ones I purchased. I actually go the low discharge ones at this link HERE so I wanted to correct the thread.

The ones you listed are 250mah and mine are only 200mah but because of the low discharge I think they hang just as well sans the extra 50mah.

Just wanted to clear that up in case others were checking out the Tenergy line and the ones I have now are working great (link above)

Cheers,
~Icky

[TCosbyJr]

Originally Posted by Ictinike

Actually.. I wanted to update this as I incorrectly stated the ones you linked were the ones I purchased. I actually go the low discharge ones at this link HERE so I wanted to correct the thread.

The ones you listed are 250mah and mine are only 200mah but because of the low discharge I think they hang just as well sans the extra 50mah.

Just wanted to clear that up in case others were checking out the Tenergy line and the ones I have now are working great (link above)

Cheers,
~Icky

Thanks for clearing that up. I looked into the difference of the low self discharge batteries. Seems they hold a charge longer compared to other batteries when left unused for 3 weeks of storage time or longer.

For me though my MD uses two 9v's and that would be a additional loss of 100 mah or half of a low self discharge 9v battery. As a typical Alkaline 9V has 565 mah I want a rechargeable 9v battery that comes closer to that. So I'll use the 250 mah rechargeable batteries, or 300mah if I can find a bargain.