Steve77
Elite Member
As anyone who has bought the Minelab Equinox 600 knows, the stock headphones are junk. Mine lasted a few hunts then failed due to no strain relief and or no coiled cord causing excess strain on the tiny wire where it enters the ear cup. Kudos to Minelab for replacing them quickly, but I didn't trust the first set of headphones, and the replacements are identical, so obviously I needed an alternative. I had no interest in Wireless, so my focus was on building a wired headphone.
I started searching different websites and posts trying to get the specifications to build my own headphones from parts. There was enough information on the web to figure out what I needed, but it was scattered among numerous sources. So I decided to try to document my build start to finish and get all the information in one place. Basically, I borrowed ideas from several places, I am not claiming to have originated any of these ideas.
Hopefully this post saves someone from duplicating all my time researching the parts. I am super cheap, so I was trying to keep this build as inexpensive as possible. I sourced everything from ebay. You may be able to source parts cheaper than I did, but it depends on a few choices like weather or not you modify an existing headphone or build from scratch. I bought a set of Xbox wireless headphones to convert to wired. I got the idea from Sven here on this site from a post he made several years ago on a different headphone build thread. Here is a link to that thread, his post is #12
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?p=2050569#post2050569
So I found a set of similar headphones on ebay for $8.49
I knew that coiled guitar cable would work well. I wanted mono cable so it had fewer wires to keep the outer cable diameter thin as well as being lightweight. I found what I needed on ebay for $8.34 shipped.
I needed a 1/8" mono plug with solder connections, that was easy. ebay $2.39 shipped.
Now, the part that gave me the most headaches was the threaded waterproof fitting that screws into the detector. I had seen multiple part numbers listed as being suitable, but it took me a while to understand what exactly the appropriate parts had in common. All the parts I read of being used were Lumberg connectors. But there were several different types being used. I eventually deduced that the main part of the requirement to make the connector work was that it was a Lumberg brand, RKC designation, and size M12. The M12 refers to the thread size. I ended up buying a 5 pin because I had read of one person noticing that if you have a center pin it gives you a pilot hole when you drill out the connector to modify it. This was definitely a useful tip and made my drilling easy. I thought I was only buying one but actually purchased 5 of these connectors on ebay for $7.90 shipped.
Now I had all my parts and it cost me under $30
I started searching different websites and posts trying to get the specifications to build my own headphones from parts. There was enough information on the web to figure out what I needed, but it was scattered among numerous sources. So I decided to try to document my build start to finish and get all the information in one place. Basically, I borrowed ideas from several places, I am not claiming to have originated any of these ideas.
Hopefully this post saves someone from duplicating all my time researching the parts. I am super cheap, so I was trying to keep this build as inexpensive as possible. I sourced everything from ebay. You may be able to source parts cheaper than I did, but it depends on a few choices like weather or not you modify an existing headphone or build from scratch. I bought a set of Xbox wireless headphones to convert to wired. I got the idea from Sven here on this site from a post he made several years ago on a different headphone build thread. Here is a link to that thread, his post is #12
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?p=2050569#post2050569
So I found a set of similar headphones on ebay for $8.49
I knew that coiled guitar cable would work well. I wanted mono cable so it had fewer wires to keep the outer cable diameter thin as well as being lightweight. I found what I needed on ebay for $8.34 shipped.
I needed a 1/8" mono plug with solder connections, that was easy. ebay $2.39 shipped.
Now, the part that gave me the most headaches was the threaded waterproof fitting that screws into the detector. I had seen multiple part numbers listed as being suitable, but it took me a while to understand what exactly the appropriate parts had in common. All the parts I read of being used were Lumberg connectors. But there were several different types being used. I eventually deduced that the main part of the requirement to make the connector work was that it was a Lumberg brand, RKC designation, and size M12. The M12 refers to the thread size. I ended up buying a 5 pin because I had read of one person noticing that if you have a center pin it gives you a pilot hole when you drill out the connector to modify it. This was definitely a useful tip and made my drilling easy. I thought I was only buying one but actually purchased 5 of these connectors on ebay for $7.90 shipped.
Now I had all my parts and it cost me under $30