I recently purchased a Automax V4 Pinpointer along with an Ace-250. Although I have been experimenting with a Little Wizard I haven?t used another dedicated pinpointer so I can?t offer any comparisons but the V4 seems to work well.
I changed a few things on the V4 that I thought would help. Maybe others have done the same things and I missed their posts. Not sure if doing any of these changes will void the warranty or not so do at your own risk.
Changes made were;
Heat shrink tubing was installed around the probe for abrasion resistance. It eliminates wear on the hard plastic from moving the probe around in the dirt. When the heat shrink wears out it will be easy to replace.
Also a dial was made up and installed under the sensitivity control and a white line painted in the groove on the knob that was at zero when turned fully ccw. Sensitivity can now be set to any number and visually rechecked to be sure it hasn?t been bumped between uses.
Internally there is an adjustment that is in series with the front panel sensitivity pot that changes the sensitivity threshold knob position. It didn?t seem to change anything else but I marked the factory position before it was moved just in case. I chose to use it to set the threshold to 2 on the dial. That gave me more range to decrease sensitivity as I got closer to the target.
The last change was to paint a white line on the power switch to be better able to see it?s position since there isn?t much movement distance between the AUDIO, OFF and VIBRATE positions.
The V4 is begging for a momentary push button power switch mounted in the flat area below the audio grill that would be in easy thumbs reach. Probably will do that after the warranty period is up.
If there is any interest I can post a jpeg of the dial and a little more info on the V4.
This is my first post and I am definitely a newbie at metal detecting and have a lot to learn. I would like to thank the many knowledgeable posters on this forum for posts that not only make for good reading but has helped me immensely getting over some of the hurdles that a newbie experiences.
Thanks.
kenbo
I changed a few things on the V4 that I thought would help. Maybe others have done the same things and I missed their posts. Not sure if doing any of these changes will void the warranty or not so do at your own risk.
Changes made were;
Heat shrink tubing was installed around the probe for abrasion resistance. It eliminates wear on the hard plastic from moving the probe around in the dirt. When the heat shrink wears out it will be easy to replace.
Also a dial was made up and installed under the sensitivity control and a white line painted in the groove on the knob that was at zero when turned fully ccw. Sensitivity can now be set to any number and visually rechecked to be sure it hasn?t been bumped between uses.
Internally there is an adjustment that is in series with the front panel sensitivity pot that changes the sensitivity threshold knob position. It didn?t seem to change anything else but I marked the factory position before it was moved just in case. I chose to use it to set the threshold to 2 on the dial. That gave me more range to decrease sensitivity as I got closer to the target.
The last change was to paint a white line on the power switch to be better able to see it?s position since there isn?t much movement distance between the AUDIO, OFF and VIBRATE positions.
The V4 is begging for a momentary push button power switch mounted in the flat area below the audio grill that would be in easy thumbs reach. Probably will do that after the warranty period is up.
If there is any interest I can post a jpeg of the dial and a little more info on the V4.
This is my first post and I am definitely a newbie at metal detecting and have a lot to learn. I would like to thank the many knowledgeable posters on this forum for posts that not only make for good reading but has helped me immensely getting over some of the hurdles that a newbie experiences.
Thanks.
kenbo
