Ctx3030 coil connection issue.

Jermbo

Jr. Member
May 7, 2013
45
6
Hi, I went to swap out coils today on my ctx3030 and noticed one of the pins broke off where the coil connects to the unit. Does anyone know if I can just order a generic connector and replace it myself or is it minelab specific part? The machine is out of warranty and I don’t want to ship it in and have it stuck in the shop the rest of the year. I plugged coil in and it still seams to work, I’m just wondering what that pin was for if it still works
 

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MidMoTreasure

Sr. Member
Jul 2, 2012
335
713
Mid-Missouri
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX 3030, Minelab E-Trac, Garrett Super Sluice, Banjo Pan
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
YES! I had the exact same issue earlier this year. In fact, it looks like we broke the exact same pin. This happened to me on October of 2019. Things are still going ok for me, though I have debated sending in my CTX to have it fixed. Because it is out of warranty, I have not been really motivated. Here is the response I received from an electronics expert:

You just got lucky. :)
It totally depends on which pin is broken.

The connector has 8 pins. They(ML) chose it based on application, size, cost, availability, and water proof-ness.
They did NOT choose it based on the need for all 8 pins. <-- that's an important fact to keep in mind.

A detector could use as few as 4 of those, depending on whether or not they center-tap either winding ....
Pictures of the internal PCB connections appear to show ML using 6 connections (out of the 8 )
Looks like 2 twisted pairs, one for each winding of the coil, then two other lines.

If you break one of the critical pins, it's dead. Period. No saving throw.
The electricity won't magically re-route itself through the other wires.
If you break one of the unused pins, it doesn't matter or affect anything related to the used pins.

In summation:
If you break one of the unused pins, of course the coil will still work.
If you break one of the used pins, of course the coil will NOT still work.

Caveat:
There is actually one 'used' pin in a coil that you can lose, and the coil still work .... and that's the shield.
Although it might affect EMI/RFI sensitivity in some locations.
 

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