Glenns5900
Sr. Member
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2005
- Messages
- 269
- Reaction score
- 1
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Longmont, CO USA
- Detector(s) used
- Whites 5900 Di Pro (not SL) Old, but still good
- #1
Thread Owner
Hi all, I'm new to the forum in fact this is my first post. I've enjoyed reading about what everyone has been finding and the Whatzit posts.
This isn't something that I found WITH my detector. It's something I found FOR my detector.
I have an old Whites 5900 Di Pro (pre SL) that I bought new in 1986. It has the pipe for the wand riveted on the bottom of the box unlike the newer SL that has it on top. The original coil went bad and was replaced by Whites many years ago with a Blue Max 950. Unfortunately it has not had much use. I hope to change that in the near future. I was able to get out a few times this past year with my 7 year old daughter to the small parks in my neighborhood. Usually we find around $2.00 in clad everytime we go out. Occasionally we find other things like Hot Wheels Cars, bottle caps and the occasional pull tab. The money usually goes into her piggy bank unless we find something like a gold or platinum ring or a very old coin. We know when it's time to go home after about an hour of swinging it back and forth when my wrist gets tired since it doesn't have an arm cup like the newer models. I found that 3/4" copper pipe will fit nicely in the unused end of the wand tube at the back of the detector. I'm trying to come up with an arm cup for it and need to figure out a way of securing it to the box. (I don't like drilling holes to make mods.) I'll keep you posted on the progress of this project.
Now - on to the almost free batteries. My old 5900 uses a battery case that holds 4 size C batteries. It sure would be nice if I had some rechargeable to put in it. Of course you can always order the recharger($15) and battery pack ($35) from Whites, but I thought why not just buy 4 rechargeable size C batteries - until I saw the price. Then you need a special charger for them - hold onto your wallet. It would be cheaper to buy the kit from Whites. Then I remembered that a C battery and a AA battery were the same length so maybe I could drill out some 1" wooden dowels and make some size adapters to fit some of the nIMh AA batteries that I use around the house. They are pretty cheap and have a capacity of 2000mA and above. I think I bought a set of 4 with a charger at WalMart for around $14. They also don't have a memory like the old Ni-Cad batteries. Should be plenty of power for my old detector. Someone suggested that I look on the internet for upsizers. - - I said "Whats an upsizer?". It turns out that there are companies that make adapters that are like a sleeve that turn AA batteries into C or even D size batteries. Hmmmm. A quick search and I found several companies that sell them. The least expensive that I found was at Star Batteries. They have a pack of 4 that adapt size AA to size C for $8.32. They even accept PayPal. They also had a small plastic case used to store 4 AA batteries for only $1.39 (nothing like having an extra set when you are out in the boonies). It prevents them from shorting out in your pocket on all the gold coins that you have found while TH'ng
. I just hate having a HOT pocket. It happened once to me with a 9V battery a long time ago - OUCH.
When I went to checkout my order with them I found a box to enter a promotional code for a discount. Nothing like free money. (Isn't that what we are all here for anyway?) Well, I opened up another browser and searched for "Star Batteries Promotional Code" and came up with a website for Anita Vacations. It turns out that if you order anything through Star Batteries and use the code "ANITA10" it will give you a 10 % discount. Alltogether the order for the 4 battery holders and the storage case with discount and shipping came to $12.24. I selected the cheapest shipping (Ground) as I wasn't in any hurry and I didn't feel like digging in frozen dirt with a temperature of 10 degrees outside. They only took about a week to get here. Anyway, I don't work for Star and have not been paid to promote their products. I just thought I'd share my findings with the group. The only problem that I encountered was that the springs in the Whites battery holder did not want to make good contact with the bottom of the AA batteries sometimes. This was fixed by bending the last 1/4" of the spring coils at a right angle and slightly upward toward the center of the springs. Hooray - the battery check pegs the meter and it looks like it will be ready to go when the ground thaws outside.
Here is the link to that page on their website: http://www.starbatteries.com/csibaadforaa.html
Don't forget to enter the promotional code of ANITA10 for your 10% discount when you checkout.
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.
Glenn
This isn't something that I found WITH my detector. It's something I found FOR my detector.
I have an old Whites 5900 Di Pro (pre SL) that I bought new in 1986. It has the pipe for the wand riveted on the bottom of the box unlike the newer SL that has it on top. The original coil went bad and was replaced by Whites many years ago with a Blue Max 950. Unfortunately it has not had much use. I hope to change that in the near future. I was able to get out a few times this past year with my 7 year old daughter to the small parks in my neighborhood. Usually we find around $2.00 in clad everytime we go out. Occasionally we find other things like Hot Wheels Cars, bottle caps and the occasional pull tab. The money usually goes into her piggy bank unless we find something like a gold or platinum ring or a very old coin. We know when it's time to go home after about an hour of swinging it back and forth when my wrist gets tired since it doesn't have an arm cup like the newer models. I found that 3/4" copper pipe will fit nicely in the unused end of the wand tube at the back of the detector. I'm trying to come up with an arm cup for it and need to figure out a way of securing it to the box. (I don't like drilling holes to make mods.) I'll keep you posted on the progress of this project.
Now - on to the almost free batteries. My old 5900 uses a battery case that holds 4 size C batteries. It sure would be nice if I had some rechargeable to put in it. Of course you can always order the recharger($15) and battery pack ($35) from Whites, but I thought why not just buy 4 rechargeable size C batteries - until I saw the price. Then you need a special charger for them - hold onto your wallet. It would be cheaper to buy the kit from Whites. Then I remembered that a C battery and a AA battery were the same length so maybe I could drill out some 1" wooden dowels and make some size adapters to fit some of the nIMh AA batteries that I use around the house. They are pretty cheap and have a capacity of 2000mA and above. I think I bought a set of 4 with a charger at WalMart for around $14. They also don't have a memory like the old Ni-Cad batteries. Should be plenty of power for my old detector. Someone suggested that I look on the internet for upsizers. - - I said "Whats an upsizer?". It turns out that there are companies that make adapters that are like a sleeve that turn AA batteries into C or even D size batteries. Hmmmm. A quick search and I found several companies that sell them. The least expensive that I found was at Star Batteries. They have a pack of 4 that adapt size AA to size C for $8.32. They even accept PayPal. They also had a small plastic case used to store 4 AA batteries for only $1.39 (nothing like having an extra set when you are out in the boonies). It prevents them from shorting out in your pocket on all the gold coins that you have found while TH'ng
. I just hate having a HOT pocket. It happened once to me with a 9V battery a long time ago - OUCH.When I went to checkout my order with them I found a box to enter a promotional code for a discount. Nothing like free money. (Isn't that what we are all here for anyway?) Well, I opened up another browser and searched for "Star Batteries Promotional Code" and came up with a website for Anita Vacations. It turns out that if you order anything through Star Batteries and use the code "ANITA10" it will give you a 10 % discount. Alltogether the order for the 4 battery holders and the storage case with discount and shipping came to $12.24. I selected the cheapest shipping (Ground) as I wasn't in any hurry and I didn't feel like digging in frozen dirt with a temperature of 10 degrees outside. They only took about a week to get here. Anyway, I don't work for Star and have not been paid to promote their products. I just thought I'd share my findings with the group. The only problem that I encountered was that the springs in the Whites battery holder did not want to make good contact with the bottom of the AA batteries sometimes. This was fixed by bending the last 1/4" of the spring coils at a right angle and slightly upward toward the center of the springs. Hooray - the battery check pegs the meter and it looks like it will be ready to go when the ground thaws outside.
Here is the link to that page on their website: http://www.starbatteries.com/csibaadforaa.html
Don't forget to enter the promotional code of ANITA10 for your 10% discount when you checkout.
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.
Glenn
