Need Inf on Battery Charger for Fisher 555d/B

[Gen. Breckinridge]

I was lucky enough to win an old Fisher 555D/B on Ebay recently and need info on the charger (which wasn't part of the deal) for the detector. The wires from the charge jack go into a rats nest so tracing them would be a task to put it mildly. I have the manuals for the detector but it says nothing about voltage or polarity. Any help here would be appreciated.

The reason I bought such an old machine is the Fisher 555D was the first real detector I ever owned and it paid for itself many times over. Air testing proves that this one has excellent depth just like I remember on my original one (10" on a dime using an 8" coil). I believe under some conditions it will out hunt the modern machines. Test results will follow as weather and time permits.

 

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[Sandman]

I barely remember this detector. If you don't get any response here, try contacting Fisher, you might get lucky and your email is the one they will open that day. Good Luck.

 

[EasyMoney]

I remember a 555d, but wow that's a long time ago! The 440's and 550's and the original Garrett Deepseekers were the King of depth back then, often finding old crusty pennies 10-13 inches deep in high iron/salt soil in all-metal in the Puget Sound beaches of Washington State. The Fisher was more of a mining machine than the Garrett though..

I remember in about 1975 in Spokane, Washington a man pulling a Barber quarter out of the ground there up on the hill at the park near the flower gardens, in a pile of volcanic rock at 14" with a Fisher 440d (if I remember correctly) too. Boy was He happy!

I remember vaguely a 9v being used but can't remember if there was one or two of them. Most of those old horses only needed minimum power back then, so if there is only one lead (one red, and one black wire or one red and one white wire) it's probably a 9V that's needed. The batteries back then carried less power and therefore an older non-alkaline is what works best in those old machines. Fishers and Garretts seldom needed repairs at all. An alkaline might push too much current through it and burn up the input transformer on it in short order. Try the general purpose batteries that you buy at the dollar store for 2 9V for $1.

If you want to know more about it, contact Bowens Hideout in Spokane, Washington. They have sold Fishers for many many years, for 30 years or more. They used to sell those back then because I remember them being in their shop. Fishers were the most popular detector in that area because of all the mining done of silver, nickel, etc. It's great mining and mineral country, some of the best in the US.

Old man Bowen (if he's still alive) might remember what batteries worked in it, but I think the son is running the store now.

A charger for one would be real tough to find, because these modern chargers provide too much power for the older type batteries and internally might fry the transformer too.

Good luck, and HH.

EasyMoney

 

[Gen. Breckinridge]

Thanks for the input. The two rechargeable packs have 8 AA cells (9.6 volt per pack, 1.2 volts per cell) where the alkaline packs had only 6 AA cells per pack (9 volts, 1.5 volts per cell). Since both of my packs have new rechargeable batteries in them I'm going to measure the voltage at the charge socket and see if they are in series, or more likely parallel thus needing something like 10-12 volts for charging. I wrote to Fisher but so far no reply. This isn't rocket science so I believe by switching to the CHARGE position on the switch it should read the voltage needed (less a volt or so for overhead) that I need as charging voltage unless there is a diode in line. I'll report my findings here, news at eleven.
Ken

 

[EasyMoney]

That must be a later model than I remember. My memory could easily fail me but I thought that the 6 and 8 packs came about in the very late 70's when the Red Baron came out. Some people tried using AA's instead of the 9v and also sometimes ran into some very unpleasant results too. I've bought 3 older detectors that had that done to them and they got toasted.

This old man may well be mistaken in the dates of the battery switches to 8 and 6 packs, but if not, those later detectors needed a lot more current for the newer phase shift technology. If it's a stock item, then it is, and I need to refresh my memory. Thanks for the info.

Good luck with it and HH

EasyMoney

 

[U.K. Brian]

The 443 and 553-D then the later 555 all had the twin battery packs with individual battery test for each.
60 hour detecting time was claimed but I think I only got about 50 in the field.
Beautiful looking machines. Made the Garretts I had at the time look as though they had been knocked up out of old radio parts.

 

[Shooterman]

Great detecter goes real deep. Had 1 since it came and still use it in the water, deep gold ring with all metal and watch the needle twitch. Had the recharge system with mine and got rid of it just as fast, whyen the batteries go the just go, at least with AA's or 2 9V's you have some detector time left. If the battery test show 1 pack lower the the other that the audio pack, I would switch that pack with th T/R pack cause it take more power to run audio then T/R and I'd get a little more hunting time, later I just switched to 2 9V's. Won't get rid of mine.