Momentary discrimination switch for CZ?

I may be able to figure this out in time, but thought I'd ask in case someone else has already been there...

I get iron fatigue in some areas I hunt with the CZ6a/CZ3d and so find myself using disc on "1" and when finding a good repeatable target, will then switch back to "0" to test for iron. It's a little unhandy switching the disc knob so have concidered adding a toggle switch to put the detector back in disc "0" using a momentary switch. Has anyone done this or know enough about the circuit to do so? It seems it would not be too difficult to do.

Honestly don't have any knowledge or play with the insides of a CZ, however switching the disc. knob seems to me to be very easy on analog CZ's, however on digitals it would be a problem.
Caution if your unit is still under warranty imagine it would kill the warranty....Perhaps some of our learned members may have an answer for you but to me a click of the switch is just about as easy as it gets. Good luck in getting an answer and not being picky just practical...

No problem with warranty... it's an older CZ6a with several mods already. I like the AT Pro's ability to turn on/off the iron audio with the push of a button and having to do so by twisting a knob with your thumb and hoping it only clicks one position on the CZ is a bit tricky at times. With a momentary "on" toggle attached to the underside of the stem, I could quickly turn on and off the "disc 0" while in "disc 1" with my trigger finger.

Here's a remedy.........Use an f-75 for a while on 0 disc and you will think the cz is a church mouse, in high iron. I try stay out of high iron with the cz, and grab the 75.

I leave the disc on zero when running the cz because I DO want to know where the iron is. That way when it falses (usually iron just outside the coil) hearing the iron, I understand why.

When using disc at one, the cz turns off the low tone, and you will be in in a constant adrenalin rush, chasing the high tone falses with no low tones in the mix. The iron tones keep me calm, so to speak, verses all falses. I'm talking specifically old coin hunting.

I see your reasoning, but I wouldn't go through the trouble to install a toggle.....that's just my personal reasoning.

I guess this is related to your earlier quest for reduced iron volume?
This time, the solution IS easy , I think. I've just had a look at the CZ5 circuit (which you have still, I assume), and the switch that controls Disc 0,1,2 etc is a 3-pole switch? I'm not familiar with the innards of the machine, so some work from you is needed here. The switches shown on the cct as U12,U13,U4 appear to be one switch? But U4 seems to be in the meter circuitry, so could that be left alone? I reckon with a 2PCO switch, of the biased type, it can be done. If a 4PCO switch is needed, I don't know if biased momentary types are available, though it's possible.
Edit: An alternative is to use a miniature 2PCO (or 4PCO) relay to do the switching, and the changeover can be controlled by a push-button, or a smaller switch.
Regardless, what needs to be switched is the signal coming from "position 1", which need to be switched from "position 1" to "position 0".
See what you think, I guess I probably need to email some sketches to you.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2014 04:20PM by Pimento.

You know what would be really cool. If the CZ could have had the option where the low tone iron tone is on one channel, and the other tones on another ( similar to the 'mixed mode' setting on the Whites machines). That way, the iron tone could be in one ear of the headphones and the mid and highs in the other ear. You could then control the volume of the tones via the volume knobs on the headphones.

I can see advantages to being able to switch from 1 to 0 via an easier way such as a trigger, so you don't have to keep turning the knob or pushing a button ( in the case of the digital CZ's).

I always hunt in 0 regardless if there is no iron or tons of it....guess I am used to it by now. Especially when I hunt in iron and keep hearing all those low tones and then a high tone repeatable in all that mess stops me in my tracks and I think SILVER !

Thanks for the input fellows. I can usually figure out how to work mechanical switches, it's when I get involved in electronics that I roll off the log. Being that I think this can be done mechanically, with a toggle switch of sorts, I can "see" what's going on. I have problems trying to understand things that I can't "see"... electronic components that do things with electrons, so to speak.

I've had my CZ6a apart more times than I'd care to count and the disc control is mechanical with several resistors for higher discrimination as you switch from "0" position and around to full disc. I looked at it once but don't remember what I decided at the time. I'll take it apart and have a look see again. Hopefully it won't be too involved. I'd still like to use a straight shaft instead of the "S" shaped shaft, and may do both mods togather if the toggle switch is possible.

Pimento... I was never able to get the iron tone volumn to work. Just don't have enough understanding of electronics at this time to accomplish the task, so this mod will have to do instead. Thank you so much for helping with the wireless transmitter mod. I have been hoping for 2 or 3 years that Fisher would release an upgraded CZ, but looks like I'll be dead by the time they do anything, if at all, so I just keep modding along to make my detector do what I want it to. So far, I have an internal wireless headphone transmitter in it, have had Tom convert it to a CZ3d and have added the 4th tone for foil that the conversion doesn't do. I really need to pick up a 5 and 8 inch coil for this and wish I had bought the ones on here a few days ago that were for sale. I'm stuck with the 10.5" coil which I use at the beach, but most of my hunting is dry land since I'm 400 miles from the ocean.

I'll try to post results as I go along just in case anyone else wishes to try it. I'm half fast when it comes to these things so it may take a while.

Other than some poor photos of a "CZ something-or-other" on Geotech1, I've never seen the internals. You need to work out if that "0,1,2,3,4" switch is a two-pole or 4-pole (even if only 3 poles are used). Then we can sort out which terminals are which. If I'm right about the meter circuitry, do you still want the meter to work properly when you "trigger-switch" into "0" setting? If you don't the project becomes simpler, I think.
Edit: This would almost certainly work, though other solutions may be simpler..:
[uk.rs-online.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2014 09:12PM by Pimento.

I'll let you know what I find after I take it apart at work. I don't think that the meter will be important as I only use it for depth readings anyway, and when the trigger switch will be pulled, I'm just listening to see if there's iron in the mix. I may put a small LED inside while at it for night hunting. I looked at this before and it will have to be put around the edge of the meter face, and maybe use more than one. I'll try different colors to see what works best in the dark. The transmitter inside has a tiny LED but it's mounted so that I don't get much illumination to the front of the meter.

connortn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have been hoping for
> 2 or 3 years that Fisher would release an upgraded
> CZ, but looks like I'll be dead by the time they
> do anything, if at all

I feel the exact same way. Think about what Fisher/FT has in the F75 design (or the new F19), and why they could not retro fit the dual frequency, concentric coil, simplicity features of a CZ into one of those bodies ? I know you can set up an F75 to run similar to a CZ, tone wise, but there is no DUAL FREQUENCY and it is no where near as good on the salt water beaches like the CZ. The CZ may not be great on small gold in the wet salt sand ( and what detector really is), but it is very stable and I can crank it up with no worries and it goes DEEP.

Sign...just venting again about why there isn't a new CZ in a lighter body.

I agree completely rover61. If they're waiting for it to be perfect, they need to remember that "perfect" is unobtainable. Whatever you build today, in a few years there is going to be something "better". All you're looking at is opportunity lost. Doesn't help to have the best mouse trap in the world if it sits on the bench while hoping/wanting to make it better. You'll wake up one day and see the market flooded with something that works just as good and has made someone else a lot of money.