Which cable for Minelab and Wire diagrams



What cable to buy for Minelab Excalibur or Sovereign coil (and possible all other metaldetector coils) ?
Most coils only have 4 wires so I have these two:

4 wire 20AWG 4×0.5mm² Aliexpress

The other one I ordered from a Dutch store because I had to wait for (much)more than a month on Aliexpress. This second cable is 20awg 5×0.5mm². The wires are thinner so this label of 0.5mm²doesn’t make much sense.
Make sure you have the flexible version !!! These have several very thin small copper wires inside, and don’t buy a solid-copper-wire type because then you will have a long stiff cable. You should be able to tell the type from the photo.

Wire diagrams for Minelab Excalibur and Sovereign metaldetector and coils (from Old Beechnut and other sources):

Wire schemes for Minelab Excalibur and several coils

Fixing broken connectors on Sovereign

Minelab Sovereign detectors are bulky and old, but the good thing is that you have repair options. Keeping mah money and fixing it myself. Ha !

Wire diagrams for Minelab Sovereign and Excalibur

If your detector is making different beeps whilst not going over metal, but it does so consistently when moving the cable or connector, the problem is probably the cable or connector. Whatever moves is causing it.
2) Also can mean some water went in and gives a false signal because the electric signal goes where it shouldn’t go. Or option 3, the wires that are soldered inside the connector (6-pin with Sovereign) can have loosened up. Also had this problem with my very old Sovereign: after a while it started beeping at every swing. As I opened the end-of-coil connector, one of the 5 metal parts on the inside that are soldered to the wires simply fell off. Oops. Those are quite easy to fix. Just need a new 6-pin connector.

Fixing broken wire comes in two parts: figure out where it goes wrong, and then cutting that bit out and soldering cables back together. Don’t forget the shrink tube before you solder :p You can look up how to solder wires together on youtube.

Which connectors for Minelab Sovereign and Minelab Excalibur coils ?

Here are the metal versions of the 6-pin connector for the Minelab coils that go with Excalibur (if you modded it to use interchangeable coils) and Sovereigns. I guess they are as non-waterproof as the ones I have. Thinking I could have waterproof connectors for cheaps, I bought plastic connectors via a Chinese website but they are dodgy as hell. They are probably not waterproof and even if they are, you can just bend the connector and it will break open due to the weak plastic screw threads. So if you want it waterproof, for example to have interchangeable coils for your Excalibur, then you might want to look at other solutions like truly waterproof 4-pin connectors. Most coils only use four wires so there is no actual need for a 6-pin connector. The disadvantage is that you will have to change the connectors for every coil/detector you want to use but if you stick with them, I don’t see it as a problem.

Note that you look at the position of the pins. Some 6-pins are arranged differently.

Open up the connector that you have, and don’t forget to write down the number of pin that each wire is connected to. It’s faster to make a few photos but trust me, you don’t always see it very well on photo afterwards. I did that without writing down and then had to rely on photos, and it was really hard to see.

The original connector on the Tornado 1000 coil.
The Tornado 1000 coil when I bought it. The dog had eaten the coil cable and the guy then replaced it with the cable that sits at the end of the meter of the Sovereign Elite.
Wire diagram for the Minelab digital target ID meter