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

First time with Sovereign Elite

Did you ever see the snowy white beach ?? Of course, metaldetecting postponed.

I arrived Saturday when I was already driving through 30minutes of dusty snow, but near the end of my drive it became Solid snow, all ovr the road. I almost had an accident because I couldn’t stop the car at the end of a road. And I’m already a very careful driver.. Next day there was just a lot of wind so I could go detecting.

First hunt with the Minelab Sovereign Elite and the Nel Thunder 14″ coil


I did 2hrs on the wet beach, mostly in De Panne where I found almost nothing except some scrap metal in the wet part.

Koksijde beach – high tide

In the afternoon we went to the West of Koksijde, where there’s a big cut. The upper side is a leftover from the storm months ago -I think, someone said they put the sand there on purpose but I didn’t see that- that blew all sand towards the city. Nothing there on the high sand (where bulldozer tracks went up and down), except on the edge that was closest to the water. It was almost high tide but despite the limited space between water and edge I found 2.70 euro and several dead sea urchins. They are quite rare here. Couldn’t stop myself from gathering a few 😀

On the second day, I went to Koksijde again, where the tide was low.. meaning: again I wasted one hour on the wet sand before I gathered my leftover dignity and again strolled toward the high tide line. At least 2x 2-euro coins and 1.7 euro ! And didn’t pay parking on week days 😀

Massive beach during low tide in Belgium – Koksijde

Some problems occured while detecting:

– I was walking with a ‘singing’ Sovereign for half an hour, thinking there is something wrong with sensitivity and then turning that down – which didn’t help AT ALL- before I tried the screw that connects the coil to the unit.. yup. It would help if i would turn the connector screw under the unit till the very end at the start of detecting. Lesson learned.

-Second day I was on my third stroll in the , and almost done when my battery started giving the high pitch, which means it’s almost empty. DOH. After 5.5 hrs of use ! I guess having the volume on max together with a loud threshold is the cause. In contrast with my oldest Sovereign, whose loudspeaker is too loud at its best, this Sovereign Elite needed its volume and treshold upped to the max because the wind and waves are too loud to get a good sound. I guess that’s draining the battery. I thought I’d be using the Elite without headphones, as I’m not a fan of that thing on my ears with glasses, but yeah.