Sovereign DTI 550 meter issue

[MrNelson]

So I was thinking of using my DTI 550 meter tomorrow for some inland hunting while waiting on low tide and the display reads -000 no matter what i wave by coil. Unable to calibrate it or anything.. just reads 000 and -000. I do mostly beach hunting but would love to branch out to relic and coin hunting and would be nice if i could get it to work. I've opened it up and all the wires seem to be intact and soldered correctly. No signs of corrosion anywhere. There's an adjustment screw on the circuit board of the lcd, but i didn't want to mess with it until i posted here. Thanks in advance!

 

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[jeff of pa]

for all intents & purposes I'd say it's dead.
this is what happened to 2 of mine.

a Member here offered to try & fix one or or both if I send them to him.
after many calls from him explaining his actions the calls eventually stopped.
it is probably close to a year now & nothing, meaning he was never able to fix one.

the things I do remember him saying was the wiring in the cord was so below standards
he replaced it, & last i heard the Chinese company that made the component for the screen stopped making them & promised to send him
one, or some they had left.

as I said all communication has stopped, so I'm taking it he heard me when I said, If they can't be fixed,
just dispose

 

[MrNelson]

dang, oh well. i figured and hoped if it displayed anything even 000's it could be fixed. It'll just go in the closet in my random electronics graveyard i guess.

 

[jeff of pa]

I see them for sale on occasion, on ebay but they usually run around $100.00
which even though I really want a 550 ; in my opinion $100.-- is 20 times their value
considering you don't know if it died already, or will die the moment you plug it in.

I'd probably pay $75 for a new unused one, But not till after it's installed on my sovereign & set to 550

 

[jeff of pa]

3 overpriced ones in the UK now
sovereign meter | eBay