Minelab Excalibur / Team Orcasound Headphone Mod

[Treasure_Hunter]

I installed the Team Orcasound headphones on my Excal this evening, and they work great.

Now for me these headphones have a lot of volume, nice tones, a comfortable fit and they appear to block out all outside noise, should be great at the beach…. I believe they will work great in the water, just havent had a chance to get to the beach yet....

The wiring in the Excals have changed over the course of the years, this Excal was manufactured after 2005 based on the coil wiring when I spliced on my WOT coil.

Here is the wiring scheme I used tonight on my Excal……
Excal Orcasound
Red Red
Black Black
White White
Yellow Green

These are the steps I used…
The Orcasound has 2 stranded non insulated ground wires; these I twisted together, covered with heat shrink tubing and spared them back.

I soldered each splice; I then used liquid tape on the splices, then covered each splice with heat shrink tubing and sealed the ends with liquid tape. I did this for all 4 splices.

I then covered the splice with a piece of heat shrink, liquid tape, then added another piece of heat shrink this one being longer then the first one. In the last tube I included 3 pieces of zip ties at the splice point, equally spaced around the splice in different locations to add strength to the point of splice. I then covered the last heat shrink in liquid tape, and then 5 coats of spray on Plasti-Dip to ensure it is waterproofed….……


Orcasound Headphones Cable Wires........

Excal Headphones Cable Wires.........

Excal / Orcasound Splice after the solder And Liquid Tape Was Added

At this point I put heat shring tubing over the wires and then sealed it with liquid tape

I Covered The Splice With Insulation Cut Off An Old Piece of Extension Cable, Then Added 2 Layers Of Heat Shrink With Strength Members Between the 2 Layers

Splice After The Final Coat Of Plasti-Dip......(Total Of 5 Spray On Coats)

The Final Product

 

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[OBN]

Nice Job on the install, by far easier then breaking the pod open, and just as good as if you did. ......thanks for sharing..joe

 

[firstbiggestmost]

Real nice job, good pictures too.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

How's the Head-Band portion of the headphones?

They kinda look like you bend / "Mold" them yourself into the shape that you want.

how the adjustability? in comparison to the Yellow Phones.. where the yellow ones slide up and down for a proper fitting..

are these more or less the same style as the "Excal- Blue" style phones?

Inquiring minds wanna know...

How do they compare to the GG water phones..

Splice looks great..

Head band is rigid, but can be formed some. They are adjustible like the yellow head phones, there is more then enough adjustibility to fit my big fat head.

I have never used the GG water headphones, but do have GG Ultimate, Black Widows, and Rat phones and in my opinion are as good as if not better.

I have tried them at my house, but not in the water, they are very comfortable on, and block out all outside noise, and lots of volume with good tones on the gold and silver I tested them on.....That is about the most I can report at the moment....

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I like the Cable support on them.. That's a +

did they have to be spliced?

or could they be direct connected?

Not sure of your question. The cable support came installed on the headphones.

I did decide to leave the cable that came with the Orcasound longer on the end rather then splice it at both curly ends. It was a pain in the butt just splicing it with one curly end and getting a nice strong splice point....Like the last splice the strongest point of the cable is the splice point...........I also like the extra length............

 

[syko]

cool........with all the changes you put on it, that thing should be called Excal 2.5

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Yes. I like the cable support that comes with the Orca headphones... It's not.. like the standard Excal headphones with just a wire going into the headphones...
without support.



my question.. would you be able to use the Existing Excalibur headphone cord... and just wire the Orca headphones..

Meaning... disconnect the yellow headphones..

and fish the wire through the Orca headphones and connect.. without having a splice.

You would have to talk to Nikolay about that, I did not try to take mine apart. I am not sure how they are sealed inside to be waterproofed, but I imagine it is possible, after all your good at doing custom mods.....

I find it easier to splice the cable, and not worry about leaks in the controls or headsets. I am 1000% sure the splice is strong and waterproof, with the liquid tape, 2 layers of heat shrink, the added strength support I put in and then the 5 coats of Plasti-Dip, the last place it will ever break or leak is the splice........................

 

[Sandman]

Very nice shots of the wiring and splice. I like the improvement to the Excal.

 

[HawaiiMDer]

Hey this is a awesome mod not only for the orca headphones but any underwater headphones. Great job on the instructions and the pictures. Definately going to add this to my favorites!!!! Again great job!!!!

HH


Ken

 

[The Bulgarian]

Yes. I like the cable support that comes with the Orca headphones... It's not.. like the standard Excal headphones with just a wire going into the headphones...
without support.



my question.. would you be able to use the Existing Excalibur headphone cord... and just wire the Orca headphones..

Meaning... disconnect the yellow headphones..

and fish the wire through the Orca headphones and connect.. without having a splice.

No my friend it is impossible.
You can try also this:

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Got out and gave the TeamOrca Headphones a good work out today.

I am very happy with them, blocks out all the wind, can barely hear the surf, (it was rough today), and if there is a conversation right next to me, I can hear it, but can't really undersand it....Comfortable, and I especially linke the head band that hold them on..............

Bulgarian good job my friend

 

[The Bulgarian]

Got out and gave the TeamOrca Headphones a good work out today.

I am very happy with them, blocks out all the wind, can barely hear the surf, (it was rough today), and if there is a conversation right next to me, I can hear it, but can't really undersand it....Comfortable, and I especially linke the had band that hold them on..............

Bulgarian good job my friend

Thank you Sir.