Drudge
Full Member
- Nov 19, 2007
- 180
- 13
- Detector(s) used
- Minelab: eTrac, Excalibur II, Sovereign GT
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I dont remember hearing of this unit leaking or being unstable underwater so this article was a shocker to me.
By Alan Hassell
Since I posted test reports on the CZ20 and Impulse I have had numerous requests and some snide remarks accusing me of being biased amongst other things regarding remarks I said about the Excalibur.
It's amazing how many people didn't realise how many seals were fitted to the device. And had they known about it at the time of purchase would not have paid out for a machine that might leak. It was only after much deliberation that I decided to release this unpublished article so that you the buying public can judge for yourself. It is your hard earned money, what you spend it on is of no concern to myself. I earnt my living as a writer and treasure hunter, I do not stand to profit in anyway shape or form by submitting this article to the board. I am not a dealer, I am not motivated by greed anxious to grab your bucks in exchange for products used in this hobby, those I have met praise you when you write glowing reports about a product, and condem you when you dont.
Magazines rely on their advertisers who also happen to manufacture products, certain manufacturer's do influence some editor's into shelving reports that are contraversial. I call it corruption, it exists, because of your constitution everyone is entitled to free speech. This is only one man's opinion, you dont have to agree with it, but I beleive writer's should be responsible to people like you and inform them of the bad points as well as the good, I have therefore POSTED this article about the Ecalibur Affair.
Metal detecting in Shallow Water has come a long way and made many advances since I got into the water in 1980 with a modified Garret Master Hunter ADS floating on innertubes and 12 foot leads. In those days no underwater metal detector's were available so if you wanted to get into the water one had to improvise. In 1983 Miner's Den, Australia imported Pulse Technology's Aqua Pulse which introduced me to Pulse Induction metal detecting. I purchased that machine and still use it occasionaly when diviing. I am currently using what many consider to the the Ultimate beach machine, the Goldscan, imported from the UK.
This is the machine that is revolutionising the metal detecting scene in the UK right now owing to the fantastic depths and recovery rates. I still use my Whites PI3000 in the water, Several years ago, I had heard rumours that Minelab were going into the underwater market with a new machine they were developing. It was rumoured it would be a PI, I was promoting shallow water detecting at a rallie in 1990 with White's, UKs George McRae as a gesture of goodwill.
Back in the 80s a couple of guys started making detector's under the name Gold- Seeker. It was a reasonable detector in it's day and I featured it in many of my articles. I could say, I was instrumental in it's success in Australia. Don Mahoney, who also owned Miner's Den and Australian Gold Gem & Treasure Hunter Magazine bought Gold Seeker out. Once that happened, Miner's Den had a monopoly in the detector industry. America had anti trust laws, Australia had none. Eventually with a new machine Goldseeker was able to grab it's fair share of the Australian detector Market. Don later sold out to a company calling itself Minelab, it's new owner was a guy called Ron Wicketts. The factory is situated in Adelaide 1000 Kms from Melbourne. They have built a large and varied range of detectors and are used extensively on the goldfields.
I had phoned Ron Wicketts at Minelab, he was unavailable so I had a discussion with Minelabs, Byron Grey he informed me that the Excalibur as it was going to be called was designed for the American Market.
The circuitry was made in Australia and cases were made in the USA. Byron raved on about how great this new machine was and that someone had gone on a dive with one, disriminated out the side of a steel boat and found a port- hole. When I told him I'd quote him on that he suddenly started to retract what he had said. I find that just to hard to beleive just as many other knowlegable detectorist's will. I dont know if Byron knew who he was talking to but this guy must think some people are born under gooseberry bushes or yokels who know nothing about metal detectors. Give him his due though, he was doing his utmost to convince me about his magic machine.
Minelabs claim to fame was what they called their BBS system covering 17 frequencies in 1.5 Khz steps which was being used in their Sovereign detector. Byron went on to say, that it was this format that was going into the new machine. several prototypes had been made and were currently undergoing testing. Being a well known writer, having met Bruce Candy their designer and part owner in the Company the thought of myself writing a test report seemed a good idea. I was sent a copy of the instruction book and several colourful brochures to get some background material, as a detector was unavailable for testing at the time. In confidence Byron told me one had developed a leak during a dive and was being repaired. Several days later, the brochures arrived and I started to glean the contents.
Page 2 depicts this stunning blonde sheila holding whats supposed to be King Arthur's sword. One would have at least expected to see her holding a detector, let's face it that's what they are trying to promote. You finally see the detector, hidden in a puff of smoke leaning against her right leg. It was almost hidden away from view so you couldn't get a good look at it. It was implied that Just as King Arthur defeated all his foes with Excalibur, Minelabs Excalibur is going to conquer the World. These guys at Minelab certainly have a conceited, arrogant way in trying to mislead the buying public implying their detector has magical qualities by even attempting to compare it to Arthur's magical sword "Excalibur." I would have thought a name like the underwater sovereign which is what is was, was more fitting or something like the dolphin.
Anyway, I'll be fair and give you an advance run down of this new machine they have hastily dumped onto the Export market. At first sight it does appear to be the ants pants, a highly impressive unit at first glances. Like something out of Star Wars, it looks the part, even photographs well. However first glances and impressions have been known to be highly deceptive. The search rod, consists of a one piece arm rest, grip and extendable shaft, onto which the separate control and battery tubes are mounted. The control tube is manufactured from clear perspex sealed at each end with "O" rings. There are five controls, Discriminate level, Sensitivity, Volume, Threshold, and pin-point, all of which must be sealed with "O" rings to prevent leakage. 2 cables enter the base of the control box, one for the coil, another for the battery supply lead, which means more seals for each cable.
Another lead for the headphones comes out of the top of the control box. I hope your keeping a count on these seals because were up to an astonishing 11 seals so far including the headpones. Next comes the 12 volt interchangable Nicad Battery pack, made of similar material, this contains one seal at the top of the box and another which supplies power to the control box. Minelab claim you can get 10 hours use per charge, but they dont tell you, you have to disturb the connector in order to recharge the unit. The seal on this connector is the weak link in the chain. It is the one that gets disturbed the most and as such will probably be the first to break down and leak. The coil of course is waterproof but it requires a seal there too.
In all the Excalibur has 14 highly vulnerable points of leakage, Give them credit where it's due Minelab have succeeded in putting a land based metal detector into an underwater housing.
Crikey folks other manufacturer's have been doing this for 14 or more years, This is Minelabs first attempt.
Salt Water and electronics dont mix, once salt water contaminates a circuit board, sulphides continue to erode the copper tracks even after neutralising with Bicarbonate of Soda.
Copper sheilding inside the cables corrode and lose their conductivity and break down eventually. Only total replacement of PCBs cables and coils with brand new parts will ensure reliability.
This can be a very expensive time consuming excersise, especially if the machine has to be returned to Australia for service. Responsible manufacturer's such as White's, Fisher, Garret, Pulse Technology minimse their seals in their underwater metal detector's it appears that Minelab have really gone overboard on this one.
Maybe they're not as bright as they would like you to think they are after all. So much for the cosmetics, it looks great a fantastic conversation piece. However you might be the conversation piece once one of those seals fail. Further lengthy phone calls to Minelab in Adelaide about the seals and the way they were promoting the detector proved only only to be frustrating but I felt deep down Minelab were holding something back and were stalling in making one of these so called Wonder machines available for testing. I even Challenged them to a duel on the beach with one, they use their magic wand, I'll use my Goldscan. That offer was rejected.
I was stuck with a half written report about a dubious machine, we were in the middle of a recession, Minelab had flooded and saturated the market with it's other products and bankruptcy rumors were going around regarding Minelab. Development costs of a new product can be quite high when one considers this was a joint USA, Australian project. Getting the Excalibur on the market could be Minelabs saviour creating cashflow with an untried, untested, machine, that they were implying had magical qualities. The Brochure said it all, if that wasn't evidence, of false misleading advertising, misrepresenting a product by implying it had magical qualities, then the Poor American members of the general buying public must be a load of suckers if they fall for it. I am not a loser, and refuse to be beaten, a problem had come up where I was anxious to get a preview out on this machine. I couldn't lay my hads on one, Ian Aitken of Miner's Den had one and he wasn't going to make it available for me. He is employed by Minelab and they have the Monopoly. While I was at the Miner's Den I did take the opportunity to test it out on my Gold sovereign ring. The same ring I had used to do extentsive tests on the CZ20 which I had reviewed together with an Impulse. The CZ20 had a four inch in air depth advantage it was discovered after going over my records. This is a test any of you can do and is one I suggest you apply whenever trying to find a detector suitable for your own use.
Byron Gray had told me it was a Sovereign built into an underwater housing. It just so happened that a friend of mine had just won one in a competition. We agreed to meet an one of our most heavily contaminated beaches notorious for black sands. He used the Sovereign I used my Goldscan, at first I would follow the sovereign and detect the targets that the sovereign picked up. This proved to be a bit of a bore, so then we reversed the situation. to see if the sovereign could pick up the targets that I detected with the Goldscan.
To prove it was a genuine target I would dig that target up. Whilst the Sovereign was capable of detecting shallow targets, it missed the deeper ones that I could detect with the Goldscan. Perhaps this test was a bit unfair, let's face it, it's not a goldscan and not in the same league as what Minelab were trying to imply about this great new machine of theirs.
PIs unlike VLFs are unaffected by black magnetic sands and have far greater depth penetration. A VLFs coil pattern will flatten out the field put out by the coil reducing penetration. The way I see it though if your going to spends heaps of bread on a given machine you would at least expect it to be able to find those gold rings at similar depths to other detectors, wouldn't you? Back to the Sovereign/Excalibur, it does have a discriminator.
However, the disadvantage with discriminator's is you lose depth and targets if you use them. On the Goldfields, we dont use discriminators, likewise on the beach if you want to find gold rings you have to dig every target. The Sovereign, like the Excalibur, is highly prone to electrical interference. The instruction book suggests you move to another area. Crikey there could be a fortune of goodies on a beach and you cant work it owing to interference. Sounds good Minelab. The small print in the instruction book and warranty says. We strongly recommend that you return your Excalibur to your dealer for service on an annual basis to ensure it maintains it's water-tight integrity. There it was in Black and White in Minelabs very own Instruction book.
They knew all along that putting an underwater metal detector on the market with 14 seals was a high risk business. They included that statement in the Warranty to cover themselves in the event a flooded machine was returned. No other manufacturer makes statements like this, I smell a rat. The Excalibur can be used in either dive or wade configurations.
Summing up the Excalibur is a very attractive well presented detector. It could be classed as a good all rounder for use on the beach as well as the wet sands. However in my mind those 14 seals are a constant concern and worry. Seals have been known to break down at the least expected moment. Were there only four to a maximum of seven It would not have concerned me one little bit, but we are talking about the weak link in what appears to be an otherwise really professional unit giving credit where it's due. If your serious about trying to find gold rings then at least have a good look around to see what's available for the money you are going to spend. There are machines more suited to the task, that dont claim to have magically qualities and have far greater depth penetration powers essential for the recovery of those deeper rings. If you dont have the most powerful machine available for less money then you will be walking over them, letting someone else find them instead of yourself.
This article was submitted for publication, it probably ended up in the trash can because I was trying to inform you the members of the buying public about a certain product. Manufacturer's being leading advertiser's spend heaps of bucks with those magazines, as such they can and often will use their influence to silence the truth. I call it corruption. Dealers are motivated by money and greed. I am not, I am motivated by the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. You, are my readers, the same people who buy and use the products I write about. I have a responsibility to you to inform you of the truth. If I didn't,I would not only be failing you but also myself and I have to live with that.
At the end of the day, it makes no difference what I write, it is entirely up to you to decide for yourself, it's your hard earned money spend it wisely. it's only one man's opinion, perhaps yours is different to mine. As a result of the introduction of the Excalibur Minelab were able to get import tarifs introduce on imported machines increasing the retail price by 20% Making far superior imported machines more expensive, giving Minelab a price advantage and it is you, the buying public that pays in the long run, I call it exploiting the buying public and it stinks. Just as the television program, "WATCHDOG" exposes exploitation of the buying public I am only doing the same. It's no longer a case of BUYER BEWARE when you are informed.
By Alan Hassell
Since I posted test reports on the CZ20 and Impulse I have had numerous requests and some snide remarks accusing me of being biased amongst other things regarding remarks I said about the Excalibur.
It's amazing how many people didn't realise how many seals were fitted to the device. And had they known about it at the time of purchase would not have paid out for a machine that might leak. It was only after much deliberation that I decided to release this unpublished article so that you the buying public can judge for yourself. It is your hard earned money, what you spend it on is of no concern to myself. I earnt my living as a writer and treasure hunter, I do not stand to profit in anyway shape or form by submitting this article to the board. I am not a dealer, I am not motivated by greed anxious to grab your bucks in exchange for products used in this hobby, those I have met praise you when you write glowing reports about a product, and condem you when you dont.
Magazines rely on their advertisers who also happen to manufacture products, certain manufacturer's do influence some editor's into shelving reports that are contraversial. I call it corruption, it exists, because of your constitution everyone is entitled to free speech. This is only one man's opinion, you dont have to agree with it, but I beleive writer's should be responsible to people like you and inform them of the bad points as well as the good, I have therefore POSTED this article about the Ecalibur Affair.
Metal detecting in Shallow Water has come a long way and made many advances since I got into the water in 1980 with a modified Garret Master Hunter ADS floating on innertubes and 12 foot leads. In those days no underwater metal detector's were available so if you wanted to get into the water one had to improvise. In 1983 Miner's Den, Australia imported Pulse Technology's Aqua Pulse which introduced me to Pulse Induction metal detecting. I purchased that machine and still use it occasionaly when diviing. I am currently using what many consider to the the Ultimate beach machine, the Goldscan, imported from the UK.
This is the machine that is revolutionising the metal detecting scene in the UK right now owing to the fantastic depths and recovery rates. I still use my Whites PI3000 in the water, Several years ago, I had heard rumours that Minelab were going into the underwater market with a new machine they were developing. It was rumoured it would be a PI, I was promoting shallow water detecting at a rallie in 1990 with White's, UKs George McRae as a gesture of goodwill.
Back in the 80s a couple of guys started making detector's under the name Gold- Seeker. It was a reasonable detector in it's day and I featured it in many of my articles. I could say, I was instrumental in it's success in Australia. Don Mahoney, who also owned Miner's Den and Australian Gold Gem & Treasure Hunter Magazine bought Gold Seeker out. Once that happened, Miner's Den had a monopoly in the detector industry. America had anti trust laws, Australia had none. Eventually with a new machine Goldseeker was able to grab it's fair share of the Australian detector Market. Don later sold out to a company calling itself Minelab, it's new owner was a guy called Ron Wicketts. The factory is situated in Adelaide 1000 Kms from Melbourne. They have built a large and varied range of detectors and are used extensively on the goldfields.
I had phoned Ron Wicketts at Minelab, he was unavailable so I had a discussion with Minelabs, Byron Grey he informed me that the Excalibur as it was going to be called was designed for the American Market.
The circuitry was made in Australia and cases were made in the USA. Byron raved on about how great this new machine was and that someone had gone on a dive with one, disriminated out the side of a steel boat and found a port- hole. When I told him I'd quote him on that he suddenly started to retract what he had said. I find that just to hard to beleive just as many other knowlegable detectorist's will. I dont know if Byron knew who he was talking to but this guy must think some people are born under gooseberry bushes or yokels who know nothing about metal detectors. Give him his due though, he was doing his utmost to convince me about his magic machine.
Minelabs claim to fame was what they called their BBS system covering 17 frequencies in 1.5 Khz steps which was being used in their Sovereign detector. Byron went on to say, that it was this format that was going into the new machine. several prototypes had been made and were currently undergoing testing. Being a well known writer, having met Bruce Candy their designer and part owner in the Company the thought of myself writing a test report seemed a good idea. I was sent a copy of the instruction book and several colourful brochures to get some background material, as a detector was unavailable for testing at the time. In confidence Byron told me one had developed a leak during a dive and was being repaired. Several days later, the brochures arrived and I started to glean the contents.
Page 2 depicts this stunning blonde sheila holding whats supposed to be King Arthur's sword. One would have at least expected to see her holding a detector, let's face it that's what they are trying to promote. You finally see the detector, hidden in a puff of smoke leaning against her right leg. It was almost hidden away from view so you couldn't get a good look at it. It was implied that Just as King Arthur defeated all his foes with Excalibur, Minelabs Excalibur is going to conquer the World. These guys at Minelab certainly have a conceited, arrogant way in trying to mislead the buying public implying their detector has magical qualities by even attempting to compare it to Arthur's magical sword "Excalibur." I would have thought a name like the underwater sovereign which is what is was, was more fitting or something like the dolphin.
Anyway, I'll be fair and give you an advance run down of this new machine they have hastily dumped onto the Export market. At first sight it does appear to be the ants pants, a highly impressive unit at first glances. Like something out of Star Wars, it looks the part, even photographs well. However first glances and impressions have been known to be highly deceptive. The search rod, consists of a one piece arm rest, grip and extendable shaft, onto which the separate control and battery tubes are mounted. The control tube is manufactured from clear perspex sealed at each end with "O" rings. There are five controls, Discriminate level, Sensitivity, Volume, Threshold, and pin-point, all of which must be sealed with "O" rings to prevent leakage. 2 cables enter the base of the control box, one for the coil, another for the battery supply lead, which means more seals for each cable.
Another lead for the headphones comes out of the top of the control box. I hope your keeping a count on these seals because were up to an astonishing 11 seals so far including the headpones. Next comes the 12 volt interchangable Nicad Battery pack, made of similar material, this contains one seal at the top of the box and another which supplies power to the control box. Minelab claim you can get 10 hours use per charge, but they dont tell you, you have to disturb the connector in order to recharge the unit. The seal on this connector is the weak link in the chain. It is the one that gets disturbed the most and as such will probably be the first to break down and leak. The coil of course is waterproof but it requires a seal there too.
In all the Excalibur has 14 highly vulnerable points of leakage, Give them credit where it's due Minelab have succeeded in putting a land based metal detector into an underwater housing.
Crikey folks other manufacturer's have been doing this for 14 or more years, This is Minelabs first attempt.
Salt Water and electronics dont mix, once salt water contaminates a circuit board, sulphides continue to erode the copper tracks even after neutralising with Bicarbonate of Soda.
Copper sheilding inside the cables corrode and lose their conductivity and break down eventually. Only total replacement of PCBs cables and coils with brand new parts will ensure reliability.
This can be a very expensive time consuming excersise, especially if the machine has to be returned to Australia for service. Responsible manufacturer's such as White's, Fisher, Garret, Pulse Technology minimse their seals in their underwater metal detector's it appears that Minelab have really gone overboard on this one.
Maybe they're not as bright as they would like you to think they are after all. So much for the cosmetics, it looks great a fantastic conversation piece. However you might be the conversation piece once one of those seals fail. Further lengthy phone calls to Minelab in Adelaide about the seals and the way they were promoting the detector proved only only to be frustrating but I felt deep down Minelab were holding something back and were stalling in making one of these so called Wonder machines available for testing. I even Challenged them to a duel on the beach with one, they use their magic wand, I'll use my Goldscan. That offer was rejected.
I was stuck with a half written report about a dubious machine, we were in the middle of a recession, Minelab had flooded and saturated the market with it's other products and bankruptcy rumors were going around regarding Minelab. Development costs of a new product can be quite high when one considers this was a joint USA, Australian project. Getting the Excalibur on the market could be Minelabs saviour creating cashflow with an untried, untested, machine, that they were implying had magical qualities. The Brochure said it all, if that wasn't evidence, of false misleading advertising, misrepresenting a product by implying it had magical qualities, then the Poor American members of the general buying public must be a load of suckers if they fall for it. I am not a loser, and refuse to be beaten, a problem had come up where I was anxious to get a preview out on this machine. I couldn't lay my hads on one, Ian Aitken of Miner's Den had one and he wasn't going to make it available for me. He is employed by Minelab and they have the Monopoly. While I was at the Miner's Den I did take the opportunity to test it out on my Gold sovereign ring. The same ring I had used to do extentsive tests on the CZ20 which I had reviewed together with an Impulse. The CZ20 had a four inch in air depth advantage it was discovered after going over my records. This is a test any of you can do and is one I suggest you apply whenever trying to find a detector suitable for your own use.
Byron Gray had told me it was a Sovereign built into an underwater housing. It just so happened that a friend of mine had just won one in a competition. We agreed to meet an one of our most heavily contaminated beaches notorious for black sands. He used the Sovereign I used my Goldscan, at first I would follow the sovereign and detect the targets that the sovereign picked up. This proved to be a bit of a bore, so then we reversed the situation. to see if the sovereign could pick up the targets that I detected with the Goldscan.
To prove it was a genuine target I would dig that target up. Whilst the Sovereign was capable of detecting shallow targets, it missed the deeper ones that I could detect with the Goldscan. Perhaps this test was a bit unfair, let's face it, it's not a goldscan and not in the same league as what Minelab were trying to imply about this great new machine of theirs.
PIs unlike VLFs are unaffected by black magnetic sands and have far greater depth penetration. A VLFs coil pattern will flatten out the field put out by the coil reducing penetration. The way I see it though if your going to spends heaps of bread on a given machine you would at least expect it to be able to find those gold rings at similar depths to other detectors, wouldn't you? Back to the Sovereign/Excalibur, it does have a discriminator.
However, the disadvantage with discriminator's is you lose depth and targets if you use them. On the Goldfields, we dont use discriminators, likewise on the beach if you want to find gold rings you have to dig every target. The Sovereign, like the Excalibur, is highly prone to electrical interference. The instruction book suggests you move to another area. Crikey there could be a fortune of goodies on a beach and you cant work it owing to interference. Sounds good Minelab. The small print in the instruction book and warranty says. We strongly recommend that you return your Excalibur to your dealer for service on an annual basis to ensure it maintains it's water-tight integrity. There it was in Black and White in Minelabs very own Instruction book.
They knew all along that putting an underwater metal detector on the market with 14 seals was a high risk business. They included that statement in the Warranty to cover themselves in the event a flooded machine was returned. No other manufacturer makes statements like this, I smell a rat. The Excalibur can be used in either dive or wade configurations.
Summing up the Excalibur is a very attractive well presented detector. It could be classed as a good all rounder for use on the beach as well as the wet sands. However in my mind those 14 seals are a constant concern and worry. Seals have been known to break down at the least expected moment. Were there only four to a maximum of seven It would not have concerned me one little bit, but we are talking about the weak link in what appears to be an otherwise really professional unit giving credit where it's due. If your serious about trying to find gold rings then at least have a good look around to see what's available for the money you are going to spend. There are machines more suited to the task, that dont claim to have magically qualities and have far greater depth penetration powers essential for the recovery of those deeper rings. If you dont have the most powerful machine available for less money then you will be walking over them, letting someone else find them instead of yourself.
This article was submitted for publication, it probably ended up in the trash can because I was trying to inform you the members of the buying public about a certain product. Manufacturer's being leading advertiser's spend heaps of bucks with those magazines, as such they can and often will use their influence to silence the truth. I call it corruption. Dealers are motivated by money and greed. I am not, I am motivated by the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. You, are my readers, the same people who buy and use the products I write about. I have a responsibility to you to inform you of the truth. If I didn't,I would not only be failing you but also myself and I have to live with that.
At the end of the day, it makes no difference what I write, it is entirely up to you to decide for yourself, it's your hard earned money spend it wisely. it's only one man's opinion, perhaps yours is different to mine. As a result of the introduction of the Excalibur Minelab were able to get import tarifs introduce on imported machines increasing the retail price by 20% Making far superior imported machines more expensive, giving Minelab a price advantage and it is you, the buying public that pays in the long run, I call it exploiting the buying public and it stinks. Just as the television program, "WATCHDOG" exposes exploitation of the buying public I am only doing the same. It's no longer a case of BUYER BEWARE when you are informed.
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Raoul
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