MD3080 revisited

[GibH]

I just bought one for giggles. It was cheap enough, 200 shipped new. It is the same detector sold as the Cobra Beach Magnet. I know there is an older thread here discussing it, but I thought I would try and get a newer take on it.

My thoughts so far, a depth demon it ain't. It seems to pick up most objects at about 6" or less. After testing it out in the yard, I can say the discrimination actually works. I've seen people write that using any disc at all and it kills any depth. I found that turning the disc up to about 5 and it gives a broken signal on ferrous metals without loss of depth on gold or coins. AS I said before, not really a depth demon anyway.

The specs I've seen have said it operates at 12.5khz, but the manual says 2.4khz. I don't have the equipment to say one way or the other, but I know with the $50 MD6000 I tried from Wallyworld last year, you had to shove a gold ring in the hole of the coil to pick it up. It was 2.4.

The 10" appears to be joke. It doesn't pick up anything until well inside the outer ring. I haven't tried it in the water yet, but will do some tests in both brackish and salt water and see what happens. I'll post the findings here. The purpose here is to see if there is a cheap alternative for people who have limited funds to get started water detecting. The MD6000/MD9600 is an absolute waste and was overpriced at $50 wallyworld sold them for. It only cost me $.99 ship to home to find it out.

Kind of a weird set up. It's heavy and not well balanced. If I keep it, I will drill some holes in the s-rod and add a spring clip to the lower rod. Right now the lower rod just slides in and it has a twist lock to tighten down on it. It will also be easy enough to make a hip mount for it.

[U.K. Brian]

Same set up/control box as the Beach Magnet (which is a 12.5 khz machine) but yours is a 2.4 khz as they were trying to fool people into thinking they were getting a bargain copy of the Fisher 1280.

The original machines also only used six AA batteries instead of the eight of the Fisher and Beach Magnet. All pretty bad but you get what you pay for.

[GibH]

Same set up/control box as the Beach Magnet (which is a 12.5 khz machine) but yours is a 2.4 khz as they were trying to fool people into thinking they were getting a bargain copy of the Fisher 1280.

The original machines also only used six AA batteries instead of the eight of the Fisher and Beach Magnet. All pretty bad but you get what you pay for.

This does take eight AA's. I don't expect it to perform as well as a high dollar machine. The build quality would never be confused with a 1280X. I just want to test it out. If it holds up to undewater use I would say it's worth $200. For land use, skip it. Much better choices in the price range. I hope to try it sometime this week if the thunderstorms ever quit.

[GibH]

It works. I hunted for about 90 minutes in knee deep brackish water. My finds were pitiful. I found about a dozen pulltabs, both regular and beaver tail types. None were very deep. I also found someone's mace. I was about to call it quits and got a good signal. Hit a 1966 quarter at about 4", so at least I wasn't skunked

I did submerge it and it is watertight. It was very stable even in salt, but if you lift the coil to quick it does false, so I would say it wouldn't be very easy to use in the surf. It's worth $200, but I wouldn't pay any more for it. The volume isn't very good, maybe the depth would be improved if you could crank it up a bit more to hear fainter signals.

I had the disc set to 5 and this gives a broken signal on iron.

It would make a good cheap detector to search swimming holes.

[U.K. Brian]

I wondered if it was the lack of battery power or the headphones that affected the audio output on the original version.
One thing to do with most of the Chinese u/w detectors is check the shafts under the knobs. They corrode quite quickly in salt water unless treated.

[richard36]

Good day,
I have always wanted a detector and for my 40th birthday my Mother bought me a MD3080A. I know, kind of late start, lol, but here I go. I continue to see evryone post about the 6-8AA batteries, but I have only found a spot for one 9 volt battery. In addition and this may be the problem, I hear nothing from the headphones. Please, someone help out a newbie. Im not sure where to find information on this unit and this forum was the best I could find so far.
Please help,
Thanks....Richard da Newbie

[GibH]

Good day,
I have always wanted a detector and for my 40th birthday my Mother bought me a MD3080A. I know, kind of late start, lol, but here I go. I continue to see evryone post about the 6-8AA batteries, but I have only found a spot for one 9 volt battery. In addition and this may be the problem, I hear nothing from the headphones. Please, someone help out a newbie. Im not sure where to find information on this unit and this forum was the best I could find so far.
Please help,
Thanks....Richard da Newbie

The MD3080A is the same as an MD6000 or MD9600. It is sold as the Aquavision Pro and many different names. The MD3080 is basically a cheap ripoff of the Fisher 1280X.

If you can't hear anything from the headphones, I would suggest returning it. These units have very poor reliability issues. Many break after the first time being submersed. For the same price your mom probably paid for this, you can buy a reliable entry level land detector like an Ace 250, Tesoro Silver umax, Teknetics Delta 4000, or a White's Coinmaster.