Minelab Excalibur settings ????

[RL48off]

I have a new minelab excalibur and a friend of mine told me today that he was told a few yrs ago how to startup the minelab excalibur. He said first put it in pinpoint...2 turn the sensitivity fully off (clockwise) 3 turn on threshold and adjust for a faint hum.
4- return sensitivity to Auto Position 5- then turn from PP to discriminate.

Can anyone agree or does it matter. is their a special way for hunting the beach water or wet sand.

 

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[stevemc]

I never use PP, I just leave it in Disc. I have as high a sens as the beach or surf will allow. Threshhold is set at just a tiny hum, like a mosquito, but you want to hear it.. Disc at 1, if possible, you dont want to disc out anything, as gold jewelry is the first thing you loose. You really dont have to go through any set up. Volume is high enough to hear the threshhold, at a tiny hum, and to hear the very deep stuff. If you cant hear the threshold change, you are missing deep stuff. Sometimes you dont hear a wail, just a tiny change in the threshhold. Dig it.

 

[RL48off]

Hey that very good information I can easily deal with that. I will try it. thanks. do you start out with your coil on the ground then turn it on and adjust or do you raise your coil first before you adjust ??

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Never heard of his procedure. I set the threshold till it sounds like a tiny mosquito in my ear, volume is maxed, discrimination set to 0, sensitivity is adjusted till unit is stable...

 

[Sandman]

Steve and Marty are both right with one exception. You need to give your Excal a name they would be proud to have as they seem to work better that way. Listen to that faint hum from the threshold for any tiny increase.

 

[hamiddetecting]

Excalibur is easy setting; I wish you luck

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

There's something to be said about the exersizing of the sensitivity knob. I have found that on several hunts I could not achive a smooth threshold no matter what settings I tried. Turning the machine off than back on fixed the problem. I now tune past the slight hum and retune on the lowering side. I then am able to adjust up or down with out problems. I have not had the eratic threshold doing it this way. As far as sesitivity goes more isn't always better! There is nothing telling you that the signals are bouncing back instead of penetrating the ground. More power is/has been a man thing for ever bigger is always better. This is where more isn't better. Start off using the sensitivity about 5/6 and work for a little bit see what and how deep your targets are.Frao that point you may wish to raise or lower you controls. The Excalibur is a very powerful machine than machines that we started with 30 years ago. The 10in coils is huge compared to the 6 in coil that we had 30 years ago. Every machine has its own little qurks lean yours and you will do great. I run around 4/5 on most salt water beaches and dig targets so deep I wish not to find anything deeper. I have taken the time to find a deep target and re-adjust the sensitivity highter to a point I can no longer hear the target some times this is only from 5 to 6 or 4 to 5. As far as Discriminate goes I rarely hunt in anything but PP and use reverse discriminate. If I hear a faint signal I switch to Disc. and check if I can't hear the target anylonger I start to get ready for the dance after 3 or 4 scoops the target is recovered. lots of times a ring dance is required! If i were hunting in Disc. I would have never heard the target in the first place. Next slow down no really slow down let those other hunters run past and cover the entire beach. They will clear the hundreds of nusances coins out of the way for you. Then you go in behind them a get the gold. Later when they want to talk about how bad conditions are you can agree and smile all the way home! BCNJ

 

[OBN]

All of the above is very good info....

Every beach is different, best to start slow with low power settings, then fine tune after you get a feel for the detector, and the area you are hunting......... disc 1, senstivity 12 to 2 o'clock, in disc mode, volume 3/4 to full...and this is your target volume only, then the threshold as low as you can hear,,there are several other settings but these are the best to start with.

I hunt like BC above, and fine tune every once and awhile to keep up with any changes in the conditions...my settings, after about 6 years with the excalibur, and still learning.....Good Luck!!

r

 

[maipenrai]

Ok Steve, I can understand the "dig everything" idea, but the beaches I detect on are FULL of junk. If I dig everything, I would collapse of fatigue. If the idea is to dig everything, then there would be no need for discrimination, right?

I know the beach i am working has a lot of gold, BUT, I am not finding it! Im digging down to 40 or 50cm on the wet sand, and finding everything besides what Im looking for. I am now finding a lot of older and deeper coins, (nothing valuable) that the locals have missed, since they have older machines and swing like they are playing golf, but I am still not hitting valuable jewlery, just the cheaper stuff.

In my test garden at home, it is very hard to tell the difference between a gold ring and a sinker, let alone the dozens of different types of pull tabs and screw caps. If I dig all signals, I would need a backhoe! When you talk of dig everything, you must be talking about a relatively clean beach and mostly fresh drops. I know Im doing someting wrong, but dont know what it is. Even giving my Excal a name hasnt helped......yet. Does it need to be printed in Big letters?

 

[jkoaltrades]

Ok Steve, I can understand the "dig everything" idea, but the beaches I detect on are FULL of junk. If I dig everything, I would collapse of fatigue. If the idea is to dig everything, then there would be no need for discrimination, right?

I know the beach i am working has a lot of gold, BUT, I am not finding it! Im digging down to 40 or 50cm on the wet sand, and finding everything besides what Im looking for. I am now finding a lot of older and deeper coins, (nothing valuable) that the locals have missed, since they have older machines and swing like they are playing golf, but I am still not hitting valuable jewlery, just the cheaper stuff.

In my test garden at home, it is very hard to tell the difference between a gold ring and a sinker, let alone the dozens of different types of pull tabs and screw caps. If I dig all signals, I would need a backhoe! When you talk of dig everything, you must be talking about a relatively clean beach and mostly fresh drops. I know Im doing someting wrong, but dont know what it is. Even giving my Excal a name hasnt helped......yet. Does it need to be printed in Big letters?

just keep playing with it. my first dozen times out i couldn't tell iron from siver or gold. i dug everything! i even called my excal alot of different names (not printable here)! i finally started getting the hang of it just as it got too cold to enter the water. just have to hang in there and practice, practice, and practice until you learn your machine, until then, yes, dig it all!

 

[MercMan]

I agree with the PP suggestion. I have found rings that disc would not even register on. PP mode is the deepest mode on it and if you can handle the digging is the only way to hunt deeep. Get a good scoop you will need it with the Excal and DIG EVERYTHING! After you can ID a target before digging then you can be more selective. If you are finding stuff left by other searchers then you can bet they left the really good stuff as well.

I love the faint faint signals in PP!!! You can always double check the signal in disc after you have removed a few scoops from the hole. When I say faint I really mean faint....you really have to pay attention to the threshold to hear the change over the target.

 

[maipenrai]

Another question, and its concerning the same beach. The beach is lit up at night with huge lights, like a football stadium. The lights are in the dry area, and its where all the beach chairs are, during the day. I have to go at night, to avoid the chairs and the crowds, so of course the lights are on. This drives my Excal 2 crazy. It is so noisy, that it is difficult to pick out the coin signals, and if there is jewelry, Im quite sure, I pass it over. Not sure if the cables run between the lights or out to the road. Also there are probably cell towers that interfere, and at one end of the beach, there is a huge radio transmitting tower. If I move out towards the wet sand, then about 10 or 15 meters away, the chatter stops. What can I do, to be able to hunt the dry? I hope the only answer is get another machine! Is the interference affecting the coil or controls or both? I hunted this area with my very old coinmaster, and the days catch was better than with the Excal, but had not much depth.

 

[eternoui]

Ok Steve, I can understand the "dig everything" idea, but the beaches I detect on are FULL of junk. If I dig everything, I would collapse of fatigue. If the idea is to dig everything, then there would be no need for discrimination, right?

I know the beach i am working has a lot of gold, BUT, I am not finding it! Im digging down to 40 or 50cm on the wet sand, and finding everything besides what Im looking for. I am now finding a lot of older and deeper coins, (nothing valuable) that the locals have missed, since they have older machines and swing like they are playing golf, but I am still not hitting valuable jewlery, just the cheaper stuff.

In my test garden at home, it is very hard to tell the difference between a gold ring and a sinker, let alone the dozens of different types of pull tabs and screw caps. If I dig all signals, I would need a backhoe! When you talk of dig everything, you must be talking about a relatively clean beach and mostly fresh drops. I know Im doing someting wrong, but dont know what it is. Even giving my Excal a name hasnt helped......yet. Does it need to be printed in Big letters?

If you dont fell down from the bicycle you will not learn to ride. So if you dont dig a lot of junk at the beggining you will not learn how to use your detector good luck and enjoy

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I have the remote pp mode on mine on the hand grip, I switch between pp and disc with a flick of the switch, no longer have to touch controls to do so... I always hunt in pp them switch to desc to see if target nulls from multiple directipns, no null or solid signal keep digging...

I tune detector to gold at beach , bury a small gold ring tied on string about 10-12 inches deep and adjust threshold and sensitivity settings till I get solid signal all directions in desc mode, check it in pp and then hunt.....

I very rarely ever hunt in auto mode, you need to tune detector to each beach, every beach is different..


I use no disc at all, I do not desc out any metal..

Found small diamond wedding band with 12 small diamonds Sat at beach about 12 inches down.... Had a nice signal, faint tone but solid....


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[ph036011]

Hello, New Excal II user,
appreciate all the sharing of settings and setup at the beach.
I was using Disc 1, sens 5 or 6, vol 2/3, Thres - slight hum
I like to search the first dip along shoreline and the initial wall face or 1 1/2 foot drop (along shoreline).
My Excal seemed to be trying to self adjust every time I took the coil from water level down 1 1/2 feet to bottom of dip / wall and back up to the surface.
In this situation what type of settings should I go to ?? Pinpoint, when I tried pinpoint it quieted down. In Disc it seemed to be changing tones every few seconds (ground balancing self adjustments?).
I did find a few coins in wall, old quarter but nothing shiny yet.
Any help is appreciated.
r/Alan

 

[slider66]

Hello, New Excal II user,
appreciate all the sharing of settings and setup at the beach.
I was using Disc 1, sens 5 or 6, vol 2/3, Thres - slight hum
I like to search the first dip along shoreline and the initial wall face or 1 1/2 foot drop (along shoreline).
My Excal seemed to be trying to self adjust every time I took the coil from water level down 1 1/2 feet to bottom of dip / wall and back up to the surface.
In this situation what type of settings should I go to ?? Pinpoint, when I tried pinpoint it quieted down. In Disc it seemed to be changing tones every few seconds (ground balancing self adjustments?).
I did find a few coins in wall, old quarter but nothing shiny yet.
Any help is appreciated.
r/Alan

Can someone tell me if the Excal 1000 volume should control the audio on headphones that are hardwired? the only way I can change the audio is with the discrimination button.

 

[OBN]

The audio on the headphones is controlled by the off/on threshold knob. Volume knob controls the volume of the target under the coil as you swing,

The Threshold knob and Volume knob are two separate adjustments, Threshold is an aide in pinpointing and for hearing smaller/deeper items when in all metal mode. Old short wave radios, CB radio's or police scanners, had what was called a squelch control. When the squelch was turned up, it eliminated background hiss by silencing it. The further the squelch was turned up, the stronger the signal required to break through the squelch.

 

[slider66]

The audio on the headphones is controlled by the off/on threshold knob. Volume knob controls the volume of the target under the coil as you swing,

The Threshold knob and Volume knob are two separate adjustments, Threshold is an aide in pinpointing and for hearing smaller/deeper items when in all metal mode. Old short wave radios, CB radio's or police scanners, had what was called a squelch control. When the squelch was turned up, it eliminated background hiss by silencing it. The further the squelch was turned up, the stronger the signal required to break through the squelch.

This has really helped me. Thank you.