Old blue sword excal not discriminating and not nulling on iron

[stevemc]

I took out my blue sword, oldest style Excalibur to the beach, and it would not disc, and would not null on iron. Saltwater or land, 2 different days. It also needed the sensitivity to be turned to about 60%(1 Oclock), when in saltwater, before it didnt need very much to stop falsing. What does this sound like? Coil, something else? Loose wire at coil connector?-I use the Sov plug, I will check that too. The connector is taped to the housing, and does not move, nor do the cables on either side for at least several inches. Maybe the battery is getting dead? I will charge it, and have another coil that I use with it and can swap out. This started immediatly, on turning it on, I knew it was different, no water inside, nothing visible.

 

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[OBN]

Question
Are you using sovereign connectors in the saltwater..?
Your hunting in discriminate, do you get tones on targets..and what do you get when you sweep over iron..a signal? Or is it a constant threshold with no targets being ID'ed at all...? Have you tried PP mode to see what happens over targets, any signal at all? The sovereign connector sounds like the problem if your using them even if you WP them...


Going out, be home later..interested in your issue..

 

[stevemc]

Yes, I have been using the Sov connector for a year now and no issues. It is waterproofed, and this happened before going in water. I will take it apart and see what is going on with connector and soldered wires to pins. It makes a noise on iron, first few things I found were iron nail, screw, and a few bobby pins. It does change the noise when I use PP. So it is switching. I have it on charge now. When I go over a target, I have the threshhold so I can just hear it, and it never nulls, it just whoops, basicly it is like a PI but doesnt go as deep. I switched to my PI and I was finding just as much iron, but I was digging 3 times as deep.

 

[OBN]

I would switch the coils to see if there has been a leak. Then you will have elimitated the coil issue if that was it...and with a fully charged battery...it only leaves from the connector to the POD, thanks for the detailed reply..and let us know how the other coil works..............

 

[stevemc]

OK, I charged it for 24 hours with the stock Minelab charger. It is the same. It wasnt used much at all prior, and I did put it on charge Wed afternoon for a few hours. I used for a few hours Thursday. Now, when I tried it today, it still would not null on iron, unless I turned the disc up to 8-9, and it would null. I always used it with no disc. It also doesnt seem to have the range at all it had before. It went about 9-10 inches on a finger sized piece of iron 1/2" re-bar. My PI would have picked that up at 2' easy in the air. I would hope to think the Excal would have done better before. Also on some other steel parts, like a 4" square open face for a double switch on a Square Box wiring box, its about 1/4 wide, maybe 1/16th" thick 4" x 4" square, and it wouldnt read it until it was about 4-5" above it. Again my PI would hit that at 2' at least. I waved it over a 250 gallon steel propane tank, and it wouldnt read it until it was 12" -13" above it, not even a whisper in the threshhold until then. Any of my PIs would read that 5-6' feet away, maybe not the Garrett, but any of the others will. I would have thought the Excal could pick it up at 2', but maybe that is the max range of that 8" coil. I will switch out the coil and at the same time look at the wiring on the back of each plug. Something is very wrong. I did not test it with a gold ring but will. I have found gold rings with it in the past, and I know my PI will go much farther on a gold ring too, but I will see. Come to think of it, the other day when I used it, everything was very close to the surface. When I went over the same area with the PI, I found a lot of stuff just below that and much deeper. I know that is normal, for a PI to go deeper than an Excal, but it isnt going very deep at all. I have never had any problems with the machine, so it probably is a wire loose on the back of the Sov plug. It has done a lot of traveling in the last year!

 

[OBN]

I found one thing when you change things, if there is a problem down the road most of the time that is the best place to start the search. I had saltwater seep into my headphone cord connection a few years back, (though it was water proof), I had started noticing the degrading of the audio..I pulled them apart at the connection and the copper wire had started to turn black, the saltwater was wicking it's way to the Pod..lucky I caught it, it was very slow moving but doing it's damage on it's way. Replaced the cord..and it was like new...

 

[stevemc]

Yes, I know, been working on boats and diving my whole life, and that is a definite. I have seen the black copper wire. I will open it up tomorrow and see. And I will let you know. I hope that is what it is.

 

[stevemc]

Well, I opened up the Sov 6 pin connector, and used a razor blade to take off the electrical tape covering clear silicone sealant, then clear epoxy. The epoxy wasnt where the 2 connectors meet, but silicone sealant is. I took it apart, no water or anything wrong looking, and hooked up the SEF coil. It still behaved as the other day. I started taking down the silicone sealant off the connector on the detector side, since both coils acted the same it must be that side, somewhere. I did that but the epoxy was holding tight to the connector and to all the wires back an inch and a half. I tried the SEF coil and it now works, something was pulled apart and I cant get to the back of the connector, epoxy is forever. I tried the stock 8" coil and it too works fine. The range is now back where it should have been. And it nulls on iron. I am not too convinced it is at the connector since it is sealed solid in epoxy. It was soldered good. And it could not move as the connector and a few inches on either side cable was taped tight to the main body. But the coil cable on the stock coil was only maybe 10" longer than a straight run up the shaft to the main body, didnt leave any slack with the loop where the connector was. Maybe something is broke, some conductor strands. I have used it quite a bit mainly in the water, but some beach detecting too. I might just use some Cat 6 cable since they are all shielded, and make a longer coil cable, and shield the solder joints and heat shrink each and the complete cable repair and waterproof. That stock cable was kind of a bad choice, it is loose, water could easily travel inside if a cut or crack occured. The outer jacket is very thin, and doesnt look so tough. I had wanted to use a straight shaft, and I do not use wraps around the shaft, as it really cuts your depth a lot, I just run it straight and tape it down. But there isnt enough length with the stock coil to use a long straight shaft, or have it behind my elbow. So a new cable from about 2 feet and up is in order.

 

[OBN]

Thanks steve for the update, I guess a bad connection on one of the wires, good to know....

I try and keep a log of issues people have had for future reference..A good place to get cable, the only one I have found sofar that is close to the stock...

http://cableorganizer.com/electrical-wire/

 

[stevemc]

Thanks, I am going to use Cat 6a patch cable, the stock Excal cable is 4 conductor all unshielded and no outer shield. Not a very good choice at all. I can get that (Cat 6a patch cable) at any Home Depot, Radio Shack-anywhere. Cat 6a has 4 pairs, total of 8 conductors, each wire shielded, and each pair twisted and shielded, and an outer shield on all wires, then the PVC jacket. That is why I am going to start at 2 feet from the coil or so, much shielding (mylar foil) will be picked up by the coil and make the depth less, just like when someone wraps the coil wire around the shaft. No crosstalk which is bad with the Excal and many powerful detectors that dont have shielded cables. How in the world can you have a transmit and receive in the same cable without any shielding, and not expect cross talk?