A bit frustrated with the Excal 2...questions for the pros

twistidd · May 31, 2009

So I headed over to the beach today to break in my Excal 2, which I've had since December but haven't been able to use til today. I got to the beach and turned the machine on the way everyone suggested, and began sweeping the dry sand toward the water (freshwater). I noticed that it was very quiet, a little too quiet. I know that this beach is trashy because I used to hit it with the Ace 250 all the time. To be sure, I swept the coil past the sand scoop at the end of its pole, and it blared out loudly and wouldn't go away! The noise was piercing my ears, so I turned the machine off and back on again. Right away, that really loud blaring again. Off and on again, and again, and again. I played with the settings, sensitivity, everything, even the volume at its lowest, and all I was getting was this piercing blaring noise. Frustrated, I went back to the car and went home. What makes this even more frustrating is that it took an hour to get to the beach, about thirty minutes to find parking, and a half mile walk to the beach and back to the car afterward.

The only thing I can think of is that I charged the battery about a week ago. Did I wait too long to detect after charging the battery? I really don't want to charge the battery only before detecting because I'll be detecting on a whim a lot this summer. This was in fact the first time I've used this machine outdoors in its natural habitat. And how do you Excal guys know when the battery is too low? I'm wondering if the Excal was trying to tell me that. I REALLY don't feel like sending this back.

Please, if any of you guys have any suggestions, feel free to share them with this Minelab newbie. I'd like to get out in the next two weeks if possible. Thanks.

Joe

JP · Jun 1, 2009

Don't worry about the questions, I'm still learning too.

The grease is some kind of marine silicone grease. Just apply a tiny smidgen. I apply very little on the pins and a little on the rubber seal. When I first got my Excal I didn't know that I was supposed to apply it and I didn't. One day while I was cleaning mine, I clean it after every hunt including hunts in fresh water, I noticed oxidation on the terminals of the battery. I was crying like a little girl. A few fellow treasure hunters on here told me about the silicone grease that one is supposed to place on the parts. I used a copper wire brush to get out the oxidation. Yes there were sparks flying from the contact of the brush. I believe that a little bit of salt water got in between the contacts and the reaction was what I saw there.

Also, don't forget to get yourself the removable AA battery pack for your backup.

I love detecting in the water. Not many people bother you and to me you have better odds of finding something because the dry sand is usually hunted to death by everybody else. Plus it adds adventure to the hunt.

I hope that it helps what myself and others have posted. You will really love the machine once you get it out there in the water.

HH

TheSleeper · Jun 1, 2009

To clear up some misconceptions, you should lightly grease the seal not often, you do not want to create a buildup, you do want the seal flexible and a light coating of either silicone grease or just plain vasaline helps the seal, seal out water better.

You also want to lightly grease the pins again with either silicone grease or plain vasaline, even stainless steel can get a slight oxidation on them, when subjected to salt water.

I pull the seal off the connector with a lite amount of vasaline I massage the seal between two fingers then put it back on screw the cap to the bat pack and off I go.

The idea is to prevent problems, which is alot cheaper then trying to repair the problem after the damage has been done.