Excalibur Headphones and mods

[Excalman]

I really do not like the quality of the headphones on my Excalibur II 1000. Can anyone recommend a good to great quality set of headphones and a longer cord. The cord is not long enough for me to swing comfortably. I would also like to know how to set up my machine for a push button to switch from pinpoint to discriminate modes. I have seen other hunters with them and was wondering how to do it. Finally any thoughts on a larger coil that works well with my machine? I have seen some folks with a 15-17" coil. Just wondering how they work.

 

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[DeepseekerADS]

Kellyco Minelab repair center will do the pin point mod for you, but there's a bit of a backlog on these = best done off season.

Several of the water hunters here use the 15" coil and swear by it.

And there's some hunters on TNet who have modded in water proof connectors for swapping out coils when they need to.

If you look deep enough into the archives here, there's some pretty good directions on how they do the things they do.

 

[cudamark]

I have three Excaliburs. One is a stock blue 1000 with the yellow headphones. They're reasonably comfortable, but, the sound quality is a bit tinny. #2 is started out as a blue 1000. Now has a 15" NEL coil and GGA headphones. Better sound, but, not as comfortable as my other phones. The NEL is the best of the coils IMO. #3 is a Excal 2 with a 15" WOT coil and custom headphones with the stock speakers. There again, the sound quality isn't all that great, but, they're the most comfortable of the bunch. They were made from a set of ear muffs bought off Amazon. The WOT is also a great coil, but, it's a little more expensive than the NEL and not quite as stable. I think the NEL pinpoints a bit better also. The difference between the two isn't much, so, either one I would recommend. #2 AND #3 both have the pin point mod also. Once you have it, you'll wonder how you ever got along without one! I never had a cord length problem, as I hip mount my pod behind me and run the headphone cord straight up my left side to my head.

 

[Rodbuster209]

Kellyco Minelab repair center will do the pin point mod for you, but there's a bit of a backlog on these = best done off season.

Several of the water hunters here use the 15" coil and swear by it.

And there's some hunters on TNet who have modded in water proof connectors for swapping out coils when they need to.

If you look deep enough into the archives here, there's some pretty good directions on how they do the things they do.

Now is the off season for the repair center, I sent in my blue Excaliber in mid January for headphones to be replaced and it took a little over three months . I was told the winter season is their busiest time and with it out of warranty it did not have priority. I was told 6-8 weeks. Good luck!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Now is the off season for the repair center, I sent in my blue Excaliber in mid January for headphones to be replaced and it took a little over three months . I was told the winter season is their busiest time and with it out of warranty it did not have priority. I was told 6-8 weeks. Good luck!

They no longer have an off season, during this past summer they were flooded with repairs in Aug and Sept, receiving 3 months worth of repairs for both Aug and Sept. Winter stopped being an off time when the repair center in Chicago closed in Spring 2015.

 

[Wiganer]

Have a look on YouTube for Tony Eisenhower, he does have some good video's of himself performing the mods, and Tony may be able to help you.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Have a look on YouTube for Tony Eisenhower

Not for the faint of heart or shaking hands, these are some serious mods.

 

[cudamark]

Tony's a buddy of mine and helped with a lot of the mods on my machines, including the custom headphones on my #3 machine. He does excellent work and even undid some bad work that a previous "mod expert" did on one of my machines. If you've seen some of his hunt videos, I'm probably in a few of them.

 

[bigscoop]

I've used both the 15" WOT & the 12"x15" SEF, performance is pretty even, lower cost goes to the SEF which is what I use now whenever I use a larger coil. Remote PP will become your best ally even when hunting in disc mode as you'll find yourself using both more often then you first realize, (PP can also help to separate targets as well as offer additional information about potential targets.) The ability to swap coils is priceless if you'll be hunting in a verity of environments and conditions, etc. There are several options in headphones, not too costly if you can do it yourself, generally costly if you can't. One thing you might try, which is what I do now, just open up the stock headphones and repack them to help seal out all the ambient noise. This alone will make a big difference.

 

[dewcon4414]

Contact VA Max........ most of the guys using the CTX are using these: The beauty of these is they have the end cap so it takes about 10 min. to swap out. After that you can use any phones that fit the CTX as well. Matty St James does a lot of mods now out of Gold Diggers Detectors...... he has a nice push button PPer... and may now have a splitter for the phones/PP switch. Harold Ralph makes a good pair that is at least water resistant and VERY loud. The end cap is the issue for most mods if you aint techy.

Dew

 

[nutsdad]

Contact obn he will give you the best advice. And if your lucky maybe even do them for you. My excal has all mods thanks to OBN. Thank you Joe

 

[OBN]

Contact obn he will give you the best advice. And if your lucky maybe even do them for you. My excal has all mods thanks to OBN. Thank you Joe

Thanks ND!! I only sell the coil change endcap, CTX/Excal headphone endcap, PP kits and that is from Jan 1 to Feb 30th, ...........Only if your skilled in electronics do I advice doing the kits I sell.

Treasure Hunting season is here and the Gold is Calling my name!

 

[dewcon4414]

Didnt mention you Joe just because you arent doing them right now. Joe makes a hell of a great pair of phones still have a pair or two on my detectors including a pair of the GGA he first started out doing. Headphones are the easiest to do......especially with Joes u-tube video. Another suggestion...... get some upgraded jell pads. That alone makes a huge improvement in fit, comfort, and noise reduction.

 

[fish1on]

Didnt mention you Joe just because you arent doing them right now. Joe makes a hell of a great pair of phones still have a pair or two on my detectors including a pair of the GGA he first started out doing. Headphones are the easiest to do......especially with Joes u-tube video. Another suggestion...... get some upgraded jell pads. That alone makes a huge improvement in fit, comfort, and noise reduction.

Where do you get the gel pads?

 

[OBN]

Where do you get the gel pads?

these last about 2 years with heavy use
HEADSETS INC D200 GEL EAR SEALS from Aircraft Spruce

And these are still going after 3 years...of heavy use
I like these better but they do put your ears further from the pezio plate
RUGGED GEL SEALS from Aircraft Spruce
And all get hot during the summer

 

[jadocs]

Not for the faint of heart or shaking hands, these are some serious mods.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Isn't the splice just an extra length of cable that has two extra wires in it for the PP? So essentially you are splicing the coil at the PP location, then running everything back into the pod through one cable to be connected? Pretty ingenious.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

No your not splicing the coil cable. PP mod cable comes out the endcap where headphones are and is hardwired on motherboard.

 

[jadocs]

No your not splicing the coil cable. PP mod cable comes out the endcap where headphones are and is hardwired on motherboard.

Maybe splice was a poor choice of words. I meant...The extra length of cable has two extra wires in it. The coil cable is cut and soldered to five (whatever the number of wires the coil uses) of the wires. The remaining two are soldered to the PP switch. That bundle is shrink wrapped and encased in the handle. The other end of the cable is then run into the POD, the coil wires soldered to the board, and the PP wires soldered to the spot on the pp/disc pot. Is that about right?

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Coil cable is not cut or touched. A hole is drill in the end cap on the headphone side, cable fed through the hole, strip the cable insulation off so the insulated wires are exposed then resin is poured in the end cap around the wires to make it waterproof again, wires are then soldered to the pinpoint discrimination switch other end of cable goes to the switch that is mounted inside the handle.

Sent from my P008 using Tapatalk

 

[jadocs]

Whoops I think we were talking past each other Treasure Hunter. I was talking about Tony Eisenhower's PP mod that Deepseeker was referring to not the headphone mod.