Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

[ronald99]

Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

Hello everyone

I own 2 Excalibur 1000, Ever since the detector's were brand new, I would be at the beach detecting and the threshold hum would get louder after a few minute's or some time's 10 minute's.

Now both my detector's do this so I'm sure everyone out there has the same thing happening.

I'm detecting and after a few minute's my detector's threshold hum changes and gets louder, And stays this way until i put my beach scoop near the coil.

Once my scoop is near the coil for a spit second, The threshold sound calms back down to normal and stays like this for another few minute's sometime's 10 minute's.

I contacted Minelab last year and sent the first detector back to Minelab, They checked it out and said everything is okay.

What i tried to explain to Sandy was i read where other people wrote that the Excalibur was going into a battery saving mode and this is what was making the different hum,

There reply was NO, They never did explain what causes this and why when i put my scoop near the coil for a spit second my threshold sound returns to normal.

I'm having a great time when I'm detecting with my Excalibur, And this problem does not hurt the performance of finding treasure.

 

[taropatch]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

From what I've read, that is normal. Others do exactly what you do to clear it -- use the beach scoop.
As for what is causing it, I can't remember from prior threads. Some kind of "falsing"? Maybe someone else can chime in.

 

[guzz1]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

Mine does the same thing. In the surf tends to false as well . drives me nuts ,,, but I guess thats normal.. Guzz1

 

[Montauk3]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

In dry sand, I use high sensitivity. In the water, sens is set to "six" or in the case of older models, "12 o'clock.
I am sure that some depth is sacrificed, but either that or a mental institution at the end of the day.

P.S. I worked the shell line yesterday and hit nothing but pulltabs. Nothing else.

HTH.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

Ronald, what are you setting your sense at? I adjust mine till the unit becomes stable. Sometimes I can run it at Auto in dry sand and other times it is set to between 11 to 3 in salt water. It depends on the beach soil conditions. It will still occasionally do it, but no where near as often as you are reporting. I do as others and just put the coil near my scoop for a sec to fix problem...........

I have personally really seen no diference in the depth by doing this, I have pulled up deep targets with sense set at the 3 position ....

 

[Sandman]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

Treasure Hunter is correct. My threshold climbes like this in some locations and I reset it with the scoop too. Many times it does this when you are using to much sensitivity. Mine seems to be just as deep at 3 o'clock sometimes as at 9 o'clock. How does it do in Auto?

 

[rdi]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

Treasure_Hunter and Sandman hit the nail on the head......Xcal sensitivity is set too high it will not be stable....
I usually set sensitivity between 12 and 3 with no noticeable depth loss.....over the years I have noticed one of the most common mistakes Mder's make is trying to keep the sensitivity too high because they are afraid
of losing depth....in the old days there was some truth to this,however with new technology this is not the case ,lowering your sensitivity a bit to make your machine stable will prevent falsing, making your metal detecting more enjoyable and productive....Rdi

 

[SaintSea]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

Yep, happens all the time to me, too. But don't you just love that we've all figured out the "touch the scoop" method of returning our Excals back to their proper humming mode? We're brilliant!
See ya in the waves!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

Sandman, great to see you posting.....

 

[1491]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

Another option I often use is to reduce the threshold to a point where I'm "running silent". My volume is at max and even if the machine falses/iron nulls, I won't hear it. But I will hear targets!

 

[ronald99]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

Well i learned someing else today by reading all these post,

Every time i have been at the beach i have left my sensitivity knob set at the 11 oclock position, I have been doing this for a year now.

I was setting my controls just like others posted on what works best at the beach, Now next week im going to start using the "auto" selection and see if that works better

And from what you guys are saying i could just turn the sensitivity towards 3 oclock position, And not loose any depth.

Its amazing how much a person can learn from all the knowledge others on this forum post, Thanks for the help and suggestions.

 

[TreasurdiggrNY]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

With the sens knob clicked into "auto" (recommended beach/water/wet sand areas) your excal will do it's best to adjust to the ground conditions by automatically adjusting the sensitivity.

If it is still too noisy click the sens knob clockwise out of "auto" and into manual sensitivity. As you continue to turn the knob clockwise you will be reducing the sensitivity.

I'm sorry but if anyone thinks they can turn the sens knob down and not lose depth they are kidding themselves.

Glenn

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

You can try auto, but remember many times it will be too "hot" and will give you problems. I try Auto, if it is stable, I use it till it becomes unstable then I adjust the sense till it settles down and is very stable, usually between 11-3.

Don't be overly concerned about turning the sense down, the Excal will do the job.....I use the same procedure on my Sov GT and it works, I have pulled targets over a foot deep on salt water beaches with it set at the 3 o'clock position...............

Good luck and good hunting...............

 

[Jason in TN]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

Both of mine do the same thing usually happens after the detector goes over iron or something it has rejected as a good signal. Even will do it a low settings. The scoop thing works you can also lift the coil and give it a tap on the ground and it will return to normal. Do not tap it to hard though.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

I sent Minelab an email asking the question... "Many times on the salt water beaches, it is just too unstable to run in the auto position. How much depth am I losing switching sense from auto to the 11 to 3 o'clock position, which is usually where it settles down the best.?"

Minelabs reply.......

"Hello Marty,

Running in manual, I feel is even better. For the depth I do not believe you are loosing that much depth maybe an inch or two at the most. "

Sandra Burton
Customer Service Manager
Minelab USA, Inc.
871 Grier Dr. Suite B-1
Las Vegas, NV 89119



I will gladly give up an inch or two to have a stable unit when I am hunting................

 

[rdi]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

Treasure_Hunter........I'm with you....I'll give an inch to be able to hear good signals,,,besides what's an inch when i can dig targets @13 to 15 inch in the salt water ....Rdi

 

[DaChief]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

Not to jump in where I don't belong but my PI Infinium does the same thing. I have to make an adjustment on the discrimination to get it to settle which is like doing the sensitivity thing on an Excalibur. Got to be directly related to the salty water because like you guys say with the dry sand, it is a non issue. Do you guys get a greater falsing or what I call a breathing threshold as waves come and go. My PI threshold sounds like someone breathing in and out as the surf comes and goes unless I submerge the electronics. It mellows out a little then.

Take Care,

Jim

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

"Not to jump in where I don't belong " How is it possible for you to not belong my friend?

Chief I got bad falsing each time a wave broke over the coil of my Beach Hunter ID. With both the Excal and the Sov for me it is sometimes there, but faint and at most times almost non existant.

 

[Indasurf]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

DaChief,

I get the Infinium running smooth in bad black sand. You'll need to use the "disc" to adjust it for your area to get it running correctly. One thing to remember, the Infinium discriminates at depth so you won't lose much (one of the only machines to do that)! I've even run it "silent" with no threshold and was still punching small targets super deep!!! If I'm in a real bad area, I'll spend a bit of time ground balancing in that location until I get it running OK. This is the MOST critical adjustment you can do to getting it to run at peak performance!!!!! Do you hip mount the machine The sensitivity of the unit can pick up the swinging motion of the coil wire! I strap the cable from the coil straight up 18" before looping the rest of the way to the control box (read this in many posts)! I've also heard great remarks about the new aftermarket straight shafts available now, will be adding one soon!!!

Hope to see you posting some great finds soon!!!

 

[ronald99]

Re: Minelab Excalibur what cause"s "THIS"

Another option I often use is to reduce the threshold to a point where I'm "running silent". My volume is at max and even if the machine falses/iron nulls, I won't hear it. But I will hear targets!

Ziphius
I just read the Excalibur manual and it said a silent or non audible threshold level.
Would not allow the small change in threshold tone created by small or deep targets to be heard.,
on bottom of page 12.

Thanks everyone for your comments. 8)