Modified Minelab Excalibur, Quick change coil connector

[OBN]

This summer will be my first real chance to have the op to hunt everyday and many different locations. Not knowing what I'm going to encounter at these locations, I will be bringing a PI and a modified Excalibur with a few extra coils on the boat. I came with in a hair of purchasing a CTX for the job but now with the ability to change coils in the field I really think the Excalibur is the best machine for the job. Having a detector that I can take from one extreme (5 inch NEL) to the other in coil size (ULT 13) is going to be a great advantage with many locations changing every tide. A full summer in the water will make or break them....

 

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[Sandman]

This is so important its no wonder why Minelab doesn't offer this. But they would rather sell another type detector.

 

[Fletch88]

Nice job Joe! Looking forward to test results after a season of saltwater hunting. It would be nice to go from an S-8 to 13" Ultimate in seconds.

 

[Keppy]

This is so important its no wonder why Minelab doesn't offer this. But they would rather sell another type detector.

Yes Minelab could have done that but they really do not care for the ones that buy there detectors … All they care about is the $$$$$ That is all they all care about but you should work with you buyers at times … You just can't point at Minelab look at whites floating coils..How many times have they been told about that.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I might point out Tesoro no longer offers changeable coils on their water detectors, does that mean Tesoro doesn't care about their customers now?






American by birth, Patriot by choice.

I would rather die standing on my two feet defending our Constitution than live a lifetime on my knees......

 

[Keppy]

I might point out Tesoro no longer offers changeable coils on their water detectors, does that mean Tesoro doesn't care about their customers now?






American by birth, Patriot by choice.

I would rather die standing on my two feet defending our Constitution than live a lifetime on my knees......

But then you can not change fishers coils either .. You can change them on Garrett AT but i need high power glasses and a spot light to do it they did not make it easy … That is the reason the AT is now as of today gone…..

 

[GreenMeanie]

Not that they don't care it might be they know it won't work at 200FT under water.

 

[Fletch88]

Not that they don't care it might be they know it won't work at 200FT under water.

That's the real reason GreenMeanie, not that they're out to get one over on us all.

 

[cudamark]

If a screw-on battery connector will work at 200ft, why won't a screw-on coil connector? There has to be an official answer there somewhere. I'm sure they've tried it in their R&D procedures.

 

[Fletch88]

Cudamark, I believe the difference is what's being transmitted across the connectors. I am not an electrical expert but I do know there are 4 coil wires and any deviation in the circuit ( from very slight corrosion/ contamination in a connector ) causes resistance and I'm sure it affects results.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

It does add resistance and can affect depth and stability. I stop using them and switched to hard wiring into the controls..

OBN is one of the masters of the Minelab mods and I am sure he has his working properly...






American by birth, Patriot by choice.

I would rather die standing on my two feet defending our Constitution than live a lifetime on my knees......

 

[cudamark]

It seems to me that if the connection is sealed, it's sealed, regardless of what is being transmitted. You get a leaky battery connection, it will short out and discharge that battery in a hurry. You can account for resistance in the design. If the connections are clean and dry that should be a known factor. I have the Coiltek connector kit on one of my Excals and I don't notice any loss of depth over a hardwired unit.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

It seems to me that if the connection is sealed, it's sealed, regardless of what is being transmitted. You get a leaky battery connection, it will short out and discharge that battery in a hurry. You can account for resistance in the design. If the connections are clean and dry that should be a known factor. I have the Coiltek connector kit on one of my Excals and I don't notice any loss of depth over a hardwired unit.

I used a connector on one of mine, the other was hard spliced with no connector I removed both, any splice adds resistance..... I found they were more stable hardwired into the controls..

I only hunt with large coils on the beaches, I have gotten use to the large coils and can hunt all day with them, even in the surf. If I get out of the surf it is because it is just too rough and has nothing to do with the coil size.....






American by birth, Patriot by choice.

I would rather die standing on my two feet defending our Constitution than live a lifetime on my knees......

 

[TheSleeper]

OBN, responded to your other post so I will not repeat, rather will reply to some questions made here.
There is one model IP68/69 connector I found that is all plastic with gold plated contacts that guarantees no impedance increase, made to milspec for both the aero and military sections. I am going to also be experimenting with this design but inline not housing mounted for my personal use, so no I am not trying to deter anyone from OBN, he does a great job.

I can slightly understand Minelabs reluctance to do this. Face it anytime you introduce a connector you make it less foolproof, which is and has been one of the excal's main drawing cards, its plain, its simple and its bullet proof.

I talked to the old minelab repair facility in the early ninties about creating a wader version with a connector to allow coil change, negating the 200' guarantee but was told it would never happen. Also at that time our best connectors were the heavy aluim milspec versions which did not lend themselves to salt environments very well.

 

[TheSleeper]

OBN responded to your posting in Cudamarks thread, but am reposting it also here so everyone can see.

QBN and anyone else interested here is a link to a PDF catalog (small no big download) showing the connectors I found. IP68 rated, 10m depth for 2 weeks, more than enough for us. They are avial either with crimp or soldier pins or for those desiring screw terminals, my rec is the soldier pins, gold plated pins.

http://www.bulgin.co.uk/PDFs/Cat83_s...-2010_mini.pdf

Hope the link works, let me know.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

That is the one I used on mine before I had it hard wired to control board...

Remember if you order to order both the female side and male side...






American by birth, Patriot by choice.

I would rather die standing on my two feet defending our Constitution than live a lifetime on my knees......

 

[Sandman]

My Tesoro Tiger Shark has the coil connector and I have 3 coils for it. I dove with it many times trading off with my Excal 1000 and CZ-20. The Tiger Shark never leaked at the connector. But with all the possible troubles using them it is no wonder Tesoro went to hardwiring for their life time warrantee. For others users it is a disadvantage to not be able to use the Clean Sweep Coil too.

 

[Sir Gala Clad]

Even if the modification works perfectly and no problems are induced, at minimum you will still need two detectors. One to hunt with, while the other is being repaired (sigh). In my opinion, the achillies heal of the pod design is the cable that connects the battery pod to the control pod, as it has to be constantly connected and reconnected to charge the batteries. At least this is true in my case having had to return it twice to be repaired (I found buying the one year extension in warranty a wise decision).

Then there is all that exposed cabling which can easily be cut by sharp coral, or tugged/snagged resulting in a broken connection. Plus the knobs can be easily damaged if dropped /or over torque when adjusting when cold or excited. Even if none of the above happens switches stick, pots wear out and adjustments go out of tolerance as a result of aging. Then there are the seals my oh my - IIRC there are one or more O ring seals under each knob, plus O rings inside of one end of each Pod to keep water out and a Heco seal for the battery. Over time these seals become brittle and must be replaced before leakage occurs.

I am not complaining, I am just stating the facts. I consider the Excalibur the best shallow water hunter with discrimination there is. It is a proven design, and will continue to meet my needs as long as Minelab does not lower its standards (which is not the case).
I love to hunt with Excalibur and will continue to do so as long as it is supported and long after thru cannibalization after the supply of parts dry up.

It is not a matter of if, but when it will fail.
It is also matter of who will do the repair.
If it has not been modified Minilab will do the repair.
Mine lab may repair a modified Excalibur after it is out of warranty,
But it will come back stock, so you will be back to square one and
Either you or someone in the cottage industry will have to modify it again.


I also hunt with a CTX 3030 and love it for its flexibility, selectivity and sensitivity.
It has capabilities that neither the Excalibur nor the Sovereign have.
However, I do not consider it a suitable alternative or substitute for the Excalibur.

Even though the CTX 3030 is well balanced, it is heavy – very heavy. Its sweep cannot be extended nor can you improve the balance point further as you cannot add a longer shaft. The drag of the wider diameter lower shaft is noticeable. It takes a surprising amount of effort to sweep even the small 6” smart coil in the water. One would have thought that they would of made the lower shaft smooth to reduce drag.

Further the ergonomics of the CTX 3030 are wrong, very wrong for me for shallow water hunting.
Common guys, who likes to have to hunt bent forward just to see a Visual Display.
In addition to tracking the tides, I also need to track cloud cover, or look for shade as I cannot see the display in sunlight.

Worse, since you cannot see the display thru Polaroid’s, you loose the capability of easily seeing the reef bottom in the water.
Sun glasses do not work for me either as I have to wear reading glasses to scroll thru the menus.
Further at night, I find the glare from the display blinding (I prefer red light) so that I do not lose my side vision.

 

[Sir Gala Clad]

Even if the modification works perfectly and no problems are induced, at minimum you will still need two detectors. One to hunt with, while the other is being repaired (sigh). In my opinion, the achillies heal of the pod design is the cable that connects the battery pod to the control pod, as it has to be constantly connected and reconnected to charge the batteries. At least this is true in my case having had to return it twice to be repaired (I found buying the one year extension in warranty a wise decision).

Then there is all that exposed cabling which can easily be cut by sharp coral, or tugged/snagged resulting in a broken connection. Plus the knobs can be easily damaged if dropped /or over torque when adjusting when cold or excited. Even if none of the above happens switches stick, pots wear out and adjustments go out of tolerance as a result of aging. Then there are the seals my oh my - IIRC there are one or more O ring seals under each knob, plus O rings inside of one end of each Pod to keep water out and a Heco seal for the battery. Over time these seals become brittle and must be replaced before leakage occurs.

I am not complaining, I am just stating the facts. I consider the Excalibur the best shallow water hunter with discrimination there is. It is a proven design, and will continue to meet my needs as long as Minelab does not lower its standards (which is not the case).
I love to hunt with Excalibur and will continue to do so as long as it is supported and long after thru cannibalization after the supply of parts dry up.

It is not a matter of if, but when it will fail.
It is also matter of who will do the repair.
If it has not been modified Minilab will do the repair.
Mine lab may repair a modified Excalibur after it is out of warranty,
But it will come back stock, so you will be back to square one and
Either you or someone in the cottage industry will have to modify it again.


I also hunt with a CTX 3030 and love it for its flexibility, selectivity and sensitivity.
It has capabilities that neither the Excalibur nor the Sovereign have.
However, I do not consider it a suitable alternative or substitute for the Excalibur.

Even though the CTX 3030 is well balanced, it is heavy – very heavy. Its sweep cannot be extended nor can you improve the balance point further as you cannot add a longer shaft. The drag of the wider diameter lower shaft is noticeable. It takes a surprising amount of effort to sweep even the small 6” smart coil in the water. One would have thought that they would of made the lower shaft smooth to reduce drag.

Further the ergonomics of the CTX 3030 are wrong, very wrong for me for shallow water hunting.
Common guys, who likes to have to hunt bent forward just to see a Visual Display.
In addition to tracking the tides, I also need to track cloud cover, or look for shade as I cannot see the display in sunlight.

Worse, since you cannot see the display thru Polaroid’s, you loose the capability of easily seeing the reef bottom in the water.
Sun glasses do not work for me either as I have to wear reading glasses to scroll thru the menus.
Further at night, I find the glare from the display blinding (I prefer red light) so that I do not lose my side vision.
It is true that you can hunt with the display off, however doing so – negates the improved discrimination features of the CTX 3030, which is the reason for buying it.

This is so important its no wonder why Minelab doesn't offer this. But they would rather sell another type detector.