My new hopped up Excal II

[rbdigger]

OK, I am new to the Excal, but even in the short amount of time I have had my Excal II I have learned to love and hate it. Love all its capabilities, but hated the stock headphones and the fact that to go from PP to Discrimination mode you had to keep turning a knob that was not easy to get to. So, with the help of OBN I did the headphone mod and the remote PP button mod. Wow. Let me tell you. My Excal is now one mean hunting machine. The remote PP button makes hunting so much more efficient.

I have an Anderson CF shaft on my Excal and the button I chose to use fit perfectly in the top of the handle. The button is waterproof and how I did the mod should be completely waterproof all the way around.

I set the button in the handle by embedding it in gel coat resin which is 100% waterproof and should protect the backside of the button from water shorting.

Where the wire goes through the endcap, I just drilled the smallest hole possible for the wire to go through and sealed the inside of the cap with gel coat resin. On the outside I replaced the factory heat shrink cover with new heat shrink and left a "cup" of extra material which I filled with Marine GOOP. I do not believe there is any way water is going to get through my wire pass through area.

Took it for a test run at the beach this morning for a 2 hour hunt and it worked flawlessly. I found more good targets then I ever did before due to increased efficiency in hunting with the remote PP button.

Thanks again to OBN for all the help and the videos for both the headphones and the remote PP button. Could not have done it without his help.

 

[OBN]

Great Job Rb, looks better then mine................

Question, tell me more about the gel coat resin....

 

[grizj]

Looks like a winner,I use a w/p toggle where did u get your switch

 

[bear2442]

all excaliburII should be like yours, where did you get the guard for the knobs.

 

[rbdigger]

Gel coat resin is a lot like epoxy, just a bit harder to work with. Unlike Epoxy, which is not 100% waterproof, gel coat is. However, unless you dive for hours on end I doubt anyone would have any trouble with water intrusion due to using epoxy. I used gel coat resin because I had some from a boat repair I recently did and thought I would give it a try. I cures kind of like epoxy except they call the hardener a catalyst.

Here is what I used.

TAP Gel Coat is a high performance Isophtalic resin with excellent handling characteristics, superior UV resistance, and reduced emission. TAP Gel Coat is available in white or neutral. Add TAP Pigment to the neutral for vivid color. Use the Resin Spray Cup Gun for spray application. Gel Coat cures with the addition of MEKP Catalyst.

Great Job Rb, looks better then mine................

Question, tell me more about the gel coat resin....

 

[rbdigger]

Looks like a winner,I use a w/p toggle where did u get your switch

I got my switch from Digi-Key. Not sure of the part number at the moment, but I will look it up.

 

[rbdigger]

all excaliburII should be like yours, where did you get the guard for the knobs.

The knob guard is from Anderson. Same people who make the CF shaft.

Cheers. RBD

 

[njal]

You did a nice job,looks very professional.

 

[OBN]

Thanks RBd, Sounds similar to what I used years ago in the Body Shop, Bondo Fiber Glass resin. I remember during the summer you would have to cut back on the hardner, winter more...and sometimes it would take a couple days to where you could work with it...


SGC just sent me some great info on his experences with RTV encapsulating potting Silicon.


All kewl stuff and good 4 future projects...Thanks Guys....And keep up the good work....

 

[search and recovery]

Great looking customization. OBN will always show you some of the best ways to customize your water detectors.

 

[bigscoop]

At some point I plan to install the remote switch but probably not until I come up with a quality/reliable coil connector setup so I can swap coils. Nice looking setup.