1 month old excl 2 has a major problem

[Mracquis]

I'm beginning to get annoyed with this detector, its been here for a month, first I could not use it because it was supplied with a bad battery and now I have this :

yesterday I noticed that my excl was behaving strangely when switching between disc/pinpoint, whenever I switched I got a strange noise asif there was bad contact inside, the tresh hold was getting interrupted for a fraction of a second.

today with a fully loaded battery I test it before my usual hunt and it appears to be fine.

when I was on the train to the coast I tested it again (was bored) and could not turn it on! after connecting and disconnecting the battery a few times I got it to work

once I arrived to the hunting area I tried for an hour or so to turn it on, no effect. I dont think its the battery this time, there is something far worse wrong with the detector.


too bad, because excl has found me over 2oz of gold already

anyway, the dealer is sending it for "repairs" and I fear I may miss a large part of the season.

 

[JOHNMARKHAM]

check your battery connections?? take battery plug apart and make sure theres not a broken wire?euse a mulit meter and check battery volts after charged,then let battery sit for a few hours after charged and recheck volts,this will tell you if pack is holding a charge, then check battery plug,take apert and check for broken wires,if all looks good plug battery in and make sure its snug and water tight,i use whats called tube lube its from a pool supply store it helps keep the water out of plug,make sure theres no water leaking into main pod? check all wires from pod for lose connections on the bench? im running out of ideas here....
hope all comes out well
hh
john

 

[pratt]

Mracquis,

I had the vary same problem when my Excal 1000 was new.

I spread out the male connector pins on the battery plug to make a better connection on mine.

This my just be your problem.

 

[Mracquis]

so basically you just turned the connectors with a screwdriver ? so its possible they became too loose over time ?

 

[pratt]

Mracquis,

I spread the pins out apart (not turned) to make the pin a hair larger so that I had a tight fit in to the battery pod.

Mine did not become loose over time it was that way new out of the box.

I had vary similar problems with mine also.

 

[Mracquis]

got it, thanks

 

[Mracquis]

called my dealer and he will try this procedure with my excl, if it fails he will send it to Ireland for repairs, fortunately minelab Europe is much quicker than Minelab USA when it come to maintenance

 

[pratt]

Be ez with it, I went just a little at a time until I had some slight resistance when plunging the connector into the battery.

 

[Mracquis]

well thanks, if this helps, I will get even more annoyed with minelab, since its not the first time I encounter a problem with my

 

[hershey1]

Since you have already returned the machine to the dealer I know they will repair what's wrong but that problem may be in the headphones. Regardless what the problem is you're still out of commision. Hope you get back in business right away. Keep us posted. Good luck!

 

[Maxwedge]

IT'S POSSIBLE YOU HAVE A HEADPHONE PROBLEM. IF I LEAVE MY HEAPHONE WIRE HANGING, IT WILL CUT OUT SOMETIMES. I WRAP IT AROUND THE ARM CUFF OF MY GT, BEFORE GOING UP TO MY HEAD AND IT WORKS GREAT. GOOD LUCK-MARK

 

[erikk]

Use some of the $$ from your 2 oz gold ($2940.00) you found and buy another machine so you will always have a backup. Unfortunately electronics will break down from time to time and if U want to keep hunting get a back up machine

 

[Mracquis]

I'm doing this as a hobby, and Im not going to sell any gold or silver ) especially that ring with a diamond, which is a truely amazing find. I will have to wait, I'm in Europe and minelab repair service works much quicker here than in the US, the dealer says it usually takes ten days or so

 

[erikk]

I'm doing this as a hobby, and Im not going to sell any gold or silver ) especially that ring with a diamond, which is a truely amazing find. I will have to wait, I'm in Europe and minelab repair service works much quicker here than in the US, the dealer says it usually takes ten days or so

I do it as a hobby too but I cannot hunt if I do not have a detector. Just think, the 10 days or so that you are waiting for your detector to be repaired you might have added another diamond ring or two to your collection. Save your gold and silver and just take some regular $$ and buy a second machine. Lost time can never be recovered

 

[Mracquis]

man, Im not paying that much again for another excalibur, was thinking about something cheaper as backup, like at pro or tiger shark

 

[Critterhunter]

Time for either an AT Pro or an cheap used older Sovereign model put in a waterproof box, which is pretty cheap and easy to do.

 

[erikk]

man, Im not paying that much again for another excalibur, was thinking about something cheaper as backup, like at pro or tiger shark

Why not, got you 2 oz of gold which is twice the cost of an excal and there is more out there. I got an idea: sell the excal and buy 2 AT pro's or 2 Tiger Sharks or 1 of each then you will surely have something "cheaper"

 

[Critterhunter]

There is no doubt that the AT Pro or any other VLF water machine for that matter will not match the Excal (Sovereign) in depth under all types of ground conditons, though from what I've read the At Pro will give any Minelab (Sovereign, Etrac, Explorer) a run for it's money in terms of depth in some forms of mineralization (not all). But, when you factor in the price of an At Pro and the price of an Excal combined with the problems Minelab seems at a loss to correct in terms of reliability of the Excal (mainly the control pots)...One has to really consider an At Pro at half the price and it's light weight ease of land use along with water....AND the fact that you can swap coils on it right out of the box. People also seem to love it's lightning fast unmasking ability in iron as well.

Look at it this way...Minelab finally has some competition to the Excal after all these years, if not entirely based on performance then at least largely motivated by price. The At Pro at $540 doesn't suffer (if you think it does suffer) THAT much in performance to justify paying twice that amount for a heavier Excal...with the weight of a boat anchor...with the comfort of a bag of rocks...lacking an LCD screen...and suffering from reliability problems. If anything, perhaps Minelab will now feel obligated or at least motivated to come out with an improved water machine. I personaly would never buy an Excal. I can belly wade with my GT, and I could always buy a old Sovereign model south of $400 and stick that in a waterproof box and get the same or better performance of an Excal with much less in way of reliability issues. I always felt doing that was much more logical and would save you a ton of money over buying an Excal. And then you could take the Sovereign out of the water proof box and have a much more comfortable land machine as well.

Is the Excal, like the Sovereign, tops in terms of performance? Yes, no question. But is it that much ahead of an At Pro to justify twice the price and major reliability issues? Nope. In some grounds the At Pro will go just as deep from what I've read. And, even if down the road you find the At Pro has some reliability issues you can at least rest assured that Garrett will bend over backwards to fix the problem. Their customer service is legendary. Again, I'd be more apt to buy an older Sovereign model (they all get about the same depth anyway) and throw that in a waterproof box. Why spend more for a heavier, bulky, poor balanced, machine that has some design flaws?

I'm sure Excal lovers will come out of the wood work to flame me for the above, but that's just the way I feel.

 

[hershey1]

Critter: For the money an AT pro is a very good buy. But I have an E-Trac a Safari and a G-2 because of the results of the Excallibur II and I don't live on a beach although I go to beachs several times a year and hunt freshwater swimming areas here at home. The point I am trying to make is if you can afford a Cadillac don't get a Kia. HH

 

[Critterhunter]

But if you need to get back and fourth to work every day without breaking down then the Kia might be a wise option. From what I've read the AT Pro is getting as deep as any Minelab at least in some soils/sands. I'm sure it won't everywhere but once again there is the ability to use the At Pro on land with it's low weight and LCD screen. The headphones and coil are designed to be removed on it right out of the box. And you could buy two for the price of one Excal. Or better yet, a new At Pro and a used Sovereign for the same price as an Excal.

I'm not arguing the performance aspect of the Excal. I'm talking about reliability, ease of use, and weight. As it stands if I were to buy a new Excal I would have to build myself a whole new shaft for it to get things comfortable.