Excal problems can anyone help??

[sflsweeper]

Hello all,
This is not going to be bang its fixed I am sure, but while on the beach today with a brand new charge on my battery pack my excal left me with no tone control with threshold. With threshold all the way on no tone, machine would still find targets but not very efficiently. About 10 minutes into my hunt tone came back and I had to lower my threshold but the machine would freek out like it had a bad battery charge about once every 5 minutes but the battery is fully charged and I tried my backup pack with the same results.
I did notice a little wear in my batter connector where the wire is inserted into it but other than that I do not know what the issue could be. Could the connector be corroded inside? I am hoping I do not have to send this back to minelab as I know they will take months get me my machine back. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Bobbie]

Do you have an Excal or Excal II? What type of battery pack do you have? Is it NiMH or NiCD? If they are NiCD and you have used them for a while, they have a tendency not to hold a charge anymore. If you use a rapid charger, you could ruin your batteries so that they no longer hold a charge. If you have some wear and corrosion you could also put a short in your battery system.

 

[hershey1]

Might try turning sensitivity down. I have had to turn all knobs back to starting position and start over. And it helps. Usually turning down the sensitivity will stop those noises. Sounds like your battery is about to go but you know better. Lube both sides of the rubber washer with dielectric grease under the Ike-Lite screw cap on the battery. Hope this helps. HH

 

[Dig]

Sorry your having a problem pards.... I understand completely. First give us an idea where your knobs are set. Two u might try brushing the male prongs for the battery plug, in case or corrosion. If you have a spare.. or a friend with one try plugging in that battery and see if you get the same result. It you do then you've ruled out your battery. Then I'd start leaning toward a short or maybe even a head phone problem. There are a lot of experienced users here so I'd be betting someone else has had this problem before and will be able to guide you.

 

[sflsweeper]

Thanks for the info guys, last night I tried another battery pack with the same result. I then took my ikelite apart and re-attached the wires and soldered them again. I have the same result and problem so far. My volume is all the way up, sens 12 o'clock and disc 0, threshold all the way up and no tone or hum what so ever, but the machine works and will sound off on targets but will also give the occasional freek out like a battery is going dead. Like I said, yesterday my hum cam back for a bit but it really seams like there is either a loose wire somewhere or something is going bad just cant tell where. It is important to know do have grey ghost phones and a WOT on this machine but everything has been fine for over a year as nothing has changed since the upgrades maybe 14 months ago. it is just wierd what this thing is doing.... I would really be freeking out if I was not picking up another machine tomorrow, the excal II was going to be the back up.

 

[Dig]

How old is this machine? Could your knobs be spinning loose or barely grabbing? That could allow you to think your tuning your Machine correctly and actually have the settings all whacked.

 

[grumpyolman]

I'm being snide here, but do what some of the rest of us have done. Forget the Excal and go with the CZ-21. In the final analysis I think EVERY manufacturer has its share of problems. It's just who's on first for this week? jim

 

[Crispy Critter]

I'm being snide here, but do what some of the rest of us have done. Forget the Excal and go with the CZ-21. In the final analysis I think EVERY manufacturer has its share of problems. It's just who's on first for this week.......

and last week and the week before that and so on and so on...............

 

[Bobbie]

I also have Grey Ghosts on my Excal and recently a headphone wire broke, it caused all kinds of interference and noises. Did you check your headphone wires? They are thin and there are 3 wires......if one is broken, call DetectorPro and they will tell you the correct wiring.

 

[Jason in TN]

Sounds like you have ruled the battery out. Leaves the coil and headphones to check next if it is not a lose wire there it will be a trip to minelab to have it fixed.
Good luck with that there costumer service and turn around leaves a lot to be desired. I love my Excal but this may be my last minelab if something does not change with
Them.

Jason

 

[mtpockets]

[size=large]They are an Excellent Temporary Machine... But. They aren't reliable Period....[/size]

 

[zxray]

I had a similar problem with my excal. It was a broken, burned wire inside of the battery connection cable. Try flexing the cable with the unit turned on and your headphones on. You should be able to test the cable this way.

 

[sflsweeper]

Thanks for all the info guys, I looked at the headphone connection and coil connection last night. Everything seems to be ok there, while hunting my tone does not immediately come back but after 10-15 min my tones or hum come back. When I first noticed this issue I was unsing my NiMH battery pack, switched to my backup Alkaline pack and things got worse. Switched back to NiMH pack and the freeking out went away but still tone problems. When my hum comes back it fades away as I constantly have to keep adjusting threshold higher for it keep an even tone. If I turn the machine off and back on, 10-15 minutes my tone or hum comes back again. Moving wires does nothing while running so I am thinking maybe the threshold pot is bad or a wire connected to it but I cannot break it down that far to see anything.