Excalibur battery & knob question

[dadzjunk]

I just picked up a used Excal 1000 and since I have never owned one before, I have several questions. It looks like it has never been used. How can I determine the approx. age of it? How do I know when the battery is fully charged? I need to replace 2 missing knobs. Are the knobs that sell on eBay for 15.99 as good as any for replacement? Thanks in advance for your help and advise. I currently have a CTX 3030, but thought that this would be a good back up for me at the beach. The seller didn't know anything about it to help me out. My best help and advise has come from these forums.

 

[dewcon4414]

Ebay are fine they have a set screw..... Radio Shack also sells some. You may be able to get the number of your machine and call ML.... there may have been service done on it before. The 1000 was introduced in 1998... hows that for general. Only way to know is buy an after market charger or put a multi meter on it one of our complaints about the Xcal. If the Xcal works properly and you use it at all...... you will be using the 3030 as the back up.

Dew

 

[dadzjunk]

Dew,
Thanks for the information. I left a message for Minelab to get back to me about the age of the machine and hopefully they will call me back. I know that it is not but this machine feels much heavier than the CTX, and I guess that is due to the excellent balance of the CTX, but you may be right about the performance. If so, I may have to invest in a chest harness for it.

 

[OldBeechnut]

The only way we can help you on the age is pictures..coil, headphones...but ti get the best idea you need to pullback the little black cover, the end were the coil wire comes out, and tell us what color the coil wires are..should be 4, inside going to the main board, with this we can give you a close date...joe

 

[dadzjunk]

Hi, the wires appear to be red, yellow white and brown, in that order. I will try to post pictures but I am not very good at photography. Hoope that this will help. Except for the missing knobs, it appears to be in very good condition.

 

[OldBeechnut]

That is one of the good old boys. old blue phones..looking up the wiring...

 

[OldBeechnut]

A guess because the colors are off, but I would say 2002 to 2005

 

[dadzjunk]

Thanks so much for the help. It looks like the wires on the 2006+ one, except that I thought the black was brown. I definitely dont have any orange, green or blue wires. I think that once I get the missing knobs, I will have a nice machine.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

i replaced all my knobs with the radio shack knobs and i like them better than the factory knobs.... those factory knobs have a quarter inch nut under the yellow cap that hold them on.... just make sure your potentiometers arent siezed..... it is common for those yellow knobs to strip out on the insides.... and yes it is a great machine....

 

[OldBeechnut]

Looks like the Battery is newer also...One thing that looks out of place is the headphones..they were used from 1999 to about 2005, your machine may have had a coil replaced in there around 2006....there for she maybe a little older then the coil connecting wires represent but the decal looks perfect...All I would do is get a straight shaft and change out the headphones with the pel-tors. Good Luck, very nice machine

 

[dadzjunk]

Thanks for all of the good information and advise.