Hi All
My poor excall has finally gotten a little sick. Currently have a short in the headphone cable near the control housing. I taped it in place and the falsing is mostly gone but this is not a permanent fix. This machine is an older model with the 10" coil (probably over 10 years --I bought new but cant remember the year) . I posted on the modifications forum and OB was very help full with some suggestions.
One other thing besides the headphone problem is I recently tested my Excall against a friends SE II on a section of dry sandy beach. He was picking up some deep high conductors and then I would check with the Excall in both disc and all metal. Disappointingly the Excall was not hitting these targets very well if at all. Depth range 12-14" . It wouldn't really hit (the deep targets) even in all metal at max sens. We tried all sens levels. In fact my machine has always hit ( louder/harder in disc mode). Tom even commented that he thought the volume level on targets was weaker than he expected. He seemed to remember there was a run or a time when a batch of Excalls was put out with weak volume. I don't believe the machine is broken because I have found many coins on the beach at 12-14" and cans much deeper 18".
I think the headphone replacement is pretty straight forward but I'm wondering about the depth signal strength issues. Has anyone ever sent an Excall in for headphone replacement? How about checking out the electronics and changing out worn out capacitors etc? I know the phones would be about $200 plus the repair and shipping I could be into the repair for +$300-$400?
I'd really like to fix this machine and then maybe pick up an Excall II with the 8" coil. That 10" can be a work out in the water and you can get some masking due to size. I'm really looking to get in to some shallow water snorkle/dive hunting in the near future and think the 8" coil would be better. I've also heard that the Excall II while not much different has better shielding and may preform noticeably better than the older models?
Any comments would be appreciated.
My poor excall has finally gotten a little sick. Currently have a short in the headphone cable near the control housing. I taped it in place and the falsing is mostly gone but this is not a permanent fix. This machine is an older model with the 10" coil (probably over 10 years --I bought new but cant remember the year) . I posted on the modifications forum and OB was very help full with some suggestions.
One other thing besides the headphone problem is I recently tested my Excall against a friends SE II on a section of dry sandy beach. He was picking up some deep high conductors and then I would check with the Excall in both disc and all metal. Disappointingly the Excall was not hitting these targets very well if at all. Depth range 12-14" . It wouldn't really hit (the deep targets) even in all metal at max sens. We tried all sens levels. In fact my machine has always hit ( louder/harder in disc mode). Tom even commented that he thought the volume level on targets was weaker than he expected. He seemed to remember there was a run or a time when a batch of Excalls was put out with weak volume. I don't believe the machine is broken because I have found many coins on the beach at 12-14" and cans much deeper 18".
I think the headphone replacement is pretty straight forward but I'm wondering about the depth signal strength issues. Has anyone ever sent an Excall in for headphone replacement? How about checking out the electronics and changing out worn out capacitors etc? I know the phones would be about $200 plus the repair and shipping I could be into the repair for +$300-$400?
I'd really like to fix this machine and then maybe pick up an Excall II with the 8" coil. That 10" can be a work out in the water and you can get some masking due to size. I'm really looking to get in to some shallow water snorkle/dive hunting in the near future and think the 8" coil would be better. I've also heard that the Excall II while not much different has better shielding and may preform noticeably better than the older models?
Any comments would be appreciated.