Speaking of coin strike-whats with the bad coils?

[rockpup1]

Just wondering what to look out for.I found a used one in canada for $450-shipped kinda sounds steep price but it only has a few hours of use on it.
It does have 2 rods and 8"-5.5" coils.

I want a better coin machine and I have heard alot fo good about the coinstrike.

If not I may end up with a DFX-I know is a great machine.

 

[MarkCZ]

If it has a bad coil it could do different things I guess, mine with the bad coil was really unstable "most of the time",
It also ID'ed low on coins,
Quarter's were dimes,
Copper pennies came in at Zinc's,
Nickles fell into the foil or upper iron range.

The unstable part of it was like it was working but the controls just didn't seem to have much control over the machine, it was kind of like a run away train. I thought for awhile it was having EMI problems. It wasn't until I met up with a co-worker that had the same machine and we switched coils and did so in the same area! his was running fine but was going nuts, switched coils, his went crazy! and mine was fine. He said he had never had his act that way, so I found a used coil and mine is fine now!. I do wish that Fisher would have put a toggle switch on it for the pinpoint rather than the membrane button.

Mark

 

[WV62]

Just wondering what to look out for.I found a used one in canada for $450-shipped kinda sounds steep price but it only has a few hours of use on it.
It does have 2 rods and 8"-5.5" coils.

I want a better coin machine and I have heard alot fo good about the coinstrike.

If not I may end up with a DFX-I know is a great machine.

With you getting 2 coils with yours you should have something compare and test with. Chances are you will not get 2 bad coils.

Good luck,

Ron in WV

 

[Mr.Bill]

the coil thing. In the years I was a Fisher dealer, I never had any with bad coils, nor did I ever see any.

Now with that being said, it doesn't mean that there couldn't be some that had coil problems. "MarkCZ" mentions he had a problen with his coil. Flunky coil problems isn't limited to Fisher Coinstrikes. Most manufactures have some type of problems with coils from time to time. No one is exempt.

It's not hard to diagnose a bad coil. They either don't ground balance well, or they cause the detector to chatter like a squirrel in a tree.

Mentioning chattering, the Coinstrike when set to factory pre-sets is generally adjusted up too strong for smooth operation. That was the major complaint about them, the chattering. That chattering was just cause from being to strong in it's settings for the area being hunted. Something to keep in mind if your going to undertake a ownership of a Coinstrike.

On the plus side, it's one hellava detector. It can hunt with the best of them out there today. The trash hunting ability of it is at the top of the heap. Super fast recovery time. Depth is a good as any.

Enjoy

Mr. Bill

 

[MarkCZ]

the coil thing. In the years I was a Fisher dealer, I never had any with bad coils, nor did I ever see any.

Well, I've read a good number of comments posted on the Internet from users that said things like,
"I bought one of these but didn't keep it long, I hated it! imposible to run! unstable no matter where I ran it!"

"I bought one and its max depth was 4" I traded it off about as soon as I got it"
Ect...

From the bad reports I read and the ones that gave information to some of the problems they were having it started to sound a lot like mine. The bad thing was that none of these people had another person that had a working CS to switch out the coils to see if there was something really wrong with the detector.
I mean it seemed to work!
And every once in awhile it would seem to work pretty good, then the next time out it would act up.

I don't know for a fact! but I have a pretty strong feeling that the bad rep the coinstrike got was from people who thought the detector just wasn't built to be a good working detector, and never knew it had a coil problem. Mine in real bad EMI will sort of act the same way as it did with the bad coil, except for the ID problem.
The loss in depth that some reported I feel might have been due to the necassary reduced setting that it took to settle the machine down. I mean sensitivity of 2 and a threshold of -50 and the nachine really isn't going to get much deeper than 3".

So, without any proof I feel that they may have been a batch of bad coils that got out from the manufacture for the CS and the few caused some bad feedback without really knowing they had a bad coil. The guy I got mine off from I don't believe knew it had a bad coil, it just didn't work for him very well where he lived. He sold it and bought a Tesoro never knowing the CS had a bad coil.

And then I still see comments where the CS doesn't run very well at the factory settings! the comments will go on to say that the "Factory Settings Are To hot" not with a good coil! I run mine on a sensittivity of 8 and a threshold of -5 to 0 most all of the time and runs just fine. (I wish that fisher would have used a toggle switch for the pin-point control instead of the touch pad, lifting your thumb up to push the button causes you to lose to much of your grip, the tip of the index fingure to flip a toggle is MUCH BETTER! Whites, Fisher 1200's ect..)

Another thing with the bad coil was the menu system and trying to work through it to change settings! what a bad idea it seemed because of the constant trying to adjust it to settle it down, now with a good coil I don't have a problem with the menu system, but I hardly ever have to change the settings!

Mark

 

[Mr.Bill]

Mark

I wrote it as I saw it. I don't doubt yours had a bad coil, (I wasn't there to say different), but it was not as prevalent as your making it sound.

On the sensitivity thing. A setting of #2 should be getting you targets at about the 4" to 5" range. If you can't get that aprox. depth at least in a air test, then I would say something is still out of whack with your unit.

The 1266 & the 1270 are slower sweep detectors. The Coinstrike is a faster sweep detector. That is if you want to achieve maximum depth.

So in closing, you may be correct in what you experienced with a bad coil, but I'm correct in what I posted also.

 

[MarkCZ]

Mark

I wrote it as I saw it. I don't doubt yours had a bad coil, (I wasn't there to say different), but it was not as prevalent as your making it sound.

On the sensitivity thing. A setting of #2 should be getting you targets at about the 4" to 5" range. If you can't get that aprox. depth at least in a air test, then I would say something is still out of whack with your unit.

The 1266 & the 1270 are slower sweep detectors. The Coinstrike is a faster sweep detector. That is if you want to achieve maximum depth.

So in closing, you may be correct in what you experienced with a bad coil, but I'm correct in what I posted also.

Hemm, looking back to my last reply I can see how you may have gotten the idea I was starting a debate with you, I really wasn't!
And I didn't mean to say what you posted was wrong.
I just posted some possible pieces of a puzzle of how a detector like the Coinstrike "Could" have gotten a bad reputation. Went I went through the troubles with mine I went looking for answers and when I started finding those bad reports and not really that many, but a few and from the sound of there problems it sounded a LOT like mine. I the time I thought I had gotten a detector that should have NEVER been built, but I was stuck with it and I had concluded that it was one I could even pass off to another person, I had put a little over $300.00 bucks in a detector that I couldn't use nor could I rip somebody else off by trying to sell it or trade it in and that was $300.00 that came very hard to spend, it was like I was rolling in money.
After a few weeks of not being able to do anything with it (and I even talked to Fisher about it was suppose to have had a life time warranty, NOT!) I was about to give up and really just stuff it away somewhere or just set it out in the trash!

I had access to other Fisher coils but! there isn't any other coils that fit the coinstrike! and then a Co-worker just by chance had bought a CS about the same time I had gotten mine. I didn't think the coil was bad, the idea was like reaching for the stars, a shot in the dark, but It was something I could try at no more of a cost and the coil proved to be the problem.

Then thinking back on those bad reports of the CS and how many of them sounded I came to the conclusion that I wasn't alone with this issue! The comments I had read went from a LOVE to a HATE relationship. My co-worker and I both felt the same about the coil, there was a likelihood that some defective coils go lose from the factory. Forum member DaveJ stated in a non related post that the coils for the CS were VERY difficult to manufacture, he was explaning about detectors like the CS were not cost efficent to built.

Anyway as it worked out I was really glad I didn't get stuck with a dud, that was going to be a hard $300.00 bucks to swallow.

I wasn't nor did I mean to sound like I was coming against you! I've been around forums for a long time now and what just happened with us is how those dreaded "Debates" get started.

Thanks for your all your help and insite on the forum! (Really)

Mark

 

[Mr.Bill]

come across as I meant it. It's tough to put any emotion in text. At least it is for me.

I'm sure the C$ coil may be a bugger to mfg. I have my doubts about the statement that it was not cost efficient to build after of some of the units they came out with recently. It was more likely a problem of "who" designed it.

No strange feelings on my end from your post. There's always 2 sides to any story.

Have a nice day

Bill

 

[Cdn-to-guy]

Go with the coinstrike if it's still available.

I have used this machine since 2004, and never had a coil problem in my life. I have tried a Minelab Explorer I and II, Fisher 1235x, 1266x, Garrett 2500, recently Whites Spectra, and Minelab Etrac, honestly, my favourite is still the coinstrike. It has faithfully averaged 15.3 gold rings per year, and more deep silver coins than any other machine that i've had.

When it was first produced it was not properly understood, and reminded me of the Airbus A320 flying into the forest in a fireball at the Paris airshow (I am also an airline pilot). The similarity was that similar to Airbus, they both built a very advanced machine or with great capability, but didn't tell people how to use it or provide adequate training when they first came out. Even a lot of dealers and testers didn't understand it.

I remember reading the postings of a popular tester recommending settings of sens 5 and threshold -25 for parks. That is ridicules and limited the ability to about 40% of it's depth capability. That is what a lot of the dealers were suggesting too, because they were never given any proper guidance on how to use it when it was first produced. If the ground is stable enough, you should be able to pick up dimes at 10 to 11 inches with a solid signal. I use faint target audio boost always, so that i don't miss deep small signals.

You never want to reduce threshold from 0 or higher unless you absolutely have to. Even if you reduce the sensitivity to 4 or 5 and keep the threshold high (0 or higher), you will still find targets at 8 to 9 inches. That was another thing that was never explained to people buying the detector when it first came out.


In regards to finding targets under trash, of course it's bs, but it does have the ability to clearly separate signals tighter than any other machine I've seen, meaning that if there are 4 or 5 bottle caps and tabs within an inch on either side of a coin or gold ring by sweeping over them, the detector will tell you what's what. Most of my great finds come from the middle of trashy areas that other detectorists have skipped or not been able to separate the tabs from gold, etc.

The detector only weighs 3.5 lbs, if you hip mount the housing then it's only 2.2 lbs, and is really ergonomically well balanced. Your knees will get tired before your arms do, and it also runs fine on rechargeable 9v batteries (about 12 hours per charge), 20 hours for alkalines.

My first coinstrike, was getting so beaten up because it's travelled all around the world many times, one time on a flight, the faceplate had a hairline crack on it, and it was looking like heck, so I decided that i needed a new one, and went shopping. I couldn't find one that I liked as much, and ended up buying another one to replace it from a dealer who was retiring last week. I bought it brand new in box for $650, and told him i will buy one more in the fall, if he still has one available.

I have over 1500 hours of time using it, and still am incredibly impressed with it. I have looked at other machines as replacements but often side by side in terms of depth they haven't beaten the coinstrike, or if they are close or slightly deeper, it's hard to justify an extra 3 lbs of weight in competitor models.

All in all i have found thousands of dollars in coins, and have pawn shop receipts for 8 years of gold rings totalling over $10,000, so anyone who does not like this machine, has never taken the time to understand it.

 

[Mr.Bill]

The 5 -25 setting was just a setting to help people get use to their unit without having a lot of sensitivity issues. It;s a good starting point. Those that didn't understand that would have problems with it regardless.

With that setting I got great depth with it. Everyone's soil is different, because it worked for me well doesn't guarantee it would for everyone.

It's a heck of a detector, and will hold it's own against anything out there today.

Mr. Bill