Finderskeeper
Active member
I recently did the Excalibur remote pin point / discriminate switch modification and I just wanted to let people know what to look out for when doing this modification.
I will say that it is one of the neatest.....bestest (I know, that is not a word), coolest modifications you can do to your Excalibur. With that being said.some miscellaneous ramblings about the mod...here goes.
First..the hardest part...finding the switch. I used an IP68 rated rocker switch. The only thing is....it is rated IP68 on the front. It is not rated that on the back. Not a problem. When you fill the tube with expoxy resin, it becomes totally IP68. Most switches are not IP68 rated....meaning they are not totally water proof down to at least 10 feet. That is what you need if you water hunt in the shallows. Good luck in finding one. They are hard, really hard to find. But they are out there. I used a simple on / off rocker rated at IP68. I found it at a local electronic parts store.
Most switches, weather rocker, toggle or push button, are too long to fit inside a standard bicycle aluminum grip. So you have to modify that grip for the switch to fit inside of it. I tig welded a small box on top of the grip and that worked. Others put the switch on the end of the grip. It will take a bit of engineering to make it work depending on what switch you choose. I recommend soldering all wire joints. The plastic slide on connectors are too big to fit anywhere with this modification so don't plan on using them.
Wiring. The Excalibur is pretty tight inside the control tube. So you have to choose small guage wire to make it fit and work. I used very light gauge wire so I could stuff the wire into the tube without interfering with the installation of the end cap. You have to drill the headphone end cap to get the wire inside the control tube. You have to drill in an area that has no wire in the cap. There is one area that is really good. You will see what I mean when you pull off the cap and look on the inside. I used a thicker wire from the end cap to the switch for longer life as the smaller wire will probably not last as long. I sealed up the end cap with plumbers goop. That stuff is great for keeping out water. The other thing I will recommend using is Rescue Tape. I'm out right now but I plan on wrapping the end caps to insure that it is totally waterproof.
You will have to pull the control board out of the control tube. So you will have to pull off both end caps of the control tube. Figure that you will destroy the black plastic rim on the outside unless you heat it up with a hand held hair dryer. Even then, it may not come off without messing it up. Pulling the control board is fairly easy.
You just put all the control knobs to the furthest left and then remove the end caps of the control tube. On the end cap which has the headphone wire, there is a small yellow wire that you will have to cut and when putting back together, re-solder the wire together. Make sure you have small shrink tubing on hand. Also on the headphone end cap, there is a small two wire connector that easily slides off the mount on the control board. You just pull up and it comes right off. The control board will slide right out with a bit of wiggling. Installing the control board back after making the modification is a little bit tricky but it is fairly easy.
I don't need to go into the actual wiring as the previous posts on this site by Mel Parker and OldBeechnut pretty much covered it. You need to use a little bit of logic to figure out the steps on how to do this. It is fairly easy but requires a small soldering iron, electronic solder, magnification to see the tiny parts, small gauge wire, plumbers goop, an IP68 switch, epoxy resin, paint and patients.
Make sure you feed the wire through the empty control pod to the control board before doing this modification. If you solder everything up and don't do that step, you will never get the wire into the control tube. Also make sure that you are not staticky! Static electricity will kill IC's. Also make sure you keep the little packs of desiccant that are between the control boards. They may fall out but just slide in between the boards.
Oh yeah.....if you care about the Minelab warranty.....don't do this modification. My machine had one month left so I wanted to just do it. Glad I did.
Here are the links to all the posts that I can find on this modification:
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,1160165,page=2
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwafebiHx-s&feature=player_embedded]
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?22,1494317,1495382#msg-1495382
To use the switch, you leave the factory pot in the pin point position. The modification then works. If you put it in the discriminate position, it will still work in discriminate but the switch is no longer active.
Thanks again to Mel Parker for trail blazing this modification. And thanks to OldBeechnut for his great videos on this mod and hunting in general with the Excalibur.
I will say that it is one of the neatest.....bestest (I know, that is not a word), coolest modifications you can do to your Excalibur. With that being said.some miscellaneous ramblings about the mod...here goes.
First..the hardest part...finding the switch. I used an IP68 rated rocker switch. The only thing is....it is rated IP68 on the front. It is not rated that on the back. Not a problem. When you fill the tube with expoxy resin, it becomes totally IP68. Most switches are not IP68 rated....meaning they are not totally water proof down to at least 10 feet. That is what you need if you water hunt in the shallows. Good luck in finding one. They are hard, really hard to find. But they are out there. I used a simple on / off rocker rated at IP68. I found it at a local electronic parts store.
Most switches, weather rocker, toggle or push button, are too long to fit inside a standard bicycle aluminum grip. So you have to modify that grip for the switch to fit inside of it. I tig welded a small box on top of the grip and that worked. Others put the switch on the end of the grip. It will take a bit of engineering to make it work depending on what switch you choose. I recommend soldering all wire joints. The plastic slide on connectors are too big to fit anywhere with this modification so don't plan on using them.
Wiring. The Excalibur is pretty tight inside the control tube. So you have to choose small guage wire to make it fit and work. I used very light gauge wire so I could stuff the wire into the tube without interfering with the installation of the end cap. You have to drill the headphone end cap to get the wire inside the control tube. You have to drill in an area that has no wire in the cap. There is one area that is really good. You will see what I mean when you pull off the cap and look on the inside. I used a thicker wire from the end cap to the switch for longer life as the smaller wire will probably not last as long. I sealed up the end cap with plumbers goop. That stuff is great for keeping out water. The other thing I will recommend using is Rescue Tape. I'm out right now but I plan on wrapping the end caps to insure that it is totally waterproof.
You will have to pull the control board out of the control tube. So you will have to pull off both end caps of the control tube. Figure that you will destroy the black plastic rim on the outside unless you heat it up with a hand held hair dryer. Even then, it may not come off without messing it up. Pulling the control board is fairly easy.
You just put all the control knobs to the furthest left and then remove the end caps of the control tube. On the end cap which has the headphone wire, there is a small yellow wire that you will have to cut and when putting back together, re-solder the wire together. Make sure you have small shrink tubing on hand. Also on the headphone end cap, there is a small two wire connector that easily slides off the mount on the control board. You just pull up and it comes right off. The control board will slide right out with a bit of wiggling. Installing the control board back after making the modification is a little bit tricky but it is fairly easy.
I don't need to go into the actual wiring as the previous posts on this site by Mel Parker and OldBeechnut pretty much covered it. You need to use a little bit of logic to figure out the steps on how to do this. It is fairly easy but requires a small soldering iron, electronic solder, magnification to see the tiny parts, small gauge wire, plumbers goop, an IP68 switch, epoxy resin, paint and patients.
Make sure you feed the wire through the empty control pod to the control board before doing this modification. If you solder everything up and don't do that step, you will never get the wire into the control tube. Also make sure that you are not staticky! Static electricity will kill IC's. Also make sure you keep the little packs of desiccant that are between the control boards. They may fall out but just slide in between the boards.
Oh yeah.....if you care about the Minelab warranty.....don't do this modification. My machine had one month left so I wanted to just do it. Glad I did.
Here are the links to all the posts that I can find on this modification:
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,1160165,page=2
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwafebiHx-s&feature=player_embedded]
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?22,1494317,1495382#msg-1495382
To use the switch, you leave the factory pot in the pin point position. The modification then works. If you put it in the discriminate position, it will still work in discriminate but the switch is no longer active.
Thanks again to Mel Parker for trail blazing this modification. And thanks to OldBeechnut for his great videos on this mod and hunting in general with the Excalibur.