Excalibur II EMI Issues post-repair

[The Traveler]

Looking for ideas. I sent 2 excaliburs off to Detector Center last year. One for a bad pot, the other for a coil change. Since I got them back I am having troubles. They are overly sensitive to EMI. Both were normal before service. I attached a video at a local beach. Have you ever dealt with this? I found a 2020 post on another website where the person had the exact situation (sent to Detector Center, then EMI issues) and posted a video like mine. Unfortunately, he didn't post an update on what happened and isn't active on the website.

I have tried every setting and different locations. Turning sensitivity all way down doesn't help. Some locations are a bit better, but neither will hit on a gold ring greater than 6-inches away.

Any thoughts?

 

[FelixtheCat]

Hopefully, Excal expert extraordinaire OBN will chime in.

 

[OBN]

If they do that every place you take them I would say a bad coil.. you have two they did, and one was for a pot so it can't be that..
A coil wired wrong will do that, but they only replaced the coil on one.
And a machine with droplets of water inside of the control pod will do that..

Is there any place they run smooth? And how is it in all metal.

 

[Surf Master]

EMI could be that spot , why 4 on the sinsitivity , try just outside of auto , never was a fan of the slimline coils , or the Green Machine , owned 2 , sold both , went back to my Blues which I favor , listen to Joe , he Masters the XCALS , and made the AQ's better than Lemons, so he claims PS Most likely a coil issue , next time move to a different coil , OBN I don't think cares for the slimline himself , good luck !

 

[The Traveler]

EMI could be that spot , why 4 on the sinsitivity , try just outside of auto , never was a fan of the slimline coils , or the Green Machine , owned 2 , sold both , went back to my Blues which I favor , listen to Joe , he Masters the XCALS , and made the AQ's better than Lemons, so he claims PS Most likely a coil issue , next time move to a different coil , OBN I don't think cares for the slimline himself , good luck !

It was on 4 for that video. I have tried all settings and it there is no difference. This is a grenn excal II it had the bad pot. The second machine is a blue excal. I had them replace the 8=inch coil with a NEL Superfly. The blue is not as bad as the green, but still suffers and will not detect a ring over 6 inches.

I have had a lot of success with this Excal II over the last 11 years. I have so many hours on it and know its every chirp. I was saddened the pot went bad and now heartbroken it won't work. The blue I picked up unexpectedly and just didn't like the small coil. There is a time and place for small coils, but I needed to cover ground. I hadn't used it more than 10 hours total. I thought the coil change would give me a better backup if the green broke down. I didn't expect both to be on the fritz, especially straight from the repair center.

 

[The Traveler]

If they do that every place you take them I would say a bad coil.. you have two they did, and one was for a pot so it can't be that..
A coil wired wrong will do that, but they only replaced the coil on one.
And a machine with droplets of water inside of the control pod will do that..

Is there any place they run smooth? And how is it in all metal.

I was driving around 6 months ago testing this unit at different beaches. There was one that it seemed to work at. I will drive down there and try again this afternoon.
I don't use all-metal, so I didn't think about trying. I will this afternoon.

Will report back.

 

[Surf Master]

Traveler , all metal is deeper than disc , this is why we run with a pp switch, hunt in all metal , hit the button to disc , check , back to All.Metal, OBNs mods , and his skullies to here faint targets , is a great set up . When I hunt July - August running a Tornato 10 from a Sov Gt on one , 12X 13 Nel tornado on the other , wonder if the shop turned your machine sensitivity back inside the pod , ask Joe , blind here on the guts .

 

[The Traveler]

Here are the results from the beach I thought might be ok. It wasn't. There were times I could stay in the dry sand and the threshold would be stable for 60-90 seconds. But never in the wet sand. Anytime the threshold was acting up, it would not detect my wedding ring over about 4 inches. The times when the threshold was stable, it would detect it at normal depth (12").

I tested pinpoint mode. the threshold was pulsing. Unfortunately, you can't hear it in the video well.

I called Detector Center, but had to leave a message and didn't get a return call.

Any ideas are appreciated

 

[TampaBayBrad]

My take in all this bad luck Traveler.....don't send your xcal to Detector Center to be worked on!

Let us know what they say when they get back to you.

 

[OBN]

l'm going to say the coil is bad first....or you have a leak, I've heard the same before with these two.... check the coil cable for any cracks where water could have got into the control pod or coil. Flip the control pod over, remove battery and look inside the control pod closely for any small droplets...It could be either..The repair center will get back to you, it may take a few days. I know Keith the owner, he is a good guy.

If I had the machine I would break it down and check for water intrusion first. Than I would disconnect the coil from the board to see if the threshold smoothed out. If it does smooth out and stop the craziness it is the coil. From there I would connect another coil to the board and see if it is ok. If that does not fix it I would replace the sensitivity pot... I'm almost sure it is the coil on yours.

If it has water intrusion I use something called DeoxIT, I spray/all most soaking the 3 board and the Pots, amazing stuff. Just saved a friends Excalibur from saltwater using it. He did get it to me when it started acting up, his was buzzing erratically, no threshold, no detecting targets. I did the above, broke it down..cleaned the board with a tooth brush/distilled water, then soaked it with deoxIT D5... two days once a day..than blew it out the third day..let it set another..mocked up everything and tested..It works! ..

 

[Surf Master]

l'm going to say the coil is bad first....or you have a leak, I've heard the same before with these two.... check the coil cable for any cracks where water could have got into the control pod or coil. Flip the control pod over, remove battery and look inside the control pod closely for any small droplets...It could be either..The repair center will get back to you, it may take a few days. I know Keith the owner, he is a good guy.

If I had the machine I would break it down and check for water intrusion first. Than I would disconnect the coil from the board to see if the threshold smoothed out. If it does smooth out and stop the craziness it is the coil. From there I would connect another coil to the board and see if it is ok. If that does not fix it I would replace the sensitivity pot... I'm almost sure it is the coil on yours.

If it has water intrusion I use something called DeoxIT, I spray/all most soaking the 3 board and the Pots, amazing stuff. Just saved a friends Excalibur from saltwater using it. He did get it to me when it started acting up, his was buzzing erratically, no threshold, no detecting targets. I did the above, broke it down..cleaned the board with a tooth brush/distilled water, then soaked it with deoxIT D5... two days once a day..than blew it out the third day..let it set another..mocked up everything and tested..It works! ..


View attachment 580739View attachment 580740

Exactly what happened to me with a bad coil , or coil wire , goes nuts !

 

[The Traveler]

Thanks Joe. I will be checking all this out today. Unfortunately I don't have the capacity or skills to remove the coil. That sounds like best way to diagnose.

For now, I am going to hope that it is moisture in the pod. It seems like that is most probably since the other unit got a new coil (that unit is in a different state currently, but I will have it back next week).

Will report back this evening

 

[The Traveler]

I checked the coil and don't see any damage on it or any of the cables. I see no water droplets in the pod.

This may not be fair, but I put the pod in partial sun and placed an ice cube on one end (first pic). I figured any moisture would draw towards the ice cube end. See the condensation in the 2nd picture. It doesn't seem like that much considering the conditions I set up. Is it enough to cause issues? Is it enough to warrant opening up and trying to dry? I expect the repair center kept the desiccant packs in there, if so, would this still happen? Lots of questions.

 

[Surf Master]

WERE THE COIL WIRE MEETS THE COIL , turn the machine on and gentally move it back & forth , this is were the coil wire goes bad usually , also check the battery coil ike light wire !

 

[The Traveler]

WERE THE COIL WIRE MEETS THE COIL , turn the machine on and gentally move it back & forth , this is were the coil wire goes bad usually , also check the battery coil ike light wire !

Thanks for the ideas, I did all that! See my next post, but I wiggled every wire and connector, inside and out. None seemed to make a difference.

 

[The Traveler]

So, I had nothing better to do today. I didn't think that was enough moisture to make it malfunction, but the only way to find out is to take it out and try. And to make sure that my wifi wasn't causing the issue, I took it to the beach (yes, I was scared having it exposed near the ocean). Check out the video below, but we can eliminate moisture as the culprit. And I looked over all the electronics and did not see anything out of the ordinary. It seemingly worked properly in all-metal mode, so I think I will put it all back together and try a short hunt with it. Yesterday when I was swinging it in all-metal, I thought it was pulsing. But the video failed me, so I don't have proof to show you.

One step at a time.

 

[The Traveler]

Pinpoint/all-metal mode was unstable in real conditions. The video is hard to hear the pulsing and interference, but it is there. I buried a bottle cap as a real signal, but it is the only signal in the area. Everything else is interference. It is not stable enough to allow effective all-metal hunting, you would be double-checking whispers continuously.

 

[OBN]

Any moisture is not good and can cause a issue.

I would either wait to see if the service center calls, or take the head phone endcap off and let it air out. It's very easy to do, I have a video if you need. Also when you reinstall the endcap put a very thin layer of Aquaseal around the small gap..between the endcap and control pod. Than slip the black cover over, after that is dry. If you have a dehumidifier that would work best to suck out any moisture while you have the endcap off. Once back together retest.

 

[The Traveler]

Joe, Thanks for all the help. And sorry to overwhelm you with videos. I removed it from the pod and tested it. Unstable. I put it back together and tested it. Unstable. The only thing I can't do is remove the coil and test it, as you advised. I have sent the new videos to the repair center and hope to hear back from them.

 

[Dflan83]

Joe, Thanks for all the help. And sorry to overwhelm you with videos. I removed it from the pod and tested it. Unstable. I put it back together and tested it. Unstable. The only thing I can't do is remove the coil and test it, as you advised. I have sent the new videos to the repair center and hope to hear back from them.

Apologies for bumping an old thread but what ended up happening?