Big Boys Hobbies

Scored a Excalibur 1000, need help!

Procali

Procali

Elite Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
635
Location
Baja Cali
In the morning i was on a mision to get me a pair of original grey ghost headphones, so im at the store and this guy enters with a blue excal, i ask if it was for sale and he says yes, so the owner asks if i was ready and i told him maybe ill take the blue, the guy that had it has a couple of books on detecting the beaches of cali. Nice guy. Anyways the batteries were toast, so i gave it a test with a battery of a excal in the store, all sounded good so they let me have it for 300 bucks. So i was pretty happy. The unit came with a battery den by kodiac and inside there was a mess of leaking batteries, i cleaned it up the 8 aa battery holder was toast so i went to radioshack and got a new one, new batteries and now to test this little puppy..... Well not to good,
The threshold is very unstable and intermitent like its singing the cha cha cha, i just cant get it to stabilize to a nice hum like on my sov gt. What can the problem be? The original battery pod has two hairline cracks and the ikelite conector had a little green corosion on one pin. The unit itself looks tight with no visible corrosion inside.

6380d3f83ddad9490f73ac7ca2724565_zpsacebfa61.jpg


d12dbc8cb3d50365de6bc3b24ab82e83_zps45711032.jpg


bc75fb53b256433726da87cbb08fdcc1_zps006798a4.jpg


483725ba1ea1bb78b25ada837cb70bca_zpsc251476f.jpg
 
Doing the cha cha you say, if it's rhythmic then it could be EMI, try taking it outside away from overhead wires etc. Just because one detector doesn't pick up EMI doesn't mean to say another won't.

If the batteries were toast then the wires that connect to the battery holder could also be corroded.

Check the basics first EMI?
Batteries sitting tight against the terminals?
Batteries in the right way?
Dirty or dull connections?
Batteries are 1.5V not 1.2V

You said one of the pins was corroded. Use some fine sand paper or steel wool to get it back to bare metal then gently spread the spilt pin slightly with a knife or small screw driver to give it a firmer connection.
Clean both the female and male connectors and apply a thin coat of dielectric grease.
I also use dielectric grease on the 9V type connector inside the pod as well.

Looks like a clean unit, hope you get it up and running :yes:
 
Check that the rubber gasket between cap and pod is there. Put a volt meter on the pod should read 14+ dcv. Then start the process of checking wires for splits. Wiggle headphone wires every so many inches and open them up. If it were me id open the headphone cap and tske a look. There is a lot that can cause that issue.... inside and out of the pod. Worse case it goes in for repair ..... but is new when ya get it back. Sure u know how to set one up....but these blues run as smooth as butter. Did u try running in auto and did any of the knobs not stop?
 
Its beat up an old. Send to minelab and see how much a repair is after you troubleshoot with suggestions from forum. ML will rebuild it if its possible for around 300ish...not positive on tthat. It basically gets converted to an EII.

Yours could be fine, but sounds like strong EMI. Or water damage. At any rate, nice score. hh an gl -Joe

Procali said:
In the morning i was on a mision to get me a pair of original grey ghost headphones, so im at the store and this guy enters with a blue excal, i ask if it was for sale and he says yes, so the owner asks if i was ready and i told him maybe ill take the blue, the guy that had it has a couple of books on detecting the beaches of cali. Nice guy. Anyways the batteries were toast, so i gave it a test with a battery of a excal in the store, all sounded good so they let me have it for 300 bucks. So i was pretty happy. The unit came with a battery den by kodiac and inside there was a mess of leaking batteries, i cleaned it up the 8 aa battery holder was toast so i went to radioshack and got a new one, new batteries and now to test this little puppy..... Well not to good,
The threshold is very unstable and intermitent like its singing the cha cha cha, i just cant get it to stabilize to a nice hum like on my sov gt. What can the problem be? The original battery pod has two hairline cracks and the ikelite conector had a little green corosion on one pin. The unit itself looks tight with no visible corrosion inside.

6380d3f83ddad9490f73ac7ca2724565_zpsacebfa61.jpg


d12dbc8cb3d50365de6bc3b24ab82e83_zps45711032.jpg


bc75fb53b256433726da87cbb08fdcc1_zps006798a4.jpg


483725ba1ea1bb78b25ada837cb70bca_zpsc251476f.jpg
Click to expand...
 
With it turned on, tap strongly on the top of each switch. Mine did the same thing and if was evident when I tapped on the sens knob that the pot was bad and had to be replaced. You could also have a bad wire or a bad coil. Send it in to Minelab and they will gut-shot the repair and send basically a brand new detector (whether you want it or not). They will replace the coil, the phones, the wires and replace whatever is broken inside the pod.
 
, so i gave it a test with a battery of a excal in the store, all sounded good so they let me have it for 300 bucks
Click to expand...


If you tested it in the store and it was fine then you tested it at home and it was stupid...EMI. Great deal and not a bad looking machine, I would say it is between 2000 and 2004 manufactured date.
 
I would say it's likely a problem with the repaired battery since the detector appeared fine with the store battery.
 
I agree on the EMI. I have a Compadre that I returned to Tesoro three times because it did this. Worked in the desert but not my garage or even my front yard OR street. GP Extreme does this too to some degree.
 
I'd say you got a nice score there, that's a great starting price there, hard to go TOO wrong... Going to be hitting the waters? Nortes have been wrecking havoc here...
 
Procali, I think I had the same thing going on with mine. Check the connection to the batt. Pod. Put the muffs on turn the machine on let it stablize then wiggly the connection to the batt. Pod,( both ends) if you hear some interference or any different sound you might have a bad connection.
 
Good to go!

Im a very happy camper, the excal is good to go, it was EMI, this beauty is super stable treshold huming, tones nice and crisp, even the battery took a charge overnight is is working flawlesly, the battery pod had some corrosion inside the i lost the conector and replaces with a radioshack snap conector and everything seems good, ill take it for a spin tomorrow to my local beach and let you know how it goes. Thanks for the troubleshooting tips. GL and HH.
Ill post a video latter in the day of the settings and machine powered on.
 
It looks in pretty good shape,,,,,,I really doubt the problem is the board,,,,if it is, get ready to spend some $,,,,like 2/3 price of a new machine, THEN, you don't have a blue, you have an Excal II,,,,I am willing to bet, it is the threshold and/or sens pot, and they are replaceable for about 15 bucks each,,,,plus a little labor,,,get new rubbers and o rings which is also cheap,,,you should be good to go from there,,,I went through similar issues with a blue 8" and changing out a couple pots, rubbers and o rings and bingo, I got a great machine,,,,there is a big difference in boards between the blues and Excal II's and for what you paid, and about 100 buck or so to fix, you are going to have a great machine,,,,take care of them blue HP,,,they are great HP to have,,,,on the battery, get a maxipack off ebay for $41 and put in the pod you already have,,,,they are 1500MAH and are great to have,,,GL HH
 
Gold Digger 2 said:
It looks in pretty good shape,,,,,,I really doubt the problem is the board,,,,if it is, get ready to spend some $,,,,like 2/3 price of a new machine, THEN, you don't have a blue, you have an Excal II,,,,I am willing to bet, it is the threshold and/or sens pot, and they are replaceable for about 15 bucks each,,,,plus a little labor,,,get new rubbers and o rings which is also cheap,,,you should be good to go from there,,,I went through similar issues with a blue 8" and changing out a couple pots, rubbers and o rings and bingo, I got a great machine,,,,there is a big difference in boards between the blues and Excal II's and for what you paid, and about 100 buck or so to fix, you are going to have a great machine,,,,take care of them blue HP,,,they are great HP to have,,,,on the battery, get a maxipack off ebay for $41 and put in the pod you already have,,,,they are 1500MAH and are great to have,,,GL HH
Click to expand...

What about the cracked pod, do you think water will get in through the harline crack?
 
zeemang said:
I'd say you got a nice score there, that's a great starting price there, hard to go TOO wrong... Going to be hitting the waters? Nortes have been wrecking havoc here...
Click to expand...

The excal is up and runing, even the battery is good, the only thing that wories me is the hairline crack on the battery pod, domyou think its an isue, or is it good to go in the water? No Winter storms up here yet, so beaches are so so, still ill be at it tomorrow spinning with the excal, ill let you know how it goes.
 
If it's just the end cap on the battery pod that's cracked, it will be ok for wading. Don't overtighten the black plastic connector from the battery wire...
 
oldbeechnut said:
If you tested it in the store and it was fine then you tested it at home and it was stupid...EMI. Great deal and not a bad looking machine, I would say it is between 2000 and 2004 manufactured date.
Click to expand...

You are correct: EMI was the culprit, on a nearby park it performed better than i expected, smooth treshold, nice tones, im ready. What about the hairline crack on the pod, is it good to go in the water, do i have to replace with a new pod, or is there a do it yourself solution?
 
18kRonin said:
Doing the cha cha you say, if it's rhythmic then it could be EMI, try taking it outside away from overhead wires etc. Just because one detector doesn't pick up EMI doesn't mean to say another won't.

If the batteries were toast then the wires that connect to the battery holder could also be corroded.

Check the basics first EMI?
Batteries sitting tight against the terminals?
Batteries in the right way?
Dirty or dull connections?
Batteries are 1.5V not 1.2V

You said one of the pins was corroded. Use some fine sand paper or steel wool to get it back to bare metal then gently spread the spilt pin slightly with a knife or small screw driver to give it a firmer connection.
Clean both the female and male connectors and apply a thin coat of dielectric grease.
I also use dielectric grease on the 9V type connector inside the pod as well.

Looks like a clean unit, hope you get it up and running :yes:
Click to expand...

Thanks Ronin for the input, it was EMI, went to a local park and everything ran nice and smooth, so im good to go, what about the hairline cracks on the battery pod, what would you do?
 
Captain Silver said:
If it's just the end cap on the battery pod that's cracked, it will be ok for wading. Don't overtighten the black plastic connector from the battery wire...
Click to expand...

Thanks captain, and yes its the end cap that has two hairline cracks on oposite sides, i imagine from overtightening from previous owner, it was also missing the rubber seal, the charger had a ruber seal so im using that one.
 
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