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ATX Falsing Fix?


bado1

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Hello Dean,

Welcome to the forum!

I of of course a fan of the ATX. I agree with Sandy - I think the falsing is inherent in the coil due to the short delay time being invoked to increased sensitivity to small gold. The problem can be addressed through design - I know a lot of effort is expended by Minelab to get coils running quiet.

Part of the issue is running the machine maxed out. I run at the highest sensitivity setting on the machine. Lowering it reduces falsing but reduces sensitivity. So you can choose to alleviate the issue somewhat by running cooler.

Coil scuff covers also help by acting as a buffer to knocks and sharp hits. It is worse on loose rocks and rubble and not bad at all if a bit of grass or weeds acts as a buffer. I find the ATX runs perfectly in grasslands.

Myself I have basically just learned to handle the machine in such a way to reduce the issue, which means just going really slow and taking it easy in the rocks. Not a bad habit to conform to anyway.

When I finish this modification I swear I am never heading down that road again. It is its own sort of fun but really I just want to go detecting. There probably are people who would do mods like this for a fee. I am sure Paul will chime in with ideas.

Pull the control box of the atx apart and look at where the coil lead plug that attaches to the circuit board there is a connector that connects the plug to the board.

It is this connection to the board that causes the faulsing.

De-solder the connector off the board and just solder the wires straight to the board, problem gone.,........... Most times!

The coils also have an inherant problem of falsing as well but this was not rectafiable.

The atx in my opinion is a pig of a machine if I was going to modd a detector I would probably try put a bigger coil on the sdc.

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I thought the ATX at 6.9 lbs was a real pig until I got my 7.3 lb GPZ. Now I know what a real pig is! GPZ is now Big Piggy and ATX Little Piggy. Or maybe the GPZ should better be called Boss Hog! They both like to root in the dirt.

The weight of both of them doesn't bother me!

But the atx's poor performance in our mineralized ground and falsing is why I regard it as a pig of a detector.

But fixing the connector dose improve the faulsing issue's by eliminating the main cause.

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Guest Paul (Ca)

Hello Dean,

 

I've tried several different lower shaft approaches with both the Recon and ATX,  Both the Recon and ATX use the same entire housing with shaft setup.

 

It can be done, Here is the most recent conversion using a Minelab lower/middle shaft with an Infinium coil.  Have put together other types totally different than this setup and each worked well, The only problem is with using the larger Stock DD can't get away from the heaviness of using the larger coil as long as it's mounted to that heavy brick housing.  Like Steve,  Instead of modifying the ATX went with the Recon a while back switching over to a different housing and that was only for testing purposes never really finished the mod just wanted to see if there was a difference in weight and balance. In the future, When my ATX warranty expires will tear the ATX down and go with a land version setup using a complete different approach having the appearance of a factory made model.  In my minds eye, It'll be a beautiful machine and well balanced will be a killer land unit.

 

If possible, Leave your ATX stock and contact Garrett maybe under warranty they will replace the stock coil.  The Garrett stock DD is one terrific coil, Get's both depth and outstanding sensitivity it's a great coil. I've been very fortunate, Have not experience any fasling with the stock coil even when running full sensitivity operates really smooth.

 

Maybe in the future, Can help you out with some type of lower shaft setup. But try and get Garrett to replace the coil if possible or send in the ATX may be another problem, Garrett is pretty good with service and may fix the issue in no time.

 

All the best,

Paul (Ca)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi guys I'm new to this site and was wondering if the 8 inch mono coil from the recon will work on the ATX ? Or should I just try the direction that everyone is talking about with the small infinium coil? I like this machine but after about 1 hr it starts getting heavy.

Thanks Dan

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Hi Dan, welcome to the site. 

After much consideration I went a completely different route...I bought an SDC! For the way I hunt in the type of country I hunt in the ATX just wasn't the machine for me. Not saying that the ATX isn't a good machine. It is. Just didn't jive with my style. I'm sorry I can't answer your question directly, hopefully, Paul or Steve can chime in here and give you an experienced answer. Good luck.

 

Dean

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Thanks Dean,I hope I get some more help ie info because I do like the machine and i need to set it up for this summer for my hunts in Northern California far north

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