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ATX Falsing Fix?


bado1

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Hi All, 

I'm new to this great forum but not new to detecting. I live in Prescott Valley, Az in the heart of gold country and when not working I'm

hunting or prospecting.

 

Steve's Frankin-ATX project got me to thinking about the ATX and it's issue with falsing. I really like the ATX except for the usual complaints of excess weight and the falsing. The weight I can tolerate but the falsing drives me crazy. I believe the falsing is due to the cable being unsecured/loose inside the shaft. My question is for anybody who has modified the ATX and wrapped and tied the cable to a different shaft...does this stop the falsing? And, it may be too early in the modification of this detector to ask this, but does anybody do a Steve-like mod to this detector for a fee? I dont mind the control box as is but a shaft/coil mod where the stock coil is center mounted and the cable is tied down would be awesome. I'm not comfortable doing these mods myself. Thanks!

 

Dean

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Hi Dean,

I had an ATX and it was the thing that annoyed the heck out of me. I hate falsing and it seemed every time the 12" x 10" DD coil was bumped, it sounded off just like a nugget. Some people can put up with this, but the areas we detect are generally littered with surface rocks, and it's one thing that I can't put up with, so I sold it off. I thought the falsing was from the coil itself though, but never tried a mono coil on it. It had some advantages but never suited my way of detecting. Cheers.

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Hello Dean,

Welcome to the forum!

I am 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.

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Hi Qld Sandy,

 

I'm assuming the falsing is from the loose cable based on Steve's comments on the ATX and his experience with the small mono as well. It makes sense to me as the coils are epoxy filled and you would think as such they wouldn't be prone to falsing but the cable is free to bump around in the shaft. It does get very annoying in rocky terrain. Perhaps the only cure is the purchase of an SDC?

Thanks.

Dean

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Hi Steve,

 

You type faster than I do! 

Thank you for the welcome! I stand corrected. It is the coil then. I was hoping for an easier fix than that... like wrapping the cable.

I appreciate your advise. Thanks!  BTW, can't wait to see your Frankin-ATX finished!!

Dean 

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Well, I am not 100% swearing the cable has nothing to do with it. I thought so myself early on but after using it for over a year it just seems like more than that. Getting coils to work well with very hot PI designs is a known issue http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/228-speculations-on-minelab-sdc-2300-and-mpf-multi-period-fast/

I just need to finish that modified ATX as that would put some real light on the issues, since the coil cable is now running straight and wrapped up well. If it was a cable thing it will be evident. Problem is I am really, really busy now so it has been hard to get back to it. Priorities shifted.

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Thank you for the link, Steve. Makes sense. Hopefully, somebody will design a better coil for it and for less than the cost of the current offering from Garrett. Thanks!

 

Dean 

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Hi Qld Sandy,

 

I'm assuming the falsing is from the loose cable based on Steve's comments on the ATX and his experience with the small mono as well. It makes sense to me as the coils are epoxy filled and you would think as such they wouldn't be prone to falsing but the cable is free to bump around in the shaft. It does get very annoying in rocky terrain. Perhaps the only cure is the purchase of an SDC?

Thanks.

Dean

 

Hi Dean,

The old Coiltek Mini UFO (17" x 11") and UFO (24" x 12") coils were epoxy filled and they were dreadfully bump sensitive, but we put up with them because the threshold on the older detectors was not so stable in our area, and it wasn't seen as an issue unless we were trying to carefully detect gullies or small creeks among the rocks. When the later Minelab PI's came along the threshold stability improved to a stage where the UFO style mono coils were too damned noisy and were sold off to people with older machines. I still suspect the coil design. You mentioned an SDC, and it also has the cable internally in the shaft, and it is not touch sensitive at all from my experience, which tends to point towards the coil design itself.

Cheers.

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"When the later Minelab PI's came along the threshold stability improved to a stage where the UFO style mono coils were too damned noisy and were sold off to people with older machines."

That is exactly what happened to me. Loved that UFO on my SD2200, found pounds of gold with it. It got all noisy on me when I got to the GPX and I sold it along with the SD2200 to my brother, who still has it.

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