Excal Coil Cable Attach Repair?

[Joe Beechnut OBN]

2 hours ago, bklein said:

Thanks OBN!,

Newbie question - does it matter if ground/hot signals are reversed on either the RX or TX coil wires?  I know I have the TX coil going to detector TX and same for RX wiring (and the detector works) but I could have phasing backwards somewhere.

Also that add on circuit you have on yours - is it a tx boost, rx boost, or both?

Wonder if any one’s tried one on the CTX.  When I first got it (years ago) I had to back off on Sensitivity from 30 - now I’m running 30 all the time.

 

Yes, ground / hot must be in the right spot, there are 3 ground eyelets.. If the TX and RX are wrong it will not Pinpoint correct. Center of the coil will not hit on a target in All metal.

I seen this years ago when the 12 x 10 SEF coil came out, someone put out a wiring diagram that was wrong. Me, a Pinpoint hunter picked it off right away. There was no signal in the middle of the coil and a major falsing issue when the coil was used in the water. 

On the afterburner, it is the TX, transmit only. 

 

 

[bklein]

Wow, great video- thanks I’ll give mine a test.

What do you do to adapt the thin shaft of the new replacement pots? Does someone make 3D printed adapters?  I made some using the brass tubing from hardware stores.  Sloppy cuts in the top using a Dremel. Works but real hard to line up to reassemble.

[eclipse]

A quick question if I may. I have a batch of Excalibur boards marked as 3.3.X. Do you know which version of the Excalibur they correspond to /I or II/? I also have couple of older boards marked as 2.3.X. When I have time I plan to refurbish all these but will see.

[Joe Beechnut OBN]

On 11/25/2022 at 2:30 AM, eclipse said:

A quick question if I may. I have a batch of Excalibur boards marked as 3.3.X. Do you know which version of the Excalibur they correspond to /I or II/? I also have couple of older boards marked as 2.3.X. When I have time I plan to refurbish all these but will see.

3.3X is a Excalibur ll        Early Excal ll's were 3.2X,     I think most of the Blues were 3.2

2.3X and 2.4X, are the Sword models even though I did have one that had a blue stamp that said Rev 1.1 Sovereign, I can't remember for sure which goes with which but they had a Gold, and Aqua , seems there was another?.. AQUA, Black and Red head phones. The Kool about the Swords they marked each, the first had a hand painted Production number.. than they went to a sticker /  label. Some of the early blues had the sticker / label also, than the started the regular printed stickers in the early 2000's and still continue with the Excalibur ll's.

Yes, father time stops for no one, right now I have 7 usable xcals, all from parts collected over the years. I can honestly say I have purchased no new excaliburs in my 14 years of metal detecting, my first two I did buy used, both just under 500.00.

The first picture is a sovereign, the others xcals.

 

[eclipse]

Very valuable information thanks a lot. Had this bugging me since I got these boards. 90% of the boards are 3.3.X so that's good - most of them are from Excalibur II 

Audio section is different vs the regular Sovereign everything else seems the same. 

Crystals 3.904 are hard to come by some of them have those removed. 

[bklein]

One of my two Excals blanks out the pair of needle nose pliers. (Discriminate set to minimum) Any idea what might cause this? Wrong value pot?  Jeez I hate to open it up again.

Edit: I just borrowed my friend’s stock Excal II and it also discs out the pliers in min Disc setting.

[Joe Beechnut OBN]

22 hours ago, bklein said:

One of my two Excals blanks out the pair of needle nose pliers. (Discriminate set to minimum) Any idea what might cause this? Wrong value pot?  Jeez I hate to open it up again.

Edit: I just borrowed my friend’s stock Excal II and it also discs out the pliers in min Disc setting.

Normal for all excaliburs...they automatically disc iron out no matter the settings when the machine is set on DISC.

Now the question is, the other excalibur..why it does not do the same.

[bklein]

9 minutes ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

Now the question is, the other excalibur..why it does not do the same.

Your mis-wiring YouTube video shows the detector sounding on the needle nose pliers. That’s why I was testing them.  

[Joe Beechnut OBN]

1 hour ago, bklein said:

Your mis-wiring YouTube video shows the detector sounding on the needle nose pliers. That’s why I was testing them.  

oooYES, That one.. The blank out when the stock red and black wires are swapped or with the SEF, Black and Grey.. In All metal. You may want to check it something a little smaller also and the target on the ground.

I have so many youtube videos of both the Excal and AQ I loose track..think I have close to 600. Most are unlisted..

[bklein]

My detectors are both built from parts. They have inline connectors so I can swap coils. Both have a Mogami brand cabling with two pair blue and clear wires. I can’t visually tell what’s paired. I can determine TX and RX pairs though with my multimeter. TX are low resistance, RX higher - like 1.1K. If I take the control head apart I can tell what goes where but I am trying to avoid that as due to my pot shaft adapters it’s really hard to get all to line up on reassembly.

Are you suggesting if I don’t hear the pliers it is wired wrong?  So fix that by TX wire swap then test for target centering and swap RX wires if wrong?  Go back to TX with the pliers and verify heard in all metal minimum discrimination.
I’m confused as you say normal Excal behavior is to mask out the pliers (like my friend’s stock unit).