Tony

I think a lack of preventative maintenance is the main culprit. My Excalibur II looks like new and gets a basic freshwater rinse at the beach showers. Back home the whole unit gets submerged in a 6 foot long plastic tub full of freshwater.......I take apart the whole unit and everything is soaked for a good half hour......knobs are turned, stems released, all cables are massaged underwater, headphones submerged.....you get the idea. And afterwards, 303 Marine Protectant is applied to all cables and even the Excal body. I believe the main culprit is allowing salt residue to dry on the cables and this sucks the oil from the rubber PVC cables....and then the rot sets in....literally. Excaliburs are expensive and I am happy to not give Minelab any more of my money through being lazy with lack of care. And it should go without saying not to leave the unit anywhere but in your home. Sorry I have digressed somewhat.....but to your question and I am unsure if the cable composition has changed. I feel the earlier light grey cables (PVC?) were more resilient to salt and sun than the later more "rubbery" style of cable. I have 3 spare 8" Minelab Tornado coils......interestingly these were new "old stock" coils still in their plastic bags but all three had their cables starting to perish so who knows what damaged these.......they simply dried out and some sort of silicone grease or 303 would have prevented this damage if applied earlier in their lives. *** I think it's important that the cables aren't set in position for years and years...they need moving and manipulating to possibly prevent this sort of drying out ***

I might well be stating the obvious but there is a very small amount of bolt tightening needed from where the coil is locked tight but still offers some "release" if too much pressure is exerted on the coil........ and where there is no "release" and the coil is locked super tight and any extra force is likely to break something....it's only a hair adjustment to get to this "no release" setting.....well at least on my detector it is anyway. Also, my Steveg lower glass rod is an even tighter fit when locking the coil bolt so even less room for over tightening. Bottom line for me is my coil bolt is only slightly snug enough to ensure the coil doesn't droop from gravity but the angle can be easily adjusted with little effort.

Joe....what you could do is use some sort of clear plastic/rubber cap that fits over all the pots.....the caps could be bonded to the faceplate (silicone or Aquaseal). The caps would need a small flat lip to adhere well. If the caps were flexible enough then you may even be able to rotate the (inside the cap) pot knob without breaking the bond. There may well be a similar product that could have a removable waterproof top plug so you could make setting changes and then reinsert the plug. I Googled "waterproof rubber plug cap".....you would need a "female" section that goes over the pot (glued/bonded to the faceplate) and a "male" section that plugs into the female part (after making a setting change). Hey, I'm full of crazy ideas......🤪

Or you could get serious and break out the Epoxy 😁

Knowing when to sell silver might be easier than knowing when to sell gold. I have several hundred oz of silver that I may sell this year. I'm not really interested in the spot price of silver rather I follow the gold silver ratio which is now below 50:1. Before this massive silver breakout, I think the ratio was nearer to 100:1 and now it is half that. Going back to ancient times and up until about 150 years ago, the ratio was as low as 10:1 but typically 15:1. Does history repeat? If so then silver is still probably cheap but clearly not as cheap as it was just a year ago. I know of some who will sell if the ratio gets to 35:1 and they are firm on this. Maybe silver will never get that good....maybe the ratio will return to ancient times 😳

Joe uses Silicone grease....not silicone (the stuff that permanently sets to a rubber consistency). I'm thinking you might have these two totally different products mixed up ?

I'm feeling much the same.....I think I love the balance as much as the performance. I feel like Darth Vader when he activates his light sabre 😳

I can be stubborn in “bad water conditions” and hunt just to spite myself 😂…..well that’s how it feels sometimes. I got “ironed out” by a sneaky little 4 footer the other day….”where the hell did you come from?” I kept saying to myself. I think that particular wave had its sights on me all the way from the East African coast…..he was just a ripple a few days ago. I don’t usually hunt with my back to the sea but on this fateful day, I made that mistake. Joe….if you have never been upended a complete 180 degrees whilst detecting and having your trusty scoop try its best to kill you amongst the whitewash, having your headphone cable stretch at least a 1/4 mile, hearing carbon fibre break….then you are missing out on such a detecting experience my friend 😂 The nice old lady in the water did come up to me asking “Are you okay dear”….. I responded with “I’m fine and I actually do this for fun” I have been thinking of quitting water detecting and getting the same experience with one of those medieval torture racks...all from the comfort of my own home. No killer scoops, tungsten rings, jellyfish, sharks, sunburn and stupid kids asking "Found anything yet"....😡 …….now where the hell is that murderous SOB scoop 😾

Very impressive Joe but not as impressive as my stash of s**t Tungsten 🤣........my gold for last year is the worst by a huge margin from the "Golden Years". I am thinking about hunting overseas ! Joe, you are a great inspiration for me but I am finding less and less each year......super deep sands here and a coastline that runs just about a perfect North-South usually means very difficult surf conditions unless the winds blow hard from an Easterly direction AND the swell decides to calm itself down below 5 feet. What with the cost of gold these days....maybe people are extra careful with what they wear to the beach. So many "amateur' hunters are also a factor and their sheer numbers makes up for any poor techniques.....and probably another factor is the professional hunters with their "lost and found" services ready 24/7. I certainly don't begrudge anyone having their jewellery returned to them and I have returned a great deal myself. There just isn't much "historical" lost items to be found. I think water conditions are much harder these days, at least where I live and hunt. I know 100% that there are hundreds of rings buried down several feet and the sand rarely seems to move away....it's either coming off the lower beach into the water and/or being pumped in from the deeper water sandbars. We have a tiny tidal range as well so hunting low tides is hardly beneficial. But here I am still trying to unlock the key to these deep sand beaches.....why was it easier 20 years ago? If I was new to the hobby now.....I'd last a week before quitting "this madness" 🤔

And from the top....ahhh memories of my "leaky and floaty TDIBH". Luckily it only leaked freshwater !!!

Conductor is the red wire and the shield (braid) is the black wire. I hope these help.

Hello Skully, Does this picture help. It shows the two positions used on the 5 pad connection. I have more photo's in my "Attachments". Most of the TDIBH photo's are around the year 2018. This is the underside of the board with the black and red wires coming from the other side.

I’ll take some of that from you 🥵

Bit warm today….43C (110F) but the beer is icy cold and the AC is doing its job…..can’t complain really but the dog is a bit p****d off staying indoors.

I am really appreciative on the feedback.....I only really beach hunt with the Manticore so my experience with other modes in a non-beach environment is essentially zero....but I am always keen to squeeze out more Manticore performance (if possible).