Tony

Now that’s a package I would love to own.......😙

15 minutes ago, Sven1 said:

Added note tighten the screws that hold the case and top together too tight. The mounting tabs  that hold the nuts and or screws  in place will crack.

Thanks Sven

Not sure about the pots but I made sure to only tighten the screws to slightly compress the O ring. 
 

My cleaning regime after an ocean detecting session is meticulous but I got a little careless when I got home.

i always rinse the unit really well at the beach showers and always look for signs of water ingress immediately afterwards and everything checked out fine.

When I get home, everything is submerged in a long plastic tub full of warm fresh water where it soaks for about 15 minutes. I also add some mild liquid soap to help get all the salt out of every knock and cranny. I normally add the soap to the bottom of the tub and then blast the water in to get it mixed up......and THEN I place the detector in. Well today, I got careless and placed the detector into the bottom of the tub first and then for some unknown reason, proceeded to fill the tub with heavy water pressure.........yep........the force of the water got past the orange gasket and forced itself into the detector body. Luckily I noticed it straight away and no damage was done at all. I did have to disassemble the whole unit and dried it all out completely. Not too much water got in as you can see in the third photo. The biggest hassle is getting the gasket back on and securing the 8 screws evenly otherwise the gasket can bulge out in a few places.

Lesson learnt........go easy with the water pressure when using the snap on hose connector. I’ve only made this mistake once and didn’t get away with it. 
Anyhow, now you all get to see a disassembled TDIBH. Interestingly, the battery compartment is  completely separate from the electronics top half. As far as a waterproofness weakness.....it is the orange gasket but only from high dynamic water pressure.

Tony

If you mean depth of water then latest specs have it rated to 1m.....👎

I would back my TDIBH to get that medallion at that depth too.

For now, I don’t accept that the AQ is “much deeper” than the TDIBH at 14.4v.

From what I have gathered, the AQ is comparable or MAY have a slight depth edge but nothing suggests it is “much deeper”.......for now. 

Time will tell....and if the AQ is “much deeper” than the TDIBH then there will be no one more happier than me and the current pricing would be somewhat justified.

Tony

After conversion and taxes.......these will be about $4500 Australian or the equivalent of 3 TDI Beachhunters. I’m guessing they will sell about one unit based on that price here in Australia. Serious hunters may consider the AQ if there is a significant depth increase over what is currently available........in my opinion, highly Unlikely but I’d be very happy to be proven wrong 👍
Also, if the unit is only rated to 1 metre depth of water........it’s not “if” but “when” the detector will be compromised. For that sort of money....the waterproofness needs to be far better. Look at the Seahunter battery setup.....probably the best going.

Tony

Thanks Steve.......good  information on that thread !

Tony

Hello all
Has anyone come up with a decent design for a coil/loop stabilizer bracket for the Excalibur coil?
Because the coil ears are flush with the side of the coil, the standard design doesn’t work (typical Whites style of loop stabilizer)
Love the detector but the thin loop bolt provides very little tightness and I’m not going to ruin my coil but over tightening which is futile anyway.
Can’t find much on the net which is surprising for such a popular machine.
Thanks in advance for any ideas or pictures (even better).
Tony 

Agree about Alkaline quality. The Varta brand are very good.....always very good voltage and fresh plus I’ve never had any leak on me or die prematurely. I’ve had problems with Duracell and Energizers on a regular basis......these are nearly always made in China or Indonesia. I’m amazed at the Varta price.....it’s possible they are so low in order to get you into the store and get you to buy something else...........Is that why I have 48 hammers ?

7 hours ago, phrunt said:

Do you get the Aldi batteries Tony?

Bunnings.......sometimes on special for $5........crazy cheap.

Tony

The batteries are Varta......Made in Germany.

I should mention that I’m in Australia. 30 cells for about $6 US.

Good old Bunnings is where you can get them.

The batteries are always fresh stock too 👍

Tony

MX7........very nice detector. I feed mine standard AA alkaline as I can buy a 30 pack of quality cells for less than $10. I always take them for proper recycling/disposal when they are dead. I get 30 to 40 hours of run time on one set.......so that costs me about $2.50. I’m okay with that 👍

Toany

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts and as much as I love my TDIBH........the coil at 12” diameter is just too big in my generally rough ocean conditions....the swell and waves knock it around too much and with zero visibility due to stirred up sand and white water.......anyhow I have managed to secure myself an unused (outdoors) Whites’s Surf Pi Pro that a very nice person called Eric Foster currently owns. It’s had a few changes too by Eric.

The unit will be outfitted with a recently hand made coil by Eric......a 10” centre mount / 3 spoke coil (Full epoxy fill so no buoyancy problems) with an inline waterproof connector to be able to swap out coils if needed. The coil is in the style of the old Aquastar detector. Centre mount coils are awesome and are very physically stable. I think the AQ will have such a coil. Eric has tweaked the internals of the detector for better gold response.....I think similar to the mods done by Mr. Bill on the Surf Pi Pro. It will be powered by a 10 cell NiMH battery pack or a 3 cell Lithium pack. I’m not going crazy with extra voltage such as the TDIBH so the standard 12v nominal will be more than adequate. I plan to keep the headphones stock.....I’ve always liked White’s 🎧 

Pictures will be added as soon as possible.

I was thinking if the Surf Pi Pro is good enough for Steve in Hawaiian conditions then its good enough for me 👍

Tony

Hardcore beach hunting........I like it when sane people are at home with their detectors  👍

If I ever get the AQ then I will “let it off it’s leash”........no discrimination or any setting that will adversely affect performance or run the slightest risk of missing any gold and that includes 24K............why...... because I regularly see large men wearing big gold nugget pendants around their neck and boy or boy that clasp looks flimsy 👍 Many Australian nuggets run over 22K in purity.
Fortunately, my local beaches don’t have too much pure iron junk targets so I don’t need to worry about chasing millions of these ........bottle caps and booby pins are an acceptable problem.

Tony

PS........AQ has to detect my own 18K wedding ring deeper than 18”.......this is the current benchmark with my TDIBH 🏖

That looks like a pro job !

I actually close up my unit with the battery compartment right in front of the cars AC outlet. This way you are getting very dry air blasting into the detector as opposed to a more humid air. I thought why not, especially on those warm and humid mornings down at the beach. You cannot have too much Preventative Maintenance when it comes to the beach and saltwater detectors.

Tony

Plasti-dip.........end of story. Apply several layers, whatever colour you want. Very tough and provides a rubberised barrier against anything. It can be cut and peeled off if you ever need to.  Buy it in the half litre TIN and paint it on....avoid the aerosol spray version as too much gets wasted.

Tony

Yellow is my colour of choice.

6 hours ago, Ridge Runner said:

For a number of years I was a cable splicer and cable repairman with the phone company I was working for.

 A splice didn’t have to get wet from direct rain from a hole in the sleeve covering the splice. You also have to deal with atmospheric pressure on the outside and inside of the cable. That small hole can act like a soda straw sucking the moisture in . To avoid from this happening you try to keep the cable pressurized.

 When a cable does get wet you have to open the splice up and you start dumping in the desiccant. It came in 8 oz. can and it was nothing to use 6 cans if not more to dry out the splice. As you were drying out the splice you could feel the heat from the drying action from the desiccant. When you knew the splice was dry and as you wrap up the splice you added one more can .

 Desiccant can’t adsorb but so much moisture and after that it’s exceeded its usefulness.

 In my opinion if you have bags of desiccant inside the case they need to be replaced each time you open the case . The container the desiccant comes in the lid always needs to be on good. If not it’s usefulness can go flat and become worthless.

 If you could suck out the air each time and then pressurize with nitrogen gas this would stop your problem.

 Chuck 

Yep....I have about 50 silica gel sachets. Self indicating which means they change colour as they absorb moisture. All kept in an airtight container until needed and baked in the oven as required and then reused.

......... I just realised that I left the silica gel pack out. 🧐

I had my first bit of fogging today........it doesn’t bother me at all and is very unlikely to cause any electrical issues within the unit. The weather was warm and humid when I closed the rubber clamp. Maybe next time I will close it up in front of the AC and see how it goes. 
Another alternative is get a 12v hair dryer and blast some warm, dry air inside the unit before closing it up.......and then style my hair before hitting the beach 😂

Tony

Completely agree with everything you have mentioned Steve.
Manufacturers mustn’t get too cute with a PI.......let them be raw and powerful as they were designed to be. I will never detect having the knowledge that I am walking over a nice fat gold ring and that is why I run my TDIBH with GB Off........no “holes” and better depth. The beach version of the AQ should be a straight PI...... and it would be cheaper to buy. Don’t let the AQ try to be all things to everyone. If Fisher plan to develop other versions then the case for a simple, powerful, straight PI for the beach is even stronger. White’s did a very good job on the TDIBH......Fisher could learn from them.

Tony

Or maybe they compared the AQ to a 14.8v TDIBH..........and collectively cursed in English and French 😳😳😳😳😳

Tony

1 hour ago, Gerry Freeman-Smith said:

Thanks for the reply Tony, I followed your post in another thread, but the pack you used is about £120 with charger. I used the AA tray and modified to use 4x Samsung 25r 18650 batteries fitted along the sides so I have room to fit silica packs down the centre. I’ll try this way with a slot in the top cover. 

Yikes........I paid $90 Aussie dollars including charger. That’s about £50.

Someone in the UK is “charging” too much....😂

Tony

On 11/3/2019 at 12:27 AM, Gerry Freeman-Smith said:

Hi TONY, I built a battery pack too and notice it gives increased sensitivity along with depth. 
can I ask how you managed to fit a silica gel pack inside as I am getting slight condensation inside. 
I did think of putting one inside the battery pack and putting a series of holes in the cover of the pack. 

Gerry

I can put the silica gel pack in because I use a 4 cell battery pack and not the slide in Whites battery holder. 
This is my battery pack. All details are in earlier posts.

Just as an FYI to anyone who is reading this......battery manufacturers may specify  a battery voltage as either 3.6v or 3.7v per cell. My battery is therefore 14.4v (3.6v x 4 cells). A 14.8v pack is 4 cells of 3.7v. There is no difference in the overall performance of these packs. These are all nominal voltages. Final charging is about 4.2v per cell or 16.8v for the overall 4 cell pack. I thought I’d add this bit as some people get confused and want the “higher 16.8v pack” which IS the 14.4v or 14.8v pack (assuming 4 cells).

Tony

That is some seriously good results with the extra voltage and consistent with my results on the beach 👍