KD0CAC

Thanks Gerry , Just got back from Colorado , 9,000-11,000 feet load , had my Nox 800 , but have not used for gold yet and not enough time on a friends claims to get to know the detector & tailings hunting , mostly placer in California . If I get invited back in August and find a little gold , may have to consider the 6000 , social security can not cover the cost of the 6000 , hope to get the 800 to provide enough gold to consider the new Minelab .

I checked out Gerry's linked post , helps to confirm , just more time to learn the NOX , and more time in that area ? Too bad I do not live closer to Colorado and frequent the same spot .

Now to see if we go back in August , the owner mentioned that while we were there 😉 And get time to really check out the claim , & the NOX for hunting tailings from load ?

You seemed to missed what I posted , I was invited by the claim owner to go with to checkout his claims , when we got to where he thought his claims were , I looked at his paperwork [ limited ] IT LOOKED TO ME THAT WE WERE NOT ON HIS CLAIM , I took us to his claim with his limited paperwork , then the person who brokered the claims came a couple days confirmed where I said they were !

I did buy the 6" coil just before the trip , but did not get the time to learn the detectors gold detecting / I did get use to it on beaches & knew close most of the time what was there before digging . But had time . May go back in Aug. hope to do the planning this time , and take more time . More time with any detector is a good thing 😉

I'l wait for more replies . If $3,000 is more than I can afford , $6,000 is out of sight .

Dang just clicked on the link and $49.99 ;(

A friend of a friend of a friend asked if I would like to go along to checkout a claim in Colorado load mine , that make 4 or us in 2 4x4s . About 2 days each way from MN and about 4 days at site , kinda , the owners truck broke down LUCKY is happened in town getting supplies . I have not been on roads like this for a couple + decades [ use to placer / underwater suction dredge in CA ] . So very glad we did not break down on those roads . I was the only one of the 4 that had done any mining [ very little load / tailings mining ] and my 800 was finding targets about every 2-3" maybe as little as every 4-6" . Dug up many targets all man made / metal , no newgets ;( Have never used this new to me detector [ about 1 3/4 yrs. ago , for FL beaches &&& ] so have not got to make personal tune for Newgets . With the breakdown and showing everyone else how to . where to dig , break rock etc. had very little time to do work / detect . Also no one knew how to read / understand the maps we had of his 3 claims , mostly copies of copies of topo maps , when we got to the 2nd spot he thought was his lower claim , I looked at the paperwork he had told me we need to look elsewhere , we were close 😉 Any prospecting is good , but this was getting close to being a , ha not so good [ would have been better if we found / had time to find gold . We had planned to stay at least 3 days longer , but weather reports said a week of solid rain moving in ;( Now if we , I go back I may consider a more specific gold detector , with simpler learning curve than the 800 for gold ? I watch every TWO TOES video https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY0Qsb5XawenYsglMVNTbLw. And he upgraded not long ago to the SD2300 , lots of things that looked good about that detector , but what caught me was using the coil on edge for crevices , but need to find some gold to be able to pay for it , many call it a fixed income - I call it a broken income 😉 With so many false targets , I put more time into helping the others learn how / what to do , and then helping the owner checkout all 3 claims - at least they were adjacent to each other , between 9,700' & 1,100' , sure noticed thin air at the age of 68 . So the question of digging less iron ? 😉 Building a hookah system for using the NOX near beaches , within the depth of the NOX or less .

It would be a big legal issue I'm sure , this is in a town that would take issue . And maybe involve the feds , a good river - for federal water way . But had the idea of one of those walk-behind tracklaying bucket / diggers and shovel into a sifting system , claim I'm cleaning the beaches , kinda like the beaches in FL . And getting the other 2 sizes of coils for the Nox is on the list . But with so many targets , needing to use more functions of the detector to get good enough to dig mostly good stuff / not much trash . I thought about using my phone and making a video with sound to show how much more busy the detector is than I have ever seen or heard of .

I started detecting in the 80s mostly with dredging for gold , then left the gold country and ended up back in MN , got some more detectors with the intention of going back to northern CA - but dredging is outlawed [ bs ] and bought a bunch of detectors in the 90s and worked mostly parks & beaches walking the dog . Had a fire about 5 yrs. ago and lost about a quarter million in tools , equipment and about 6+ detectors . A little over a year ago , bought a Nox 800 , mostly did the FL beaches last winter , not sure if going back this winter . But I have been mostly doing beaches here in MN since coming back from FL just at the beginning of the codvid thing . 1st problem seems to be is most of the beaches I grew up on have replaced the sand beaches [ dirty dogs ;( with grass , and have been worked over / detected , but I still find enough for fun . 2nd issue is a good one , too many targets , that includes pull-tabs & bottle caps etc. , along with lots of coins at least $1 -$2 + per hour , not including jewelry - not much of that - this is where the amount of other stuff - money & pull-tabs & bottle caps - being older 67 , my arm / shoulder can only last about 3-4 hrs. , the space between all targets is most commonly about every 3" - 6" at least 70-80% of the time / area , and many multiple targets on top of / or right next to each other - having to pickout the trash to find coins . So finding jewelry is hard - have to dig lots of trash - to make sure I do not miss the googies . 3rd Now this is just theory for now , need to bring a kid out with me to do , what is very hard for me [ 3 different back injuries ] digging - the theory being that lots of coins going down 6"-8" and nothing older than about late 60s / 70s , so the idea is to have a young slave [ never did get around to having kids 😉 to dig a large area , maybe at least for testing 4' - 6' square and guessing at least a foot deep + --- to find silver coins . This should work good , because this area does not seem to have been found by other detectorist , I have never seen so many targets / coins . Oh this is a river that in the summer there are hundreds [ really ] of boats every day , and weekends it's almost bumper-to-bumper , and all the sandy areas are crowded / over crowded , lots of islands also , so have to have my friend drop me off those with his boat - while he keeps throwing fish back 😉 Now when I get the Nox 800 even just a little figured out / use to , too many hobbies , need to take time from other things to up to speed with the Nox .

I agree that knowing what your doing , so as to avoid issues . But once you know something , you find that many / most places that are charging $2k - $10k are ripping you off , a lot of that is from fear mongering . Life is hazardous - ban it 😉 Point being that you can [ being well informed ] build just as good of quality for much , much less . Steve I used you link to Keene , where I got my compressor as part of my dredge , now outlawed in CA , and repurposing the compressor . It's a cheaper single cylinder , that does not come up after using your link , probubly because the 3 times the price difference , last I checked [ within the last yr. ] about $250 . By the way , Keene does not make either compressor .

7 months later , these have been working very well , maybe 😉 The only issue was the last time out , the most target rich environment I've ever been , non-stop audio . Good spot to get to know detector fast , endless targets , good & trash . This was the 1st time I had this issue , and cannot confirm where the issue was coming from [ not enough time to bother with all the goodies ] but what would happen is a couple to 3 times during the 3 hrs. - the audio would drastically drop - still could hear , but slowed down to listen , then it would come back to normal level after just a couple seconds . Dang now winter is in & out and the river beach is freezing up ;( With a couple months in between uses , still did not have to pair - just turn on the 800 & headphones and connected automatically .

I looked at the prices of store bought at around $2,500 - $4,500 . No way I have a diving compressor from Keene Engineering , that I used on my dredge . I am going to build my own with Lithium battery , shopping for the rest of the parts , motor etc. 100 amp hr. lithium battery for about $600 , motor for less than $100 , regulator less than $100 . The Keene compressor guessing from memory $200 + The biggest problem I have is info on diving off Florida coast 20' or less ?

Got delivered today through Amazon , tried pairing twice by turning the detector on and then headphones , and off and on a 2nd time . Then the 3rd time turned on the detector , then the headphones - paired with the + works good . Now to go out & play . And the price was ok also , https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A0EAYDI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Thanks Chase

" I'm kind of surprised by this statement because you know your way around a soldering iron and circuit board like nobody's business. Wish I had that skill. I'm all thumbs and love to burn up electronic components if I try to dive in myself, but the throway nature of surface mount micro-electronics makes DIY repair hard these days. " Chase Goldman What I am referring to age wise , is programing / computer controlled , vs. circuit board work - thats just mechanical working with my hand/eye coordination . Or put another way - I could be a brain surgeon , I can work on brains / but cannot work with brains 😉 Or , my hands & eyes are coordinated , but the brain - hand coordination is problematic Thanks for the links .

I do realize that there is issues , faults all over the place . Generally , maybe partially because of age I get frustrated with over complication , it seems to me most that are younger grew up with all the extra bs and are just use to it / don't know the difference . I've been in one business or another for over 50 yrs. and see an endless gouging [ started at the top and everyone below has to gouge to keep going ] that is just getting older faster than I am ;( Probably pissed some , my way of thinking is you can only piss yourself off , either that what you want or ?

Sure would like to find some of those , every one I've check has been sold out , or other issues and costing excessive . Also most of the comments leave lots of doubt , lack of enough to confirmation , that makes it a toss up ?

This is not Minelabs issue - kinda ? Well they picked the headphones . Might have to find another supplier / manufacture of metal detectors , someone who will not leave customers in a deep dark hole ? Especially when they jackup the price by 2-3 times ? Anybody else a little or more unhappy .

A link would help ?

I looked those up , only replies were from Amazon , and none available . I did not have the option of getting into them for a couple weeks , so not real hopeful .

I do my own repairs , but typically I'm last in line ;( Got deeper into the headphones today , and realized I was out of flux for doing ic chips . Got the main IC off the board after taking a closer look & seeing corrosion on the edges . Took some bad pictures , will take some more after I resupply and clean up more . After removing the IC with hot-air station , and turning the chip over you can see [ bad picture ] corrosion - yellow on a couple edges .

Well the battery & charging system works ok , but does not turn on yet . Now have to get to costumers repairs , mine are last in line . Will update on progress .

I can access most of the electrical parts , including the battery , the plastic / case is what I would not have access to . I suspect the battery is ok , it probably just shut down when min. voltage was reached . But I am waiting for the Deoxit carrier drys off , then test . I will report what comes of it .

I do not commonly do photos / videos , and was eager to remove salt and did not take before cleaning pic.s . Very heavy salt / corrosion inside of micro-USB plug and on the circuit board where the electrical / surface mount connections are made . Also same on larger board at some of the wire sold points . So soaking with alcohol & scrubbing with nylon brush , Q-tips & a carved down toothpick - to get inside of the micro-USB socket , at least half dozen times , then used Deoxit Gold with same scrubbing about 3 times , looks like new with magnification . Will test in a day or 2 , need to leave Deoxit on all surfaces & wait to let dry - before plugging in . The lithium battery has a BMS - Battery Management System board on one edge of battery , which if working as it should , would have shut down battery after low battery voltage is reached , so latter plug in to charge back up & test . The short created by the salt turned the unit on / kinda , & drained the battery . Hope this helps others when they fall into water , in this case salt water moving from boat to dock , heading to the beach . #1 , 2 , 3 , 4 with boards removed & cleaned . #5 , 6 with boards installed . #7 speaker back in , four holes for screws holding speaker in place . #8 showing foam pad in place , look for little tabs on the inside edge - these clip the ear-pads in place . #9 mostly back together , took all screws that I could see in the headband trying to get apart - as it turns out - did not have to remove any screws that you can see in both the ear pieces or the headband .

Ok got them apart , they unscrew . 1st have to pull the ear pads off by squeezing the pad with a couple fingers and also try to get under the plastic edge with another finger nail . Under that is a flat foam pad just lying there , under the foam pad are four phillips screws , now apart enough to start repair . Most of the damage was in the micro-USB , and the switches , so soaking a bunch with alcohol , Q-tips & rubbing with wooden toothpick . I will wait and clean again tomorrow , then treat with one of the top contact cleaners Deoxit Gold . I'l try to get some pictures & post .