TTT2866

Well, long story short I got me a 4500. Not without trouble but I got one somewhat cheap. The lcd screen is damaged though and has lines through it. does anyone know where I can get a replacement lcd from? And if it’s a simple plug & play type fix? Surely there’s some equivalent from china that will work..? it’s not BAD but it’s not great and it’s definitely not ideal. Would hate to be out and it stops altogether. cheers lads

Always, as most of my spots are rocks/clay so it makes for heaps faster recovery

well done! What's the total weight?

Very nice!

Anyone here converted Grey Ghost headphones from the XP Deus 2 to the Equinox plug before? Hoping somebody might have a wiring diagram of some sort? One would think that only 3 of the pins are used but I'm not sure which ones. Seems a bit wasteful that I have these $260 headphones but never use them. the plug seems like a generic thing I can get a female version of online, then make a patch lead/adapter. I've already got a Equinox 1/4" adapter cord that I can cut the plug part off.

Great to hear, looking forward to hearing what you find there!

Thanks all! I use a scoop only in murky water/rough conditions where I can not see underwater. This spot is usually clear enough that I can snorkel it so I don't bother with the scoop. I find so much here that I don't bother ever using the scoop, I just wait until I can swim it. I always use dive weights when I'm in the water, it helps keep you down, otherwise the wetsuit makes you far too buoyant and it's soo hard to dig targets, especially when there's waves which constantly push you around. I just weighed my belt and I'm using 13.1kg (10 weights) . It'll depend on your BMI as well, I'm 6ft5 & about 92kg, so you may need more or less. My wetsuit is also very thin, about 2/3mm. When I tried out a thicker wetsuit I was using near 20kg of weights and it wouldn't keep me down, so keep that in mind. It can get pretty cold in winter. A wetsuit hood also makes a massive difference. If you're planning on going deeper in the water (eg, scuba diving) it'll also vary as your wetsuit shrinks at depth. A quick tip as well which I find helps a lot; find a yearly graph of water temperatures for the location you wish to detect and print it out. I can see the water temp for each month of the year so I know when it will be coldest and warmest. Take advantage of the warmest months.

Hard to describe the mixed feelings here. From initially seeing it come out of the sand and going.. "GOLD!"...then feeling the weight and being ehhhh, then getting to the car and not seeing hallmarks..but then saw no worn plating..but then it's very light...but also "well if it was brass, it's so cheap, why hollow it out?" "hmm looks pretty clean tho" . Ughh. Went straight to the scrap gold buyer with the XRF and was more than pleasantly surprised to hear that it was testing between 17 and 19ct gold!! Wow what a relief. I was hoping 9ct at best lol. Didn't sell, just holding it for now. The links are hollow and it's super worn, like hanging on by a thread of gold. Definitely for the scrap pile. I was soo thrown off by the weight. Being hollow links I thought maybe 13-12 grams, but not even close, 37.4 grams!! Although there has to be a little sand and water in the links so maybe closer to 35g. Still over 1oz and my heaviest gold to date. Up at 5:40am, left at 6am, got there 6:30am right at sunrise and left by 8am. Made roughly $2700AUD in scrap gold hehehe. Overall, terrible conditions in the water, super rough, 5m vis, very very strong current and big waves. I found a small patch and found a silver 2 shilling coin and a silver ring as well which was nice. Was hoping to snag a gold ring too in case the chain was fake but it was hard going after sunrise so I just left. Tides weren't ideal either. HH

Very nice! What's the chain weight?

a lot! This is only a 7P 0.11ct and it's $12k AUD https://www.pinkdiamondtradecentre.com.au/product/round-diamond-7p-0-11ct/

Whaaaaaaaaaat! I can get 500 meters on a good day 😅 I try not to get past 300m in case the silly thing goes in to ATTI mode and shoots off again hahaha. Thats about where i lose signal anyway.

Hi all. Wondering about thoughts on this, whether it would even work or not? Mind the slightly drunken ramble but..? I'm aware there are already some PI waterproof detectors out there, such as the Garretts, 2300, etc. I'm really looking for a waterproof PI machine with discrimination and interchangeable DD coils. What's to stop anyone from waterproofing an old 2200 or 3000, etc? Is there any logical reason as to why it might not work underwater or any reason other than the expense to why nobody has done it yet? I'd love a setup like the SeaGhost mods. I have an old 3000 that I don't really use that cost me nothing..I'd be happy to risk it if this idea would work.. I've done some slight mods on it to get it to a state where it's rainproof, run out of a backpack, and uses a waterproof DD Detech coil. Great on heavily mineralised beaches and shallow water...but would be amazingly helpful underwater. imagine all the deeper stuff we're missing, or the fine chains and pendants. There's plenty of times I've barely detected earrings and fine chains with my manticore underwater just due to how much ironstone/clay is around. Sure I can get rings at 10-12", maybe barely at 13-14", but all the others at 14+ inches deep, there'd have to be heaps more. Realistically it would not be hard to build at all. 6v lithium battery hard-wired, and change the coil connectors to waterproof connectors, then adapt some waterproof headphones to a new waterproof plug (or just hardwire), and encase the detector in a 10m waterproof rated housing? Not sure how the switches would work, maybe similar to the Excal switching system. is there any reason this hasn't been done already that I'm not thinking of? I found this ring under about 1ft of ironstone/clay about knee deep in the water with the 3000 about a year ago, hence the thought.

yes! I use my phantom 3 to scope beaches sometimes. Though limited to only about 350 meters it's extremely handy. The first time I used it to locate an offshore washout I found a ring that sold for $2400. Keep in mind that you generally need direct line-of-sight with most models. Maybe exempt for the more expensive ones? A DJI Phantom 4 would be super handy for what I do. I've only used it once to scope out a property for old ruins and it was really good as well. Also to check out an island about 100 meters off-shore which ended up being an old bottle dump that proved to have some cool finds.

Is it a genuine pink diamond? or another coloured stone maybe? Very strange! Plug the number in to IGI or GIA and see if you can find a report on it. The pink Kimberly diamonds we stock, as well as lab and natural diamonds have the number on the girdle always. Would love to see a pic if you have one handy!

Thanks all! I really enjoy reading all of your comments at work - I can't always reply though as I can never remember my password. I'm simply only snorkeling, though I do sometimes use the Blu3 Nomad air supply unit. If you get the right conditions here, it's very easy to snorkel, it's rare that I use the Nomad now 🙂 Combined with about 10-12kg of dive weights as well. The silver bar is a charm/pendant, but made from a genuine ABC bullion bar. it looks like the part holding it to the chain was far too small and it must have snapped off, or maybe the chain was too thin for it. I've found about a dozen of these silver bar pendants varying in size - usually 2.5 - 5 grams only though, and 1 10 gram one.

(if lazy to read, skip to the bottom for the video and pic) Hiii guys!! I'm back. Lots of no work at the moment, plenty of time off to hit up some beaches whilst we still have some hot days left in our Aussie summer. Practically living off gold finds at the moment LOL . Had a few beers so mind the lazy grammar tonight sorry! 😄 I went out on the weekend at sunset, it was over 30 degrees C, very hot and very busy. Almost did not go in the water because it was a little bit choppy and there was lots of people swimming. Little did I know another prospector whom I know was watching wondering why we were pondering so hard from the carpark hahaha. Finally went down, said g'day and he wished us luck. Wow the water was amazing!! You can hear how busy it was, I even had a woman skim over the top of me on her surfboard which you can see in the video, just as I found a gold ring. The first hunt, I got in the water and found a coin right away, then the 18ct band, all within 3.5 minutes of actually getting in the water! which told me there was going to be plenty to find. I think that's the fastest gold ring I've found. When I came to this spot 2 weeks ago it was sooo sanded in, I got almost nothing after about 4 hours so I'm very glad to see lots of clay and rocks this day. The 20gm silver bar was random, it has a name and date on the back and cleaned up really nice, 20 grams of 999 silver. Lots of silver on those rocky parts, rarely gold for some reason? Maybe cleaned up by said friend already lol I got 1 ring which looked silver but rang up really low, so I'm thinking maybe pewter. all others were gold and then a junk ring which was on the wet sand. went out the next morning at 6am and as soon as there was some daylight I was right in the water. another 3 gold rings. Yay. I cut down about 5 hours of gopro footage to 8 minutes to skip all the boring parts. No talking, no music, no bs. Simple video for all to watch just showing the finds. I plan on editing it further one day and maybe doing a proper youtube video, hence the watermark slapped right in the middle and the dull ending. I think the wrist watch will work, it hasn't got any water in it, I'm just waiting for a new battery to arrive whilst it airs out. Definitely been there a while! I found a old Tag Huer 2000 there last week about 20 meters away which was completely ruined sadly. Total weight was just over 20 grams of gold, about $1100 AUD in scrap. Assuming the "S" pattern one is 9ct for hope sake but it kinda looks like 18ct, just not hallmarked. Obviously using the Manticore - I gave up with the D2. Gave it a chance a few weeks ago but far too noisy (in this spot), too fidgety, too hard to charge, too annoying, too many breakable parts, too quiet and already on my 3-4th warranty. On a side note; I'm using the gopro hero+ since I lost my hero3 last winter. I have the WASABI extended battery, total was about $50aud and the mask from China was about $17. I like it much better than the hero 3, theres a much wider lens i think. I had lots of issues getting it going which turned out to be a non compatible SD card in the end. the battery is fine without the extended battery, I get 2-3 hours of recording and I love it! sadly I don't think they can handle anything above 32gb SD cards so I'm a littleeee limited on storage, whereas I had 64gb compatibility on the hero 3 - it was just impossible to find an extended battery setup from WASABI since they're discontinued.. hell even the Hero+ ones are "old stock clearance" now. Super open to criticism about video quality/editing if anyone wants to input some feedback whether positive or negative 🙂 Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNYQJI897Tg

Very cool. is this the same one that's listed on eBay at the moment? 😛

I've only been doing for 5 or 6 years and accumulated just over 700 rings. it's well worth getting in to. You are correct though, it's not all gold & glory, there's PLENTY of trash in between. Be prepared to dig a lot of junk! The advantage of beaches though is they always replenish, plus high tides, strong winds and strong currents move a lot of sand, often revealing old targets that other detectors have missed. I personally would highly recommend considering a Manticore over a Deus 2 personally.

Correct, if you make one yourself and something goes wrong, you will burn up your cable, and most likely damage your machine and battery. You also risk a fire within your car or equipment, not ideal. I've seen it happen and it's not worth the risk. Your best bet is to buy a Minelab one and just reinforce it. Maybe wrap some thick wire around it and tape it up so it doesn't move as much?

Excellent coil, I really like my one. Yet to try it for coinshooting but I already know its going to be a beast

My best tip is to truly dig everything at first even if it "looks" like trash. I found a nice 15gm gold chain coming in at the lower left corner, around a 10 TID but super scratchy and blobby. It definitely takes a bit to get used to, coming from a NOX but is a great machine. I'd never go back to a D2 or 800 now.

Thanks all! Went back and got a few more goodies nearby 😄 The ring with the writing all around it is 9ct but rang up SUPER high when buried. Only a 60's signal when uncovered. Thought it was gonna be silver lol young Q.Vic shilling was a surprise, not many old coins turn up here. 2 18k and the rest are 9k. The "sun ring" was a lone signal a few days after, ringing up at a low 30's and about 30 meters away. 14ct gold which is very uncommon here. Looks very solid but was about 4 ish grams only as it's hollow underneath. Anyhow, I've replaced my missing GoPro so stay tuned for some videos this year!

Grr, wrote a reply and it deleted itself. Thanks all. I stopped posting to Facebook, too much negativity and jealousy, I much prefer the forums 🙂 Thanks Mn, it's a really cool spot not many people know about. The beach itself, many people have detected. But not many do the right spots, let alone in the water or during the winter. I've found very close to 600 rings there now, not including miss's as she doesn't count hers. There's only 1 other person who's done well there that I know of. There's been more over the last 30 years I've heard rumors about, but they were extremely competitive and often argued about finds LOL. Thankfully I haven't bumped in to them yet. Unfortunately it's well sanded back in now. We went back twice last week and got nothing at all. All the good finds are back under at least .5-1 meter of sand. 😞 til the next storm I suppose. I've thought about it, but don't wanna see every person I teach start doing my good spots!!! hahaha. For what it's worth, I don't think I'd make more money than what I find there yet but I've definitely considered writing a book kinda thing. I learned everything from a very experienced metal detectorist on Facebook who was nice enough to publish a guide years ago, though I don't think he every posted it officially on any forums that I know of? Unfortunately as we all know, it's not all gold & glory, there's many many hours and days where we don't find anything 🙂 I want to find a Mr. T chain next hehehe

I'm back again. This was maybe my 3rd and 4th hunt for the year back in early Jan. To keep it short (i'm supposed to be working lol) Was gonna go back in the water where I found the large 22ct ring in my last post, but wifey convinced me to drop her off at "our good spot" before I went there. Not wanting to leave her alone, I decided to just hang out and do the same spot. Especially after seeing the washout on the shore which had already uncovered at a 1/2 tide. Once it got down to almost the lowest point, we went out in to the water. Immediately, bang, bang, bang, rings, watches, silver, bracelets, you name it! Hell, she even found a Google phone!! Although there wasn't much left of it. The silver dumbbell thing is actually a early 1900s sterling silver baby rattle! You'd think after doing this same spot for 3 years I would've uncovered such a large silver target already, but apparently not. It was really deep under the rocks. Anyhow, I think we went out for 2 nights, maybe 3, and this is my haul. See the shiny ring next to the coin? (not the flat shaped one, the one above it) God I thought that was gold! It was stained by the yellow clay and came up BRAND NEW. Most silver we find is tarnished, like the others you see, but this one must have only been there a few days. It rang up super high though, which immediately told me it was probably gold plated silver. When I got home, the yellow stain buffed off and yeah it's super clean 925 silver. The RAAF tag was cool. After a lot of help from a researcher, we found the owner. He was a RAAF Engineer who was 1 of a handful who graduated in about '71. He's in his late 80's now and living in rural western Australia. He was happy to have it back, though not sure when he lost it but recalls visiting the local pub once which is likely when. Casio watch doesn't work sadly, neither does the Tissot. Oh well. All up, only the front 3 are gold. The rest are mainly silver or stainless/titanium. I think being right after new year, they hadn't had a chance to rot away yet, so they ring up really nice. I think getting in to winter, they start to rust away and break down so we mainly find gold and silver in winter. Cheers. HH

Hi all. Lost my password, couldn't be bothered resetting it lol so I've just been lurking on the work PC for a few weeks. Been out heaps this year - I'm up to 53 rings for 2024 so far, mainly thanks to a couple of untouched washouts that I accidentally uncovered. One of the first hunts for the year produced 24 rings, I'll post that in another thread. The very first water hunt for the year, back around Jan 5th, ish, produced 5 nice gold rings, including my 3rd, and biggest 22ct ring. I nicknamed this one "Boggle-eye", it looks very steampunk. What an odd design though? Our jeweller said it looks to be a natural emerald and natural ruby, but the ring has been crudely modified and the second stone was added at a later date, you can see 1 stone was set nicely but the other was simply "attached" with a bezel. Maybe there was a matching smaller stone that broke? It's hallmarked "22ct KDM". Fun fact, KDM is short for Cadmium which was only used in jewellery for a short time and is now banned in India due to being toxic when worn/worked with. From memory, it's the solder that contains it, not the gold alloy but I could be wrong on that. Either way, I'm scrapping it and reusing the stones. The day started out quiet, I bumped in to another fellow prospector snorkeling in the water using his Excal who managed to snag a ring as well. I was using the Manticore w/ 11" coil. The area was a flat sandy clayish rocky area which always holds lots of coins and jewellery. I used to dive it with my Nomad but with all this sand movement and calm water lately, it's really easy to snorkel there and just duck dive for each target which is awesome! Might be a bit different in winter though. The area photographed below is from months ago when I dived it with the D2 - it's very similar now but way more open instead of just the odd small opening in the sand. Also, not to knock the Deus too hard but... this Manticore is an absolute beast. D2 was super unstable and struggled to pick up a lot of targets due to how much iron was there. The Manticore has been an absolute dream to use. So stable and has incredible depth - the WG ring in the middle was about 1ft down in sand and still rang up beautifully. Highly recommend. Thanks for reading. HH