Nuggets

Update: they are sending me a new unit, the repair service has been great. 

I bought a new sdc2300 at the beginning of March and finally took it out for the first time for a big 5 day trip in Northern CA about 8 hr drive for me. The first day it worked normally. The second day after using it for a 20 min it started to make a lot of erratic noise. I did a noise cancel and it just went crazy and would not stop making noise, up and down, almost like emu but much worse. I turned the detector on and off a few times, did multiple noise cancels, changed the battery and sensitivity, nothing worked. The next day it worked for about 2 hrs then started to do the same thing and it never worked the rest of the trip. I wish I would have taken it out within 30 days of purchase because then I believe it would be replaced automatically. I told the repair place for Minelab here in the US I’m hoping it’ll be replaced and he said it may be or at least the control board. I’m hoping it does get replaced, a brand new sdc 2300 shouldn’t have this happen and clearly wasn’t made properly.
 

I will also say there was another older mode sdc my dad was using and it worked flawlessly, so no EMI issues at all, if that is what one may offer as an explanation.
 

Hoping Minelab comes through although it’s a big bummer to drive all that way and have your new detector not work. I’m hoping Minelab is keeping the quality up, the old sdc seems sturdier to me for some reason, the new one the on/off switch and sensitivity switch wiggle and feel loose where as the old one is right and solid, but maybe I just got a dud. Hope this helps and thanks for reading 

Has anyone tried the Nugget Finder 8x12 evolution coil on the tdi sl? with the ion batteries? Curious to see the difference between the evo and the sadie for gold.

On 4/4/2022 at 10:35 AM, Jim in Idaho said:

Be advised that some aftermarket coils will do this, and also some SL's don't readily take to increased battery pack voltage. Juast sayin'.

Jim

Interesting, so this happens only with a new Sadie coil. When I switch to the stock MJ 8x12 it doesn’t do this or give false signals. Both were used with the 16v Li-ion battery pack. I guess I can try the Sadie with the AA battery pack and see but would that make sense if the stock could works with the Li-ion pack but the Sadie would not? Also, just curious why would some SL’s not take the increase battery pack and some would? Thx! 

My TDI SL is doing the exact same thing no matter the location with all the settings off when turning on. It makes a loud over load whine for a few seconds. And then it gives all kinds of false signals. Super disappointing, since nothing of note could have damaged it. Do we contact Garret to do the repairs now? I’m in CA. So bummed, should have just bought a minelab 

On 8/29/2019 at 1:02 AM, karelian said:

I was looking for battery tray design for my Tdi SL which would allow 4 x 18650 batteries. As luck would have it on the local Prospecting Australia website  XLOOX posted a simple mod for a Whites factory battery tray. I don't know how to post links so the full description is to be found in the Prospecting Australia site. Simple cut out the guts of the tray, leaving the original battery connectors with mods on one end and a copper connector on the other.  I can fit Panasonic NCR18650B cells, without nipples but with protection. They just fit snuggly. The only issue is closing the lid, you need to cut a channel under the batteries into the base of the tray to allow for this. I'll cover this with a thin carbon fibre sheet and look at using a thinner sheet for the cover also. I will also add something to secure the batteries in position. Just waiting for the postman to deliver my carbon fibre sheet before finishing my own version of XLOOX's design. What I like most is that this is simple and cheap. Must confess I am aware of many different designs, since there have been no reports of smoking Tdi Sl machines I have finally decided to give it a go.

All the best, Karelian

Hey Karelian! How did you connect the flat top batteries without nipples? We bought flat top batteries and were going to return for ones with nipples? Thanks for your help with the coil info sadly the detech 6" mono was defective out of the box may have been in shipping, I have a waterproof sadie from NZ on the way. Thanks!

On 9/21/2019 at 10:33 PM, karelian said:

The duel field coils do well in low to moderate mineralization, but when the soil is hot in Australia they transmit more ground noise and are more difficult to ground balance than mono coils;  in my experience. This is particularly true for the larger coils and less so for the small ones. I only have experience with the White's 12" duel field and the Jimmy duel field coils. Most of the mono coils beat the duel field Jimmy  in Australian soils. The Sadie was the best of the small coils and the Detech equals it. Slight advantage to the Sadie on small gold and slight advantage to the Detech on larger deeper targets. 

If the Jimmy coil is equal to the  7.5" White's duel field then I can say the Detech 8"  which is near identical to the Sadie mono, will have a clear advantage in hot ground encountered in Australia. This would be  reflected in the coil chart results between the Jimmy and Sadie.  Hard won life lessons, plus an army drill instructor have pointed out that behind every stuff up there is an assumption. The above opinion is based on at least one assumption... since I've never seen or used the White's 7.5" duel field coil, only the Jimmy. Also White's didn't promote the duel field coils in Australia, instead providing the mono versions on local machines. Jim In Idaho has posted a video comparing the White's 7.5" duel field and Sadie in the USA, probably more useful than my Australian experiences. Seems that in the US soils,  the performance is very close.. Type of ground and levels of mineralization seem to be the determining factor in Australia and probably also in hot US ground.  Hope this is not a confusing or contradictory answer and is useful to some degree. 

All the best, Karelian

 

 

Hi Karelian, thanks for this, I recently bought a 6" Detech mono for my pops tdi SL Special edition, after reading yours and others post on the detech 8" for small gold. I haven't tried it yet, a week old. But I am starting to second guess not getting the sadie. Should I be? thinking about returning it and getting the sadie.

In CA where i go in gold country its highly mineralized with lots of iron obviously. I did a quick air test of a .4g piece and wasn't too impressed, but i know that means nothing, it was much much better than the standard MJ coil in the same scenario.

On 11/20/2020 at 12:21 PM, tboykin said:

It was probably me in the video. I think I remember this control requiring the following steps:

1. Hold the DISC button for about 3 seconds to enter disc edit mode

2. Tap the LOCK button to engage the wraparound feature

3. Hit the pinpoint button to exit the disc edit mode

I am able to have it discriminate from 1-6 both on the left side of the scale and right side of the scale separately. However, when I want it to wrap around on both sides the setting has to be at 5. Any idea on this?

In Disc mode when I hold the disc button for 3 seconds and press the lock button I can set it just the right side or the high end, I assume if its on the right side and set at a 1 it means 99 is cancelled, 2 means 98 is cancelled etc. When I bump it up to 5 is when it indicates the wrap around with both symbols lit on each side.

The Gmx with the 6" coil is impressive. I am not an expert but I found a .1 piece about 3-4 inches in a crevice. I have used the gold bug pro before which is awesome. This definitely feels like it punches deep for a vlf.

7 hours ago, tboykin said:

It was probably me in the video. I think I remember this control requiring the following steps:

1. Hold the DISC button for about 3 seconds to enter disc edit mode

2. Tap the LOCK button to engage the wraparound feature

3. Hit the pinpoint button to exit the disc edit mode

Thanks brother! I am heading up to do some detecting tomorrow and I will follow these steps. Ill update hopefully with some gold pics. Side note: checking out a creek I was tipped off on by an old timer I met on the river. Apparently he has over 8000 pieces of gold, over 100 ounces, 35 years, I was like "thats it!?". Glad I asked if he had any tips and he pointed me towards a spot he does pretty well, we'll see. 

I watched the youtube video of the guy from whites demonstrating the iron discrimination ability to wrap around to the 99 range by pressing the lock button while in discrimination mode. However, on my gmx it keeps only adjusting the ground balance offset, which is what happens normally when you press and hold the lock button. Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong? Id love to knockout 99 numbers. Nate

I think I may not have had the coil wire wrapped as tightly as I should have. I was doing big long wraps and I tried short tight wraps and I dont seem to have the issue and I do not want this awesome detector to get blamed. I am hooking up bluetooth to it this week with amazon taotronics just to see. Man those headphone cords can drive you up the wall, especially when youre used to bose wireless headphones lol. Hoping to head up to the sierras in the next week or two and bust out the gmx and new/used tdi sl special edition we just got, I hope the old man finds the nugget with the new tdi 😉

I have a GMX sport and both the 6" con and 4x6 dd coils give false signals if the coil barely touches anything. Do I need to get the detectior sent in to be looked at? It now seems that may be a common issue coming out.

Hi I just recently purchased a used TDI SP SE and wanted to see if anyone had any extra coils to get rid of? Jimmy TDI, Nugget Finder sadie, coiltek. etc

I have the special edition with the miner john 8x12, I strictly gold prospect, usually bedrock and hillsides. Any feedback on the coils or if you think the miner john with do well. 

I have a gmx sport as well which I like, it had a tough time on the american river with the iron, however i am still learning the machine and how to best run it in the gold bearing rivers of Norcal, but I found some little pokers with the concentric in a bedrock crack about 3-4 inches down on another river.