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I recently picked up a used SD 2100 on craigslist for next to nothing. When I power it on, the audio clips then settles down to a stable threshold . It also clips on a strong signal response. Is this normal ? Thank's to all who reply

What would the difference be on mineralized rocks and hot bedrock between these two detectors? Took out my 3k and had a hard time detecting due to these two factors. Hoping a new 7k would solve that issue. Thanks.

I just bought on eBay this coil minelab "super goldsearch 18". I bought it as a project for the tdi. I showed it to a friend with many years in the hobby, he told me that he had seen it many years ago and that he remembers it for the "beautiful design". It looks like the lid of a garbage can. According to when it was manufactured, it was a very expensive coil, designeg for the SD, but it has no more information. Does anyone know anything about this coil?

Enjoyable Family Fun! Cheers Ig

Anyone know where I might get this part? Thanks. The hand hold broke off.

Me gustaría saber cuál es un precio razonable para el GP 3500 de Minelab. Supuestamente está obsoleto ya que hay 4 nuevos modelos. Gracias

Hi guys, Long story short, i was given an unused sd2200d today! Amazing generosity from a friend. My mate remembered his father had bought the 'best' detector some 15 odd years ago and was often talking about finding gold nuggets! Unfortunately he passed away before realising this dream - in fact apart from turning the machine on to check it worked, it hasn't been used. I have some fun research to do. While having found gold on several occasions i have only been in this game for a couple of years so while the reputation of the 2200 hasn't eluded me I am certainly unfamiliar with the machine. I have no intention of selling it. Infact I would like to find some gold with it to drop off to my mate & his family. I did wonder when or if a detector becomes a collectable though and maybe shouldn't be used - as this 2200 is like an un opened toy, not a scratch on it! I own a 7000, my wife has a 5000....so i wonder if there is a unique occassion where the 2200d might shine? I will research a bit to find out if any of the new generation NF or elite coils can be used on this so i can interchange with the ones on the 5000. Anyhoo I thought i would share this story and the gift...hope it brings back memories for many:)

My Minelab SD2100 needs to be checked out. It will suddenly go into overload three times in a row, just as if you were swinging over your pick, and then go back to running normal. It won't handle EMI's any more no matter what I do. The control box has never been opened up to my knowledge but I'm not the first owner. The problem is constant with the three coils I've tried and with the power cord. It has happened in different areas. I've not shaken the box to see if there is a loose wire inside. I can only say that it's gotten bad enough to be unusable. I'm wondering if it's a problem with the tuning circuit as the tuning screws do nothing when trying to tune out EMI's. Minelab will not work on it so I need suggestions for a repair station I can send it too. This 2100 has found a lot of gold and isn't ready for the dump yet! Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks! Stickwhipper

So, for strictly nugget hunting which one would you say is the better choice, the Garrett Infinium LS or the Minelab SD2100V2 with Doc's Gold Screamer power pack?

Hello all,I'm a longtime lurker first post. I prospect mainly in the Mohave Mountains behind LHC AZ. I'm currently using a F19 and am somewhat successful on the shallow small stuff. I'm going to upgrade from or compliment to my F19 with a PI. My budget is around 1k. I have a chance to pick up a gently used sd2200 for $800. I can't help wonder if I'm better off with that or a TDI sl. Any thoughts or advice is appreciated. Thanks!

This is more of a complaint issue post than anything else. My first GP handle lasted me 2 years or more before it gave wY and broke. The new one I have I bought about 6 months ago and just left be dead in the scrub with no paddle. My observation is Minelab is cutting costs and producing the new handles with a softer grade plastic and for people like myself who hunt daily it's not adequate. I am going to send these pictures to Minelab so they are aware that softer plastics Just don't cut the mustard! Anyone else had the same issue ?

I am looking for a amp for my 3000. I can find Doc's gold screamer and a B&Z Booster. Are these my only two options? Thanks for an input.

I did a search on this site but couldn't find the answer. I see from Minelab's "coil chart" that the Commander coils are interchangeable between the different series of P.I. detectors SD/GP/GPX (if I am understanding the chart correctly). Does this only apply to the Commander coils? Will a nugget finder coil that is in use now on a GP3500 be compatible with a GPX 5000 as well? Thanks. Dean

My buddy bought a minelab extreme with a stock coil on it and a docs screamer on it...we took it out today and found the normal 3 pockets full of square nails plus an actual cowboy boot spur (which was the awesome part of the day)... We brought a test nugget that about 6gr + I had a vial of about 10 Lil guys totaling just over a DWT... The machine would not hit either one... Is that norm?? What is the smallest nugget for this machine to hit on .. Also any advice on settings for this machine will probably save this detector from closet time... Thnx

Quick question guys, Do all the coils on these machines interchange? Also how good is xt17000 model?

Hi there, I'm in the market to buy my first gold metal detector. My heart wants a new SDC2300 but my wallet is not cooperating with this idea. Unfortunately there seems to be virtually zero used SDC2300 models on the market. However, I've found a used SD2100 for sale for $850. Are the two models even comparable in quality and ability? Please lend me your perspective.

I am looking for the best replacement batteries and possibly a signal booster for my 3500. I tried the archives first but I guess I didn't type it in right!! Also I have a question as to why I need to download something so I can retrieve personal messages from this forum? Any help and answers will be highly appreciated!! Les from Idaho owner.

I have 2 Minelab GP 3500 detectors that both came with 11 stock coils. However it does not indicate anywhere on the coils if they are DD or Mono. Does anyone know if all GP 3500 stock coils were DD, or did they ship some with Mono coils. I suppose I could put one on and fire up the detector and test it, but I'm worried that I could damage the machine running a mono coil in DD mode, another question I would like to know the answer to. So any Minelab experts out there? Scott www.bucketdigger.com

I got an SD-2100 a few weeks ago along with 3 coils, an 11" mono, an 8" mono and a 14" coiltek mono. Not sure how the original owner ended up with that package, but that's what he got. Anyway, I tried it a bit and found the dreaded threshold warble a bit much to put up with. I did a lot of reading on various forums and found various references to steadier threshold with increased supply voltage using various battery packs. I posted in one forum's classified, looking for a Coiltek Pocket Rocket system used. Nobody came up with one, but it lead to my meeting a great local prospector type who had an older Reeds Li-ion battery system/amplifier. He kindly passed this on to me since he no longer had his SD-2100. There were a couple of snags along the way, like a dead charger, but I eventually got it all sorted out. This box is about a third the weight of the original battery and the input from the battery pack is 11.4 volts with the output adjustable up to over 8 volts. Mine is currently set at about 7.4 volts. I am delighted at being able to maintain a really smooth threshold, even though my EMI environment is pretty bad. Checked side by side with the original 6 volt battery, the difference is pretty great. All in all, it is almost as smooth as the Garrett ATX, and I believe it is more powerful. I will be playing with these two more to investigate sensitivity to small gold and larger objects at more depth.

If anybody wanted to waste their time by crawling around the various forums under my handle lytle78 – they would probably see that I have expressed a certain skepticism about Minelab and the pricing policies. On the other hand I am no dumber than your average rock and I knowledge that their current top-of-the-line model GPX 5000 is probably the world's greatest gold detector. Not being an accomplished gold detectorist or prospector I'm not in a position to shell out five grand or thereabouts on the metal detector. Last week and opportunity presented itself to buy a minelab SD2100 at an attractive price with an assortment of nice coils. It arrived today it works fine and I look forward to playing with it in my ground here in gold canyon Arizona – where there is no gold – and comparing it to my White's TDI. So far only one thing has struck me. Although it's noisy as hell here in what are now becoming suburbs with underground electric service and lots of cell towers – I could by moving the tuning control around find a reasonably calm threshold. When I tested the various coils on my 1.5 grain 18 karat gold bead – in air test – I got a very disappointing response. Needless to say having spent a nice piece of change on this thing I was disappointed! I then laid the test bead down the ground in the clear spot and found that the response was much better with the bead on the ground than waving the bead across the coil with the coil in the air. Clearly this requires further investigation and may be pretty good evidence for the old saw that PI detectors don't air test all that well but they do a lot better than the ground. Standby for more data – and feel free to ignore it all if you see that is something I posted. Cheers to everyone - really like the new forum - look forward to learning a lot.

My first PI was the SD2000 which I had modified. My second PI was the GP3000. And now my current PI is the GPX5000 Below are my results for my total nugget haul so far : The SD2000M found 7.3% of the total with an average weight of 3.25 grams. The GP3000 found 28% of the total with an average weight of 2.13 grams. The GPX5000 found 64.6% of the total with an average weight of 1.18 grams