Jump to content

Search the Community

Showing results for tags 'minelab sdc 2300'.

  • Search By Tags

    Type tags separated by commas.
  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • Metal Detecting & Gold Prospecting Forums
    • Meet & Greet
    • Detector Prospector Forum
    • Metal Detecting For Coins & Relics
    • Metal Detecting For Jewelry
    • Metal Detector Advice & Comparisons
    • Metal Detecting & Prospecting Classifieds
    • AlgoForce Metal Detectors
    • Compass, D-Tex, Tesoro, Etc.
    • First Texas - Bounty Hunter, Fisher & Teknetics
    • Garrett Metal Detectors
    • Minelab Metal Detectors
    • Nokta / Makro Metal Detectors
    • Quest Metal Detectors
    • Tarsacci Metal Detectors
    • White's Metal Detectors
    • XP Metal Detectors
    • Metal Detecting For Meteorites
    • Gold Panning, Sluicing, Dredging, Drywashing, Etc
    • Rocks, Minerals, Gems & Geology

Categories

  • Best of Forums
  • Gold Prospecting
  • Steve's Guides
  • Steve's Mining Journal
  • Steve's Reviews

Categories

  • Free Books
  • Bounty Hunter
  • Fisher Labs
  • Garrett Electronics
  • Keene Engineering
  • Minelab Electronics
  • Miscellaneous
  • Nokta/Makro
  • Teknetics
  • Tesoro Electronics
  • White's Electronics
  • XP Metal Detectors
  • Member Submissions - 3D Printer Files
  • Member Submissions - Metal Detector Settings

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start

    End


Last Updated

  • Start

    End


Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End


Group


Website URL


Facebook


YouTube


Instagram


Twitter


Pinterest


LinkedIn


Skype


Location:


Interests:


Gear In Use:

  1. Hi , Could someone point me in the direction of a decent set of rechargable batteries for the 2300.... i have the charger i got with it... i threw the batteries that came with it away....
  2. I got out into the field yesterday for my first nugget hunt of the year. About an hour into the hunt I got a very nice repeatable breach in the SDC's threshold; I raked away some overburden with the pick and scanned again - same thing with the signal a little stronger. After removing about 3 inches of overburden I was already in bedrock. I would chip away a few handfuls of bedrock and scan the tailings and bedrock and repeat. This went on for some time, probably about 30 minutes and I was probably 8" into the fractured bedrock and went to rescan the hole and nothing - not even a quiver in the threshold. What happened? I kept going back to this spot hoping my signal would magically re appear to no avail.
  3. Hi all, Hope everyone had a great Christmas. It's been some time since I put up a new blog on my website, but I've recently posted one discussing how to get the best performance from the SDC2300. http://phasetechnical.com.au/getting-best-sdc2300/ If you pick up 1 new tip, then it'll be worth the read. Cheers, Nenad
  4. Yesterday I beat my old record. Now it's .023 gram. .35 grain. I don't know if that's a good thing.
  5. Long time reader, first time post so be gentle. I just received an email this morning from Minelab that announces for the remainder of December they are bundling the GPX 4500 and the SDC 2300 for $3999, just $249 over the regular price of the SDC 2300 alone. I haven't found anything on the site that indicates what is included in the package (like possibly the Commander 15X12 Mono search coil in the current $2699 GPX 4500 package). I'm sure dealers will check in soon as to what is authorized. I purchased a GPX 4500 not long ago, or I would be all over this. In fact, at this price, I may purchase the package, and either keep the additional 4500 as a hot spare, or just sell it.
  6. Was able to get out for a couple of hours today with the SDC and added these to the poke. It is still pretty warm in the high desert but that will change this week with rain and cooler temps moving in to AZ. Prospecting season is here! Good luck! Dean
  7. Are stable threshold settings on the sdc (1,2,3...etc.) dependent more on ground conditions than anything else? The reason I ask is I have not been able to run the threshold on my sdc less than #3. On 1 and 2 the threshold is intermittent and "warbely" and basically un-huntable . On 3 she's stable and I'm finding the tiniest bits of gold. Iv'e hunted various locations here in Central Arizona and always have to set it to #3 to get a stable threshold that is not intermittent. Normal? Dean
  8. So i got a little cuious abt my f3 and ability to adapt to other coils and took her apart. the coil plug in is a smaller 6 pin unit. 5 wires attach at coil adapter;blk,red,yel,blu, and green. Circuit bd tentitavly look like blk n red are tied as well as yel, blu, and grn. coil has 29 turns with a little steel/non copper wire soliered to the leading/starting end of loop. the ANTENNA as i call it, is aprox. 10" length, starts at soldier conn near coil cntr goes 6 oclock to wrap around insulated portion of coiled wire where it enters coil pltfrm. then it goes to abt 10 oclock position bout half distance between cntr and edge of coil, passes from top side of spool to bottom side of spool where it then turns right angle to upper run and terminates bout half distance from coil cntr at aprox 2 oclock bearing from cntr. the spool is styrofoam 3/4 thick w/ spool groove being 5/16 " wide or tall, and in-set abt 1/2 " it is held in place by rubber band and entire surface of spool is wrapped with heavy paper that appears to have graphite? looking coating on it. AND HERE I THOUGHT THIS STUFF WAS ROCKET ZCIENCE. LOL. Just my preliminary findings, for those curious. now i just need: info on winding coils, findd small 6 pin plug-ins, and a 3d printeer to make coil foot adapter to hold other coils. thats it for now, gotta do some home-work on it. I ll post more later. Happy hunting.
  9. First off I want to say I am not advocating anyone do this. It will void your warranty. But I like to know stuff and this is interesting information. Ismael has opened up an SDC and confirmed that the coil is plugged into the control box with a plug connector. He has used an adapter to run some other Minelab coils and in his opinion mono coils seem to work well. http://golddetecting.4umer.net/t22372-coil-question-for-the-sdc-2300#216360 Further down in the same thread there is a picture of the connection, which is under the cover on the housing where the rod assembly pivots. http://golddetecting.4umer.net/t22372-coil-question-for-the-sdc-2300#217008 I hope someday Minelab stuffs the SDC into a standard detector housing, something like the Eureka Gold. And offers a couple other coils. A small 4" x 6" elliptical would be awesome for crevicing and an 8" x 12" elliptical would be great for better ground coverage. A standard control box should lower the price considerably and an ability to hip or chest mount would be really great. I would get one in a heartbeat.
  10. So when you get out and run your detector in the right places, this is what you can find: Its the gold I've been getting in various locations in Plumas and Sierra counties in July, August and early September - just going out and prospecting for a few days at a time. I figure I'm probably out digging about 1/3rd of the time. This is just from my detecting in California - it does not show about a half ounce of fines and small bits from some days of dry washing nor does it show the gold I have detected in Nevada. All of this gold was detected using either Minelab's GPZ 7000 or the SDC 2300 - I find I am using both. I use the GPZ in areas with more open country and little in the way of trash, and the SDC 2300 when I am working in trashy areas. The SDC does not have any iron discrimination, but its faster to pinpoint and get the trash out of the ground when you are digging a lot of targets and you may find multiple trash targets in a single swing of the coil. I have used the GPZ in what were once trashy places after the trash has been cleaned out.The two make a great team. The largest nuggets across the top are 0.52, 1.10 and 0.41 troy ounces from left to right. Finding these big guys was very exciting - though every one is a joy to discover.
  11. An interesting thread on an OZ forum on interchanging coils. Lots of back and forth, some misinformation - the Ismael - a long tome modifier of ML PI machines, chimes in and says - "no problem"! http://golddetecting.4umer.net/t22372-coil-question-for-the-sdc-2300#216436
  12. Hi All Ever since I purchased my SDC I have been wanting to make it a wireless unit as I enjoy the freedom of no cables on my SD2200d by using a "Little Ripper" system. So with numerous questions on forums & checking out anything along these lines, I finally found some info online, so armed with a bit of info I went down to "Jaycar" & hey presto they had what I needed. I purchased 1x "Bluetooth Transmitter (which can receive also) & 1x "Bluetooth receiver, an adapter plug & adapter lead. I connected it up yesterday when I got home & gave it a test run & it works great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Very Happy" ATM I use under-chin ear-buds but my next mission is to set up a booster with dual speakers. Here is a few pics of the parts I bought, the larger item is the Transmitter, they are USB chargeable with 8 to 6 hrs run time. cheers Lee
  13. Many of the prospectors here sometimes prospect in Northern Nevada, and like a number of GPZ users prospecting in northern Nevada, I have been experiencing issues in certain places with the GPZ moaning and groaning over wet ground that is a little bit salty. The amount of salt in the ground at various places in northern Nevada ranges from not salty at all to fairly salty with all ranges in between. When fully dried out this ground is no problem, but when wet it is a whole different story. Some places the salt is no issue, while in others it is very noticeable. Salt, by itself, is not conductive and dry salt will not respond to a metal detector, but when dissolved in water the salty solution is conductive. The extreme of this is wet ocean beach sand. The salty placer areas of northern Nevada are not nearly as salty as ocean beach sand but they have proven to be salty enough to cause the GPZ to have difficulty with this ground. Here in Northern Nevada we have had an unusually wet period of about the last six weeks. Much ground is now saturated wet and in places there are even puddles of standing water. Even where the surface is dried out, an inch or two below the dry surface crust the ground is fairly damp. I was camped recently in an RV park in the Pershing / Humboldt County gold areas of northern Nevada and was approached by GPZ owners also staying in the same park expressing their concerns about the GPZ ground balancing in these areas of salty wet ground. A good ground balance with a stable and quiet threshold cannot be achieved in these areas. A slow swing speed is the best way to deal with the groaning at present. Slowing way down does greatly reduce the groaning, but it does not totally eliminate it. The good news is that once this ground dries out fully, the GPZ will have no problem with the ground. The downside of this is that we have had so much rain in the last six weeks that it will likely take more than a month of dry weather before the ground dries out to the point where the salt will no longer be an issue. So I wanted to make some tests to determine what level of problem the salty ground is really causing out here in northern Nevada. A while back, Steve found a nugget patch in northern Nevada. I will not say where or exactly when that occurred, but the ground is salty and does groan quite a bit with the GPZ when its wet. In some spots on this area the wet ground really does make quite a bit of noise. Steve gridded the spot very carefully with his GPZ, and I walked around on it afterward with my GPZ and did not find any additional gold – he cleaned it very well. However, we have had a lot of rain in the last two months and I consider this an excellent spot to try out an alternative to the GPZ to see if the salty ground would cause targets to be missed. I wondered if there might be very small bits that the GPZ had missed because the groaning ground overwhelmed the target response of small targets. I figured the SDC 2300 would be a great alternative to see what, if anything, the GPZ might have left behind. So I took my SDC 2300 to the spot to see what I could find. First, I will say that even in the non-salt mode, the SDC 2300 did not have nearly the same level of difficulty with the salt. In the salt mode, the SDC was nice and quiet. I have to admit that the nice quiet threshold of the SDC was a lot more pleasant to listen to than the moaning and groaning of the GPZ. I went over the spot fairly well with the SDC and found a number of very small pieces of trash, the vast majority of which were tiny pieces of steel window screen manufactured with a wire less than a quarter of a millimeter in diameter. I did find one small nugget which weighed 0.22 g on my very accurate scale. Here is my conclusion after testing the SDC with its salt mode versus the GPZ on salty ground with comparatively shallow gold: First, Steve didn't miss much. Even though his detector moaned and groaned (and my GPZ did too), he was hearing essentially all the targets in the ground. He may have missed one very small nugget, and the window screen wire bits were very small and near or possibly below the limit of what the GPZ could hear anyway (I think on these tiniest of targets, the SDC is a bit more sensitive). My conclusion about this testing was that if you know what to listen for and listen carefully on that salty Northern Nevada ground, you are not missing much of anything with your GPZ. The ground noise may be annoying to listen to, but if you're listening carefully you're not missing much. I now have more confidence in my GPZ going over these grounds – it will be nice however when the ground dries out and the groaning goes away.
  14. Has anyone gone blue tooth with their SDC? If so, is it as easy as getting any of the readily available blue tooth transmitters plugging it in and off you go (with the proper head phones/ear buds,etc.)? Thanks! Dean
  15. Hi All, Well, I received my 2300 Friday afternoon and, of course, charged the batteries right off. Then fired her up. All good! After putting in my time on the "honey do" list on Saturday I was able to escape for about two hours to a near by gulch that has been prospected since the late 1800s. A buddy of mine does well there using the usual "wet" methods of recovery. My main concern was the proximity of some large power lines (100-150 yards). I knew that the GPX line would have fits there and wanted to see how the SDC would handle the emi. I fired up the SDC, did a noise cancel and ground balance with the sensitivity set to 4, and was pleasantly surprised with a mild warble in the signal...still very hunt-able even at 4! The #2 setting was even more stable. Loving it so far! Hit some small trash items right off the bat...small pieces of wire that gave nice "dig me" signals. as I worked my way up the gulch I started hitting signals that "over loaded" the machine. The recovered targets that caused the over load were the ever annoying bits of flat, decaying, rusted iron the size of a finger nail or smaller. The stuff was every where . So, I started to ignore the over load signals. My question is... was I ignoring gold as well? Will the machine give "over load" on the usual small gold? I can imagine that if it were swung over a large shallow piece of gold it may over load (?). I was in such a rush to get out and give the new SDC a swing that I forgot my .3 gram test nugget to test this for myself. I was getting these over load signals even on the #2 sensitivity setting. My conclusion was that there is a ton of trash in this spot and would be better suited to a VLF with discrimination capabilities if it could handle the ground (doubtful). Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with the SDC! Handles the ground and emi incredibly well. Hopefully, I can get out this afternoon and give it a go. Thanks! Dean
  16. Well, I am now an official member the the SDC owners club . Should be arriving in a few days . Can't wait to give it a swing. I have my eye on some higher (read COOLER) areas for some summer swinging. Already getting warm...was 80 yesterday here in central AZ. -5000ft elevation. Hopefully, we will get some rain soon or we are going to burn up this summer. Dean
  17. Hi all, I am curious just how you guys that use a bungee on the new Minelab SDC 2300 have rigged your bungee,for your own use. I know you knuckle draggers:) will say "it isn't heavy to me, so I don't need to use one", but you may not spend as many hours in the field as some of us. Even a Gold Bug II will get heavy over a long swing time, day in and day out... So, if you have one, let's see what how you did it. It doesn't need to be complicated nor expensive. I made one for my SDC, I can leave it on, even when it is folded up, is made of 4 items. A piece of parachute cord, a parachute cord clamp you can buy wherever that cord is found, and either a rectangular or triangular piece of plastic to run your cord through, as well as to hook your bungee to, all of which can be found at the same location stated above. A short piece of flexible plastic gas line, left over from some motorcycle repairs completes the unit. I used the plastic gas line to minimize wear on the carbon fiber lower shaft, but your method could be a whole lot more imaginative. Thanks for looking! Gary/Largo
  18. Hi All, I've been working on something over the last few weeks that may be of interest. My hearing is ok, but not great. So I got to wondering if there was a way to turn the audio signal of the SDC 2300 into a visual signal that I could see on my phone instead. After a bit of playing around I managed to rig up something. It's still very green and I am not sure if everything is working 100% as it should, but I will post below some screen grabs of the first test I did today with a small picker. I placed the gold on the ground and ran the coil over it at a height of about 6cm (3"). I didn't have time to put it in the ground. I'll try that next. There are three images: 1. The baseline signal of the detector (no gold nearby) 2. The signal when the coil has passed over the gold and back a few times. 3. The signal just as the coil is passing over the gold. 1. BASELINE (NO GOLD) Watch the small peak at 800Hz 2. SIGNAL AFTER THREE PASSES OVER GOLD See the ghosted hump above the baseline peak. That area is where the signal jumps to. 3. SIGNAL AS COIL PASSES OVER GOLD You can see how the baseline peak grows in height (audio strength) and pitch (shift to higher frequency to the right) as the coil passes over the gold. I would like to be able to expand the area where the action is happening to make it more visible, and I would like to try and see what happens with other targets such as iron, lead, aluminium, copper, even a magnet rock like magnetite. If I had a garden it would be a lot easier, but I have to travel quite far to be able to get to a place where people don't bug me when i have a detector in my hand! This was an SDC 2300 with an iPhone, but in principle the system should work for any detector and any smartphone. Richard ps I hope the images post ok, never uploaded any before...
  19. Hello All, I can gladly say that my SDC arrived this afternoon and as soon as my wife was home to watch the kids i hit my latest spot. As unbelievable as it sounds and still seems to me i hit the small flake (doesnt register on my scale that goes to .1 grams) a few inches down in the bedrock, i chipped and chipped and the sound got better and better. Got it out by bashing and cleaning up in my pan was absolutely amazed at how clear and true the sound had been. Stoked and still dancing a jig i slowly proceeded up river and got another signal that was a little louder but kinda hard to get at due to the angle of the bedrock. I smashed apart the small ledge with my trusty Apex and rescanned the area. Now it was nice loud and clear, bet this'll be lead i thought. Smashed, scooped, scanned and repeated again. No lead shot, a beautiful little 1/3 dwt Nugget my second in a half hour. I'm Absolutely Ecstatic!, I haven't had this much joy finding gold in awhile and i always enjoy finding it. I have been creaming this area with my GB Pro over the last year and thought i would breeze through here and hit a spot up river but instead i made it about thirty feet. Awesome! With a very big toothy smile i decided i'd head home before it got dark and get some good rest for tomorrow since i have two locations that i'm just jonsen to hit. Today i was running sens. on 2 - never got time to worry about turning her up. The SDC is definitely the best metal detector i've ever used - The arm rests a bit of a pain and i'll be making a weight system for diving-the coils buoyancy is annoying. Yet i'm in love. My wife asked me if i was going to shower with the thing the day that a bought it. Upon arriving home today i told her "sure s@#t i'm showern with it - F#$&*^g sleeping with it to. LOL I'll be detecting my ass off the coming weekend - rain,shine, snow or sleet Thanks for sharing my joy AjR
  20. 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.
  21. Can someone please tell me the correct term for the type of audio out socket (headphone socket) on the SDC 2300? Thanks!
  22. Hi Steve, To start off, you have a great informational site here. I have always liked your posts from around the different forums and now you have it all right here and you are sending out info double time. Very nice. Since this thread has an SDC component to it I would like to ask the question I been wondering about. I have read JP's analysis that he can run GPZ head to head with the SDC except for very small surface gold. I have both a 5000 and SDC and quite honestly I love the stealthy little detector and use it 90% of the time. It just work in the steep manzanita choked hills that I frequent much of the time here in Shasta Co. I would like to get your take on the small/med gold performance difference between these two here in our local soil conditions of Northern Cal and Nevada? Thanks Jeff
  23. A lot of people have talked about the coil comparisons in the GPZ video with regards to the larger deeper stuff. What about the fact that the GPZ is being said to go deeper than an SDC on small gold – 14" coil compared to 8" coil. If that's the case I'm impressed. I also hope there will be an 8" coil option in the GPZ's future. Imagine how much better it could do on sub gram nuggets if it had that coil! My question is; Does the GPZ really beat an SDC on small nuggets even with a 14" Coil? Is that number coming from that 5 gram mark or sub grammars too? With the detector reaching buyers this Friday and that one website doing a countdown to Wednesday, I suspect the gag will be lifted off Steve and JP Wednesday as well. Whenever they get to talk, I look forward to hearing their conclusions. I look forward to seeing the gold they've found with it as well!
  24. Hi all, I have been thinking about the directionally challenged speaker on the SDC 2300. Yes, I tried the mini speakers, but that is a story you don't want to hear, as it deals more with principles, and less with utility... Here I am wondering if there is a way I can utilize some of the box full of gear I have bought in the past 25 or so years? There must be a way. I dug around and found a little Radio Shack Mini Speaker, that I had used on my Whites Goldmasters. I also have a Depth Master, as well as a Barrie Johnson Nuggett Finder Signal Enhancer, MKIII (Yes, that is the way Nuggett is spelled on the label...lol) I am pretty sure I can strap that thing on, using some gender benders...yeah, there is such a thing... So I do have a pretty good supply of "stuff" to toy with. I know Digger Bob was a fan of the Radio Shack Mini Speaker, but I don't know if he has tried an SCD 2300 yet... So if it's good enough for Digger, it will be good enough for me, depending on if I can make it work on the 2300. Here is a link to it...http://www.radioshack.com/radioshack-mini-audio-amplifier/2771008.html#.VNEQ1mfwugw I know the dealers will hate me for this, if it works! Give me some feedback if you have tried a Radio Shack Mini Speaker, or at least some thoughts on how well you think it might work... Thanks, Gary/Largo
  25. My bread and butter are nuggets 5 grams or under. In light of that and looking at this chart again, the SDC apparantly gets up to 25% depth increase over the 5000 w/11RM which is not far off from the performance they are quoting for the 7000. Is this like only for extreme boundary conditions like ultra spongy or specimen gold, or does the SDC actually hit deeper on a 4-5 gram normal nugget? The small text states "typical conditions" so I'm assuming no crazy ground. Finding that hard to believe but I've not used an SDC. Just curious because that metric also appears to be the same one they use for the "up to" 40% increase on the 7000.
×
×
  • Create New...