Excalibur 2 Metal Detector Sounds and Settings

Paulin, thank you for posting the video, it is worth stiking it so it stays at the top of the forum....
 

Thank you
 

Nice video for the newbies to the Excal.
NRA2.JPG
 

Thanks for the info on the battery charge. :thumbsup:
 

This is one of the best intsructions for the newbie I've seen. You did a great job. It's also a good refresher course for us old f#*@. Thanks!
 

Thanks for posting your info. One of the reasons I come to this site is for great info. Send more! I am always learning something and it's good to see how others are using their detectors.

Thanks
P.S. battery charge info I now use every time I go out detecting.
 

Adobe flash doesn't work for everyone and I, for one, don't use it. Love more info on charging the Excalibur and what the video might say on the topic. My rule of thumb is to charge twice the run time. For example, if I MD for 6 hrs I'll charge it for 12 hrs. One for one isn't enough and after time the battery will run down. There are numerous stories of the Excalibur battery not lasting long, but if you charge right and DO NOT keep it plugged in for days or weeks at a time the battery should last. I have used mine for over a year now and just put 12 hrs of heavy detecting on it and the battery was fine. I'm now charging it for 24 hrs. You also have to condition the battery and let it run down and then fully recharge it, perhaps a few times a yr.
The charger and battery that come with the unit have been described by others as “useless”. I used to charge the unit on a 1:1 basis but the original charger and battery have no indicator of how much the battery is charged; as a consequence, I ran the MD low, giving me experience in the signs of low battery power of the unit:
1. Unpredictable, random, 1-2 second whine sound; not any of the usual detecting sounds of the unit and it cannot be repeated at will.
2. No threshold control. Unit produced a constant and fairly loud "threshold" sound as soon as the unit was turned-on (ie knob positioned just past "on" position at 9 O’clock.) or after a few minutes of use. Usually, my threshold signal is about 1pm. As the battery wore down the threshold sound increased in loudness.
3. Unit lost volume control - a constant loud "threshold" sound was heard regardless of where the volume knob was turned.
4. Unit could still detect certain targets, but the loud uncontrollable threshold sound prevented continued use.
I recharged the battery for 20 hours and the unit worked as new.
 

The video posted by pauln states that a full charge is 14 volts and the need for full recharge is 11.2 volts. You can use a DC volt meter to test it. I personally don't like to do partial charges but I will in a pinch. It's best to just have an extra battery to swap out. If you're diving, it will have to be another rechargeable but if you're just in the surf or beach, the alkaline pod works great. Also, unlike the demonstration, I would recommend hunting in pin point and flick the switch over to discrimination to test for iron. You'll get an extra 2 inches or so doing that. Dig all non-ferrous and any iffy sounds. I keep my discriminate knob all the way to left at 1. I don't want to miss a nice little platinum ring. I only adjust the sensitivity knob if there is major EMI or real nasty black/mineralized sand. Otherwise, I run it flat out!
 

Great video to have with instruction from Joe at Reilly's. Had much instruction on other machines from him in the past but not the excal. Thanks for posting.
 

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Cool video I will try the settings on my next trip thanks
 

Picked up my *MINT* condition Excalibur 1000 that I bought off craigslist yesterday. 800 bucks. Got to take it to the beach today with a buddy who also has a excal 1000. Pretty much a bust for me but he found 3 rings tied together with in 20 minutes. I'll get better. VERY different than my Garrett AT. On the wet sand it's not so confusing understanding pinpoint null then switching to discrim to target it. In the water? Not so easy. Not yet anyways. Easy to get distracted by current changes and waves. In 3 hrs I found a gold plated earring, 4 quarters, a dime and a few pennies. I can't imagine how hard it is to swing this thing w/o a chest or hip mount. I bought a chest mount. Up next is a Plugger carbon fiber shaft and a remote pin pointer. I can tell this machine is already a beast. I hit a penny at over 2 ft.
 

I hope it was just the wording that was confused during the post and not the actual modes during the hunt.
It nulls in disc and all metal pp is 1 tone. I'm sure it was just a posting era otherwise the area would need to be re hunted again.
PP mods available!
 

Very informative thank u! I just purchased the Excalibur 2 after quite a bit of research. I hope I made a good decision as it was quite expensive. I almost bought the surfmaster dual. Hopefully I mad the right decision. I should receive my Excalibur by Tuesday February 3rd. Can anyone give me some insight into the Excalibur 2? Thank you! Jim
 

To add to the Minelab Excalibur talk, I've had mine for 3 yrs now and have no problems (although I had to add an extension for better balance and a knob protector). One of the best metal detectors given discussion with many MDers on the beach. It is a BEACH and WATER machine. Given the multiple frequencies and up to 25khz, it can easily detect small gold jewelry and platinum rings; I know because I just found several on my recent venture to Florida. If you look at metal detectors that are designed for gold, you'll notice that there frequencies run in the 15khz - 18khz range. Most single VLF machines run from about 2.5khz - 7khz or so. Simply put, many low VLF machines are simply blind to gold and must rely on detecting other metals in the jewelry, if possible. Somewhere else on Treasure Net someone noted that their home made metal detector could run at 7khz and 14khz. He noted that his machine was blind to gold when operating at 7khz and could easily detect the gold when running at 14khz. Most single VLF machines out there are coin detectors and not gold detectors. To make matters worse, machines with a lot of processing (e.g., target identification) and imaging require more processing time and a stronger target signal - translation: loss of depth. The Excalibur when running in All metals mode is a deep detecting machine and I find good targets in the 10 - 13" range that are missed by many other metal detectors.
 

It will take you a while to understand the subtle sound differences between good and bad targets - prob 40hrs of detecting time or so. Use All metal to detect a target and switch to Discrimination to determine if it is ferrous/nonferrous and what type of target (once you get good at identifying targets by sound). If you hear a target in All Metals and don't hear anything when you switch to Discrimination - the target is deep. Scrape 2-3" of sand away and try again. Dig all targets that are not ferrous. You can also use the All Metals mode to trace out your targets. I found some really nice hand tools on the beach, when things were going slow, and I decided to dig some larger ferrous targets. Use Autosensitivity, the machine will do a great job of being quiet when traveling from dry to wet sand to water and back. Set Discrimination on 1 - don't discriminate. Set your threshold to the lowest that you can hear (or even slightly below). Learn to discriminate the very low, subtle changing sounds that signal deep targets. The Minelab Excalibur is a water machine so take it in the surf, but be sure to rinse it with clean water after each use. It is a great discriminating machine since it provides 17 frequencies that allow fine discrimination of targets or to detect targets that are blind to other VLF machines.
 

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