Infinium gets wet, day 1…

[G.I.B.]

So I get my new machine and do what all good new owners do… hit the water!

I set the machine up according to directions and headed for the beach. When I got to the wet sand I did the ground balance and everything sounded great. I had the control box belt mounted and was wearing the expensive underwater headphones.

In about 5 minutes I was ready to go back up to the truck and get my Tesoro SandShark. The squeeling in my ears was giving me a headache. Everytime a wave would go by I listened to a long low squeal followed by a long high squeal followed by a long low, then high… and on and on and on… The waves were small, but every time the water moved… ouch.

It sounded like a child’s see-saw from a horror movie. Very annoying.

But, I pressed on. I had to wear the headphones up over my ears only covering the top 1/8th of my ears. This helped ease the torture of the squealing.

There is no volume control. Shame on you Charles Garrett… my head is still splitting. If you are going to charge this much for plastic headphones, there should be some sort of a volume control somewhere.
Pressing on, there is no doubt when you find a target. The machine is clear, pinpoints well and has a great audible sound for the targets.

All the pull tabs and beer bottle caps iron check as something good, so they got dug. To be expected. Bobby pins have a special sound. That is nice.

Metal pieces of crab traps sound like iron, so no need to dig them anymore. I like that.

~ I ran into a fella with an Infinium also hunting the beach. He explained about not belt mounting the machine as the wire moving between the upper shaft and control box in the water has driven sane men mad.

I’ll reconfigure my machine today and try it shaft mounted. Shame- I like the belt mount.

Here are yesterday’s finds…

 

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[John-Edmonton]

The first couple of hunts with the Infinium can drive a man mad . Give it the time it deserves to learn and you will be rewarded. Your finds look very typical. The Infinium is a different animal.

 

[scrooge]

Hope you don't have the trouble I have had with mine , it is on the second trip in for repairs. That being said the below instructions may help. They did help when the machine was operating properly.. Garrett must have had some bad coils and control units both of mine were replaced the first time I sent it in. It is right back to the same problems I had the first time.... The folks at Garrett have been great about repairs since it is under warranty, no complaints there. I have to admit I have found coins, silver earrings,silver jewelery and small pieces of gold in spite of the malfunctions and of course copious amounts of metal trash (bottle caps & bobby pins).. Good luck



(1) First, turn the unit into the LOCK position. Then listen for any interference and use the frequency adjustments to eliminate any interference. Remember to move the frequency adjustment a small amount and then wait for a small period of time for it to lock in. Remember, there are 32 frequency positions that can be obtained with this control. Once you get use to the unit, you will generally get to know where the quietest spots are and it will come second nature and quick to do this.
(2) Do not try and adjust the frequency control with the unit in Fast or Slow Track. What I have found, is that sometimes the auto track tries to lock onto the interference, making it hard to eliminate it.
(3) Set the threshold so as you can only just here it and set the discrimination to "0" .
Now comes the important steps and if this isn't done correctly, false signals and sounds can occur.
(4) Turn the unit to Fast Track. Move the coil up and down to the sand a few times and place the coil directly onto the sand for about 10 seconds. Then again move the coil up and down to the sand a few more times. You will see that that the ground balance has come in very quickly and should be fairly steady.
(5) Then switch it to Slow Track and then repeat the same procedure as was done in Fast track. This is the fine tuning adjustments.
Please note, when you place the coil directly onto the ground, the unit tends to keep ground balancing the ground effects out, and you will find that it quietens down pretty quick. This is especially more noticable in the high mineralised ground in the goldfields.
(6) Once this has been done, switch the unit to lock.
(7) As the unit was designed for prospecting, it doesn't have the prefixed discrimination set to compensate for salt water effects, as other beach PI units have. If you still get any affects from the salt water, you may have to increase the discrimination up to about "2" to eliminate these false signals. I haven't had any problems with noisy operation going from the dry sand, to the wet sand and into the water with the unit ground balance set correctly. Generally I use it with "0" discrimination set.
(Cool As the unit was designed for prospecting, it has a lot more sensitivity than a normal beach PI unit. To drop the sensitivity, use the threshold and reduce it, even to "0" and this will also help reduce any false signals you may be getting. By doing this, you will not miss any targets normally associated with beach/water detecting, eg:- coins, rings and chains.
(9) If you come to an area in the water that is causing a lot of problems, then ground balance over this problem area and then switch it to lock. This should sort out any problems.

 

[G.I.B.]

Thanks for the info...

I'm going to try several different things this evening when I hunt. I've already mounted the control unit on the shaft and tightened up the cord to the coil.

The big problem was as the loose cord, between the shaft and my belt mount control box was swaying with the waves. I could listen to the waves as they went by. Maybe without the cord moving about...

I don't know what to do about the headphones. They are so very loud... ouch.

 

[scrooge]

I cut pieces of an old set of water proof seat covers ,basically like wetsuit material and put them inside the head phone ear piece this helped quite a bit. I use Velcro fasteners to attach the coil wire to the shaft they work well and will not chaff the wire. you may also have to get the control box under the water to keep it quiet.. I will keep my Infinium if Garrett gets it right this time , if not I am going back to a Whites PI . I have used one for 20 plus years woth no problems... To bad I gave it to my son..

 

[G.I.B.]

Okay, day 2 was a little better. I've mounted the control box on the shaft and have the wire tight on the shaft. It still makes the ocean sounds with the waves, just not as bad. It will only drive me crazy, not insane.

I found the same sort of stuff today, just a little less. I think I'm not paying as much attention to the tones because I'm listening too much to the waves. When I got out of the surf and into about 4 inches of water I didn't have to listen to the waves. I started finding more stuff, because I could hear more.

Still working on getting less sound on the headphones... might risk using dry headphones, just not go deep or when there is a big surf...

 

[Indasurf]

As for using the underwater (blue) headphones, It's easy to pad for each ear. I got the gasket material (tough thin rubber/vinyl) at Home Depot in the flooring section for bathroom padding (goes under the tile floor).

I then cut thicker foam rubber over the thinner gasket material and it's tight in there and won't come out.

Once this is completed the volume will be perfectly setup for each ear when the machine is turned on.

Also, make sure to GB with “NO” discrimination (should be on “0” only)!
After you have the detector balanced then increase the discrimination to the level you want!

Follow the setup instructions in the above post to the word!!!

This machine does take time to learn!!! However, once you do you'll find all the good stuff others are missing!