Settings using the Excalibur 1000 or 800

[Chris M]

Hello there,

Well just wondering if anyone out there has any advice on using the settings on the Excalibur 1000 or 800. I have the 1000 and on the beach
I found lots of Aluminum but I have found some coins. So... anyone have any advice on the settings. This is my first post and it seems like a great forum. Hope someone can help.

Thank you again
Chris

[John's Detectors]

Hi Chris, I would leave the Sens. in auto until you have gotten in more time on the detector. Volume wide open, set Thresh to where it is just audible. Oh yes be sure your set to discriminate mode. Leave discriminate wide open and use the tones to discern if it is a good target. You might want to try different settings for the disc. but the key is in knowing your tones. Chris get a group of various targets and just practice swinging over each one to get your mind to remember what tones pretty much match each item. Well Chris it's a pretty straight forward machine and practice practice will be your best ally. So I wish you many good finds and I hope this is helpful for you. God Bless and be careful out there.

John Tomlinson,CET P=VI
John's Detectors
Blackwell,Tx.
Best Little Detector Shop in Texas!

[Chris M]

Thanks John,

I will try it out. I will keep you up to date on the progress.

Thanks again.

Chris M

[John's Detectors]

Mighty fine business Chris and these settings aren't written in stone so experiment too. Good luck and God Bless ya!

John Tomlinson,CET P=VI
John's Detectors
Blackwell,Tx.
Best Little Detector Shop in Texas!

[Steve in PR]

I run a 1000 and I have only a little to add to th efine advice John has offered. I do run with a little discrimination. I set mine at 3 and I think it helps me with bottle caps.

The thing that took me a while to figure out was how every control interacted. To me, there is a dynamic that comes into play between the discrimination, threshold and volume controls.

Every time I changed one of these, I made sure I air tested it to understand the effect of what I did had on the detector before going to the beach.

I think I have a good dynamic on my machine now and a 90%+ certainty of what it is telling me.

I run my threshold a little higher than the manual tells you to. When I spoke with Minelab reps in Las Vegas, they told me that 10" coil users should run a little higher to help find smaller gold. 8" coils are more sensitive to smaller gold.

I keep my volume to a minimum, loud enough to hear but not so loud that it distorts the sigmal. I like a 'clean' tone. You must be careful setting the volume. Too low and you will miss some targets.

[John's Detectors]

Hi Steve, good advice and thank you for posting it. How long have you been using your Excalibur Steve? I need to try one myself. I do use the GT which is basically the same detector. I like it very much! Have you made any changes to it like a straight shaft? Ok Steve I will CU later and God Bless ya.

John Tomlinson,CET P=VI
John's Detectors
Blackwell,Tx.
Best Little Detector Shop in Texas!

[dri-wash]

Originally Posted by Steve in PR

I run a 1000 and I have only a little to add to th efine advice John has offered. I do run with a little discrimination. I set mine at 3 and I think it helps me with bottle caps.

The thing that took me a while to figure out was how every control interacted. To me, there is a dynamic that comes into play between the discrimination, threshold and volume controls.

Every time I changed one of these, I made sure I air tested it to understand the effect of what I did had on the detector before going to the beach.

I think I have a good dynamic on my machine now and a 90%+ certainty of what it is telling me.

I run my threshold a little higher than the manual tells you to. When I spoke with Minelab reps in Las Vegas, they told me that 10" coil users should run a little higher to help find smaller gold. 8" coils are more sensitive to smaller gold.

I keep my volume to a minimum, loud enough to hear but not so loud that it distorts the sigmal. I like a 'clean' tone. You must be careful setting the volume. Too low and you will miss some targets.

Ditto on the set-up Steve, I run mine the same as you do.....

Tom

[JCWhite]

Welcome to Treasure Quest and looking forward to your finds.

[Steve in PR]

Hi, John and Dri-wash!

Dri-wash, I seee you are having success in Daytona so you are doing it right!

And John, I've had the Excal for 2-1/2 years now. I have made 2 modifications: I have a pair of GrayGhosts that I had installed by Minelab and I made a custom shaft for it from aluminum tubing after my original, rickety travel straight shaft began to deteriorate. I did not like the balance of the 1st straight shaft so I made it longer. I did reuse the knob protector from the old shaft.

I had to bore out one end of the tube about 4" to accept the lower fiberglass shaft but that wasn't too hard. I just made sure the tube was level and used the level indicator on my hand drill to make sure I was boring it out true. Worked fine. I put a screw hole through the tube and shaft and bolted it in place with a 1/4" SS screw and nut.

I opted to mount the electronics and battery in an over/under configuration instead of side to side as I have seen on some straight shafts. This avoids the electronics poking you in the back as you swing side to side and increases the swing radius slightly.

I took a bike handle bought from a local bicycle shop to use as a grip. I had to wrap some electrical tape around the shaft to "thicken" it so I could mount the grip but it has never slipped.

I first located a balance point for the grip. I wanted a slight imbalance favoring the coil side so that the coil would stay down. Once I had that, I located the arm holder.

I wrapped the wire around the shaft below the grip and used Ty-Wraps to secure it in place.

It weighs a little more but it is made for me. In return I have a larger swing radius and a very solid shaft. It is 6 feet long so having a Jeep Cherokee helps. Not for everyone but I think it cost me $34 for everything, including the drill bit to bore it out.

[dri-wash]

Steve, My set-up looks about the same...I have the electronics side to side on mine...same bike handle with foam. It is so balanced I have swung mine for fours hours at times...and my arm is not tired or sore....I did try the hip mount and that worked good also...but My choice is the stright shaft with the machine behind the elbow.....

Tom