02' Explorer XS SHUT OFF PROBLEM and settings I like. Back after years! Hi All!!! ;)

[braveheart1954]

Hi all! I have been out of detecting for years but am back with a vengenge until.....

I have a problem with my Explorer XS detector with new bought "JOEY" coil (bought in 2002) starting the day before yesterday... It started by turning off by itself with a full battery charge after an hour or so of hunting. I'd turn it back on and had to reprogram my settings. It did this 3 or four times that day. Yesterday I was hunting and found trash, 4 coins, and a gold pendent with 5 small stones..maybe diamonds. Then I hit a large iron locking lug nut and it shut off again... I could not get it to start up again. I sat at a picnic table for a half hour trying everything but take the housing apart. Frustrated at 4pm I went home when the detector was doing me great...I wasn't missing a thing up to 8-9 inches with my "JOEY". Love that coil! Anyways came home and took the detector arms off and my Sun Ray probe. I had the unit ready to ship to Minelab who probably wouldn't fix it anyways since the XS is obsolete to repair with them. I read in a post that when the charged battery stays all night in the machine it starts up in the morning. So at 11 pm I sat it on the table OFF with no coil or probe attached with a fully charged RnB ml 2900 Lithium Battery. I was up at 4am and the detector was on!..ALL BY ITSELF!!
I set it to FACTORY DEFAULT while I had the chance.
I shut it off and on a few times and tried all the buttons and everything worked like new. I left it on and went to bed and got up today at noon and it was still running smoothly after 8 hours...tried all the buttons again ...turned it off and on a number of times and laid it down again running. Then I read above in a blog where it was mentioned to "PULL THE BATTERY OUT WHILE HOLDING THE "ON BUTTON" DOWN WHILE IT IS PLAYING THE FIRST 2 SECONDS OF ITS SONG.... AND TURN IT ON AGAIN"!!! It was briefly mentioned and then I remembered from a decade ago something That Was Lost To The Ages. THIS IS NOT RESETTING TO "FACTORY DEFAULT SETTINGS" BUT IS ACTUALLY HOW YOU "REBOOT" THE COMPUTER!!!
I have not done this in years! So a while ago I went outside with the coil reattached and wow!...it's working better than ever! I hope my shut-off problem has been cured without a $150 bill with shipping to Minelab. Hopefully it keeps on working. I am sitting next to it now and it's 2:45pm. It has been running since 4am and I will let it run until the battery goes dead or I go out today with it. It will take a day for this battery to go dead!!!
Hope this solves your problem! Braveheart (John) Clinton Township Michigan. Looking for new hunting buddies...any takers??? ph. 586-419-2865 16 miles northeast of Detroit.

I have some settings below and would like to have any opinions on these and maybe some goodies of your own! Thanks ...glad to be back here after so many years!

Been away from detecting for the last 3 years... having hard times. Well I couldn't take it any longer and started again a month ago. I've got an Explorer XS and love it! Being away from it I thought I lost all know how but I didn't. I actually am programming it better and more wide open with only nails, crown caps and I have the right side of the screen (smallest EDIT box) blacked out 3/4's of he way up from the bottom or starting where blacked out Crowns leave off. This blackened along the screens right side actually works to take out ground low ground noise.... (read this from an Australian dude) ...he blacks out the whole right side from top to bottom but I go only 3/4 from the bottom...enough to keep nails from trying to bounce from right middle to upper left but I left 1/4 from the top clear to get the Silver dimes, quarters, halves and silver dollars clearly. I've been using no discrimination only in cleaner areas.

COILS used for these settings:
Coiltek "JOEY"
Coiltek "Platypus" ... waiting to see more field tests on the Nel "Hunter" coil...compared to the Platypus.
.....I haven't used my 15" WOT yet on these settings... maybe too crazy for the "Wild Orange Thing"! LOL
I absolutely love the JOEY and the Platypus... Just got them and wish I had them years ago!!! I will have my stock 10" up for sale very soon.. it's trash compared to these!

DISPLAY:
Smart setting.

SENSITIVITY:
32 if I can!!!... with deep on.

AUDIO SETTINGS:

VOLUME
Max Limit at 9 or 10.
Gain at 9 or 10.

TONE
Thresh hold at 9
Variability at 9
Limit at 9

SOUNDS
Conduct

OPTIONS:
Audio 1... This used to drive me nuts but I find I can sweep much faster and the lingering tone brings you back even thought you are miles from it already! It definitely lets you know it's a real target down there good or bad. I can handle Audio 2 and 3 but are sure what they are good for yet...I'll stay in Normal and 1 for now! lol

OPTION:

NOISE..set at your discretion 1 thru 10...I'm practicing in all of them. AUTO is always a safe bet but I feel I have control in manual. lol
1-10 Frequencies are:
1... 16.1 kHz ...better for small gold
2... 15.7 kHz
3... 15.2 kHz
4... 14.9 kHz
5... 14.4 kHz
6... 14.1 kHz
7... 13.7 kHz
8... 13.4 kHz
9... 13.1 kHz
10..12.8 kHz
11..12.5 kHz ...better for big silver
.....What the kHz numbers 2 thru 10 in between are good for I have no Idea yet..but am experimenting in the field. lol
This is what I have been reading in the last few weeks learning mostly from Australian detectorists who have the worst mineralized ground conditions.

RECOVER:
Set on Deep

CONTRAST:
10 with my eyes!

BATTERY:
RnB Innovations ML-2900 Lithium-ion Battery for Minelab FBS Metal Detectors $129.95
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271156633218?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
....best battery ever...haven't deleted its 1st charge yet in over 20 hours of use! 30 hours plus seems feasible!!!

If someone wants to try these for show and tell here I'd love to have your opinions... I have detected since 1985 sporadically and heavy from 2002 (got my XS) to 2008 but don't feel like I ever mastered it all that time... now I feel its all coming together. You have to try new setting always! That's what I'm doing. I am now going to places of high trash that I could not do anything but go crazy and now I'm finding stuff until the sun goes down. I cant wait to hit places I wrote off my list years ago!!!

Love to hears some of your favorite setting! Above was hunting mostly old parks,1880 soccer field, and in the woods and one old 1880's farmstead. Wet ground with all this rain we have been having.
Thanks All! Good to be back! John
July 22 2003

 

[chuck ky]

how do you black out 3/4 of the bottom right side. i thought you had to black out the whole screen then use targets to open up what you want to find. thanks

 

[braveheart1954]

YOU HAVE TO USE THE "EDIT" .... Move square box without a "check mark" or an "X" selected on the left side. When you get it where you want to black out an area that size ...square... push the button o the left till a flashing "X" appears...this will black out that area only...if you move it it will black out the trail you move it around to. Move it side ways or up and down. When thru Click button next to the flashing "X" until it is clear then you can safely move square to another area without blacking that path getting there out....then keep clicking button till the "X" is flashing again. when your thru click "detect" then click "Save Icon" and store in one of your 6 storage programs. Your Minelab Manual will explain this. If you don't have an original manual I would order one from Minelab. This is an important thing to know when you hunt areas that have a lot of particular garbage. You don't want to black out very much. By listening to garbage your good items will be a lot cleaner sounding and you can detect much faster! Factory preset is only good for shallow coins and jewelry. It's a beginner setting..too much is blacked out for good finds!

 

[Nes (south Coast-CA)]

Hi...good luck having Minelab repair an XS. I was having a problem with the one I have, and they said they no longer do repairs on the XS... Nes

 

[michael NY]

Welcome back, it sounds like you have a great set up all ready. How are the batteries your using is it the nicad? I had the same issue a while back with my xs and somebody had posted a message about cleaning the contacts with either a pencil eraser or steel wool it worked for me. Good luck

Michael

 

[braveheart1954]

Michael... I have a new RnB ml 2900 Lithium Battery. It's awesome and holds a charge for days of use. I have not cleaned contacts yet and problem above comes and goes. How did you clean those contacts? I water sealed my entire unit...all cracks , holes and screws. I can't break it apart to get to contacts. ....also now when I leave the battery in the detector and go out to the car it turns on sometime thru the night by itself... heard the strangest noises while I was driving..weird..then It hit me it was my detector! Hearing noises in the back seat thru the headphones while the radio was on! LOL

 

[braveheart1954]

Just wanted to add that I only set my decrimination to reject nails and crowncaps! [I have Explorer XS and love it! ...using mostly my Joey coil and Platypus coil. DD Elipticals are the greatest for trashy areas that I hunt.] The curser needs to jump around to give you a clean signal...the more you BLACK OUT the more you break up sounds of good targets that now sound like trash. A good target will bounce back and forth into areas you BLACK OUT and the signal will be broken when it bounces in and out of the BLACK AREA! Keep your theshhold down to just barley audible and the setiings I have above. Silver will scream! If you can put the sensitivity at 32 thats great! But if you are getting to much information and signals but they are clear keep it at 32 then turn off DEEP and if you still get to many signals at one time keep turning sensitvity down 2 or 3 at a time and see if you get a happy medium. Do an air test though with a coin or ring to check your above ground depth. If the sounds are nice and you like what you are seeing you might not be getting deep enough for what you want if you turned the sense down below 23 or so. Then your situation may requier you to go to the next smaller coil and start with my begining settings all over again. Leave the detector on and just change coils and re-ground balance if you wish or have to. Your volume should always be at 10 also to tell audibly the differences in junk and good stuff. If you black out 3/4 of your bottom right hand screen you will only cause signal problems for nickles, gold and large gold class rings which will bounce along the bottom all the way to the lower left hand corner!!! Funny but I find an old hair pin will act like a big gold class ring!!! I hate factory preset... too many signals are broken of good targets! I believe I'd rather go to a smaller coil then set too much discrimination. ...although if you are just looking for silver then just use coin mode only if there is too much trash. I experiment all the time but come back to my posted settings for the most part of each hunt and I carry my Joey with me and when things start sounding nasty I just take off my Platypus Coil and throw the Joey Coil on and things get beautiful again.... little less depth but more finds! Take care..good hunting! If anyone has set ups different than mine that you feel as strongly about ...I'd like to try them! Hunting since late 2001 I am no expert... always learning. I have major problems with identifiing faint signals and rings.... I need help info on ring hunting!!! lol