Faulty DD coil and steps to repair!

[dmnz]

Hi guys - love the ATX as you all know and Garrett have been awesome with the warranty. My machine however is now approaching the warranty end - and, after two
Years of use the stock DD coil gave up the ghost.....

It was falsing,erratic and unusable!

Anyway - rather than tossing the coil, thought I would investigate the fault.

1st up - removed and checked the coil connector (not as easy job as it is glued on) - this area was eliminated.

Step 2: drilled out the lower coil shaft and removed

Step 3: source of the issue found = broken cable insulation at the pivot point

Step 4: removed coil cable

Step 5: "borrowed" a bread board from the kitchen

Step 6: epoxy and a minelab excal shaft.....

More photos to come!

 

[dmnz]

Will take photos of the finished product soon - need of course to test the coil and rewire! More info
To come!

However - as a sign it works, went to a local beach for a trial.... Needless to say the trial was successful!!! 18ct and diamonds

 

[WaterWalker]

Your about as compulsive about repairing a coil as I was. It is great when your efforts show proof of your ability to fix-it!

One question on the Epoxy. What brand/type did you use. Also the bread board looks like polypropylene and most epoxy I have used tends to have less than desirable holding power to it. Were the "ears" also from the bread board? Nice job, I hope it last as long as my WOT repair did - about 4,000 hours in the water. I hated to replace it, but I had a new one sitting in the basement for 8 years. Just waiting for my repair to give up the ghost.

Now with the small diameter shaft you could hip mount the ATX box. What a plus!

May the ring of gold be in your ears and its glitter in your scoop!

 

[dmnz]

hmm - cant remember the brand of epoxy - but it seems to have set pretty damn hard overnight - the breadboard was also not a perfectly flat surface - more to grip on? yes - the ears also from the bread board! should be easy enough to remove and re-do if required. I made the coil cable "longer" so I can backpack or chest mount the DM-ATX.

For testing purposes, chucked in in a backpack and hit the beach and just waded knee deep to test the setup - the diamond ring was a massive BONUS!

Using a standard shaft (I think from the TDI) - absolute bliss (aside in the backpack hard to get to the controls - not that you need to often!).

Generally it seems I may have repaired the coil, just want to get it totally correct before sealing / glueing the cable connector (that is a pain as you need to drill it out). Coil connectors not easy to source. I do know how to re-use the existing ones, so they will have to do for now.....

Now with a central pivot point - the coil does not need constantly 'resetting' in angle!

I may look at making a standard shaft "adapter" so I can still hold the ATX as normal, but with the thinner, more streamlined shaft, but I must say, the backpack setup was pretty awesome!

 

[Grilled Scallops]

Sell that ring and buy a new coil.

 

[dmnz]

True..... Good point!

 

[Old California]

Excellent workmanship, especially using the bread board very creative thinking outside the box.

Excellent!
Paul

 

[togg77]

Very good---this is a design flaw that Garrett needs to address.