Menu
What's new
Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!

Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

Getting a look at the Infinium

A

Anonymous

Guest
A hunting buddy bought the Infinium and we are going to give it a work out at the beach this weekend.
From reading on the Garrett forums it appears to work just like the few other variable freq. pulse detectors (Beachscan,Goldscan, etc..) only with dual tones. Apparently you still have to turn the dial to "Iron Check" to check for iron targets. Sound familier?
I will be using my Beachscan and throughly expect to, "whip up on him."
I will post what I find out.. purely un-scientific of course.
Rich
 
Hi Guys,
In my use of the Infinium so far, I've been far more impressed with the dual-tone id than the use of the disc knob itself.
The dual-tone does not always give a correct id, but digging hi-lo tones does result primarily in turning up low conductive targets like gold nuggets, gold jewelry, pull tabs, US nickels, and such while eliminating most iron and steel. Not all, mind you, but most. Pieces of wire and hairpins read hi-lo, and masses of flat, rusted flakes of steel.
Supposedly a large enough gold nugget will read lo-hi, but I've tested up to 7 ounce nuggets and so far all have read hi-lo.
The dual-tone id really does seem to work at depth. On my last outing, a White's MXT located a quart paint can at just over two feet in a tailing pile. The MXT read it as a good, non-ferrous target all the way down. The same can read lo-hi on the Infinium all the way out to where it could barely be picked up at all. Frankly, I was a bit surprised when this was observed.
I've also been digging nickels at about 12" that correctly id hi-lo. My feeling so far is that the dual tone does work very well at max depths, and does a very good job at separating low conductive and high conductive targets.
The disc knob, basically increases the minimum level of conductivity a target must have to give a signal. Unfortunately it also seems to result in a direct loss of depth. So items at the edge of detection depth tend to drop out as this control is increased, regardless of their composition. This means that deep iron targets tend to drop out, and therefore are incorrectly identified as "low conductive".
Bottom line is simple. I've been using the dual-tone system a lot and have quite a bit of faith in it at this point for certain applications. But I pretty much ignore the disc knob now, as I have not seen that it really helps much on the targets I most need help with... those deep ones! The disc knob seems somewhat redundant on the Infinium.
Check the link below for lots more Infinium notes.
Steve Herschbach
 
Well, the Infinium test never really got off the ground.
Brand new detector arrived minus instructions and all hardware. No bolt for the coil, no metal spring clips for inside the coil shaft, no belt mount hardware, even no hardware to mount the control box to the shaft. After robbing the junkbox and rounding up enough parts to get the shaft and coil mounted, improvising a pouch for the control box. We were willing to use it like this until the hardware and instruction manual arrived from the distributor. Only one problem, detector was so noisy (constant dual tones) that it was almost impossible to detect a nickel laying dropped on top of the ground.
So off the Garrett forum for a little background on the detector finally decided it was probably 60 Hz. interference from power lines, so we changed location 10 miles same problem, changed the frequency to no avail. The third and last stop was in the middle of an abandoned farm and more than 500 yards from the nearest electrical lines. Still could not get the detector to stop making the constant two tones unless the coil was sitting still on the ground, then by adjusting the frequency you could minimize the noise, but as soon as the coil was swept in a normal manner off the ground it was back to the dual tones, unstable threshold etc. A call to the distributor was unhelpful as he stated the detector would always be noisy and would just have to get used to it.
It is my opinion that the detector was defective or more likely the coil. The lack of the instruction manual does not come in to play as the knobs are pretty self explanatory although the frequency adjust did take a trip to the Garrett forum to figure out
Never did take the detector to the beach and it is being shipped back to the distributor for a refund and they are still talking restocking fee.
 
Tell your dealer that's a lemon and you want all your money back or a new different unit. garrett knows there's a few rough spots, and this is one of them. I test all units before I sell them and I sent one back that was exactly like you describe. Not only did Garrett replace it with no arguments, they paid all shipping charges by issuing a will-call ticket to UPS to come pick it up. Your dealer needs to either make good or you need to report him to Garrett. Last thing they want out there is a bad unit. First procudtion runs of just about anything is gonna have some bugs. That's why I personally test every unit before I sell it. Sounds like your dealer is not a detectorist..... find a better one....
 
Hi Rich,
I agree with Phil. The machine shows up minus all hardware and manual, and there is even a question of the part of the dealer? That's absurd! The unit may be one that was previously returned with a problem, and then sent back out unchecked.
I can assure you a properly operating Infinium does not have the problems you have noted. They are noisier around powerlines, but I have not found an area I could not use mine yet. In most areas it's dead quiet, with no adjustment of the frequency ever needed.
Demand new totally new unit, or a full refund!
Steve Herschbach
 
After talking with my buddy who bought the detector from the distributor (he is the dealer). He told me the batteries were in the detector when it arrived. No manufacturer is going to ship a detector with batteries installed. This was clearly a returned unit that was reshipped minus some parts to a dealer.
I must say in their defense that this is the first detector he has had a problem with from this distributor. Maybe something just fell through the cracks; mistakes do happen. Of coarse the statement that, "They would not charge a restocking fee this time" would have sent me over the edge.
Luckily my friend is a lot calmer then I most of the time.
 
FYI,
All the Infinium's I've received from my distributor have come with the batteries installed.....
Phil(NM)
 
Both of the Infiniums I've received had battery packs installed in the machine in the new carton. My first unit was sent back in a few days as unable to work with the 8" loop at all and not stable with the stock DD loop. The second is much better however I spend much too much time trying to stabilize the signals to an acceptable level. I've followed every suggestion found in every forum from every expert on Infinium to no avail.

Two days ago I found the water calm and the tide low and waded out 10' from the beach to the usual hash of signals. I finally got the beast to settle down a bit as I moved from the uneven cobblestone bottom where I prefer to hunt, onto a sandy bottom with about 4-6" of sand. For the first time in about 20-25 hours of misery I was able to get a stable threshold tone and spent over an hour telling myself, you finally got it mate!!!

As I moved back to the cobble stone bottom the signal started to get lousy again and stayed that way until I moved on to deep sand 2-3' and deeper water (chest deep). The signal eased a bit but I still got odd bursts of tone that had no logical source and were not repeatable (as in a target signal). I still managed to tolerate the signal hash enough to retrieve a few coins and some small brass snaps etc. I was constantly working at re-ground balancing, and making every adjustment I've ever heard of from the afore mentioned sources (plus reps at Garrett home port) with no noticeable change.

Yesterday early I hit the water at the beginning of the last hour before dead low tide expecting a nice search as my aim was to go for the 3-6" sand and the stable signals I had rejoiced in the day before. I could not find a stable signal anywhere. I noticed that as the slow swells came in the tone was rising with the water level and falling as the depth fell!!! I am going to try the beast on dry land with the 8" loop I've been using and the DD loop too for coin shooting and if I once again find the perfect day I may try to find that elusive stable threshold tone, but I am not going to waste another good day of hunting trying to unscramble the signal hash or stabilize it.

Should I find that I'm unable to get an acceptable degree of satisfaction from other pursuits I will send the beast back to Garrett and request a Sea Hunter as replacement or perhaps a full refund. Life is to short for this waste of time and good tides!!!!

HH. Friends,
Cupajo

(No one gets 'em all, but I'm workin on it!!!)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top