Well, I hit the beach today and I was EXTREMELY bummed out
I could not get it to settle down at all! I checked for bubbles right when I got to the water, everything was fine. Even now as I sit here, nothing got flooded. Not even any condensation. I tried the ground balance method and it just kept alternating high-low-high-low tones. Even tho I was in the middle of no where (well, ok, at least 1/2 mile from any overhead power lines), maybe there was something causing interference, so I tried changing the frequency for a few minutes. The problem persisted. I turned the unit off and waited a few seconds. I also moved about 50 feet away.
I turned it back on to get the default frequency. Now the unit was a little quieter, so I figured maybe there was some weird problems with the lake I was detecting. It is freshwater, but I remember reading about the sensitivity of the unit, so I tweaked the disc up to between 2 and 3. The machine wasn't quiet, but it seemed quiet enough to hunt. I started sweeping slowly side to side. After about ten minutes, I had found nothing and received no repeatable signals!
This was odd, I figured I should have come across at least a stupid bobby pin. I decided to wave a bit of my gear over the coil to make sure it was working correctly. Imagine my horror when NOTHING happened! This was very alarming as I just waved a honking piece of steel over the coil and not a peep! It worked just fine the day before, but now nothing! I tried to think if there was anything on me that might be causing interference. I took out my Vibraprobe thinking that may be the culprit. Nope, it wasn't even on. After a couple more minutes trying to isolate the unit from me entirely, the same problems. I turned it off and then back on.... still nothing, but now the high-low cycling was back. I finally gave it up and decided to walk the couple hundred yards back to the car (in a double rig that weighs around 90lbs) and grab the tiger shark. I figured this might be the reason the guy was selling it so cheap
I started up the beach and before I even made it off the beach, I was stopped with the first of many questions. I got the usual "Did you find anything good?" and the "What are you looking for?". I did my best to be nice and answer the questions. It really pained me to have to admit that I was heading back to get a different detector because this one was acting up
After making nice with the people on the beach, I continued my trek back to the car. On my way back, I saw a couple of detectorists on their way to the beach with their Minelabs. This meant that maybe the beach is heavily hunted and this would have been a great test for the Infinium! Now I was more than a little miffed!
I finally made it back to the car and was able to sit down for a few and let my muscles relax. I started to wonder if being able to detect for 3-5 hours uninterrupted was worth the weight... but then decided I could consider it training for the dive team and I know I could use the workout. While I was resting, I decided to give the Infinium one more shot to see if it was something down near the water causing problems. I turned it on and the same high-low-high-low signals kept sounding. Upon hearing that, I switched to the Tiger and headed back to the beach. I spent a couple hours detecting, but my mind was on the Infinium and I did not do a very good job with the Tiger. I found a couple of cheap earrings and a few bobby pins (I knew they were out there) and a small copper ring that looks like it is from something electronic (it was only slightly larger than a match head). Then I had to leave for another engagement.
I just sat down with the detector to try and figure out what went wrong. I checked for any signs of water leaking and found nothing. I then pulled the coil connector off and made sure it wasn't leaking. It wasn't leaking, but it is the cause for all of my problems. It seems the original owner forced the connector in and looks like only a couple of the pins are actually making it into the sockets. the others are punching into the rubber and might be making slight contact with the socket
I will have to wait until tomorrow to see what the damages will be to have this fixed.
After experiencing this, I wonder if this is the cause of some people not having a good experience with the Infinium. I can say for certain that if this happens, it is not as loud as an actual tone from a metal object when the coil is connected properly. It also will NOT detect anything
I think I just got lucky the first time I set it up to practice as I have tried a couple times and I can make the pins align properly (I think) as it does settle down and actually detect metal, but it's not exactly stable, so I have decided to send it in and see if they can make it better.
Thanks for reading my novel,
Jeff
