Questions Regarding Infinium

[Grilled Scallops]

I'm mainly asking these questions in hopes that John Edmonton or Fisher's Ghost will give me feedback, but any and all input is appreciated

I recently purchased a used infinium. Been doing a LOT of reading and I feel that with this detector and my ACE 250, I can find a lot of good stuff. The guy I bought it from claims it was one of the detectors he would bring on trips to the Caribbean and it would find gold rings at up to 18 inches. After reading pages and pages of posts on this forum, it seems to me that such a find is within the capabilities of an infinium. Which is great, except I have been doing a lot of depth tests, and concluded this infinium won't be finding any gold rings at 18 inches...at least not anymore.

Basically, here is what people say: "my infinium tests to about 12 inches on a quarter in air." WHAT?! That is my response when I read things like that, because I can barely get a quarter at 9 inches in the ground, on the beach. And that is NOT after I dig it up and re-bury it. I measure the depth I found it at, because I know PI's like finding things that have been there a little while. There is no way, no how this detector of mine will ever find a quarter at 12 inches, in the air or on the ground.

Okay, I think so maybe Garrett just tweaked this detector to hit harder on gold and silver? That's how you get gold rings at 18 inches? I have a big, 10K white gold class ring and a rather large silver ring I decide to do air tests on. I know an air test on a PI will not gauge true depth capabilities. But, it will give you an idea. A rough estimate. Well, the silver ring I can only get at 9 inches, just barely at 10. Just barely. And what's more? The huge, honking 10K class ring...less depth than the silver! What?! I know it's just an air test but I have that gut feeling telling me this infinium is NOT getting the depth it should. Not at all.

For the above I was using the 10 X 14 mono coil. The deepest! I have the stock DD and the 8 inch mono as well. Decided to check all connections...headphones good, coil...aha! One of the prongs had gone into the rubber right next to metal slot it was supposed to hit. It seems a lot of people have had issues with their infinium from this and tried to many solutions only to find it was this very quick easy fix. I hoped and hoped that connecting the coil properly would change something. It didn't! No difference. So I decided to change to the 8 inch mono, maybe the 14 inch was somehow faulty? Well, no good. People claiming that they get rings at 12-14 inches with this 8 inch mono and I'm just scratching my head thinking "no way."

I have 3 theories as to why my detector isn't getting the depths other people are claiming they get with their own infiniums.

First, maybe it's old and just doesn't perform like a new one? But I KNOW people have detectors 15 years, maybe older, and they swear they haven't lost depth! And the infinium is tough as nails. Waterproof to 200 feet, I can see the cable ties holding wires and such together if I look in through the little window on the face of the control box. Solid build! Even the manual says you don't have to baby it. I also took a look at the board on my Garrett pro pointer and it's a very sound design, the engineers at Garrett aren't morons that's for sure. So for you LONG TIME infinium users, have you experienced slow loss of depth capability in your detector over the years? Got to be 10-11 years since this detector was first released.

Second, maybe my detector is stuck in slow ground tracking or stuck at some level of discrimination even if I have the discrimination knob at 0. Every once in a while, the ground tracking switch of this detector will act up. I will switch from slow to lock, or lock to slow, and I will get a long, drawn out, high tone. Not a high low, not a low high, just a long, constant high tone that slowly fades. Takes about 15 seconds for it to go away and it's enough to tell me the ground tracking switch isn't working 100%, at least not all of the time. I know the detector loses depth when it's not in lock. Just maybe, it gets stuck in slow? Stuck in fast? Is that possible? Any way to tell?

Third, everyone in the history of the infinium has exaggerated the depth of their finds in the excitement of the moment No, not likely.

So, unless there is something I missed in trouble shooting, I think I might just send it in to Garrett. Can I just request they put in a new circuit board, re-do and pressure test the seals? Like I said this thing was used extensively in the Caribbean and I just feel that would be best. Doesn't sound like a cheap fix but there are lots of old farts here thinking they are getting everything there is to get with their excaliburs...and I'm dying to pull some good finds at depths their machines could never dream of. I have heard only GOOD things about Garrett customer service... reasonable, fast, I'm going to give them a chance...

 

[Fishers Ghost]

Your Infinium is sick. Trot it off to garrett.

The drawn out tones that occur when changing mode is not normal. The mode switch is not a simple on off multi position switch. Some contacts are in a normally on position and others are normally off depending on the mode selected. this switch is known to be troublsome.
Even if the detector is stuck in fast or slow track it will not be less sensitive, all other things being normal.
With 10 x 14 mono a quarter should be a stong low/hi tone at 9 inches in air with disc at zero and threshold at approx 6.and in any mode.
I have not heard of the Infinium loosing sensitivity over time; My Inf is an oldie and is still hot.
Finding rings and coins at better than 18 inches in wet beach sand is not uncommon for the infinium....It won't be a strong signal. and may be no more than a waver in the threshold rather than a tone change.
Check your batteries with a battery tester, check the contacts for corrosion. Be sure that the battery pack drops into the battery compartment freely, using high capacity batteries that are a tight fit in the battery compartment can cause intermittant contact between some cells.

If you have an early one cent coin you can do a quick and rough check on the discrimination settings.
At zero disc the coin should produce an undecided signal between hi/lo & lo/hi and at setting 2 the tone should be hi/lo all the way round to max.

Either way you need to get it serviced.

 

[Grilled Scallops]

Fishers Ghost, thank you for the reply!

Last night I took electrical contact cleaner to all the prongs and sockets of both the control box and my 14 inch mono coil AND the battery pack. I have had headaches with amplifiers before and know what even the slightest amount of corrosion/dirt/fretting can do to contacts. I had the control box shaft mounted (above your arm, upper end of stem) because it's easiest to access the knobs in the field that way (good for when still learning the detector) but it was KILLING my wrist and I've put about 40 hours on it in the past week so no need to prioritize easy knob access as I am pretty knowledgeable now about the functions of this machine. So I moved it to shaft mount (below your forearm). Well, I found a honey hole on my last hunt and what the heck, decided to do some eyeball air tests after I pulled targets out of the sand. I do believe that for the two quarters I pulled, I could get them at about 12 inches in air, but just baaaarely (waver in the threshold, not distinct low high). An inch lower and it was a distinct low high. At any rate, it was definitely more depth than what I was getting just two days ago. I was actually quite pleased. This was on a different beach, but only a few miles from the other beach where I had the disappointing results. Perhaps, just maybe, at that other beach the sand was hot enough to depreciate the performance of the mono? Or, maybe I hit it the nail on the head with the contact cleaner? Who knows. Now, this was for quarters. I was still getting very poor depth on modern pennies, and by modern pennies I mean the ones with the shield on the tails side. Those things sound very very weird on my machine, they give an echo. I don't mean a double tone echo like some weird iron or a bobby pin will give you, I mean they sound like someone threw in a reverb effect on the high low tone. Do you find the same thing with your machine? Listen carefully if you try it, it's subtle. I think it's because these coins are right on the limit where the machine calls one side low conductivity and the other side high conductivity. An old, genuine copper penny on my machine gives a low high tone, and I can get it deeper than the modern pennies, but still not the depth of a quarter, which I guess is just how things should be.

Now, about that ground tracking switch. Yeah, I'm sure the switch would be fine as well if I could work a generous amount of contact cleaner in there. It just feels like it's sticking a little when you turn it. But the infinium is sealed tight and I plan on using it in the water and rain, so I'm not going to break the factory seals to clean the switch. If the switch is KNOWN to be problematic, and I believe you when you say it is, that makes me feel somewhat better about the situation. The detector will ground balance just fine, I can get it mega quiet over the sand and I can hear the threshold wavers, I was just concerned that it was sticking in slow or fast track and I was losing depth because of that. According to the manual, for maximum depth you want it in lock, no? I have heard Garrett customer service is very reasonable. Any ideas what the figure might look like if they replace the switch?

 

[Fishers Ghost]

The detector sounds like it is ok with the discrimination and the penny , yes they give an odd Hi/LO LO/Hi tone.
I think the only reason that Garrett say you get better depth in Lock than in fast or slow track is because the detector may possibly tune out small gold in auto tracking mode.
I have not noticed any difference in depth/sensitivity whether I run in Lock or auto tracking. There may be a difference but I have not noticed any.
You would have to check with Garrett as to cost of replacing the mode selector. They would check the detector first rather than simply replace the switch.
When you first switch the detector on, select the first position (Slow) and wait for the battery check and then select lock , don't run the switch sraight through to lock from the off position.
Also, turn the switch quickly rather than slow.

 

[Grilled Scallops]

Thanks for the reply! If you will listen, the infinium will give a high low tone after the battery check each time it is turned on. It even does that in the demonstration video by Garrett. It's a little quiet but it's there. I believe that the long and drawn out high low tone I get sometimes from adjusting the ground tracking switch might be something of the same nature, because the detector will actually turn off if the switch is in lock and it gets bumped to midway between lock and slow. I guess if it really starts to bug me or gets worse I'll give Garrett a call but for now I'm just living with it since I seem to have resolved the issue of not so great sensitivity...

I saw the video showing how you get better sensitivity to gold at the beach, by not ground balancing to the wet sand. I was not aware of this little trick before and now I can even get some bottle caps at 14 inches in the air, not too bad at all! Today I found my FIRST GOLD, a white gold hoop earring of a respectable size! Surprisingly, it did not hit very hard. I believe this is because of the size of the hoop, the metal is distributed over a larger area making it effectively a smaller target to the eyes of the machine (sort of like how gold chains are tough to get). I think if it was an inch deeper I might have missed it or passed up on it. Got to dig everything but let me tell you, it's real tempting to pass on the weak signals when you've dug a hundred of them and they were all just shards of soda can or aluminum an inch below the surface...

By the way. I know some people had problems with the machine falsing when they belt mounted it, it was due to stresses on the cable at the control box side of things. My detector will false if I wiggle the cable near the control box. But I don't really care because I'll probably never belt mount it (not old enough yet ). But does this mean other bad things? Basically I just want to know if I could have a leak if I use it in the water. I have checked the connection and it is 100% as secure as it's going to get. Is it a serious issue? I have other coils and could see if they do the same thing. If the other coils do it, does that mean it's the coil plug on the control box?

 

[Grilled Scallops]

Fishers ghost, I have found a video demonstrating the behavior of my infinium. It's by...Bearkat! His infinium does the same thing as mine! Follow this link to the video, just before the one minute mark he says, "do a little ground balancing..." then just after the one minute mark you can see him turn the ground tracking switch if you look carefully. You can cearly hear the tone the detector produces when he does that, and it's the exact same tone my detector makes. If Bearkat's detector makes that sound...does it mean we both have sick detectors or...what?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2XgiKNOKW4

 

[controlfreq]

Hey, Grilled Scallops, can you post a link to the video referenced here: "I saw the video showing how you get better sensitivity to gold at the beach, by not ground balancing to the wet sand."

tks

 

[Fishers Ghost]

The BKs Infinium is normal.
The tone after the switch on 4 x beeps is normal. When he selected Lock the coil was resting on the ground and in high mineral ground this can cause a tone change as lock or fast .slow track is selected (While the coil is on the ground )
Moving the cable at the control box should not cause any tones.
You should not be able to BUMP the mode switch out of position, it should be firm to rotat and each position should be a definate click position.

 

[Grilled Scallops]

Hey, Grilled Scallops, can you post a link to the video referenced here: "I saw the video showing how you get better sensitivity to gold at the beach, by not ground balancing to the wet sand."

tks

It's in the ATX forum. You should be able to find the thread within the first or second page. An elaborate video, it clearly shows that when you don't ground balance to the wet set, you will get more depth on low conductivity targets such as nickels and small gold jewelry.

Fisher's Ghost, I did not know this was normal behavior for an infinium. It would be nice if the manual mentioned something about it because I thought it was a genuine issue. As for the falsing: both my mono coils will false if I wiggle the cable near the control box, the stock DD will not false no matter how much I wiggle it. Does this mean my two mono coils are faulty/broken?

 

[Fishers Ghost]

Having the GB a bit positive will achieve better sensitivity but if it is too far out of balance the ground noise will drown out weak signals.

Moving the cable at the control box should not cause any noise/tones. make sure the pins. sockets are in good contact and are clean and not corroded. Be sure the plug is screwed all the way on. Clean off any grease from the socket threads.
When you push the plug on , push it as far as it will go and then tighten the shell ring, then push the plug on a bit further and tighten ther shell again, do this until the plug is tightened correctly.
If you push the plug on and then tighten the socket all the way you stand a chance of twisting the plug inside the socket and this can deform the pins causing a loose or poor contact which will cause random tones.
If you can simply touch the socket and get a tone from the Infinium then there is a shield problem either within the control box or within the cable

 

[Grilled Scallops]

Fishers Ghost, I tried your suggestions and no luck. My DD coil won't false if I wiggle the cable but both my mono coils will. It doesn't false if I just touch the socket, not a shield problem. Since the DD doesn't do it, it's not the detector. So, something is wrong with both my mono's, presumably it is the same issue for them both. Is it worth sending them back to Garrett? I don't belt mount my detector so the falsing doesn't actually bother me, but if it could mean the coils are damaged in a way that hinders their ability to detect as in depth or sensitivity, perhaps I should look to get them repaired?

 

[Fishers Ghost]

Garrett cannot do much in the way off repairs to the coils because the windings are potted in a conductive resign and it is rock hard. They can repair connector faults.
It is likely they will offer you new coils if yours are faulty. So aside from reterminating the connector at the cable end there is not a lot that can be done to the coil.
You should talk to Garrett.

 

[Fishers Ghost]

Also, with the coil connected try holding the coil cable close to the control box end in such a way that it cannot move over a distance of several inches and then gently squeeze the cable between your fingers at the coil end and slowly move your grip up along the cable and see if you can find a point where the noise/.falsing begins. Donot bend the cable sharply.
Some time ago a little bird told me there was a batch of coils with faulty cable connector terminations.