Took the "Armadillo" for a walk

[lytle78]

I had my ATX out in the field for the first time yesterday. I found all the usual junk shell cases, bullet jacket fragments, bullet core fragments, 22 bullets, couple bottle caps etc. No gold - of course. The area was a club claim which is been heavily worked over by all and sundry. The ground was moderately mineralized and there was a certain amount of EMI from a nearby cell phone tower near the highway.

Four main things struck me in the course of this exercise.

The ATX had a beautiful steady threshold at all power settings up to about 11

The overall depth on a buried test target

 

[WaterWalker]

My original alkaline batteries lasted for 10 hours, the rechargeables that came with the ATX have 12 hours under the water and still give two beeps. I should get about another two hours, but I will be charging them before the next trip out in this sub-zero weather.

The Cape's Armadillo had no problems in the 39F waters...I still have to get the story posted.
I still have to get everything out of the waves...

 

[John-Edmonton]

On a set of newly charged batteries, I get about 8-10 hours. To save time, I avoid the pinpoint button. I also always bring along an extra set of batteries.

Good luck with the ATX. Hope you get some great finds this year!

 

[SoCalBeachScanner]

Hi lytle78,

You didn't get two sets of battery holders with your ATX?

It took me several days to figure out the set of rechargeable batteries were in the soft case side pocket. The ATX had alkaline batteries in the machine and it looked like I was going to have to purchase rechargeable. I'm glad I checked the pockets of the case. When I sent my ATX back to Garrett for repair, I didn't include the batteries, and it came back to me with a set of alkaline batteries. Now I have three sets of battery holders. So something good came out of my repair

I recharge my batteries after every hunt regardless of how long I am out. I have found with my AT Pro that I lose depth with lower battery power and you can hear the difference in sharp sounding tones with fully charged batteries.
The AT Pro has four bars for battery condition. I have found when the battery indicator drops from the third bar to second you loose depth and intensity of the tones. I would rather have to replace the rechargeable batteries sooner then miss out on a deep target signal.

 

[lytle78]

Oops, my bad, I forgot that the rechargeable a came with holders. Also the Alkalines were the original ones and I'm the second owner, so they had unknown runtime on them when I got it.

The area had lots of black and white granite rocks which drove the VLF'S crazy, the Armadillo ignored them.

 

[WaterWalker]

The snow stopped, the sun came out, the temp made it to 36F and I took a quick dunk just to see how long the rechargeables would run the Armadillo.
Two beeps to start, about 30 minutes later the lovely little yellow light came on with a yelp form the innards of the Armadillo, Guess he does not like yellow
The battery warning ran for another 30 minutes, I got tired of hearing it and digging pull tabs. And the worst part of it all was the wet feeling I was beginning to get.
Waders have a small leak...another thing to fix.Went home, charging batteries and now its coffee time.
First set of Alkalines: 10 hours, First charge on rechargeables: 13 hours. I do not have enough time on the ATX to say if I lost depth. But I was still digging target for at least 30 minuets of the blinking old yeller and listening to the yelp.


Glad you found the second set of holders.

 

[lytle78]

Water Walker

My apologies, I missed a question you asked in a different thread about the ML harness. It would probably do fine in the water, but I suspect the sling is all you need in that scenario. The wetsuit, etc would pad the offside under arm area so the circulation doesn't get cut off and likewise my scrawny neck problems wouldn't be an issue for you with said wet suit.

I have a really odd take on the whole metal detecting thing anyway. For me, the hardware IS THE TREASURE. I find stuff I am interested in second hand at a good price, play with it, then move it along, hopefully at a slightly higher price. I got both the ATX (second hand) and the Pro Swing Harness (a demo unit) at well under the best discounted new price. Looking for and finding these gems is just as much fun for me as finding treasures in the ground and I am not as bothered by cold, heat, snakes and dirty fingernails!

Between you and I using it, the nickname "Armadillo" which I made up might stick. Maybe I need to call Garrett and discuss whether they want to use my name for it officially! Maybe they will agree and let me be a tester for the "Roadrunner" AKA "LTX" when they get around to producing it.