Where is Old Beechnut?

[silvercoinboy]

Glad you are posting regularly again...you are an inspiration to us all!!!

 

[OldBeechnut]

Glad you are posting regularly again...you are an inspiration to us all!!!

Thank you and everyone for the kind replies and likes!

I'm...Very Blessed to be alive and able to get out there and have fun. Plus care for the one that cared for me 69 years ago..

 

[Nutriasub]

thank OBN for sharing so much!!
good luck out there, well I guess keep on your luck!

 

[OldBeechnut]

Little booty from the storm last week. Two hunts, about 6 plus hours. The one signet is from the last post.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

Fine bunch of vintage gold….nicely done…

 

[tvr]

Little booty from the storm last week.

Excellent hunts. Love the old gold.
Looked at the tide projections on Thursday morning before heading south and it was looking like a 1.5 to 2 foot blow out from mid-afternoon into evening on the west upper part of the bay with the NNW wind from the backside of Ida. Sorry I missed that.

 

[OldBeechnut]

Excellent hunts. Love the old gold.
Looked at the tide projections on Thursday morning before heading south and it was looking like a 1.5 to 2 foot blow out from mid-afternoon into evening on the west upper part of the bay with the NNW wind from the backside of Ida. Sorry I missed that.

Thanks Guys!! It was one of the most amazing days I have hunted in awhile TVR.. winds calmed and the water dropped fast and stayed down.

 

[stoneshirt]

Many Thanks for the kind words. And Thanks Tvr...
One of my on going projects has been to set my Excalibur up to where I can hunt rough waters in the Bay. Several years ago I ran my Excalibur from inside my drysuit, it was Amazing how there was very little noise when hunting in close where the water was banging, then even out deep when the detector was submerged in rough water it was (Almost) silent. And this is the pod inside my drysuit. So it got me wondering what if I removed the SS knob shaft that contacted the saltwater, would that help? .......So I removed all except one, the on/off threshold knob. And I made a special knob for it to insulate it from the saltwater and this knob is rather fat at the base, I found that it is easier to fine tune the threshold with the bigger base knob. Then I ran the coil cable inside of the shaft to the pod , the pod was painted with 844 Acrylic ESD shielding, then covered with the carbon fiber wrap. So far I am very happy with the results, My hunting I rely on being able to hear the super faints of all metal, with the above and a few other modifications this is now possible, so far in any conditions. The other day I used one of my regular modified Excalibur's and the noise difference is incredible.



View attachment 18335
All of the settings of the removed knobs ... full volume...In the All metal setting...Sensitivity (Between) 8-9 (Hot) ..Disc (1)
View attachment 18336

Thanks to Carolina & Tvr for turning me onto Steve's detector shafts.. cam lock.. View attachment 18337

The knobs base sets on a Silicon O-Ring, and for right now the allen set screw is coated with aquaseal until I can get a shorter one that will be counter sunk into the knob then sealed with aquaseal. As a double precaution, on the brass potentiometer shaft that the on/off controls, it has a plastic sleeve to keep from being grounded thru the SS shaft.

View attachment 18338

The battery setup for the Stealth Excalibur is a 3s 18650 Li-ion battery, Samsung 3500mAh , which should get me over 60 hours runtime.

The second battery is the one I made for the Fisher AQ, with a audio cut off, the AQ is one loud machine when it gets near your scoop, so I cut the audio off when digging.

View attachment 18339View attachment 18340

Thanks for looking, Good Luck and Be Safe!

Hi,OBN,
I notice all your work...Brilliant.Can you inform me on the Circuit Board you put in your Battery Packs?
You know,I live down here in Santa Marta,Colombia.Where "the right item is hard to find" .I have kept the old Excal running with Bits and Bobs...I have built Two new Batt. Pods for it,that I made up by buying Power Packs for Cordless Drills and using the Batts.I JUST SOLDERED THEM UP,AND PUT THEM IN A TUBE.They work fine so far.What can I expect,by not using any Electronics that come mounted in those Drill Motor Battery Packs,?(somewhat similar to your Packs) thanks,man.....

 

[tvr]

In case it takes a little while for OBN to get to this; here is a short write up on the protection circuits. They are trying to sell product at the link, so beyond the first couple of paragraphs of what the circuits do, they work on selling what they carry. If your cordless battery packs are lithium based, your risk of fire during charge and discharge is much higher without the circuits.

BatterySpace.com/AA Portable Power Corp. Tel: 510-525-2328

PCB & PCM for Li-ion / Polymer / LiFePO4 Battery Pack, battery management system

www.batteryspace.com

 

[OldBeechnut]

Hi,OBN,
I notice all your work...Brilliant.Can you inform me on the Circuit Board you put in your Battery Packs?
You know,I live down here in Santa Marta,Colombia.Where "the right item is hard to find" .I have kept the old Excal running with Bits and Bobs...I have built Two new Batt. Pods for it,that I made up by buying Power Packs for Cordless Drills and using the Batts.I JUST SOLDERED THEM UP,AND PUT THEM IN A TUBE.They work fine so far.What can I expect,by not using any Electronics that come mounted in those Drill Motor Battery Packs,?(somewhat similar to your Packs) thanks,man.....

What kind of batteries are they.. Li-ion? I would guess? If so you need to go with a 11.1/12.6 volt 3 cell BMS..

charger used..

Tenergy Smart Charger for 11.1V (3S) Li-ion/LIPO Battery Packs​

BMS used..

3S 10A Li-ion Lithium Battery 18650 Charger PCB BMS Protection Board 12.6V Module​

 

[Draco]

Ask Oldbeechnut, or anyone else in the know.
The batteries in my Excali have definitely died, or so I think. After many years of use, when I charge them they give 12 volts, but the detector does not work. Sometimes the earpiece clicks, but the threshold is not heard.
I have connected to another 12 volt (lead) battery and it works perfectly. Has it happened to someone else that the original battery is at 12 volts, but the detector does not work?
Could it be an amperage problem?
Greetings

 

[tvr]

Could you put a wire from the battery pack to the detector connector so that you can get the volt meter on it and check voltage under load? If voltage drops under load, I'd suspect the batteries.
I've got a connector that I need to clean frequently on my old blue tube Excalibur that I'll get a click in the headphones and then nothing until I wiggle and reseat or clean and reconnect the contacts. Eventually I will need to replace the connector.

 

[Draco]

My excalibur, has died. When I turned it on, there was a small "explosion" and a light came on just below the power / threshold potentiometer.
I have opened the detector and it smells of burning. I suspect it may be the potentiometer ...

 

[bklein]

No lights anywhere. That’s a trace short. Look at a good board for comparison and see if you can repair it.

 

[Draco]

Yes Yes. I said about the light, to refer to a small explosion. A short circuit

 

[Mark kus]

Wow great finds
Matk

 

[Suburban Prospector]

Many Thanks for the kind words. And Thanks Tvr...
One of my on going projects has been to set my Excalibur up to where I can hunt rough waters in the Bay. Several years ago I ran my Excalibur from inside my drysuit, it was Amazing how there was very little noise when hunting in close where the water was banging, then even out deep when the detector was submerged in rough water it was (Almost) silent. And this is the pod inside my drysuit. So it got me wondering what if I removed the SS knob shaft that contacted the saltwater, would that help? .......So I removed all except one, the on/off threshold knob. And I made a special knob for it to insulate it from the saltwater and this knob is rather fat at the base, I found that it is easier to fine tune the threshold with the bigger base knob. Then I ran the coil cable inside of the shaft to the pod , the pod was painted with 844 Acrylic ESD shielding, then covered with the carbon fiber wrap. So far I am very happy with the results, My hunting I rely on being able to hear the super faints of all metal, with the above and a few other modifications this is now possible, so far in any conditions. The other day I used one of my regular modified Excalibur's and the noise difference is incredible.



View attachment 18335
All of the settings of the removed knobs ... full volume...In the All metal setting...Sensitivity (Between) 8-9 (Hot) ..Disc (1)
View attachment 18336

Thanks to Carolina & Tvr for turning me onto Steve's detector shafts.. cam lock.. View attachment 18337

The knobs base sets on a Silicon O-Ring, and for right now the allen set screw is coated with aquaseal until I can get a shorter one that will be counter sunk into the knob then sealed with aquaseal. As a double precaution, on the brass potentiometer shaft that the on/off controls, it has a plastic sleeve to keep from being grounded thru the SS shaft.

View attachment 18338

The battery setup for the Stealth Excalibur is a 3s 18650 Li-ion battery, Samsung 3500mAh , which should get me over 60 hours runtime.

The second battery is the one I made for the Fisher AQ, with a audio cut off, the AQ is one loud machine when it gets near your scoop, so I cut the audio off when digging.

View attachment 18339View attachment 18340

Thanks for looking, Good Luck and Be Safe!

OBN Bob here, remember the guy with the CZ-21 and the depth test we did together in Atlantic city ? Think that Excal can still beat my CZ lol

 

[OldBeechnut]

OBN Bob here, remember the guy with the CZ-21 and the depth test we did together in Atlantic city ? Think that Excal can still beat my CZ lol

Hope your well and finding treasures......Bob I would doubt it could beat yours. I still talk about you getting that ring at 18 inches!! I think I got it at 14... I have made a few improvements to the excalibur not to where it could hit 18 inches. I think one of the biggest improvement is stability in rough water. Specially when the water is hitting right at the coil connection and the pod.

So what have you been up too?

 

[Suburban Prospector]

I did a lot of beach hunting when I was up there. Made many finds . Now I’m in Ga where it’s warmer and the people are too haha. Just trying to live my best life, traveling etc

 

[Suburban Prospector]

Work has been good too !