Garrett LS Infinium information and questions

[nesral]

Have used the 10x5DD for many years, very much like the 7x3"DD mainly better coverage, sweet for beach work.

 

[Goldpick]

That's a shame the infinium is collecting dust Goldpick. It's to bad you chucked those coils out, i would of liked to pull them apart and see how they were wired up etc.

Your spot on about that Nesral, I was very surprised how well it runs on the infinium. It's going to be an excellent coil for the creeks and rivers, chasing small gold in tight places. The infinium with that coil is about the only metal detector out there that can be set up and handed to a complete novice without them touching a thing, just tell them go slow and dig when the thing makes a noise and it doesn't need much of a target to get a signal from that's for sure.

Have you ever ran it with the 5 x 10 dd? just curious as i have never tried that coil and your right they would be deadly on the ATX.

I have run the 5x10 at one of the SA goldfields, though didn't really have enough experience at that stage to get the best out of it. Also had a few issues with hot rocks at that particular site, ended up going back to my old goldmaster on which I found identifying hot rocks a lot easier. As with any detector, a decent number of hours is really required to fully understand what the responses are telling you, ultimately I found beach detecting more satisfying and productive.

I do believe there is a member on Kimbucktwo who uses that 5x10" coil on his ATX with good success on both the beach and on gold.

I had a particularly poor run on maintenence issues - including reliabiltiy of it cabling, shielding and connectors. At first I experienced quite a few issues with falsing, particularly from poor faulty cable shielding, dodgy connectors that require the control box to be opened up and things resoldered, and lastly bent pins on the coil connectors - that used to do my head in. Another common issue was falsing from cable movement, you really had to firmly tie or tape down everything to prevent the coil from picking up any cable movement - even a stiff breeze at the beach was anough to set it off.

High/low falsing also creeps in when battery levels starts to head south, or if you are near EMI sources - some areas were so bad on electrical interference that I would have to revert using a VLF or multi frequency to continue detecting.

So I definitely wouldn't class it as a detector for novices being such a high maintenance unit, though once you have a decent shaft setup and everything squared away it is pretty much a turn on and go proposition once you have the ground balancing sorted - probably the deepest beach detector I have used to date.

The main reason why I no longer used the Infinium was due to lack of reliable discrimination, ended up finding mutli-frequency more suited to the beach with less time digging deep junk, and more time spent digging the good stuff.

 

[Roscoe]

When i used the 8" mono it would false on any thing i bumped into, the large dd was the same. But this little 3 x 7 you can scrub that thing on the ground and no falsing, i am hoping the 5 x 10 will be the same. I think you bought yours second hand from memory? It could of had a hard time before you or the early models had issues, mine is the later model. It's all history now for the infinium, it never got off to a good start.

It was Ivan from memory on Kimbucktwo that showed how to set the machine up, by going straight to the locked GB position. It has better sensitivity to smaller gold targets when done like this, it suits the DD coils well. The manual actually say's to do this and the instruction video as well. " When turning on your infinium go straight to the lock position, it is very rare to use the ground balance tracking..." well something like that. IMO the mono coils stuffed this machine, if you can call them that? People went mono mad and threw out their DD's on every machine manufacture. IF they had brought out a decent 12" or 14" round dd coil for it originally i think the machine would of had a better past? See it has to be really bad ground for the DD coils to move out of the locked position, but the mono's have to be GBalanced and when you do, you lose sensitivity.

Well it's all history now, you would of thought Garrett learn't form that? But they didn't and now you see people putting the little DD's on the ATX, that tells you something doesn't it?

 

[Goldpick]

I think the Infinium suffered from a distinct lack of aftermarket coils, unlike other PI detectors on the market. That factory big DD was a bit of a boat anchor to lug around, they should have at least re-released improved & )ighter weight coils. The only thing from memory that they did upgrade was the thicker and more durable coil cabling on the later coils.

My infinium was an older one, it needed the board upgrade to enable it to run with the mono coils, I also GB via the method you mentioned.

 

[Roscoe]

That large dd coil is a heavy beast alright and it is a weird design two, i never did like it. It falsed all the time when you bump it in the bush, I think i got muscles in my S**T after using it for a weekend. A white tail rat chewed my 8" mono right through the coil windings, so that was the end of that coil. So i was down to the 10 x 14 dd coil and took a gamble with the 3 x 7 dd, I like this coil, wish the rest would behave like it.

Just been setting up the control box into a small back pack for the kids and wife to use, it super light with the 3 x 7 coil on the infinium shaft.

Don't suppose you have the waterproof headphones for it? If you do and are not using them let me know. I want to hand it to kids in the creek and not worry about them dunking it into the water. I will silastic or sikaflex the cable on the coil to add extra water resistance to it.

I still can't work out why after market coils weren't made for it either, especially DD coils? I found a guy's blog on the web, he took the 5 x10 apart and took photos and resistance values as well a wire type etc. on that coil. Shouldn't be to hard to make a Large DD coil for it? I think the monos are a different story because i am lead to believe that had a chip?

 

[nesral]

3 different 10" non Garrett coils was made for Infinium LS but at $380 each + postage in 2004 they were a little price heavy.

 

[Goldpick]

That large dd coil is a heavy beast alright and it is a weird design two, i never did like it. It falsed all the time when you bump it in the bush, I think i got muscles in my S**T after using it for a weekend. A white tail rat chewed my 8" mono right through the coil windings, so that was the end of that coil. So i was down to the 10 x 14 dd coil and took a gamble with the 3 x 7 dd, I like this coil, wish the rest would behave like it.

Just been setting up the control box into a small back pack for the kids and wife to use, it super light with the 3 x 7 coil on the infinium shaft.

Don't suppose you have the waterproof headphones for it? If you do and are not using them let me know. I want to hand it to kids in the creek and not worry about them dunking it into the water. I will silastic or sikaflex the cable on the coil to add extra water resistance to it.

I still can't work out why after market coils weren't made for it either, especially DD coils? I found a guy's blog on the web, he took the 5 x10 apart and took photos and resistance values as well a wire type etc. on that coil. Shouldn't be to hard to make a Large DD coil for it? I think the monos are a different story because i am lead to believe that had a chip?

Haven't got the waterproof headphones, just the stock land ones unfortunately. One real issue on repairing either the plugs on the headphones or on the coils was availability of the waterproof plugs - quite expensive at around $50 ea. One night I was trying to bend a pin back into place to lne up with the socket, and the damned thing snapped off. Garrett won't sell them individually for home repairs, so you are pretty much forced to go through Garrett for hexy repairs. In the end it was simply cheaper to just buy new headphones or coils and toss the old ones.

 

[Roscoe]

No worries Goldpick about the headphones, just thought i would ask. I see that a company makes those garrett waterproof connectors on a 3d printer, they are made from some form of plastic. I do recall years ago trying to chase up one of those waterproof connectors and gave up.

Would be interesting in finding one of those 10" coils that nesral mentioned, just to give one a try, only if it's a DD though. You never know i might have a crack at making my own one day, would be a good experience, just as long as i don't ruin my machine.

 

[nesral]

I would be interested in seeing the forum/thread on how the Infinium LS is set up.

Have seen some very elaborate explanations on how to do it but I never found those tedious ways to be of any use.

 

[Roscoe]

nesral, Its this thread that got me originally thinking about infinium setup.

http://forum.kimbucktwo.com/index.php?topic=6153.0

I have been very happy so far going straight to the locked GB position using the DD coils and setting the threshold just right. Have used the detector with this setup over all ground types and never had to touch the GB.

How do you like to setup and run your infinium nesral?

 

[nesral]

Check your PM.

 

[nesral]

.

There was a Video showing how the Infinium LS was preset, all one had to do on the beach was to switch it on, lower the coil to the ground and go... it took mere seconds to get started.

 

[Mike Harding]

I have an Infinium but I haven't used it for some years since I went over to Minelab.

The main issue I had was false positives which, reading other posts, may have been down to coil connections or wiring, I only have the standard double D coil.

I'll check the connections and firmly tape up the cable and give it another try. One thing I really did like about it was that only one cable connected me to the detector.

 

[jamie]

I have an infinium also, I loved using it on the beaches around here but since getting the gpx and only really chasing gold I havent used it, it is a great beach detector.
I used to GB in fast, then slow and then switch to lock, that worked for me, another thing with the LS is that it really does stand for low and slow not land and sea

 

[Goldpick]

That's the same method I used for ground balancing on the beach, worked for me and went very deep even with the small 8" mono.

 

[nesral]

It is well worth using the Infinium LS beyond that of the User Manual Instruction and that what is writter on the control housing.

 

[goldMB]

I have been told PI detectors are the best due to common mineralisation. Its astounding I can pick up a garrett infinium for well under 1 k. the Garrett ATX is also a PI and is heavier and 4 times the price. I would like to use a harness for the infinium as its a little heavy. Anyone have positive or negative experiences with the infinium and am I better getting a new Whites PI for around $1500? many thanks

 

[Redfin]

I had one in the back of the car for years.
Initially got it for Mrs Redfin but she soon found the joys of a Minelab.
Kept it for friends, visitors etc.
Never found any gold with it, very hard to ground balance and keep quiet in mineralised ground.
Excelled on the beach however.

 

[mandrake01]

I still have one and as well as a gpx, it has found gold but no where near as small as the gpx can find they are difficult to get used to, I have never used a whites so can't realy compare the two. but over the years I will say the infinium got a lot of bad press.

 

[PhaseTech]

Used an infinium shortly after they were released, and apart from the build quality of the control box, was not impressed.
Re second hand units, if something is good, people will want it, and the price won't be so low.

Look at GP3500's, still fetching around $2000 after all these years.

Agree with Redfin though, a good unit for the beach.