Minelab SDC2300 information and questions

[indi]

Iam thinking of buying an sdc2300 and remember reading that it is good on beach sand does that mean you can use it as a coin and relic machine too?

 

[Dave79]

Yeah, but you'll find an awful lot of iron 'relics' !

 

[ctxkid]

for the money buy a CTX

 

[goldtrapper]

I tried the SDC 2300 on some $2 coins and I buried one at 6" and the SDC would not pick it up. Worked at 4" though.

 

[user 14190]

I have just in the last 3 days tried one of a beach near us and other than bottle tops, bobby pins and foil , some bits at over 200 mm down, we found nothing, good thing it was easy digging. Will not be using it again on a beach, too much digging for no return.

 

[Wishfull]

I've found a 5 cent piece under a large rock at 16 inches deep in wet sand. Yep you will find lots of junk and some very deep.

 

[Heatho]

I have just in the last 3 days tried one of a beach near us and other than bottle tops, bobby pins and foil , some bits at over 200 mm down, we found nothing, good thing it was easy digging. Will not be using it again on a beach, too much digging for no return.

That pretty much sums it up for the SDC on beaches, coil is way too small as well to cover much ground.

A great beach machine is the Nox.

The ultimate beach machine is the CTX with a 17" coil, can cover huge amounts of beach and can virtually eliminate most beer bottle tops and other nuisance targets like 5c coins with a bit of practice.

 

[aussiefarmer]

If you had a sdc i would say just use it and dig every target , if coin and relic hunting is the path you wish to pursue there are more suitable detectors that will give you a idea of what metal you have signalled on therefore improving your chances of something good by saving you digging time on pure junk.

 

[indi]

wanted a good gold machine but something if i decided to go after coins i could still

 

[22shells]

Lately my SDC hasn't been working like it should. Sometimes it works fine, other times it goes nuts- hard to describe but like lots of sirens all at once. Then sometimes it works again. It's not the coil and I don't think it's EMI, although I did for a while- it's much worse than EMI. You can't use it when it does this. I've had it looked at and he said it was OK, got it back and it didn't work. That cost $100 and a month of no SDC. It's too unreliable when you don't know if it's going to work or not. Has anyone else had this happen to their SDC?

 

[Northeast]

Yes and no.

When I had mine it was working completely fine and then one day it was going nuts. Assumed it was because I was at home. Took it up the bush, same thing. Gave it a few days and same thing. Called Minelab, sent it back, they replaced the main PCB from memory (under warranty). Perfect when it returned.

The difference was that from when it started mine was constant. It didn't come and go like yours is.

 

[Northeast]

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/3185-sdc-2300-worrying-problem/

The story about it all and what I tried and things that were suggested is here.

 

[22shells]

Thanks Northeast. Sounds like the same thing. Maybe yours broke right through and mines a loose connection? Interesting that Kevin did yours, he's the same bloke that looked at mine, should have checked the PCB. Think it's gonna have to go back again.

 

[Booney]

Had a similar thing happen turned out to be headphone jack not seated properly and a short in the jack from tension on the cable . Resoldered and a cable tie to armrest fixed the problem .

 

[Syndyne]

Do you know if you're close to any 4G towers or aircraft flight paths, 22? If not, then I wonder if it's a channel issue with the Auto Tuning?

We noticed last year in the Central West that the newly installed 4G microwave towers wreak absolute havoc on detectors when at full broadcast power. It can be unbearable some afternoons when the peak internet traffic starts.

I also had an issue during last years trip where the SDC was very knock and touch sensitive on the coil and the threshold wouldn't settle down no matter what we tried. The little blue beast is well out of warranty these days, though I still let Minelab know and sent it back to them. They tested it for a week and couldn't replicate the problem (which was rather unusual?), however upon opening it up apparently they found that the two main pins that connect the PCB were loose.

I've yet to test it out since it's been sent back, but will do so ASAP. Fingers crossed it's fine again as I'm looking forward to trying the new coils out on it at some point.

Cheers,
Shauno.

 

[aussiefarmer]

Pcb conection issues were very common with the sdc , minelab fixes them , mine was a intermittent problem , had it repaired and been perfect ever since. Google minelab for service contact details or let a reputable retailer send it to them.

 

[22shells]

Hi Shauno, yes the towers are popping up everywhere in the Adelaide Hills, planes fly over all the time and there's also underground phone lines, electric fences and power lines. But on Saturday I used it in an area that was pretty well away from all this- it ran fine for a few minutes, I dug one target, then it suddenly went nuts. Turned it off for 10 minutes. Started it up again and it worked fine again for a few minutes- then went nuts again. Put it back in the car and went detecting with the 5000 for a few hours. Then later on had another go with the SDC and it worked for an hour with no trouble at all. Coil has never been knock sensitive and mine is well out of warranty too.

 

[nuggetino]

Can you record what's happening next time you head out? Might help others identify the problem.

 

[grubstake]

Could this be the perennial SDC problem of loose-fitting batteries? Some batteries are a fraction narrower than others and can move around as the detector is swung/raised/lowered, which causes intermittent problems.

 

[22shells]

Nah it's not the batteries, had that issue early on and fixed it with a few laps of electrical tape around the batteries. With that problem it used to shut off and restart. The batteries are tight now, I even made a little wire tool to get them out because they don't slide out on their own.