Minelab SDC2300 information and questions

[LC76]

Got my detector back today.

Turns out it was a faulty speaker according to the report.
Im yet to test it out so will update the thread when i see for myself.

 

[Ground Noise]

A dealer loaned me a 2300 for a test drive at xmas. When I collected it he said the headphone socket did not connect well and recommended using cloth tape to secure it.

Detector worked fine both with and without headphones.

 

[Mechanoid]

Thanks LC. I'll be very interested to see if you think the problem has been solved. Mine has done the same thing now on three occasions (all hot days).

If you confirm that the problem has been solved I'll be sending mine back for speaker replacement.

Cheers.

 

[Guest]

Put it in the sun' Mechanoid and when she plays up open the battery door to see if it fixes it, too many people are saying there speaker is faulty that's alot of faulty speakers!

 

[Marty]

OH that was painful to watch , what did ML say ?
How come your not running a booster set up on your 2300?

Marty

 

[LC76]

On the normal days below 30c i wear the headphones but in the heat or with company i use the speaker.
Booster would be nice and will come later.

But i wasn't going to ignore a fault on a new $4000 machine.

Did a very rough arm rest cushion with some wetsuit material i got from the salvos.

 

[Mechanoid]

Put it in the sun' Mechanoid and when she plays up open the battery door to see if it fixes it, too many people are saying there speaker is faulty that's alot of faulty speakers!

Yeah, good idea. If it's hot and sunny tomorrow I'll lay it out on the concrete outside for a while and see what happens - and then open the battery door if required. Will report back.

 

[LC76]

Went out to Dunolly today and gave the SDC a good run ........8 hours in 38c heat.....yes im an idiot.
Anyway all seems to be fix.
The detector got pretty bloody hot but didnt miss a beat,so im exhausted but happy.

Went out to a random spot that looked good but mostly got fuggets and one .08 gram nugget not the best days pay but whatevs im happy.

 

[LC76]

Had a strange frustrating day yesterday at Devils Gully/Beelzebub Gully Bendigo.

Dug 45 birdshot and 5 little rusty nails but no gold.
Day before that i got a 2.21g nugget.

I can deal with that good days and bad days an all that,but i noticed when the detector got hot from the sun it started falsing every time i bumped it or touched the coil.

I removed the skidplate and cleaned it but it was still falsing even without the skidplate.
Every time i touched the bottom of the coil it would false with or without the skidplate.

I assume this isnt normal and probably should return it again to be looked at,getting sick of sending this thing back so often.
What do you think,is it worth sending back again or is just the heat affecting it?

 

[rc62burke]

Do you want to be able to detect in the Heat? I sure as hell would if I chose to!!!!! I am sure there are hotter places in the world where Gold is found too!!

I did not have any trouble with false signals with mine in December NQ, I would send it back & check your ability to demand a replacement under consumer Law.
cheers
Lee

 

[LC76]

Yeah im about to head out for a few hours now and guess if it does it again today it will be going back again.
Bloody annoying not being able to scrape the ground when a 1/2 mil gap can mean the difference between hitting or missing a target.

This machine has been fantastic but the issues and ergonomics are starting to outweigh the good points,at least for me anyway.

 

[LC76]

After the last two days this detector is going back for sure.
The speaker problem is back.
Plus now it's shutting down and restarting.
Plus falsing when the coil gets a bit hot in the sun.

I'm over it.

 

[AuMan]

Hi LC, regarding the detector shutting down, early on a lot of people found this problem. It was due to the batteries being a bit loose in the holder. I think the fix was to put a small piece of cardboard in there to stop the batteries from moving. If you have a bit of a look around you should be able to find that. Also the falsing could be caused by the loose batteries, so fix the batteries and retest. As for the speaker problem, I would recommend using headphones(in ear type) as you will hear a lot more small signals that you will miss with the speaker, however that doesn't actually fix the speaker, but in my opinion headphones are a much better way to go.

AuMan

 

[Marty]

The restarting thing you can fix by stretching the battery springs
mine used to do that as well before stretching the springs

Marty

 

[LC76]

Thanks for the advice.
Yeah I have asked for a new replacement so will see what happens there.

The battery issue only just started and I can see why, instead of a flat plate contact for the small positive terminal of the battery they have used a small spring that slips off and loses contact.

The coil falsing I agree could be due to the battery issue,but after several 8hr + days in 30+ heat I noticed the coil would become very hot and then super touchy, sweep over some green grass it would false or touch the coil with finger and it would false fart near it and it would false.

So I'm thinking a heat issue, I'm sure the blue colour doesn't help.

Speaker distortion.

Like I said earlie I'm not letting an issue like the speaker distortion slide on a new $4000 machine and I shouldn't be expected to spend a $100 on an adapter just to use headphones that don't cook my head in the sun just to work around the speaker problem.

I am considering under chin headphones so I can still wear a hat in the sun but I'm not happy that I have to spend an extra $100 on the adapter that minelab should have provided to begin with.

Anyway it's back in minelabs hands again so will see what happens.

 

[AuMan]

Also another thing that happens in the heat is static charge build up with in the electronic ground in the metal detector. As the coil becomes close enough to the ground or another object, this charge discharges to actual ground causing a false signal. When this happens trying again straight away will not cause a response as it takes a bit of time for this charge to build up high enough to "jump the gap".

What you can do to determine if it is a coil fault is place the machine on the ground and then tap/bump around the coil with your hand or a stick, don't beat it too hard though! If doing this causes a consistent response each time the coil is bumped, then yes, there is a fault with the coil.

Next thing to try is bumping the control box with the machine on the ground. You should get little to no response at all doing this.

If it is static discharge, I don't think there is much that can be done to rectify it without compromising sensitivity. I have had this happen to me on numerous occasions and by all means it seems like a coil fault, but doing the above tests proves that the coil is fine.

AuMan

 

[LC76]

I'm tempted to paint the coil white when I get it back.
Might reflect some heat.

 

[Bacchus]

Thanks for the advice.
Yeah I have asked for a new replacement so will see what happens there.

The battery issue only just started and I can see why, instead of a flat plate contact for the small positive terminal of the battery they have used a small spring that slips off and loses contact.

The coil falsing I agree could be due to the battery issue,but after several 8hr + days in 30+ heat I noticed the coil would become very hot and then super touchy, sweep over some green grass it would false or touch the coil with finger and it would false fart near it and it would false.

So I'm thinking a heat issue, I'm sure the blue colour doesn't help.

Speaker distortion.

Like I said earlie I'm not letting an issue like the speaker distortion slide on a new $4000 machine and I shouldn't be expected to spend a $100 on an adapter just to use headphones that don't cook my head in the sun just to work around the speaker problem.

I am considering under chin headphones so I can still wear a hat in the sun but I'm not happy that I have to spend an extra $100 on the adapter that minelab should have provided to begin with.

Anyway it's back in minelabs hands again so will see what happens.

G'day LC

Got my Jack Langes under chin headphones last week , can't speak highly enough of them , in my testing
on many little bits the SDC external speaker just does not give the feint signals well enough. I consider the under chins equal to the UL 30's in performance (although I admit everyone's ears are different )and very comfortable for all day detecting
I agree spending $100 for a Nenad adaptor and then $60 odd for under chins is not ideal and you should not
have to do this on a new machine but it is all I use now.
I am also waiting on another wireless sender unit which operates on a different band width as the first one I tested interfered with the SDC. To me that is the ultimate , 50 ohm in ear headphones , wireless , so being totally unhooked from the detector but providing excellent signal and cutting out some ambient noise.
Hope they replace detector for you.

 

[isolation]

Mate I get a bit of that too. Falsing at times when I bump something, on and of with the battery 'issue', and that's after a few minutes of use. I put non rechargeable batteries in yesterday when it started the on/off thing after 5mins of use, seemed to do the trick, so I might try and buy different rechargeables. The falsing isn't a massive issue yet, but it's going to interfere with faint signals for sure. I do multiple noise cancel procedures, and ground balance (which seems to do nothing), but neither totally eliminates the problem.

 

[ILikeGold]

I highly doubt that the heat is the problem, it has been over 45c here for a month and I have not had any issues with mine. The supplied batteries are a bit loose, but a piece of cardboard fixes this as someone else already said.