ok, i am having problems with my excal and i have seen others post the same symptoms. when water salt or fresh hits the bottom of the pod and then anywhere on the pod up to being submerged it goes crazy. after being submerged or completely out of the water its fine!!!!!! i tried some adjusting of sens and threshhold but cannot adjust it out. any ideas?????

Sounds like a 'shielding' or 'grounding' problem. I have seen/witnessed this on several detectors (of differing brands). How/What is the condition of the battery pod connecter gasket? I have also identified a loose coil cable entering the pod on yet another detector. Wiggle the wire.....and see if the unit is stable. I also have concern of knob metal shaft/shank(s) being/becoming a floating ground.

thanks tom!!! well, i tested it at the lake today and isolated each suspect part. dipped the battery pod in and out of the water, GOOD! dipped the control pod, GOOD! dipped the wire in and FAIL! the splice is bad, some of the plasti dip is wearing off of my cable and water must be getting in.

Great! (Sort of!). Identifying the problem is a perfect start. Now............is it still under warranty.

no its an older/used excal. i just finished puting a new coating of epoxy on and will test it tomorrow. i dont know why it worked when fully submerged??

The copper wires will soon oxidize......and most probably fail on you. A pinhole in the cable usually requires replacement.

yes, i was thinking about that! what if i hunt with it until it fails and then cut out the bad/corroded area and re-do the splice?

Unfortunately.......if water gets into the wire........it'll 'wick' up and down the wire. You will start to lose performance soon (if not already).....due to impedence change.

ok tom, it does not apear to be a leak. heres a few details on my situation with my excal 800, aprox 2005 model with the blue and grey headphones. i was attempteng to swap a 10 by 12 sef coil for the stock 8 inch minelab coil. while doing the splice i noticed my excal has 5 wires instead of the pics i have seen and advice i have been given showing only 4 wires for the excal. my wiring is as follows....red=txb....black=txa....green=gnd2.....blue=rxb....orange=rxa. now, i wired this up to the 10 by 12 sef coil wich only had 4 wires the only way i could get it to work and that meant not using the rxb/blue wire from the excal. i have spliced and re-spliced the thing twice and each time i get the following symptom..... as soon as the spliced area makes contact with the water, fresh or salt it starts sounding off. sometimes after being submerged it will get quiet and act normal. other times not. if you can help me figure this out and if you know why my excal has 5 wires when most have 4 i would really appreciate it. thanks, chuck.

Chuck,

Now I'm wondering about the shield..................... and/or capacitance of the coil wire.

yes, now i do think its a shielding issue! i have sent the same post to some excal experts. im hopeing to be able to use the sef but........?
will let you know what i find out.
chuck.

tom, this is a grounding/ shielding problem. any suggestions on how i can solve the problem of the detector sounding off when spliced area enters or exits the water? the only experiance i have with shielding is with co-ax cable. i could hardwire directly to the board.

I would first try a INSULATED braided shield around the spliced connection. You could also try insulated aluminum foil around the splice. I'm uncertain if this will work.....but worth the try.