how does your sdc2300 behave ?

I have seen a few conversations about the sdc and its sometimes erratic behavior and I thought a general pool of experiences might help diagnose a sick detector from the average flutters of unexplainable chirps, and also I was wondering if anybody's sdc runs consistently flat line quite ?

Now I have diffidently tried and retried channel searching and ground balancing with the book method plus at least 3 suggested methods with little improvements , some days I can get a full day with out to much falsing or going bonkers.
but some days after about an hour it can get noisy or even go full bonkers . I have learnt to work with it and it diffidently has built my skill level up and I can still be confident using it and get the gold.

Some days I can lay it down while I dig and it is silent , then the next thing it goes off its rocker for no apparent reason.

The general chatter it gets most days is costly for time, having to re swing every chirp only to find its nothing , some days I can pick a false chirp from a target some days not.

Most days I can blame the wind or the change as the sun crosses the ground or as the day changes and its usually about then it starts becoming a handful but occasionally there's no apparent reason.

don't get me wrong I still love the sdc and as with any good relationship comes headaches :lol:

anyway I hope all sdc owners that read this will add there experiences to this thread .

Hey AF sounds like it has a bad internal electrical connection, when your using it and it plays up try giving it a shake if it gets noisy or fixes it, time for service checking
heat and humidity would make a bad connection worse, It may be a dry solder crack in the circuit board or bad wire connection, I don't own one but will sooner or later so would like to find out if they do have manufacturing defects to look out for.
Hope that helps sorting it

Aussiefarmer... Do you keep your mobile phone on you while detecting?
If so.. that will be your problem.

If you don' have any mobile phone, or uhf on you I would put it down to either a nearbye emi source such as an electric fence.
Have heard of faulty Sdc's doing similar to what your's is doing although not while laying flat without movement.
Reeko

Took my brand new SDC2300 out yesterday to set it up and have a swing. I used the factory settings , did the ground balance etc based on the user manual.

I found a Bullet, small fine wire, two battle caps, bit of a horseshoe a bent nail and one small piece of gold. When walking along and slowly swinging, mine had a constant background tone but 'went off' over metal. Every change in signal tone and there was something metal under it.

Three things I did notice... if I had my new pick (from member blue jeansronald) anywhere within 1 metre of the detector plate...the detector would start to warble.

When I used my left hand to swing my small plastic shovel (with dirt and target in it) over the detector plate/coil...I noticed a strong signal even when I had dumped out dirt...turned out to be my wrist watch being detected...took it off and ..no interference.

I was wearing a backpack and had my iPhone and wallet in it. If I took my backpack off and placed it anywhere within 1.5 to 1.0 Metre of the coil it started to warble....turned my phone to off...problem solved.

Finding a small spec of gold on my first outing was pure arse as I was just trying to get used to the detector.

I do have a bunch of info that I got off the net about 'how to improve the performance of your SDC'.

Happy to scan and email that document ( 5 pages) if anyone wants to PM me with their email address.

Finally, I am doing the free training session I got as part of the purchase...cant wait for that to really clue me up on settings and how to best use the SDC. But so far VERY happy.

I always carry my phone and wear steel cap boots when using my SDC no problems for me ....
Have a look in between the coil and coil cover for a build up of grit .

dam it said:

I always carry my phone and wear steel cap boots when using my SDC no problems for me ....
Have a look in between the coil and coil cover for a build up of grit .

Click to expand...

Sounds like my problem (grit build up) - do you have any tips on how to get the cover apart?

cheers david

davidwrunner2 said:

dam it said:

I always carry my phone and wear steel cap boots when using my SDC no problems for me ....
Have a look in between the coil and coil cover for a build up of grit .

Click to expand...

Sounds like my problem (grit build up) - do you have any tips on how to get the cover apart?

cheers david

Click to expand...

Soak coil in hot water for 10 minutes to soften the coil cover and start by pulling both sides of the back of the cover, it's a mongrel the first time.

davidwrunner2 said:

dam it said:

I always carry my phone and wear steel cap boots when using my SDC no problems for me ....
Have a look in between the coil and coil cover for a build up of grit .

Click to expand...

Sounds like my problem (grit build up) - do you have any tips on how to get the cover apart?

cheers david

Click to expand...

They are a bit of a turd to get on & off , But just start at the back and slowly peel forwards

G'day AF

Some good advice above re grit between coil and skid plate and mobile phone , with that eliminated my question would be does it get worse as the day goes on and is the coil in direct sunlight ? I recall about a year or so ago a couple of members had similar issues with coils getting hot and going spare . I reckon it was LC76 who had his machine replaced as a result and yours may have developed a similar problem. I probably noise cancel more often than most but find it really quietens the machine after walking for a while.

Cheers

aussiefarmer said:

I have seen a few conversations about the sdc and its sometimes erratic behavior and I thought a general pool of experiences might help diagnose a sick detector from the average flutters of unexplainable chirps, and also I was wondering if anybody's sdc runs consistently flat quiet.

Click to expand...

My one ran flat line quiet for want of a description. Happened suddenly when I placed the machine on the ground. Turns out it was 3 connections in the wiring loom, sent it back to ML for repair (Problem diagnosed by ML).

On start up all audio was normal, Chanel search audio was normal as soon as I tried to ground balance it ran flat line quiet. If I put the coil over a target while running quiet the audio sounded out the target.

Start up the machine less all add on's (booster, external speaker & the like) if you experience the above it sounds like internal issues.

Call ML and talk through it with them they are happy to help was my experience.

Cleaning the coil skid plate want hurt it. That way when you sort it you know you've done all you can and have renewed confidence.

Hope this helps

Sounds like it may need a service , i have cleaned the coil and skid plate , and tried without any metal on my body , i have just built a new pick so it will be over my shoulder but when its been playing up i have left my pick behind but with no change , it was quite when i first got it but lately its hit and miss so internal wiring sounds likely.
Great response everybody . So now i guess i better get it looked at is it better to desl with minelab direct or through tge dealer ? , i am 3hours from the dealer.

Hey aussiefarmer If you could borrow a mates SCD, you could compare them together, then make the call whether it's just your machine acting up or if both do it then there's bad EMI in the area.

Go direct, get the dealer to email you a copy of your receipt if don't have 1, like I did. That way after talking with ML it's straight to the nearest PO. Like you I live some distance from a dealer, sent mine registered post and got a tracking number. I was told it could take 3 days, was there over night, gotta be happy with that

When I rang them it was decided by ML for them to have a look at it. However the bloke I spoke to didn't write down my issue & subsequently went on leave so best to send with a written report of your issue. The report will ensure it's looked at early and returned with minimal delay.

My2300 really arks up when I lay it down to dig, normally with coil straight up and down ( as in detecting mode) seems to back off when coil is layed flat, I put this down to EMI, what do people think? I have just cleaned inside the plate and will check a bit more next time out. There is still no way I can get a nice smooth threshold no matter how many times I hit the noise cancel button so I guess I'll just have to live with it. I find staying on 2 ( green ) and turning LED's up to MAX and using GOG headphones, they run a tad quiet, seems to be the best for me.

Why are you running it on max LEDs I run.mine on 3 to.4 and it just purrs along if I ran it on max it would scream but I don't use or haven't used my headphones

Leroy said:

My2300 really arks up when I lay it down to dig, normally with coil straight up and down ( as in detecting mode) seems to back off when coil is layed flat, I put this down to EMI, what do people think? I have just cleaned inside the plate and will check a bit more next time out. There is still no way I can get a nice smooth threshold no matter how many times I hit the noise cancel button so I guess I'll just have to live with it. I find staying on 2 ( green ) and turning LED's up to MAX and using GOG headphones, they run a tad quiet, seems to be the best for me.

Click to expand...

Turning the threshold up on full is certainly not the way to run the SDC, you really want to only have 3-4 of the LED's on, having the threshold up so high on any detector is counter productive and will cause problems.

Heatho said:

Leroy said:

My2300 really arks up when I lay it down to dig, normally with coil straight up and down ( as in detecting mode) seems to back off when coil is layed flat, I put this down to EMI, what do people think? I have just cleaned inside the plate and will check a bit more next time out. There is still no way I can get a nice smooth threshold no matter how many times I hit the noise cancel button so I guess I'll just have to live with it. I find staying on 2 ( green ) and turning LED's up to MAX and using GOG headphones, they run a tad quiet, seems to be the best for me.

Click to expand...

Turning the threshold up on full is certainly not the way to run the SDC, you really want to only have 3-4 of the LED's on, having the threshold up so high on any detector is counter productive and will cause problems.

Click to expand...

I always ran my SDC with a threshold on either max (or sometimes 1 to 3 below max, if I upped the sensitivity)...

And I found ounces with it, in not many hours. Tiny pieces, too: most of them would be between 0.03g and 0.05g

When retrieving a target I always had the coil flat on the ground where possible for a few reasons one of which being that it would become unstable with the coil in the air. The others were for easier passing of scoop/hand over coil when recovering target & to help prevent the detector tipping over.
One thing I found with the SDC was that it likes to have ground under the coil not air. If your experiencing noise while swinging after getting a good balance, especially at the end of your swings, concentrate on your technique. It could be likely your lifting the coil at the end of swings & you need to correct it so as the coil is either staying on the ground or very close to it. It's a common fault in technique. You may also notice it on uneven ground or if detecting gully walls etc. I found some of these areas required slowing down.
The SDC won't ever run completely quiet or stable sounding! It's a hot little number & it can be difficult for some to get a grip with. Another member & myself were approached by an experienced SD/GP/GPX user out at Stuart Town once who was convinced his SDC was faulty. Too bloody noisey he reckoned. He gave it a quick run around the area we'd been detecting & it was a fair bit quieter than mine in the lower settings he was using + about the same when ramped up. We couldn't fault it but he was adamant he was going to take it back & it made too much noise? My thoughts were he hadn't given himself time to get used to it & was used to much mellower threshold etc. on his GPX. The SDC isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea & if your expecting a whisper quiet threshold all the time then it's probably not going to be for you. Those that learn the language reap the rewards.
Not discounting there could be a fault with AF's machine but there can also be other issues too. For instance the ground in a lot of areas is saturated at the moment which would be the first time for years in some areas. Saturated ground can be difficult to detect & issues seem to be a common theme at the moment across various detectors & areas.

Leroy said:

My2300 really arks up when I lay it down to dig, normally with coil straight up and down ( as in detecting mode) seems to back off when coil is layed flat, I put this down to EMI, what do people think?

Click to expand...

I found the same...laying the coil flat (parallel to the ground) when retrieving targets definitely quietened it down.

I found that the coil being in any position other than horizontal usually made it very susceptible to EMI.

Yes I understand all replies and thank you. I was just replying to aussiefarmers post requesting how our different SDCs perform. I thought I would just mention that when I place detector on ground to DIG, coil is still upright as I keep using it to see if target is out. I was just pointing out that whilst coil is upright it really starts to babble a great deal more, I was assuming this would be EMI and I was asking members to perhaps verify this. Of course I lay coil flat to do the necessary searching. I'm just pointing out that after using detector with switches,led's,buttons etc in all different settings, I found that running on 2(green) and with the LED's on 5 or Max, I get the best results out of my detector. I'm putting it down to the GoG headphones that I'm using, they run a little quiet and are very sensitive. Nugget buster I too have found ozs. Mostly hundreds of pellets and small rubbish, not too much yellow, I'm not in the right areas yet but I don't think I'm missing many targets. I think I pointed out in one of my previous posts I run the 5000 for half a day and finish the day with a 1 or 2 hour run with the 2300, I'm surprised if I don't get 30 to 40 targets with the SDC. Unfortunately I'm not putting the machine over gold. I do understand that 2300's will not run as smooth as GPX's but I think I've learned to hear the targets through all the noise.
Thank you for your replies, and Nuggetbuster, I'd like to be in your neck of the woods.