MINELAB EXPLORER XS
Contents
1. Press pinpoint once more and the Explorer returns to its smart screen I have made the forgoing as simple as possible to demonstrate that the Explorer performs well without com plex setting up If when using the quick start option you press the detect push pad signified by a search head icon the display changes to digital mode In digital mode each target causes its own ID number to appear on the display and an accompanying prob able target icon eg ring coin foil etc You push the pad once again to return to the smart screen To conclude my session on the beach I spent the last half hour recover ing a couple of fishing weights and some aluminium dross As so often happens just as you are about to pack up and call it a day you get that last sig nal that turns out to be the best so far This outing was to prove no exception To retrieve a signal I went to dig down into the sand but found it was only a few inches deep above the bedrock I therefore scraped the sand off of the flat rocks towards the water expecting my find to be amongst the sand This proved not to be the case so I cleared a large area of rock and ran the search head over it once more The Explorer gave the same audio response The rocks in this area consist of soft red sandstone laid out in distinctive layers with a multitude of cracks In the past I have recovered a number of finds from in amongst or under the rocks in this area but for the most pa2. ball of concretion The bul lets themselves are not as interesting as the depth from which some of them were recovered Although larger than average as bullets go their shape and size does not present the best target for a detector However several of these were recovered from approximately 14in in depth The particular area of beach in question gets worked by many detector users so why were these large finds still available in quantity Also they were all found in close proximity ie on a 20yd stretch of beach If you are thinking of buying an Explorer be prepared to dig some very deep holes as several targets I recov ered were at or below 20in in depth These deep targets showed as rust stains at the depth just stated so I didn t bother to recover them But as an after thought at least two gave a high pitched discrimination tone I am now wondering what else may have been down there besides the iron I also used the Explorer on two inland sites one was a wooded hillside the other a small meadow The finds I recovered from these two sites included a number of pre decimal coins dating back to George III a few lead bullets and musket balls a silver man s ring with a black stone and an interesting silver plated copper brooch tie pin with a large blue stone Most of these finds were made within 6in of the sur face as on the field concerned there was only a thin covering of soil with broken rocks beneath The rocky sub
3. earlier This is a com prehensive instruction field guide The field guide folds down to about 3 5in by 2 5in and is plastic coated so it should last some time This guide contains all the setting up procedures and dia audio numbers have smoother tone variations Recovery Menu Fast Used in cluttered high trash areas Deep Used to accentuate faint targets 4903 0020 Jan 2000 grams At a glance you are reminded of everything you need to know when in the field see Fig 1 Performance When undertaking this field test there were certain questions I set out to answer including How does the Explorer XS perform What s different about it What s good about it As a starting point I would like to say that in my opinion the Explorer offers the most comprehensive array of discrimination options of any detector built to date When it comes to dis crimination it is in all the sizes and all the colours Minelab recommend that you spend some time in getting used to the factory preset quick start options before del ving too deeply into the myriad of set up variables After just an hour of detect ing I realised that it was not necessary QUICKSTART SMART i for me to have spent so much time reading the manual It doesn t matter how you set it up the Explorer is very forgiving and almost always gives a good account of itself When using the quick start option the LCD display defaults to Quick St
4. layer undoubtedly stopped the items from settling deeper Once again however these two sites were ones I considered all but worked out Likes amp Dislikes As stated earlier I did encounter one or two niggles during my field testing The most noticeable minus fac tor is that the detector does not quite balance right While it is nice to have a large 10in search coil for rapid ground coverage the search head of the Explorer is just a bit too heavy to put the machine s centre of gravity in the right place In weight the Explorer compared to other detectors on the market comes in about mid scale However it feels heavier than it actu ally is because of this balance problem It only takes a few extra ounces on the search head and the torque effect of the long stem to multiply the excess weight for this to happen The detector provided for test came Searching near a mobile jetty with a scuff guard for the search head and a rather large plastic bracket that also fits on the coil This bracket is to stop the detector from rolling over when it is placed on the ground while recovering finds Although the scuff guard is a necessary evil the large plas tic bracket is not Once I had discarded it there was a marked improvement in balance If a stand were fitted under the upper stem perhaps a little heavier than the coil bracket supplied I am sure it would eliminate the balance problem In all probability wit
5. metal hydride cells and is also supplied with a charger These new technology battery cells do not suffer from the mem ory prob lems associated with some nicad rechargeables that require a complete discharge before recharging to remain at peak performance One other point about these batteries is that you will not do any damage if you forget to take them off of the charger when fully charged A spare battery pod is also supplied which will accommodate 8 AA alkaline batteries for back up This means that you won t get caught out on those long summer days when the finds are good and you don t want to quit until the sun has gone down The in car cigarette lighter charger included is another very useful extra In fact the one supplied is similar in appearance to the one that came with my mobile phone The charging process is lengthy tak ing something in the region of 16 hours to bring the batteries from being com pletely flat up to full charge A back up set of alkalines could therefore be a wise investment Minelab gives an approximate battery life of 11 hours for the rechargeable NIMH cells and 14 hours for alkaline batteries There is one other point to bear in mind and that is that it takes several charges and discharges to bring the NIMH battery pack up to its full capacity from new Another point worthy of mention before I move on from the subject of batteries is the power curve or dis charge characteris
6. settled down to try and digest the bulk of the manual Many readers will know how it is when you try to cram too much information in your head at one session it often gets to the point of a mental logjam At such times as I know from experience it is time to quit the studying and get out for some hands on detecting I always find that the advanced settings of a complicated detector are far easier to digest when I have a comfortable handle on the basics The following afternoon the sun was shining and as the holiday season doesn t get into full swing for a few weeks yet where I live it was down to my local beach for some real hands on experience The nearest beach to my home in South Devon is Exmouth Upon arrival I noticed that there were very few people on the beach This meant that I would have a couple of miles of beach to myself without having to worry about upsetting the summer visitors After only a few minutes detecting I realised that I was probably wasting my time A good 2ft of sand that on my last visit had been either ripped away by winter storms or blown up onto the coast road had now been replaced I remembered there was a good 2ft drop from the concrete to the top of the beach just a few months ago but now it was reduced to a few inches However I am not easily put off and decided to give the beach at least a few hours There is one handy little extra that comes with the Explorer which I forgot to mention
7. this ievel is limited to this level while audio below is unchanged 10 Gain Size of volume variation relative to target size 5 Tone Menu Th Tone Tone of the threshold hum 5 Variability Size of tone variation relative to target characteristics 8 Limits Sets the highest tone that is allowed 10 Sounds Menu Const Eliminates all tone variations To operate using factory defaults tum on Explorer with power button held down until Startup tune is heard MINELAB Minelab Explorer XS Field Guide To get the most out of your detector please read the Press and hold buttons to display help 12 Expand screen size to full screen shift Conduct Varies the tone relative to conductivity manual key preset 13 Power On Off Ferrous Varies the tone relative to Ferrous gt 14 Display Main menu content A 15 Perform noise cancel to avoid interference Noise Menu A 16 Switch between iron mask and current Noise Channel chosen to avoid interference 5 DS a discrimination pattem Discriminate Coins Response Menu We fe cia fad sar moce en Normal Normal audio response Has brief ea 40 Back ane ste blanking between targets for crisp audio Preset p Audio Continuous target responses Higher f 20 i operation corresponds to adjacent icon 21 Backlight control Indicates factory preset value h its pages With the Explorer assembled the batteries fitted and everything tested and working I
8. OCB Minelab Explorer XS ue to serious health problems I D have been out of commission so far as metal detecting is con cerned for several years To be given the opportunity to field test the Minelab Explorer XS was therefore a very nice welcome back to the hobby The reason I say this is because the Explorer is a serious piece of kit and I knew that it would be a challenge for me to put it through it paces and see what it could really do What came as a great surprise to me is that although the Explorer is an apparently complex detector it can be used as a simple switch on and go machine This can be achieved simply by using the factory preset program The only adjustment that needs to be made is to tweak the threshold down a notch or two A further surprise was that the fac tory settings are excellent particularly for beach work In fact this is the only detector I have handled that seems to penetrate the ground to a greater depth than can be achieved when carrying out in air tests I will tell you more about the amazing performance of the Explorer later but would first like to make a few comments about the hard ware My first impression when I opened the box was of the detector s excellent build quality It is true that I later encountered a few little niggles but then nothing is perfect The layout is of the style that has become the norm in recent years with regards to the S shape the ever
9. a high pitched tone while the iron will give a very low note I would just like to give you a quick run through of the rest of the quick start options then Pll go on to some in the field results To the left of the screen there are two vertical bars the inner represents target depth and has a small icon of a spade below The outer on the far left is the sensitivity meter and is set by the three buttons on the left The top and bottom buttons func tions are obviously for turning the sen sitivity up or down The centre button is for switching between semi auto sen sitivity and manual set up From my experience so far I have found the semi auto to be the best gen eral purpose setting When set to semi auto a straight line blinks like a com puter cursor as it rotates around the sensitivity number on the far left Coming to the right of the screen there is a vertical bar meter for setting Quickstart Mode T ti AOR a ae SOR DISPLAY oar jsececT Y E Digital ae _Explorer X gt Menu ji IEJ bi can Sj a p cole gt py r Tron Mask setting Mask setting _ Advanced Mode aa ar gt pss rji the threshold volume This is set by the upper and lower buttons on the right The symbol at the centre of the far right denotes the option to switch the centre rectangle between standard screen a
10. art Smart Display In the middle of the gen erously sized LCD display is a large rec tangle which acts as a discrimination chart or map The blacked out area sig nifies the preset iron reject if a target falls within that area it is obviously rejected The rest of the screen is a two dimensional target ID The horizontal axis left to right denotes the target s iron content The vertical axis up and 68 TREASURE HUNTING September 2000 Press the Detect button from any menu to retum to detecting mode Fig 1 Field Guide down the screen represents the tar get s size and conductivity Cross hairs similar to those of a telescopic gun sight move around the screen and lock in position for the last target A good non ferrous target will register to the right and the more conductive the tar get then the higher up the cross hairs Also the larger the target the higher up the cross hairs appear on the screen The more technically minded of you may have picked up on the fact that the vertical axis denotes both target size and conductivity So how do you sepa rate a large iron object from a more conductive alloy There is a simple answer which is that the Explorer also discriminates with a whole range of dif ferent tones for different metals For example a large iron target or a good conductor such as a copper coin may place the cross hairs in about the same place on the display The copper coin however will give
11. ately much as if it had been a fluid The one thing I had forgotten to bring was my hand sand scoop As I had anticipated finds were once again sparse I only recovered a few cupro nickel coins and several metal fragments in the next hour and a half However it was on this patch of beach where this machine really began to show its true colours Targets were consis tently being detected at depths on or beyond the air test range Several times in the 30 years I have been involved in this hobby I have heard other detector users comment that such and such machine had the ability to detect deeper in the ground than in the air I personally however have never come across such a detector Or rather that is until now The Explorer definitely does do this on the beach Unfortunately I was unable to test this point inland because the only farmland sites I had available that were not under crop were very rocky with only an inch or two of topsoil Although I feel it my task in the first instant to appraise the performance of a detector and disregard the actual value or interest of individual finds I do tend to get a little disheartened when recov ering just dross After my stint at the top of the beach I decided to stop for a coffee break at a seafront cafe Once refreshed I thought I would give it another hour or so and then call it a day For this I chose another location that was several hundred yards further along the beach fro
12. ch use As you may have guessed after my comments about the deep sand that had been freshly deposited I found that targets of what ever description were few in number How do I know the audio discrimi nation is that good Well I went through the laborious process of recov ering every target for the first couple of hours Once confident that the discrim ination was reliable I allowed the machine to do the target analysis The only target that fooled the Minelab was a shallowly buried steel ring over a foot in diameter and the detector has yet to be built that would have been able to successfully reject this As stated earlier my search was first focused on and around the water line The first two hours were spent recover ing the following array of finds all of which were dug regardless of whether the Explorer indicated them to be junk three or four pull tabs and several pieces of pull tabs an assortment of pieces from drink cans two lp coins a 2p coin and several pieces of boat nails I was very a at the Explorer s sensitivity to amal Pp of metal This sensitivity to small targets was sur prising for such a large coil After this initial couple of hours I felt comfortable with the tone discrim ination so I moved up to the back of the beach to search near some sand dunes At this location the sand was very dry to a depth of about 4 or 5in This was something of a nuisance as it ran into the holes I dug immedi
13. decreasing control box size and the large search coil The snug fitting square shaped stem overcomes the problem of rotat ing or wobbling search heads and I think this to be a simple but worth while feature Another feature I like is the very positive locking device for stem length adjustment The same type of component is also used for connect ing the stem to the control box This quick release action makes for very easy Bill McAvoy breakdown and allows the whole machine to fit into the average sports bag With the Explorer there is no more messing around with button locks or screw collars that don t grip the lower stem when they become a little worn To adjust the stem you just pull down the heavy duty nylon catch set the stem to the desired length and lock the catch in place once more by pushing the leaver up parallel to the stem One point I particularly liked was the loca tion of the slim battery pack within the upper stem The cable that connects the search head to the control box is rather novel The lower section is straight and fits into a slot at the back of the lower stem while the upper part is coiled and fed inside the top stem section This feature eliminates the chances of the cable getting snagged when you are working amongst scrub and bushes which can be a real annoyance Nickel Hydride Rechargeables The Explorer comes with the newer type of rechargeable battery pack containing NIMH nickel
14. h the weight of the anti roll bracket and scuff guard removed I would not have even noticed the balance problem One other minor point that lets this detector down is in my opinion its inadequate eighth of an inch jackplug socket I would have preferred to have seen the standard quarter of an inch socket fitted If this had been the case a far greater range of the special heavy duty high performance headphones could have been used without the need for an adapter This small socket may have been fitted for reasons of space restrictions in the upper stem But if such were the situation perhaps it would have been better to position a quarter inch socket elsewhere on the detector In context of what the Explorer otherwise has to offer I would class the above minus points as annoyances rather than problems and neither would personally prevent me from buy ing or using this detector On the positive side from my recent experiences of using it I would say that the Minelab Explorer XS is an excellent performer on the beach on dry or wet sand and offers the most comprehensive array of discrimination options of any detector I have used to date There is not enough space in just one article to cover the diverse options of discrimination available but I intend to cover these in depth in some further Bill McAvoy Finds made during field test articles in the near future I anticipate the Explorer s perfor mance to be e
15. m where I had been searching The area was once more near the water line and by a flat rocky out crop which I believe is called Maer Rocks There was black sand evident where the beach just covers the flat shelving rocks This is not the most detector friendly environment but I had recovered some nice finds from here a few years ago The first target to come up was an end from a coke can swiftly followed by another Then came a lp piece and an improvement in my finds in the form of a man s silver ring with a flat oval stone This ring was detected at about 5in down in black sand and gave a good signal September 2000 TREASURE HUNTING 69 FIELD TEST Pinpointing One point I have neglected to men tion is that the Explorer is not always good at pinpointing in the discrimina tion mode I say not always good for it seems excellent on copper coins and pound coins but not so efficient on others However just hit the pinpoint push pad and this puts the detector into the all metal pinpoint mode which provides very good pinpointing The exception to this is when targets are at the limit of the Explorer s detec tion depth and the ground conditions cause a depth reduction when non motion all metal pinpoint is used On such occasions you just have to dig deeper and wider holes to get the search head nearer to the target When in pinpoint mode a small black and white bar flashes at the lower right hand side of the display
16. nd full screen and back The centre right button controls this function The upper right battery icon goes white from the top as the battery discharges Having gone through the quick start display I found that as useful as it may seem the only adjustment necessary to get great performance from this detec tor was to turn down the threshold a few points when first switching on When you switch off the Explorer it retains any custom settings to memory for the next time you switch on If you want to revert to the factory presets when switching on just hold down the on off push pad for about 30 seconds The detector will then emit a series of tones indicating that you are back to the factory quick start smart settings For the advanced user there is the option of saving up to six different user discrimination programs These set tings can be saved permanently to file I spent most of my time searching along the water s edge at Exmouth because the overburden of fresh sand was not in evidence there Although I have just spent some time outlining the basics of the quick start menu if you do no more than switch on and search ignoring the display and just relying on the audio discrimination you will be amazed at the accuracy of this machine Just dig all the high and medium tones while ignoring the low notes and you will be able to cover the ground very rapidly while knowing that the target ID is probably the best avail able for bea
17. qually as good on inland sites as on the beach However at this point in time I cannot state that as a fact due to the rocky ground conditions described earlier Once again a full report on this aspect of the detector s use will have to wait for a future article My intention in this initial test was not to go into great technical detail about the set up features available on the Explorer Instead I have kept this test simple and have tried to show that it is possible to start using the detector with good effect almost immediately However just to give a few examples of the other discrimination options on the Explorer you can teach it to learn spe cific targets and it can be programmed to respond to a single target type or several can be set to multi tone disc or one tone The digital display gives spe cific numbers and icons for each target type and much much more all of which I will explain next time September 2000 TREASURE HUNTING 71
18. rt they had been fishing weights I levered at two cracks at a point in the rocks where I anticipated the target would be directly under bending my digging tool in the process I was about to give up when a slab of rock gave way In the small gully exposed I found a thin section man s gold ring As is normal in such cases I now had to decide whether to carry on detecting for another hour or to quit while I was ahead As I had already been out for some hours on this occa sion I decided on the latter course of action I live near to the coast and there would always be another day Other Finds I am already almost reaching the limit of words I have been allowed for this test so I will briefly run through some of the other interesting finds I recovered while testing the Minelab Explorer Over the test period I spent several days working three South Devon beaches Unfortunately I was too early for this seasons crop of holi day makers loses and as stated earlier too late for the finds exposed by last winter s storms Except for a small sil ver St Christopher my finds were restricted to modern decimal coins and ammunition Although I have recov ered countless thousands of spent rounds in the past the large bronze rounds recovered from one beach are of a type that constitutes a first for me see illustration As can be seen in the 70 TREASURE HUNTING September 2000 photograph all of these rounds were encased in a
19. tics The graph on page 92 of the Explorer s handbook clearly shows the difference between the NIMH battery and the alkaline battery Although the alkaline lasts a few hours longer its voltage drops constantly throughout use The NIMH shows a small drop in voltage initially but then flattens out to give a constant high voltage with a sharp cut off when discharged This I believe will give consistent perfor mance in use as opposed to the diminishing power experienced when using alkalines Set Up Procedure Before receiving the test machine I had been warned by several fellow detectorists that the Explorer was going to be a complex detector to set up and use and to get the best from it I would have to spend countless hours digesting the user manual In practice the opposite turned out to be the case The factory manual is however a full 108 pages long and did seem a bit daunting when I first flicked through September 2000 TREASURE HUNTING 67 FIELD TEST Mode indication Quickstart Smartl Sensitivity level indicators 16 Sensitivity Adjustment shift keys Semi auto rotating bar Manual Sensitivity Mode indicator switch with shift key Depth indicator O top 300mm 12 bot Reject ignore pattern Accept Pattern Target indicator Crosshair Threshold hum level indicator 10 Threshold adjustment shift keys Battery level Indicator Cen eo fe NS hk O Volume Menu Max Limit Audio above
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