Fisher 1280x User Manual

®

1280-X Aquanaut

Automatic Metal Detector for Sea, Surf or Shore

Operating Manual

CONTENTS

About Your 1280-X .................................................................. pg. 3

Assembly

.................................................................................. pg. 4

Setting Up

................................................................................. pg. 5

Hipmounting............................................................................. pg. 6

Control Panel

........................................................................... pg. 7

Discrimination Points

............................................................... pg. 8

Searching

............................................................................... pg. 10

Pinpointing

............................................................................. pg. 12

Target Recovery

.................................................................... pg. 13

Recovery Tools

....................................................................... pg. 15

Operating Tips

........................................................................ pg. 16

Battery Replacement

............................................................ pg. 18

Battery Recharging

............................................................... pg. 20

Maintenance

......................................................................... pg. 22

Battery Door Gasket: Orientation

........................................ pg. 23

Search Coils

........................................................................... pg. 24

Using Headphones

................................................................ pg. 24

Where to Hunt in the U.S

........................................................ pg. 25

Treasure Hunter’s Code of Ethics

......................................... pg. 26

Specifications

........................................................................ pg. 27

ABOUT YOUR DETECTOR

3

Fisher Research Laboratory has been producing rugged, high
quality, high performance metal detectors since 1931, longer
than any other company in the world. Your 1280-X Aquanaut is a
product of that proud heritage. Designed for deep sea treasure
hunting, the 1280-X will also do the job in fresh water or on land.

The 1280-X is easy to use. No fine tuning, no threshold tone and no
complicated “ground-adjustment”. Just turn it on, set the volume,
sensitivity and trash discrimination controls, and you probably
won’t have to touch the knobs again. The 1280-X automatically
tunes itself to changing ground conditions and salt water, rejects
most small pieces of junk and detects valuable targets all at the
same time.

The 1280-X is rugged. The search coil is light-weight glass-bead
epoxy filled. The shaft is fiberglass reinforced ABS. The control
housing is injection molded ABS. The state-of-the-art Piezo Electric
headset was designed especially for the 1280-X. And the entire
unit is submersible to 250 feet.

The 1280-X is a “motion” detector, meaning the search coil must
be in motion to detect a target. However, the motion required is
slight and unlike earlier “motion” detectors, you’ll be able to almost
completely stop the coil for accurate pinpointing.

Your 1280-X is a precision metal detector designed and
manufactured by the oldest and proudest name in the business.
Take good care of it, read this instruction manual carefully and
you’re in for some exciting treasure hunting. If you have any
questions, suggestions or make any big finds, drop us a line. We
want to hear from you. In the meantime...

Happy Hunting!
Fisher Research Laboratory

Spring Lock (Not visible)

Arm Rest Screws

Adjustable Arm Rest

LED (Light Emitting Diode)

Control Panel

Upper Stem

Battery Access Panel

Derlin Screw and
Nylon Wing Nut

Waterproof Headphones

Search Coil Cable

Lower Stem

8-inch Spider Coil

4

ASSEMBLY

Please save all packing materials for later shipping. Most
important, notice the styrofoam face plate cover. Impact to the
knobs will break the shafts and result in leakage. Repack with
styrofoam cover.

1. Remove the headphone, handle and search coil
assemblies from the shipping carton. Be careful not to
damage the foam rubber inserts or put any strain on the
cable connections.

2. Adjust the stem to the approximate length you will be
using, extended for stand-up use or, as short as possible
for diving. To extend the lower stem, push in the spring
lock, pull out the lower stem and let the spring lock snap
into another hole.

3. If you will be using the 1280-X on the handle, and not
body mounted, wind the search coil cable around
the handle assembly as shown in the diagram above.
Secure the cable with the two Velcro straps included
with your 1280-X. Make sure there is some slack at the
control housing end and enough slack at the other end
to attach the search coil.

4. Remove the Derlin bolt and nylon wing nut from the
search coil. Line up the hole in the stem between the
two holes in the search coil “ears”. Attach the coil to the
stem with the bolt and wing nut and finger tighten.

5

SETTING UP

FOR LAND OR SHALLOW WATER (See Figure 2-A)

Put the headphones around your neck to keep them out of the
way while making the following adjustments.

1. Adjust the length and coil angle so
that the search coil rests flat on the
ground about 6 inches in front of and
slightly to the right of your right foot
(to the left of your left foot for left
handers.) Your arm should be straight
and relaxed with the handle grip held
firmly but comfortably. Remember,
as you increase the shaft length, you
also increase the strain on your wrist
and arm. The 1280-X is balanced
for comfortable searching in a tight
semicircle around the front of the
operator.

2. Leave enough slack in the coil cable
to allow the coil to swivel as far as
it can in either direction. The coil
wing nut should be tight enough to
prevent the coil from moving.

3. You should now be able to move into
your “search” position by leaning
slightly forward and raising the
search coil approximately 1 inch
above the ground. Your arm should
still be straight and the coil should
be parallel to the ground, about
12 inches in front of your foot. The
coil angle may have to be slightly
readjusted at this point.

FOR DIVING (see Figure 2-B)

T h e r e c o m m e n d ed s e t u p f o r
underwater use is the shortest possible
stem length with the search coil
adjusted parallel to the sea bed or lake
bottom. Keep the headphones around

Figure 2. Setting up. When the
stem length is properly adjusted,
the 1280-X is balanced for
sweeping in a tight semicircle.
Always overlap your swings by at
least 50%

B. Short stem for diving

A. Extended stem for land or
shallow water

6

For almost effortless treasure hunting, the control housing is
easily removed from the handle and attached to a belt clip.
“Hipmounting” the 1280-X in this manner takes half the weight off
the handle and allows the land or shallow water Treasure Hunter
to search much longer without arm fatigue.

1.

Grasp the handle grip firmly with one hand and the
control housing with the other.

2.

Slide the control housing off the mounting bracket by
pulling it towards you.

3.

Slide the belt clip into grooves on the bottom of the
control housing. This is a snug fit and you’ll have to bend
the belt clip slightly. Make sure the narrow end of the
clip goes into the grooves first and the short hooked
side faces out.

4.

Unwrap enough of the coil cable to allow for searching.

Leave enough cable slack to avoid yanking the cable
at the connections to case & cable.

5.

Slip the control housing onto your belt, left side for right
handers, right side for left-handers.

CAUTION: Hipmounting is not recommended for underwater use. The search
coil cable may become entangled with a submerged object, making it
difficult for the diver to resurface quickly in case of emergency.

Figure 3. You can hipmount your 1280-X by sliding the control housing from the handle and
attaching it to your belt. This reduces the weight of the stem, creating nearly effortless hunting.

HIPMOUNTING

7

1. POWER/VOLUME CONTROL: Turns the power on and

off. Also controls the target response volume in the
headphones. The volume control should be set no
louder than comfortable when the search coil is
passed over a large, close target.

2. DISCRIMINATION CONTROL: A full range trash rejection
control. All types of metal are detected at the zero
level and most small pieces of trash are eliminated at
the maximum level of ten.

3.

LED: The clear plastic window between the SENSITIVITY

and VOLUME controls contains an LED (Light Emitting
Diode) which flashes red when a target is detected or
the batteries are being tested.

4. BATTERY TEST/SENSITIVITY CONTROL: Checks battery
condition and controls the sensitivity to targets. A
setting of 10 gives maximum sensitivity and is used
for most treasure hunting conditions. To check the
batteries, turn the VOLUME control to 10 and click
the BATTERY TEST/SENSITIVITY control momentarily in
and out of the “Battery Test” position. Fully charged
batteries will give a loud tone in the earphones and a
bright red light in the LED window. Weak batteries will
give a faint tone and a dim light. It’s time to replace
the batteries when the light goes out.

CONTROL PANEL

Figure 4. Control Panel

8

By adjusting the DISCRIMINATION control you will be able to ignore
(or “reject”) small pieces of metallic trash and ground minerals
while detecting valuable targets. The lowest setting at which an
object is rejected is referred to as the object’s “discrimination
point”. Discrimination points are determined by such factors as
size, shape, depth, type of metal and ground mineralization.

1.

Scatter some sample targets such as coins, pull tabs and

small pieces of foil on the ground 1 to 2 feet apart.

2.

Turn the SENSITIVITY control to 9.*

3.

Turn the DISCRIMINATION control to zero.

4. Put the headset on and turn the POWER ON-OFF/
VOLUME control to about 6.

5. Hold the search coil about 2 inches above and parallel
to the ground. Move it slowly over the samples and
note the sharp loud response as you pass over each
one. Keep in mind that the 1280-X is a motion detector
and responds only when the search coil (or the target)
is moving.

6.

Increase the DISCRIMINATION control to a setting of 3
and again pass over the targets. Repeat this process
at settings of 4,5,6 and so on to 10. You will note that
as you increase the level of discrimination, the 1280-X
will reject some targets and continue to respond to
others. You have now determined the discrimination
points for the rejected objects. For example, the small
nail discrimination point may be at 4 and the pull tab
discrimination point at 6.

7.

Some objects such as shallow bottle caps, bent pull tabs

or trash less than 2 inches from the coil may be difficult
to reject. The 1280-X will instead respond with a strong
broken signal which will usually disappear if the search
coil is raised slightly. (The strong signal of a good target
will just get weaker when the coil is raised.)

8. The 1280-X will remain silent when some objects are
rejected, however other objects may “snap, crackle
and pop” as they are rejected. This is a perfectly normal
response indicating that the powerful discrimination
circuitry is doing its job.

DISCRIMINATION POINTS

9

DISCRIMINATION POINTS

9. Large pieces of trash such as beer cans or jar lids may

sound like good targets no matter what you do. With
a little practice, however, you will be able to tell the
difference between a large target and a small coin
sized object.

10. The diagram below shows some of the different
target responses you may expect at different levels
of discrimination. Note that as you increase the
discrimination level, you progressively eliminate more
targets including some good ones, such as nickels and
gold rings.

* At the maximum sensitivity level of 10, you may hear some static or “circuit
noise”. As a general rule, hold the search coil in the air and set the sensitivity

at 10. If the circuit noise is annoying, reduce the sensitivity to 8 or 9.

Figure 5. Typical 1280-X audio responses over 1 inch deep targets with

search coil sweeping 1 to 2 inches above ground.