®
1280-X Aquanaut
Automatic Metal Detector for Sea, Surf or Shore
Operating Manual
CONTENTS
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...................................................................About Your 1280-X |
pg. 3 |
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Assembly.................................................................................. |
pg. 4 |
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Setting Up.................................................................................. |
pg. 5 |
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Hipmounting............................................................................. |
pg. 6 |
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Control Panel............................................................................ |
pg. 7 |
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Discrimination Points................................................................ |
pg. 8 |
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Searching................................................................................ |
pg. 10 |
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Pinpointing.............................................................................. |
pg. 12 |
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Target Recovery..................................................................... |
pg. 13 |
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Recovery Tools....................................................................... |
pg. 15 |
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Operating Tips........................................................................ |
pg. 16 |
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Battery Replacement............................................................. |
pg. 18 |
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Battery Recharging................................................................ |
pg. 20 |
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Maintenance.......................................................................... |
pg. 22 |
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Battery Door Gasket: Orientation ........................................ |
pg. 23 |
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Search Coils............................................................................ |
pg. 24 |
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Using Headphones................................................................. |
pg. 24 |
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Where to Hunt in the U.S........................................................ |
pg. 25 |
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Treasure Hunter’s Code of Ethics.......................................... |
pg. 26 |
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Specifications......................................................................... |
pg. 27 |
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ABOUT YOUR DETECTOR
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
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ASSEMBLY
Battery Access Panel
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8-inch Spider Coil |
Control Panel |
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Derlin Screw and |
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LED (Light Emitting Diode) |
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Nylon Wing Nut |
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Upper Stem |
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Lower Stem |
Adjustable Arm Rest |
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Search Coil Cable |
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Waterproof Headphones |
Arm Rest Screws |
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Spring Lock (Not visible) |
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.
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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.
A. Extended stem for land or shallow water
B. Short stem for diving
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.
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%
FOR DIVING (see Figure 2-B)
The recommended setup for 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
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HIPMOUNTING
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.
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CONTROL PANEL
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.
Figure 4. Control Panel
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DISCRIMINATION POINTS
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.
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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.
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