Etrac Voltage Overload

[shawnIN]

I sold my Etrac almost 2 years back to tgetting to things me ex wife enjoyed. Needless to say, she is gone and I started getting the bug again. Ran across a pretty good deal on a used package deal. Only battery that came with it is the RNB with a car charger. Called RNB and they were nice enough to send me a charger. Great people to talk to. Finally got a chance to take it out and after about 20 minutes, it shut down. Powered it pack up and it worked fine for about 30 minutes and then shut down again. Noticed it said voltage overload. I ran a RNB in my other ertrac and never had a problem. It is an olde battery. I have did some searching but never found causes, just a few recommendations. So I did order a AA holder and going to run alkaline batteries in it and see if it will fix the problem. Thought I would fish for some information while I wait for the holder to come in. Nice to be back!! Thanks for any input.

 

[sprchng]

Mine has done that on and off for 5 years and always powers up immediately but has never done it twice that close together. It has happened both with and without the RNB inside. A friend's etrac did that shortly after starting to use the RNB and he ended up with a motherboard replacement , fortunately on warranty. Correlation is not causation but makes one wonder. My etrac has been used hard and , if I sold it , I would have to warn someone of the tendency. It may never stop working and , then again , the next time it throws that warning could be it's last.
Always a risk buying used without a warranty on high cost repair items like Minelabs.

 

[shawnIN]

Thanks for the response. I agree about taking a risk when buying used. It did cone with 4 coils, x-1, grey ghost headphones, digger, and the RNB. Pretty good deal for $900. Hopefully, I can get it figured out. If not, I'll decide if I want to repair or just try and get a new machine. Hopefully I can get it going again.

 

[sprchng]

Assuming it's not on warranty , slap it around a little.
Back the screws out of the housing and use some of that air in a can stuff to blow it out inside.
Could just be some crud mucking up the works inside.
I was amazed at how much had filtered into mine.

 

[shawnIN]

Thanks. I'll give it a shot and see what happens.

 

[Digging Pitts]

I had that happen on a used one that I bought. I sent it into MInelab repair in Florida who put it through it's paces and could not replicate the problem. (I did have them replace a dented screen and the foam grip while it was in, so not a complete loss.) It has happened once since I got it back but (fingers crossed) it hasn't happened again and I am still using it to great effect. I hope it all works out for you. Either way you've got some really great accessories! Best of luck!

 

[ironsight]

Assuming it's not on warranty , slap it around a little......

If the alkaline battery pack doesn't fix it try the above first before panicing.

Same happened to my eTRAC every great now and then. Power off and a good beach slap cured it all the time.

Pulled mine apart after the warranty expired and there are a ton of electrical connectors inside that box.
Electrical connectors are the weak link in any kind of electronics. They can cause all kinds of random issues.
I re-seated all the connectors and had it happen only once since.

Another possible cause is the crystal oscillator which generates the clock frequency which controls the cpu either didn't start up or at the wrong frequency or harmonic.
Same fix applies.

 

[Mcdetect]

Have you tested the battery pack to see how many volts it is putting out? Use a multimeter to test the output of the pack when/if the etrac tells you it is overloading. Maybe the etrac is telling the truth. You never know until you test the output voltage with a multimeter. You never know what kind of batteries are in the pack. People can rebuild rechargable packs with any battery that fits including lithium which I believe puts out some pretty high voltage when fully charged.

 

[shawnIN]

No I have not. Good idea. So focused on it not working, I did not even think about that. Thanks. I'll give it a shot and see what I get. I ally do hope it is something simple.

 

[shawnIN]

Thanks. If it keeps failing after I get the battery pack, I may go in and check the connectors and maybe look and give it a good cleaning inside. Nothing lost at that point. Thanks for the idea.

 

[Radianman]

I have never had a problem running my RnB battery.
Good luck with the problem!

 

[pghmole]

My buddy had this issue as well,I think it was a motherboard that they replaced,he luckily had a month of warranty left

 

[Southwind]

Mine has done it a time or two with a fresh battery charge. After it ran down a bit it would stop.