How often do you turn off your detector.

[Andrew Kalinowski]

On an average day out hunting, how many times do you turn off / on your detector? Do you turn it off for a smoke / coffee break or to give your arm a little rest or to have a chat with somebody?
Does it happen to you to turn it off accidentally by pressing wrong button?
I'm asking because; I'm dreaming of CTX having a sleep / power save mode that would not stop a geohunt but turn off the coil / detecting. CTX could go into power save after a short press on the power button. To turn the power off would require a longer press on the button.
Alternately, it would be nice if the short press on the power button, just like with many GPS receivers, would cycle back-light ON / OFF and than, user button would be really free for other functions.
If most users never cycle power during a day of hunting, there is no point in putting the above into the suggestions thread. IF.

 

[goodmore]

I have heard of people getting 20 hrs on a full charge battery. When I take a break I lay the detector on the ground and I leave it on.

 

[SE-5]

I don't, under usual conditions. When I take a break I just lean her on a tree. If I'm going to be 15 min or more, then I shut her down.

 

[C&RHunter]

I try not to turn my CTX off if I have a GeoHunt in progress. There is a Pause function on the GPS menu, if you don't want a side trip to the car or woods, recorded as part of the hunt. The battery life is very good with this machine, and normally I have recharged the CTX and the WM10 before a day of hunting, so the fear of leaving the machine on for a break, and using too much battery, is a non-issue for me.....HH

 

[Andrew Kalinowski]

I guess, I also should'v asked, how often do you hit more than one site in a day. It's not just the battery power that concerns me. With limit of 4 geohunts in the detector, a new geohunt has to be started after each power off. IF I want to re-visit a site, 1 would be taken by the previous visit. For a larger site, I could be going with 2 or 3 pre-loaded so, I wouldn't be repeating the area giving only one slot left to record. A single power off and I'm out of slots to continue recording the hunt so, I guess, I'd have to delete the pre-recorded to open some slots. I wish, several geo-hunts could be combined into one in XChange. This way, 1 slot to pre-load a track into the CTX could be enough.

 

[GateKeeper]

I agree Andrew, it is a little limiting. The only input I can offer is that you can bring your laptop (If you have one)
in your vehicle. A pain in the arse indeed.

 

[Andrew Kalinowski]

GateKeeper, you are right saying that it's a little limiting. In reality, it's not any problem for me - on a hunt, I always have at least one handheld GPS with me so, it doesn't limit me at all. It just would be nice to stick to one device. From the responses on findmall and on a Canadian site, I see that it's also not going to create problems for most others - most MDrs seem to think that they never turn their detectors off through out the day...

 

[C&RHunter]

I do hunt several sites in one day on occasion. However, I have found I can have 10 GeoHunts in the CTX, before it won't allow to record any more. A way around this, if you grid an area you can create WPs at the corners, or if you think you may come back, create a WP for a start. You then won't need the GeoHunt loaded. WPs can, also, be created in the XC2 app, and then loaded to the CTX.

 

[Andrew Kalinowski]

Right, it's 10, not 4 geohunts limit. I have no clue where from did the 4 pop in my mind.