is this normal?

[moonshine]

it wasnt raining but the grass was wet, the coil/cover became soaked with water from sweeping on/through the wet grass. i would lift up my coil and a bit of water would pour out of the bottom of the coil scuff cover, trapped between the coil cover and the coil itself. the problem was, as i swept, every time the coil reached the left "peak" or "end" of the sweep, the detector would give a "foil" type reading. 11-3, 10-6, 11-2, etc.... every sweep, and ONLY on the left end of the sweep, not the right. i could duplicate this above the ground as well. at first i though there was a foil type wire or something in the ground, but it wasnt reacting to anything in the ground. it didnt seem to do it if the cover wasnt soaked with water.

my question is, is my coil going bad? is water getting into the coil or into the cable where it connects to the coil? i thought these coils were waterproof. i would never test my luck with that unnecessarily. but water from wet grass is messing with my coil or what? has anyone else ever experienced this? and only on the left end of the sweep, not the right. has me a bit worried that ill be replacing this coil eventually. i have about 9 months of warranty left so im not overly concerned. plus im not sure if anything is truly wrong with it.


thanks for any input, i appreciate it.

 

[unearth]

Moon-
I haven't had your exact problem, but every once in awhile my machine will act like your describing yours. My reacts like yours when I'm at the beach hunting in dry sand. And sometimes at the parks I hunt. I haven't noticed if it happens when the grass is wet or dry. But I believe it happens when the grass is dry because I'm not a fan of digging in wet grass.
The problem seems to go away by itself though. I don't know if it's because I've moved to a different spot to hunt or because when this starts to happen I re-ground balance the machine in a bit different area.
Hope it's not mechanical and only environmental.
Good luck,
Gary

 

[treasure sstate]

The water in the coil cover is the same as dirt in the coil cover it can and will cause wierd sounds, numbers and/or both. Take the coil cover off and hunt with it off in wet grass for awhile and see if it clears up. A short while with the cover off won't hurt the coil.

 

[stasys]

my experience is on beach and this is happens because battery is low. charge or change the battery and you will solve the problem. good luck

 

[banditicey]

Moon-
I haven't had your exact problem, but every once in awhile my machine will act like your describing yours. My reacts like yours when I'm at the beach hunting in dry sand. And sometimes at the parks I hunt. I haven't noticed if it happens when the grass is wet or dry. But I believe it happens when the grass is dry because I'm not a fan of digging in wet grass.
The problem seems to go away by itself though. I don't know if it's because I've moved to a different spot to hunt or because when this starts to happen I re-ground balance the machine in a bit different area.
Hope it's not mechanical and only environmental.
Good luck,
Gary

Re ground balance?!
Noticed your comment and now I'm panicking because I dont balance the Etrac
Am I missing some thing?

 

[moonshine]

thanks for the replies everyone, i really appreciate it. good to have someone who can understand and try to help out.

i think unearth meant noise canel. i did try that and it didnt help. after the sloshing water was out of the coil it didnt seem to do it. im not sure what to think. i had two bars of power left.


that is a good idea, i will remember that for the future.

 

[stasys]

dont look at battery bars-change battery and you will be OK-believe me
I can explane it like this, if you detect with the detector in right hand on the left swing end coil is a bit lifted and from my experience if battery low detector does make sounds like this. water between coil and coil cover dont do anything wrong. water cant go from connector to the coil because all coil filed with epoxy. coil conector is made for supporting cable in coil. your coil is 100% OK. but if you dont believe me sell your coil to me like faulty.

 

[moonshine]

thanks for the heads up, i appreciate the advice, but if that is the case then i go from being disappointed with the coil to being disappointed with the battery because it only had about 3 or 4 hours of swinging time off a full 24 hour charge.

 

[stasys]

moonshine no point to be disappointed about little things, learn an be better inform. minelab battery pack is simple rechargeable batteries soldered together with small board for charge if one battery dies its start to suck energy from the rest, buy new one and good charger and you will have better battery.

 

[moonshine]

buy a new one after 10 weeks? no disappointment, i am trying to learn all i can, thanks for the advice.

 

[terrywl]

1. take the coil cover off. Hang it off a nail in the garage, you will never wear through the bottom of the coil.
2. Make sure your swing stays flat, a small golf stroke of even a couple inches can give you a little false (learned at the beach).
3. learn the sound of that false and tune it out of your brain
4. IMO, which is based on advice from much more experienced detectorists than myself.

 

[moonshine]

thanks for the advice, it was definitely not a false, (at least, not a typical false) im pretty good at understanding that.

 

[stasys]

buy a new one after 10 weeks? no disappointment, i am trying to learn all i can, thanks for the advice.

my idea was buy new 8 or 16 separate rechargeable batteries and good charger and put them in alkaline case, cheaper and better.

 

[Bell-Two]

If you are using the coil cover then at least every couple of weeks remove it and clean the coil and cover, it is amazing how much crud accumalates under it in a short time. I had a friend contact me because he was worried about his E-Trac which he got last November it was falsing like crazy I talked to him on the phone asking about his settings etc and it occured to me to ask him about cleaning the coil...he said he had never done that! I told him to try that first and if that didn't work we would look at other things. Two day later I had not heard from him but he posted on a local forum a bunch of good finds so I contacted him and he told me "Yes it was loaded with junk and as soon as I cleaned it out it got stable again!" A fully charged battery should last more than four hours now I have noticed the first bar seems to go down quickly but the next two last a lot longer. If you have a full charged battery that has set a couple of days you will lose some charge whether it is in the machine or not, I have noticed this and others have confirmed it too.

 

[moonshine]

i definitely like to keep my coil clean, ive been taking the cover off every other week or so. i give the whole detector a wipe-down. i agree with everything you guys are saying. now that i think about it, i wonder if i had my coil cover on the wrong way, with the small notch on the wrong side (left/right) of the coil, and that pushed the cover down, and let a lot of water get trapped in there under the coil cover and slosh around and give me those false foil readings. hmmmmm. im not sure. well if it ever happens again just taking the cover off will tell the tale as treasure sstate suggested.

 

[yan]

Hello
I noticed the same behavior with my e trac. I've tried first to reduce the gain but no success. I've also modified the preset still without success.
I do not own any cover for the coil and I had this issue whatever the weather ( wet or dry ).
At least, I removed the connector located within the tube making the connection between the coil and the controller and put it again with a wrench instead fingers and the problem went away.
Hoping it help ...?

 

[bthom]

I have the same thing from time to time.. like little bits of foil all over the place.. usually happens in the wet grass but does go away after a while.

Does the etrac coil come with a cover... I know looking at it it looks like one, but I was never sure.. does it just clip off or something.