new ET

[bruce01364]

Just got my ET last week. It did not turn on. Called support and was told to open the case to see if anything was loose. Didn't see anything but after putting it together I slapped the side of the housing and it came on. Had to do this a couple times but now it starts every time. It suggests to me something was loose. Anyway, I took it out for a spin (before reading the manual completely) to test it and everything seemed to work ok. Today I was air testing some coins with different settings. There is a "coins" setting and a "coin mode" setting. Looks like the "coin mode" setting accepts a few more targets. Air tested a silver dollar with each one. The "coins" setting got no response until the dollar was about an inch from the coil. Close to overload. Is this supposed to happen. The crosshair is very near the black part of the pattern but I should think a "COIN" setting would find a large silver dollar. As I had trouble with it starting I am trying to find out if it is working correctly. Also the ID doesn't change sometimes when I go over a second coin. I have to pass over the second coin again to get the correct ID. Is this just a normal delay or is my machine off in some way.
Thanks.

 

[bradley]

if i had to slapp my detector to get it to work when i first got mine i would definitly send it back

 

[fireball10x]

Send it back, slapping it to make it work is not a good thing.As far as the silver dollar, go to disc menu and go to quick latch pass the coin in front of the coil and accept,I'd also do a half dollar. hope this helps Ron

 

[spdnj]

Basically an issue they are having is that there are two circuit boards in the ETrac that are plugged directly into each other. They can become separated as there is nothing else holding them together except the pressure of the pins on the first board going into the socket on the second board. They really need to put something else to help with the connection. If they are coming apart it could have been your issue.
As for the coin test, what was your sensitivity set at? If I was you I would go outside where there is no interference and place the coins on the ground in an area that you know is clean and free of targets. Avoid an area with underground cable, phone or electrical lines. See what that does. They are very sensitive machines and inside is simply not a good place to test. I never tested a dollar before but to rule out that they are being discriminated go into quick mask and move your ferrous line up to about 26 or 27, leave everything else wide open.
Let us know how you make out.

 

[bruce01364]

Thanks for the replys. I haven't used the quick mask yet. I can try it but what I really wanted to know is if all ET's had a problem seeing the silver dollar in the "coin" setting. And isn't the target ID is supposed to change the FIRST time you go over a new target?

 

[fireball10x]

For some reason in the coin program you won't detect silver halves or dollars the dicriminator rejects them.You will see a spot in the top right corner blacked out thats where the dollar will show up once you enter it and half dollars.Just go into your disc settings to edit and use qick latch it will be the 3rd one down on the right and swing a dollar in front of the coil and accept it do the same with the half

 

[spdnj]

There has been a lot discussed about when the ID on the unit changes. If I have a target by itself and sweep the coil over it, it takes a second for the ID to show a result. if I give a couple quick sweeps over a target (wiggle like sweeps) the id does not update until I come off of the target and there is a slight delay. If you have multiple targets near each other it takes a while to get used to. I think that is a reason why some people curse the ML's and think they are too difficult to use, they have a hard time adjusting to this. Other brands I have hunted are instant with the ID. Once you learn to over come this on the ML's I feel like it is well worth the trade off you get with the depth they can obtain.

 

[gibsondan]

Air tested a silver dollar with each one. The "coins" setting got no response until the dollar was about an inch from the coil. Close to overload. Is this supposed to happen.

For some reason I'm not aware of, Minelab's default discrimination pattern rejects the highest levels of conductivity. I couldn't get my E-trac to hit on an Eisenhower clad silver dollar. I think the default discrimination pattern is set up for Australian coins and/or European coins. I fixed the problem by going to the "Discrimination" menu and then clicking on "Edit." I then moved the cursor to the upper levels of the conductivity range where it is blacked out and used the accept/reject button to accept that area. Now my E-trac hits on that clad silver dollar.

 

[bruce01364]

From the recent posts it seems my ET is acting the way it is supposed to. It starts every time now so I will hold on to it for awhile and wait to see if something down the road will make me have to return it. I'll try the suggestions made. I am still learning the machine and there are a lot of options. My plan is to use FP for awhile and gradually learn to make adjustments as I go. Thanks for the replys.
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