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Safari going back to the shop tomorrow!

O

Onus

New member
As most of you know I have really been struggling with my new Safari going on about 5 months. My six year old granddaughter could have learned to operate it by now but I haven't. I have read the manual and Andy's book several times and it still doesn't perform like it is supposed to. It is so noisy I can't differentiate a good target from a piece of junk. It seems like I am getting a tone of some kind every half inch I move the coil and I know there isn't that much in the ground where I do my testing. Just when I think I am figuring it out it goes nuts and doesn't do what it is supposed to do and it is so slow to reset from one target to another I could take a nap in between! Much improved speed is one of its bragging points over the Quattro but not this one! So, I am sending it in (which I should have done long ago) and see how it comes back. If there is no improvement, it goes on the chopping block . I have a really good potential virgin hunting area that dates back to the late 1800s and now I have no confidence in my primary detector. And it took a very long time to set this area up to hunt, and I am going to have to hunt it at least at first with my ACE 250 which is a good little detector but lacking depth for what I need one for. Oh well, wish I had done this when I first started having problems.........,like day one! Onus. .
 
We digging here with Safari tiny hammered coins dated back 5-400 years and its a best machine after e trac. Better learn to use it.
 
Just one important suggestion : LOWER YOUR SENS.

Erratic detectors are almost always used with a sensitivity set too high.

Try imagine deep trash and relatively shallow (up to 7-8") coins. If your sens is too high, you will not detect the coins properly.

With such a powerful unit, you'd better get over a place several times with different sens settings.

I own a Quattro and back the precedent post : very easy to use, and impressive results (beach).

HH
 
Easy to use is all I have heard from the beginning! Not this critter and I am no novice either! I have tried everything to get the performance I expected from it and nada. I haven't seen a suggestion lately that I haven't tried! So, in she goes, if I can ever get Minelab to answer my emails requeting shipping instructions. Sent 3 and no answer yet! Onus
 
Still no answer to email so I just bundled it up and sent it in. Waiting to see what they say. Surely there's something amiss or I would't have had this much trouble with it. Onus
 
Hopefully you will return to this thread after your machine is back from the repair shop. I would be very interested in how it works out. From your statements I guess you have tried the suggestion of reducing the sensitivity. If so then the only thing to do is send it in for repair. I am sorry to hear anyone buying a detector that doesn't work correctly, new or used. I think it is important for us to share our disappointments along with the successes. HH Mike.
 
I've been following your posts regarding the erratic behavior you have experienced over the past 4 months Onus. I'm curious to see how you make out. After I made some initial adjustments to sens, and making some custom modes my safari works like a charm. I wish you the best. I recently encountered a problem however, I have 2 lines of dead pixels across the screen, I'll have to make a phone call.
 
I sent it in a week ago and haven't even had an aknowledgement that they received it. And today their homepage is down for some reason. It's insured though so maybe I'll just get a new one? :clapping: I have had a total of 8 detectors since I have been enjoying this "hobby" and this is the only one I haven't been able to get to work right, so I am pretty sure it had some issues in the programming. Hope so, I really like it when it does what it is supposed to do. But it just doesn't do it all the time. Anyway, I'll get back to the forum when I get it back. Onus
 
Did you have to send yours to Las Vegas? I'm sending mine in as well, I have 2 lines of dead pixels on the display.
 
The Fog, I did send it to Las Vegas. I emailed them 3 times asking where to send it and never got an answer either by email or phone. I mailed it July 31 and it should have arrived there the following Tuesday or so the mailman said. I never got an acknowledgement that it had arrived until I asked for it. It was insured and I needed that information. They said it would be the last part of the month before it came back to me so I will be over a month without it if I include the week in July I was waiting to hear from them. I don't like to phone because I have a hearing problem even though phoning might be better. I sent a detector in to Garrett as a comparison, got an unsolicited acknowledgement of receipt two days later, and had it back 1 day shy of two weeks. Needless to say I am not too impressed with Minelab's service department. So, yeah, send it to Las Vegas. Onus
 
Got a phone call yesterday from Minelab. They say it checks Ok! Disappointed to hear that. Maybe I am dumber than I thought? Well, here goes again. Gonna' give it all the chances I can before I dump it. I have a hot site that I haven't hunted with the Safari, so I'll give it a try as soon as it gets back. Oh well...... Onus
 
Your doing somethin wrong there Onus if it checks out with Minelab....

What was the reason you sent it in? I suspect it might be a simple thing like a loose cable or bad batteries. I often find that using headphones helps me a lot to hear the safari music better.

Try some air tests ad watch where on the scale (the printed one under the LCD screen) a targets indicator shows.

Now I can also tell you that I had a lot of air between those headphones for a long time until I started reading these forums, and Andy's Quattro book a few more times than once...

Good luck, let us know when the wandering Safari is home from it's trip to Vegas.

Ed
 
Good Luck Monty!

Let us know how you make out! As you know when I added the procoil to the Quattro I had a heck of a time with it at first.
Maybe you could find a Slimline or a small coil to get started with?

Best of Luck,
Mark
 
I got the Safari back day before yesterday and a note came back with it that I couldn't read. I think it said something about the depth checking OK? I have read Andy's book about 5 times at least and selected parts even more. And I have cross referenced it with the owner's manual more times than I can count. I have done air tests dozens of times, and inground test almost as much and also on top of the ground tests. I have run the sensitivity up and down and tried it a dozen different ways and I have tried it in all the preprogramed modes and a few of my own thrown in just for kicks. I have noise cancelled it every time out and every time I change any part of the program and any time I move from one area to another. I have set the trash density on both high and low and tried it both ways. I have listened to the various tones very carefully and can recognize the difference between a dime and a quarter and a penny and I know the numerical scales back and forth as well as the depth indicator and the pinpoint is dead center. I have a smaller 8" coil and have tried it in areas that have heavy trash concentrations and have tried swinging both coils fast and slow and somewhere in between. I have taken it to areas that I knew had a lot of coins, mostly pennies and after digging the first few was able to nail them with frequency. I have a buried coin garden that ranges from pennies to silver dollars and from 4" to nearly a foot and have practiced on it (but there is no trash nearby). That's easy. But when I hit the field everything I have observed and learned under controlled circumstances goes right out the window. For instance.....I went to a supposidly unhunted place where some houses were hauled off and relocated. A couple of these houses were right at a hundred years old. I spent about an hour and a half with my Safari (since it came back) and here's what I found. The sound of what I recall as a dime, high pitched twitter sounding signal with a 37 numerical value in the silver range, showing coin. It was a rusted up steel steel nut about an inch square...surely the halo effect? I got two targets at about 9", high tone, showing 38, silver range, coin. Dug it up at about 9 1/2" and it was a squished soda can. Next target, same thing. Got a high pitched tone, 35, silver range, coin. Dug it up at nearly a foot and it was a 1989 penny! Not close to what I was expecting on any of the targets. Got one more good sounding target, 36, sounded like a quarter, showing coin, silver, was an aluminum bottle cap at 6". In this same area last week with another brand less expensive detector with fewer optioins, I dug a 1963 silver quarter and a 1923 wheat penny, both at about 6". Go figure! Anyway, I'm sticking with this Safari from now until I learn to read it like a book even if it takes me a year. I think I have an excellent tool here but just can't communicate with it. :ranting: Onus
 
Hi Onus, And God Bless you for sticking it out. Is there anyone else close to you who has a Safari who you can go along with, maybe let them try using your machine to see what they think. It can definately get you flustered when what is supposed to be a great machine is becoming a thorn in the flesh. I really hope you find your groove with this machine, mine has treated me well. Hang in there. and no your not crazy !! It's just one of those things. Ron
 
What you report is not unusual, cans will scream in at 38, target is just too big for the machinie to ignore. Dimes always ring in at 37 for me, but some pennies will ring in at 37 as well. Most pennies for me come in at 36, but some injuns and wheats come in at 35. Quarters whether seated, barber, pre-65 or new clad ring at 38 for me consistently. Some bottlecaps pop in between 34-36 unfortunately. All my silver coins have come in between 37 and 38, I haven't found any below or above these #'s. Pennies can be tricky as I have had them come in between 34 and 37. Nuts and bolts pop in at about 37 for me as well, so it seems your machine runs very similar to mine. The cans suck but I finid it easy enough to get around as I can raise the coil about a foot off the ground and if It's still screaming 37/38 I know it's probably a can. The old rusty square nails always drive me nuts as they come in deep and showing 37 or 38.... but the signal is usually a bit squirrely, I ususally know its a nail but how can you not dig a 37 or 38 thats 8 inches deep? What irritates me is musket balls, yeah they are fun to find and all but for some reason they ring in at 36 consistently which isn't near the lead range on the display. Some targets just don't jive with the display whether it be the depth or the target ID, but I guess that's just the nature of detecting. Stick it out brother!
 
Since I got my Safari back I have spent hours out in my coin patch just swinging and listening. I have just now been able to communicate with it a little. I easily found all my coins, deep and other wise, I even found some junque that I didn't know was there and I called it before I dug it up just to see. Gosh it's a lot more fun when me and the detector are speaking the same language! Cant wait to get back out to my hunting spot I have been hitting ow and then. It's been taunting me but now I think I can at last kick its butt! Really busy week coming up but I may sneak a hunt in and post if I get a chance at all . Onus
 
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