Whites VSAT - Is this thing busted?

[AU_Solitude]

Hey everyone - I picked up a VSAT on a whim because it was a steal, upon firing it up for the first time things seem out of wack.

I'll start out about 12:00 for the ground balance and barely adjust the gain past the on position - it does its start up moan, I adjust the threshold to a barely audible hum...Now here's where it all seems to get screwy...I can crank the gain to ten and its running stable bench testing, however, if I attempt to mess with either the ground balance (CW or CCW) or attempt to turn the gain back down CCW it starts screaming murder! Is something wrong with this machine internally? My first time using a Goldmaster but I am about ready to toss it.

Advice please.

 

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[Seden]

I bet the batteries are low. It should give you the voltage when it first powers up but I would get a voltmeter and measure the batteries to be sure. If the batteries are good then the next step would be to call Whites to get a service ticket # and ship the control head in. If you send the coil with the control head they can tune the control head to your coil. Good luck.

 

[goldenmojo]

Woody Here is a vsat manual Goldmaster VSAT 1995 Manual if you don't have one.

 

[AU_Solitude]

Woody Here is a vsat manual Goldmaster VSAT 1995 Manual if you don't have one.

Thanks for the advice Seden, thanks for the manual link Mojo.

 

[Goldwasher]

start with gain at 4 vsat half way. adjust threshold...then G.B...are you able to ground balance it at all? or are he knobs having zero effect on the threshold

 

[AU_Solitude]

start with gain at 4 vsat half way. adjust threshold...then G.B...are you able to ground balance it at all? or are he knobs having zero effect on the threshold

After playing around with it last night a little it just kept shrieking...I opened her up and found my battery leads were weak as well as a few connections to the pot's that needed a little more reinforcement with the soldering iron. Booted her back up and no shrieking anymore. 6" on a .4 gram nugget seems pretty decent, better than my Gold Bug Pro, I realize there is a significant difference in frequencies but didn't expect to much out of an older machine.

I like this thing so far, going to put it through the ringer this Saturday in an area that has mostly sub gram gold and see what I can do.

 

[Goldwasher]

After playing around with it last night a little it just kept shrieking...I opened her up and found my battery leads were weak as well as a few connections to the pot's that needed a little more reinforcement with the soldering iron. Booted her back up and no shrieking anymore. 6" on a .4 gram nugget seems pretty decent, better than my Gold Bug Pro, I realize there is a significant difference in frequencies but didn't expect to much out of an older machine.

I like this thing so far, going to put it through the ringer this Saturday in an area that has mostly sub gram gold and see what I can do.

Yea that's good....its when the gold is in the ground that the difference will kick in....the gb pro much more stable. Vsat is a good machine though...it is noisy

 

[Aufisher]

Sweet detector to learn on. You can learn any machine after using the one with 12 knobs lol.

 

[goldenmojo]

Sweet detector to learn on. You can learn any machine after using the one with 12 knobs lol.

Yes and when you finally become proficient with this machine your right hand will be known as the octopus.

 

[Smithsgold]

how'd it do ?