E-TRAC PROBLEM

[beerbarrel]

To everyone who has an E-TRAC, you may experience a problem I had. After about 7 months of using the E-TRAC, at the beach and dry land, the detector started to give false readings, i.e., 10,11,12 in the ferrous and 01,02,03 in the conductivity, at the end of each swing of the coil or if you "bumped" the coil on someting, sticking out of the ground. Tone ID was terrible also. I found out, after performing a few tests, to see if possible the coil wire was bad, or the box was bad (in which they were not), that the connection, where you would connect the coil wire to the box, had a bit of corrosion on the pins. Mind you, that I did not subject this part of the detector to water. Being on the coast, here in Texas, we are quite humid down here. I simply cleaned the terminal pins, with a Q-Tip and re-connected the plug. I noticed that this connection appears not to be a "water tight or dust tight" connection. After doing this, the E-Trac worked fantastic! Found a Wheat Penny at 9" down in the DRY ground and when I say DRY, I mean almost like concrete! Believe me, the E-TRAC is a fantastic machine!

beerbarrel

 

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[Woodland Detectors]

Thank you for the great tip!

 

[Gonehunting]

awesome tip. Wished I would have know that before I sent it in. I was having the same problem... thanks for the advice I will remember that.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to check my connections.

 

[Marvin Lee]

Good to know. My brand new E-Trac is on the way. Cant wait!

 

[moonshine]

wierd thing about my etrac is that it will do this for a few minutes approximately every fifth hunt or so. I have tried everything I can think of. If I wiggle the etrac i can make it give off foil readings. Its frustrating to be swinging and have the etrac tell you theres foil laying everywhere, when you know that there isnt. I wish I knew what the problem is. I have four months left of coil warranty, if that is indeed the problem. It seems to come and go on its own, if its bad enough i turn the etrac off, and then turn it back on and then it seems fine. very strange.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Sounds like something is loose, whether it's a connection, something in the coil, or something in the control housing. You can determine if it's the coil by swapping out for a different one (if you have access to one). Sounds to me like I would be sending it in to the repair facility.

 

[moonshine]

I am going to give Minelab a call and send it in, might as well take advantage of the warranty. Thanks Jason.

 

[OtraVez]

Great tip! Would you have the time to post a picture of the connections that you cleaned please? Thanks!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Remember, even thought it isn't in the water, at salt water beaches there is fine salt mist in the air... Take steps to protect detector ...