Mojave Coil problem **Bad out of the box**

cammobunker

Jr. Member
May 27, 2008
81
72
NW Ar-kan-saw
Detector(s) used
Tesoro Compadre, Mojave, Cibola. Deteknix Pinpointer. Mark I Mod 0 eyeball, too.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hi folks-
Got home today and excitedly unboxed my brand new Mojave. Assembled it and did some air testing with it sitting on the edge of the bed. As I walked out of the room I hear the detector falsing. Huh? Nothing is near it...Nothing moving around...odd. Move it out to the living room..bump the couch with the shaft...false signal. What? Hold detector out in the air and bang gently on the side of the shaft near the join. False signal! WTH?!?!
Outside...swing the coil in the yard. End of about every third swing at the end...false signal. Oh, now what's going on here? Investigation reveals that any kind of movement of the cable at the anti-strain junction on the coil creates a false signal. Cable seems solid in the strain, it's neither tight nor loose around the shaft, it's properly assembled. I mean ANY kind of motion of the cable AT ALL can cause a signal. There's always going to be a tiny amount of movement between these parts somewhere. I can't very well velcro the cable down so tight the coil angle can't be adjusted.
I guess I'll give Tesoro a call in the morning about this issue-I just got the detector today so of course the warranty card isn't even filled in yet, never mind sent in. I'm 100% sure Tesoro will resolve my problem, but I'm a little disappointed anyway. I was looking forward to using my new Mojave this long weekend, but I guess I'll have to get along with the Cibola or Compadre.

Hey, has anyone else had this issue too? Amazon had a review posted on this model that exactly mirrored my problems. Did Tesoro have a bad run of coils maybe?
 

JoeDirty

Full Member
Oct 7, 2016
216
202
Denver Colorado
Detector(s) used
Tesoro Tejón Black with a 5.75 concentric coil,
Tesoro Compadré 5.75 coil, Makro Pin Pointer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I had bought a brand new sealed box outlaw. The switches were broke clean off. I got a refund and bought the Tejon. Great company either way. But anything man made is prone to fail. Hope you get it going and have a blast with it!
 

Stoof2010

Hero Member
Jul 12, 2016
701
520
S.E. Michigan
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I don't have this issue from my Mojave, and I haven't tried on my second mojave.
Do these things outside away from the emi of the inside of your house.
Detectors can act funny inside. I get chatting and stuff inside too. Not sure about the bumping thing either. Double check your connection on the coil to the housing and try outside.
Next step is calling Tesoro or exchanging it from where you bought it.
 

pinenut

Bronze Member
Mar 15, 2016
1,024
1,363
where bigfoot roams
Detector(s) used
Various Tesoro - mostly Bandido II μMAX
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
that's no fun..

..but Tesoro service will be quick to respond and repair any problem that you have with a new machine. Give 'em a call and they'll let you know what to do.
 

doggoneitdignit

Hero Member
Oct 2, 2016
747
374
Canada
Detector(s) used
Current: Vaquero,Compadre,T2,300i, ML 440V, and Simplex+
Past:Whites 4000 D Series 3, Radio Shack 3001 Micronta
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I don't have this issue from my Mojave, and I haven't tried on my second mojave.
Do these things outside away from the emi of the inside of your house.
Detectors can act funny inside. I get chatting and stuff inside too. Not sure about the bumping thing either. Double check your connection on the coil to the housing and try outside.
Next step is calling Tesoro or exchanging it from where you bought it.


Hey Stefan I thought this was only me after reading this is a small amount of chatter expected.. it appears that my new Compadre does this inside the house when I first got mine noticed that after the battery test then after it was done breaking up near the end disappered did a lil shake on the Compadre to see if it was falsing it did. Stood still few beeps on it's own then quit, give it a shake nothing, move to an object beep then couple falses again, if not moved appears to do this off and on, but not my Vaquero at all one bit, I can test this outside, as I thought the Compadre hit hard on small objects reason for this machinge being sensitive in it's own right but after reading this post got to wonder..will try outside see what happens may call Tesoro to find out as well wont hurt and me as well have my Warranty card I need to fill out from the distributor I bought it from.
 

doggoneitdignit

Hero Member
Oct 2, 2016
747
374
Canada
Detector(s) used
Current: Vaquero,Compadre,T2,300i, ML 440V, and Simplex+
Past:Whites 4000 D Series 3, Radio Shack 3001 Micronta
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Hey Camo, does this happen with your Compadre any falsing at all, I will test the movement while standing still as well, I can light tap the coil on my couch and see if it falses as I believe it shouldn't in either case will call Tesoro tomorrow. Thanks for posting this. Did test on tapping the coil and it did false as well my coil is the 8".
 

Last edited:
OP
OP
cammobunker

cammobunker

Jr. Member
May 27, 2008
81
72
NW Ar-kan-saw
Detector(s) used
Tesoro Compadre, Mojave, Cibola. Deteknix Pinpointer. Mark I Mod 0 eyeball, too.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Gentlemen, Thank you for your replies. I know about falsing inside the house from the nails and EMI etc, and I know what causes chatter. I also know that I should not be able to grab the coil wire and move it to cause a false signal. I have a Cibola with the stock 9X8 coil, a 5.75 and a 12X10 widescan, and an older Compadre, and I can't FORCE them to have a false signal by moving the coil wire and I tried all four last night just to make sure I wasn't losing my mind...nope.
There's clearly a quality control issue going on here and I'm convinced I've got a lemon coil. I'll be calling Tesoro today about this, I need to see what I can do about getting this repaired. I guess I need to send my warranty card in with the box and coil!
It kind of bugs me that my coil supposedly passed QC, and yet has an obvious problem like this.
 

pinenut

Bronze Member
Mar 15, 2016
1,024
1,363
where bigfoot roams
Detector(s) used
Various Tesoro - mostly Bandido II μMAX
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
stuff happens..

I think there was a huge demand for Mojave when it was announced, and Tesoro may have been rushing to keep up with orders.

My Mojave has been pretty good to me, finding my first gold (10K chain bracelet) and oldest silver coins this year. Maybe I'll take it out for a hunt today.
 

Whimpster

Jr. Member
Jan 30, 2013
41
37
Nova Scotia
Detector(s) used
Fisher F75 LTD
Teknetics G2
E-Trac
Tesoro,Bandido II uMax,Silver uMax,Silver Sabre uMax
Tesoro,Eldorado small plastic box.
Compadre 8" coil ,Compadre 5.75"coil.
Tesoro Golden uMax new and old tone
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Cammo,

I had the same issue with my Mojave out of the box...sooo I tried my 5.75" concentric and it worked fine on the Mo...tried an 8" 10.5" 3x18 cleansweep and a few more they all worked fine.
So I put the 7" off the Mo on to my Bandido II µMax no problems no falsing..
What I found was if I ran the Mo over 5 in sen it would false on the back swing or by tapping the rod...ran it on 4 sen and no problems...the Mo seems to be a little sparkie if you run the sen higher then 5.
Try a different coil on your Mo see if you get the same results.

Whimp.


Hi folks-
Got home today and excitedly unboxed my brand new Mojave. Assembled it and did some air testing with it sitting on the edge of the bed. As I walked out of the room I hear the detector falsing. Huh? Nothing is near it...Nothing moving around...odd. Move it out to the living room..bump the couch with the shaft...false signal. What? Hold detector out in the air and bang gently on the side of the shaft near the join. False signal! WTH?!?!
Outside...swing the coil in the yard. End of about every third swing at the end...false signal. Oh, now what's going on here? Investigation reveals that any kind of movement of the cable at the anti-strain junction on the coil creates a false signal. Cable seems solid in the strain, it's neither tight nor loose around the shaft, it's properly assembled. I mean ANY kind of motion of the cable AT ALL can cause a signal. There's always going to be a tiny amount of movement between these parts somewhere. I can't very well velcro the cable down so tight the coil angle can't be adjusted.
I guess I'll give Tesoro a call in the morning about this issue-I just got the detector today so of course the warranty card isn't even filled in yet, never mind sent in. I'm 100% sure Tesoro will resolve my problem, but I'm a little disappointed anyway. I was looking forward to using my new Mojave this long weekend, but I guess I'll have to get along with the Cibola or Compadre.

Hey, has anyone else had this issue too? Amazon had a review posted on this model that exactly mirrored my problems. Did Tesoro have a bad run of coils maybe?
 

doggoneitdignit

Hero Member
Oct 2, 2016
747
374
Canada
Detector(s) used
Current: Vaquero,Compadre,T2,300i, ML 440V, and Simplex+
Past:Whites 4000 D Series 3, Radio Shack 3001 Micronta
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
So went out side instead with the Compadre...not bad. I had experienced in the house this effect, but I had pulled out all my Flouresents upstairs but downstairs I have flouresents that maybe cuasing this and to boot the Compadre is pretty sensitive, again I am pulling small objects 4-5 down finding again some .22 caliber bullets and looks like either a fishing weight or a bullet shot, found a penny as well 3" down. I am swinging back and forth nicely not chippering hardly at all..hmm. I went on Tesoro web site and some youtube videos were falsing was pretty bad, that does not appear to be the case when I am outside. I will tell you though I do get interference with my Vulcan 360 setting at 5 (most sensitive) with the Compadre near by will start the Vulcan to beep so I am guessing the Vulcan is at a 12 KHz frequency I imagine near by it. My Vaquero is different as well the Garrett 300i, but hey a Vulcan near this sensitivity is good for me as it is finding things in the hole for me, so it is a great pair, may have to lower my Vulcan down then to 3-4 to get less interference noise.

Anyways was going to call Tesoro but I think I will leave it for now, and fill out my warranty card and submit it with a comments section on the bottom mentioning my experiences. As well with me I thought what earlier posts mention that this could be when they were having a run on their Mojave and the time the Compadre were unavaiable too so there was a run on those obviously and just backed up in production, but I don't think Tesoro would sacarfice QC over demand, they maybe working over the clock but knowing there philosopy I imagine there could be issues more so on shipping instead of out of there warehouse I think.

There website states the following though and everyone should have a read of this.

Tesoro Metal Detectors - Official company web site with metal detector models for treasure hunting land or water.

"Try not to raise or snap your coil at the ends of the sweep or you may cause false signals from your detector. The Compadre is a motion-based machine so you will need to keep the coil moving as you search."

So I am happy so far and will continue to hunt with this lil monster.
 

OP
OP
cammobunker

cammobunker

Jr. Member
May 27, 2008
81
72
NW Ar-kan-saw
Detector(s) used
Tesoro Compadre, Mojave, Cibola. Deteknix Pinpointer. Mark I Mod 0 eyeball, too.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Cammo,

I had the same issue with my Mojave out of the box...sooo I tried my 5.75" concentric and it worked fine on the Mo...tried an 8" 10.5" 3x18 cleansweep and a few more they all worked fine.
So I put the 7" off the Mo on to my Bandido II µMax no problems no falsing..
What I found was if I ran the Mo over 5 in sen it would false on the back swing or by tapping the rod...ran it on 4 sen and no problems...the Mo seems to be a little sparkie if you run the sen higher then 5.
Try a different coil on your Mo see if you get the same results.

Whimp.

Well, just to avoid that possibility, I was running the with all the settings at the lowest point, and again, I could cause false signals by wiggling the wire where it goes into the coil, so no, I don't think it's a setting thing. That was my first thought, actually, "wow, this thing is sensitive, better turn it down". Also, my other Tesoros are a Cibola and a Compadre, neither of which use Epsilon coils, so I don't have another to try.

My brand new coil and control box went off to Prescott this morning and will be there Tuesday. When I hear from the factory I'll post it here. I really don't have any doubt that Tesoro will take care of the issue. They have the best warranty in the hobby, with a lifetime warranty on parts and labor. I also know that they have a great reputation for fast turn around on repairs. The very nice lady I spoke to on the phone sounded genuinely distressed that my device was not working properly and told me to go ahead and put the card in with the parts and she'd get it squared away for me.

In the meantime, well, I hooked the 5.75 coil onto my Cibola and will doing some limited hunting this weekend...limited by thunderstorms!
 

Honest Samuel

Banned
Sep 23, 2015
8,814
4,969
Connecticut
Detector(s) used
Minelab
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I have not a chance to take my new Mojave out, but I hope to take it out soon, since it is getting warmer in Connecticut.
 

Mojave1

Full Member
Jul 2, 2018
162
280
NC
Detector(s) used
Tesoro Compadre- Garrett At Pro- Teknetics G2+
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I had the same chattering coil problem with my Mojave. It turned out not to be coil related. Take the battery out and look at the metal contacts. If one looks flatter pry it up with a knife or screwdriver. Instant fix!
 

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doggoneitdignit

Hero Member
Oct 2, 2016
747
374
Canada
Detector(s) used
Current: Vaquero,Compadre,T2,300i, ML 440V, and Simplex+
Past:Whites 4000 D Series 3, Radio Shack 3001 Micronta
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Great reply to your fix. Will have to remember this in the future.

Regards.
 

Mojave1

Full Member
Jul 2, 2018
162
280
NC
Detector(s) used
Tesoro Compadre- Garrett At Pro- Teknetics G2+
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Great reply to your fix. Will have to remember this in the future.

Regards.

Went out this morning swinging in yard and guess what? It started acting up again. I give up. These 7" concentric coils are no good. I'm buying a 8" doughnut for it.
 

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