First week with my Compadre

[kavehnj]

I just got my Tesoro Compadre w 8" coil last week which happens to be my first MD as well. I have a few questions/comments.

1. Around my house and around my mom's house I can't seem to detect as the detector keeps beeping essentially non-stop. My house is from the late 1970's and my mom's is from the 1850's. If I go to the ball park, I get no such false signals. I live near the Grand River in SW Ontario, Canada. Any suggestions?

2. I noticed that at the end of each sweep where I reverse directions, I sometimes seem to get a false beep. If I exaggerate the suddenness of my change of direction I can force a false beep. Is this related to the way I have wrapped the cord? I believe I followed the instructions as intended. Any suggestions?

3. I need a pinpointer, lol. I can see why so many people say they won't detect without one.

4. I also noticed that the volume on my headphones slowly faded to the point that I had to unplug it and just use the speaker. Any suggestions?

I hope that it's just the user (me) being defective instead of the Compadre. I purchased the Compadre due to its outstanding reviews and am looking forward to getting these issues resolved.

I had previously ordered a BH Tracker IV but that is lost in transit and is a different story, sigh.

Thanks for reading!

 

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[G.A.P.metal]

Kave
Around/in the house the detector is picking up EMI from all the TV/ appliances/ wireless router/cell phone/overhead wires/buried dog fence.
Trying turning down the Senc. on the machine and see if it gets better....might lose a little depth.
Gary

 

[kavehnj]

GAP, Do you mean turn up the discrimination? The Tesoro only has that one dial. Thanks!

 

[G.A.P.metal]

OOOO i thought it would have a senc. knob sorry
Gary

 

[Dan B]

The sensitivity pot is internal.

 

[63bkpkr]

If you purchased your machine local then contact the store to find out what to do.

The other option is to email Tesoro and ask for help.

I do not own your model/brand detector so from here down these are possible items but they may not relate to your machine:

A floppy coil cable will/could cause some problems. Make sure the cable connection to the box is tight. With the machine turned on, the cable connector tight at the box wiggle the cable where it goes into the coil, if the machine 'squawk's' then the cable to coil connection is bad. Do the same with the opposite end of the cable at the control box. Any wiggle that causes the box to 'squawk' indicates a bad cable connection or unlikely but a bad cable.

As suggested earlier, some of the noise you may be hearing around a house, if the cable check shows the cable connections are good, are likely coming from Electrical Interference from modern appliances or overhead electric lines.

The beep at the end of a swing, especially if you force the return by jerking the coil back quickly, is bothersome to me. The picture below shows what I've done to my detectors to control/eliminate cable shake faults.

Around the shaft is a piece of "Velcro Loop" with double back tape on the reverse side of it. I cut a piece just large enough so it would go all the way around the shaft and was plenty wide enough to allow for various angles of the cable caused by the angle of the coil to the shaft.

I then use a piece of double back Velcro, loop on one side fibers on the other, and wrap this around the cable and the Velcro on the shaft. The double back Velcro sticks to the Velcro on the shaft and sticks to itself. I allow for a good overlap of the double sided Velcro over itself so no matter what the angle of the cable to the shaft I always have a good solid tight wrap that does not come loose.

With the cable firmly locked to the velcro on the shaft one can now do anything they want with the cable that is, the cable can be coiled around the shaft (as shown in the picture) or the cable can be run parallel to the shaft for a distance then another piece of Velcro can be applied to hold the cable to the shaft and then the cable can be coiled onto the shaft from that point up to the box.

The velcro with double backed tape applied to the lower section of the shaft can be repeated further up the shaft closer to the box if one wants to have really good control over the cable. Velcro applied over the cable and bare shaft can slide up and down the shaft somewhat but if there is a velcro layer double back taped to the shaft and then velcro is applied over the cable/velcro/shaft, as in the picture, the cable is not going anywhere. (clumsy wording but I think you can picture what I'm trying to say).
I purchased the various Velcro types at a local Home Depot store. Hope even a tiny bit of this helps...............63bkpkr

 

[kavehnj]

63bkpkr, initially I tried wrapping the cable even tighter and it didn't seem to help too much. Looking at your pic, it seems mine is wound way tighter. I will try loosening it a bit and securing it at either end as you suggested. Thanks!

 

[CladGrabber]

Make sure you are not "tilting/rolling" the coil at the end of your swing. Make sure to stay parallel with the ground.

 

[kavehnj]

CladGrabber, that's interesting because when I would raise it up off the ground and as you said rotate it back and forth I could easily influence the onset of the beeping. Do you know why that type of motion sets it off?

 

[63bkpkr]

Maybe when the coil is tilted the edge of the coil starts reading something different. You could test to see of the edge of the coil is extra sensitive by putting the bottom of the coil at 90 degrees to the ground, straight up. Now move the coil over the ground (maybe with a penny on the ground and then without the penny) to see how it reacts.......................63bkpkr

 

[CladGrabber]

Be patient this hobby is not a race.
Practice proper technique, "low and slow" and keep that coil flat at the ends of your swings.
As you progress and learn your machine you will be able to easily distinguish a solid signal from a false one.
If the machine is just going bananas there are 3 main root causes; 1. Interference 2.ground loaded w targets or 3.and least likely machine malfunction.