Symptoms of a bad coil

[Talon25]

Hello all,
I have a Bounty Hunter QDII, I recently bought it used. Warranty is not an option.
My only other detecting experience is with a HF 9 function.

I have noticed sometimes the det will beep when I hit a blade of grass, also it gives loads of false readings. Good targets jump all over the depth and id, and it is no where near as reliable as the HF.
I took it over my little test garden and nothing rang true.
I was wondering if these are symptoms of a bad coil and if so is there any way I can check the coil with a multimeter to verify if this is the problem?

Also if there are any other symptoms I can check for.
Trying to narrow the issue.

Thanks all

 

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[Talon25]

a bit more info:
Air tests show good clean signal and accurate IDs, But in the ground all bets are off lol.
I had considered ground minerals but the same thing happened at 3 different sites, and also changed batteries for fresh alchy batts

plenty of head scratching here
Thanks again

 

[fishguy]

make sure your detector is plugged all the way in, and be sure to check if your cable is loosely wrapped down by the coil. the movement of the wire can be detected if to loose. My f2 will false beep in wet grass and I remember reading something about wet grass static? other than that have you gotten it overly wet or kinked the cable? worth checking out for local EMI and maybe dropping the sensitivity a bit. If all else fails give the people at BH a call I never had any problem with them.

 

[Talon25]

Thanks for the suggestions fishguy,
I checked connections and wire -tight, no kinks, taped wire at bottom of pole to make sure no movement. Still the same,

As I said I bought the machine used, So can't speak to if it has gotten overly wet tho I see no signs of it happening, and I didn't get it wet at all myself.
I did pull the female plug from the unit and all connections (solder joints) are connected and tight there

If anyone has a bounty hunter model that the coil has gone bad on it or knows a way to test the coil please share
Thanks again

 

[Talon25]

Hello all,
Well I took the detector 2 towns over to have it looked at and found out I need to learn to use a multi tone machine lol.
Seems to be working correctly, I guess I was expectin the machine to do more of the work my bad and it's all about learning it.
So now to learn to distinguish good targets from bad. Big difference going from a single tone to 3 tones.
Duh-huh

Thanks again fishguy for the reply
Talon25

 

[daemon1971]

Well the good thing is...., you don't have to buy a new coil or spend cash to fix it. Happy hunting

 

[Talon25]

yeah literally, Thanks for the support

 

[MickeyMaguire]

Three-tone ID and two-tone ID BH detectors are actually pretty accurate. I find that the ID tones are more reliable than the visual meter. I'm glad your coil is not defective.

 

[Rawhide]

Owning a Bounty Hunter Pioneer 202 I have a coil that is intermittent. I found tapping the wire lightly would expose where the short was. Usually close to the connector. I have a 10" inch coil that appears to have a short. Hitting things with the coil can cause movement inside the coil and that is not good. While scrubbing the ground with the coil is a preferred method, I would try not to hit anything with the coil. Yes the three tone is great, I still use 3 tone on my F75. Conside a small 5" inch coil also.

 

[Talon25]

Well I had to change my definition of a repeatable signal. With the single tone machine, I just swing, beep, repeat and dig. But with three tones I didn't realize that maybe it'd give different beeps on those swings, so was looking for the same tone for repeatable signals. I changed what I was listening for and it made a world of difference. Still I've had a few targets that gave the same beep for the repeatable target and those turned out to be coins laying flat in the hole.
Also noticed the QDII is really sensitive to EMI. Detected a yard not long ago that had power lines all around it. Falsed quite a bit but was still able to pull a handful of clad from the yard.

Thanks Casca for the symptoms I'll keep those in mind as I go
Mickey, Yeah it seems pretty accurate, Just the loose nut behind the wheel so to speak but tightening that down hehe

Thanks again for your replys