Cold weather detecting question

[robertj298]

Yesterday was the first day out with my etrac and everything seemed to work fine. I even found a mercury dime with it . Today I went out and it worked ok but the screen didn't seem to work right. There seemed to be a hesitation on the readings and most of the time when I used the quick mask I would get an audible signal but bo numerical signal at all. Yesterday temps were in the 30s and today it was colder probably in the mid to upper 20s. Would that have caused my problem?

 

[DirtDean]

Well, if your Etrac is messed up then so is mine. Mine has done exactly what you describe since I can remember... I think it might have to do with noise cancel, sensitivity, signals in the ground, EMI etc... it doesn't do it all the time but it does do it consistently.... It seems to just be the updating of the screen for me, the audio signal is all good. Maybe it just needs a faster processor? Does anyone else ever get this?

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

I've hunted all winter for the last three years ( unless the snow gets to deep) with out any problems.

Here's a very important Winter hunting tip that was told to me over the phone by a Minelab repair tech a few years ago ...

"Hunting in very cold weather with not harm your machine - but DO NOT ... bring your machine in from the cold and put it next to the heater in your car or bring it in to a warm house - if your machine warms up to fast - condensation can form inside the control box and damage the processor - a very expensive repair" !

After a cold hunt - I always double wrap the control box with a big terry cloth beach towel and put the machine inside the insulated factory Minelab carry bag.
This allows the machine to warm up very slowly so no condensation can form.

Good luck !

 

[Bill - De]

Cold temperature causes the LCD (liquid crystal display) to become very slow in responding. Once back to normal temps, it will work as always. No harm done. This is true of any standard LCD. The rest of the machine should continue to work normally, unless the battery is too cold to continue to deliver power.

If you are going to hunt in sub-freezing temps, there are things that you can do to keep the control box and the battery warmer than the outside temp.

 

[LabradorBob]

yep, i have even seen people put one of those handwarmer things in a cover over the detector to keep it warm in very cold temps.
never tried it myself though.

 

[moonshine]

nothing to do with the cold, thats just the way the etrac works. you'll get the hang of it. there is always an instant sound response but not always an instant numbers response. it wont display a number until after it thinks its stopped detecting a signal. if it keeps reading signals it will hesitate displaying a number. but it will keep sounding off on what it senses is in the ground. thats why after a while you will use the numbers secondarily to the sounds.

 

[ChicagoJohn]

I do noise cancel often but my problem is frozen ground is diffcult to digging! 2 days ago weather hitted low 40's degrees so I went out to hunt. Diffcult to digging from surface down to about 3 or 4 inch deep to find a coin.

 

[DiggerODirt]

I just got a ball handled Sampson shovel with the serrated edge...Great in hard or frozen ground...Not exactly cheap though,but well worth the cash.

HH,

 

[Cutaplug]

Very common with any LCD screen. My car does it every morning when it's cold out and etrac does it too a little. Once you get familiar with the audio signals it won't even bother you.