CTX Acting weird

[erick byrne]

I switched on my new CTX 3030 tonight and it went completely nuts! Targets started to show on the screen at a very fast rate in many different positions on the screen, even when the coil was held high in the air. It acts as if someone were swinging a bucket of nails and coins in front of the coil. I really didn't think much of it and turned the machine off and back on, and it happened again, and again, and again. So I removed the coil cover and cleaned the coil & cover, I checked all connections and I reset the machine, twice! And it didn't solve my problem. I moved 100 feet away from my house to make sure it wasn't some environmental or electrical interference, but it didn't make any difference. I changed out the 11" coil for my 6" coil, with the same results. I only have about 30 hours of experience with the CTX but I am sure this isn't right.

It didn't appear to be damaged in transit, and I am VERY careful while using and cleaning it.

After a night of charging the battery (I wanted to make sure that wasn't the problem) I took it out again this morning, and again, the same problem. Then I played with the sensitivity adjustment; In Auto mode the machine still acts up, but if I set it to Manual and adjust the setting really low (1-5) it seems to quiet down.

I am very new to MD'ing and Minelab machines, so I took everyone's advice and stuck with the stock coin & silver programs with no edits,so I could learn the basics of the machine before I started to experiment with the settings.

Now that I think back, I do get a lot of strong, repeatable signals that I dig that result in empty holes. I live in Virginia, and we have a lot of iron in the soil, so I expect to see a few false hits, but I seem to see more than my fair share of false "good" signals. I've read that many people find coins within the first few hours of owning this particular machine, but I have only found 2 modern pennies in about 30 hours of use, even after hunting around several houses that were at least 100 years old. Does anyone think I have a machine that might be defective?

 

[jas415]

Erick, I don't know but there are several things to do to give yourself a better answer. The vast majority of time it is an operator error of some sort. 1. Do a reset. 2. Make double sure the connections on the coil are correct. Should go on pretty easy and screw in rather easy. Just make sure the little notch is lined up correct. 3. Put the machine in 'Auto' sensitivity. 4. Do a 'noise cancel' a couple of times. 5. Then find a clean area, 'enable' ground balance and do a Ground balance. And last, if there is anyone in the area with another CTX see if you can get them to look at it. To my recollection there are quite a few CTX folks in your state, just where I have no idea.

 

[chadwick]

6........ clean coil and coil cover

 

[xentryx]

Had the same thing happen to me exactly as you described. Found a nice clean area away from the houae, reset the machine, held it to the ground, ran a noise cancel and that fixed it right up.

 

[Larry (IL)]

Your problem sounds like EMI like you turned it on in your house. You need to get it away from electrical interference.

 

[erick byrne]

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I think I figured out the problem; I took my CTX 3030 about 30 yards into the woods around my house and all of a sudden, it quieted down. I turned around and walked back to the house and it went nuts again. So there must be something at my house that the machine just doesn't like. It gets especially noisy in the 25 yard area between my house and my neighbors house. So I'm guessing the buried electrical & telephone cables, the dog containment "fence" or maybe a strong WiFi signal from one of the surrounding houses was causing the problem. I guess I never noticed it before and now that I have a little more experience with it, I am beginning to more readily notice odd behavior.

For now my dream machine seems to be fine. Thanks again for all the suggestions, I'm sure I will have many more questions in the future.

 

[Howard Snell]

Does the same thing in my house and my front yard and most of my back yard.

 

[Historical Prospector]

I have had several Minelab detectors, and they all went crazy near a dog containment fence. Usually only happens when the yard is a really-really old yard and I know it would have been a great yard to hunt. I ended up walking away from the yards, because there was nothing I could do to change the interference the machine picked up.

 

[erick byrne]

This problem sucks, I can't run my machine in my own yard! I'm going to experiment by turning on and off the electrical "things" at and around my house and see if I can find out exactly what is causing the interference. When I find out, I will post it here.