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I didn't know if I should laugh or cry!!

5

54shooter

New member
I recieved my Sovereign Elite from Ron today and couldn't wait to get it out in the field to see what would happen. I got her put together and went to a baseball field complex that I got permision to hunt. It was started in the mid 30's with 1 field and has grown to 8 over the years. I have some high hopes for that area, not super old but I think that it could hold some silver. I don't know if it's cheating but I took my AT-PRO out first ans swept a area and marked targets that I had pretty good confidence of what they were. Then I grabbed the Elite and tried to sweep it as if I were actually hunting with it. Well I fired it up and set the controls and started sweeping................ All of 10 seconds later it made a kind of mid tone bang that held the tone and as if it was slowing down the tone turned into a fast click then continued to slow down until it stopped, all in about 10 seconds and quit. I fiddled with the controls and unhooked the coil and pulled the headphones out a few times and nothing would get it to turn back on. I then took the battery pack out and put it back in and YAY it came back on. Well then I started swinging again and didn't have another problem for about an hour. I wanted to keep going but it was 102 degrees today and I just couldn't take the heat. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer but I think that there is still something going on with it. I'm to the point now that I'm going to replace the battery pack, I'm going to start shopping around for the best prices on a new battery pack and charger and a new 8" tornado coil for it. I think I'll swap out the battery pack first, then go with the coil. I just can't believe that the problem isn't electrical. I appreciate what Ron has done for me so much. I want him and everybody that might read this to know that. It's about 7:00 here now so i'm going back out till dark to see what happens. I'm open to any ideas on what my next move should be to get this baby up and running!!!! I'll repost what it did this evening. Thanks Tony
 
It sure sounds like a battery problem as you had to take it out and put it back in again and it stared to work. Is this the rechargeable pack or is it the alkaline pack?? If it is the rechargeable pack it could have a problem with it, so if you have a alkaline pack try this with 8 good alkaline batteries and see if this will correct the problem, if not I would be looking at the battery clips on the GT to see if they are OK as sometimes I have seen that a film build up on them so the connection is not good. This would be the first thing I would do before buying a different coil or a different rechargeable battery. If you don't have a alkaline battery pack I would be glad to send you my new one to try and you can send it back when done testing, or can sell it to you also if you want. If you think it is the coil I can send you my 8 inch coinsearch to try also as I haven't use either one this year yet for health reasons and I been trying to learn my CTX 3030 when I have been able to get out.

Rick
 
Tony your alkaline pack had a good charge,my suggestion without the coil connected power up the Elite,threshold just enough to hear,and see how long the unit will run,long shot, but worth a try.HH Ron
 
I'll give that a try Ron, I took it out this evening after it cooled off a little and started the same way as earlier. I took my AT-PRO and found several targets that I was fairly confidant as to what they were. 78-79 copper penny, 80-83 clad dime and 60-64 ?. I went thru the penny and dime real good. I'm doing this to try and learn the tones faster. Anyway in about 5 mins. it did the siren thing again and shut down. I took the battery out (double A pack) and put it back in and nothing. I set it aside and finished the evening with the PRO and thought I'd fire the Elite up real quik before I left and nothing. So I don't know what's up with that. I'll try and fire it up in the A.M. That's very kind of you Rick and I may take you up on it but I want to try the Minelab dealer that's close by and see if they will help me out. I'll keep posting on what's going on.Thanks alot guy's. I don't know when but I will be swinging that machine!!
 
Next time it shuts down I would leave the GT on and wiggle the alkaline battery pack and push on different areas to see if you can hear it trying to start up as this should tell if the pack is making a good connection. Maybe even try to take the pack out too while on to see if you can hear anything like static or something to see if there could be a bad connection between the pack and the GT where the pack connects.
 
Also, next time it shuts off bang on the box top bottom and left and right sides a bit. If it fires back up or makes a noise then you've got a short somewhere. Could be a cold solder joint on the board, a loose wire, or such, but my money is on it being the battery pack connectors either inside the alkaline holder or where it contacts to the GT. Those tabs where it contacts the GT can be bent out a bit. Also, those battery clips come off. Lift up on them and they come out of the holder (the two main battery leads that contact the GT). Clean under those and where they make contact to the holder, as I bet you've got gunk between those clips and the alkaline holder. Second bet is the AA battery leads themselfs. The one on the one end will slide right out of the holder as it's not attached to anything and only meant to connect the bottoms/tops of all the batteries on that side of the holder. Pull that thing out and look on both sides of it and see if you can spy any bad connections. Then look at the other end of the holder (this end won't come out) and see if you spy any bad contacts. Sometimes the negative spring contacts will twist and not contact the negative of a batttery end well. That's the #1 problem I've seen with AA holders on various devices. Sometimes you have to take needle nose pliers and bend/twist those springs so they seat properly on the negative end of the battery. Clean all contacts with an eraser from a pencil and then rubbing alchohol and a q-tip.

Good luck.
 
I'll try that again and I don't want to sound dumb but I don't know what the GT is?
 
GT is a model of detector. I think he didnt read the OP "Original Post" I think he thinks it is a Sov GT model
 
You've got an Elite. I just say GT because I'm used to typing that, but both control boxes are the same with just some minor differences in the electronics, so everything still applies. Same battery holders too. I'm really thinking it might be gunk under the battery tabs. Open your holder and lift up on the two main battery leads that contact the Elite when plugged in. They lift right out. Clean under them. If it ain't thouse then check the AA leads. Also, slide the lid open and then pull up on one side and it will pop off. Look at the two wires in that side hidden compartment. Pull on them a bit and make sure one wire isn't got a bad solder job on it.

I'm suspecting your problem is right at the battery area, but if it ain't that then I'm betting you've got a cold solder joint on the board somewhere or a dirty plug/connector. Such as the main two pin power plug that goes to the face plate, or the ribbon connector. Those ribbon connectors are notorious for getting shorts at the contacts on various devices.

Your symptoms sound like it's losing battery voltage with a bad connection, hence the low battery alarm you get some times before it shuts off. If it ain't any of that stuff then you might have a faulty voltage regulator on the board would be my last guess.
 
OK, I kinda thought that was what you were talking about when you said GT, I just wanted to make sure it didn't stand for something else. There are so many abbreviations, I don't know what alot of them mean. I think I can handle the battery pack stuff but if it goes farther than that I'm gonna be lost. I've never soldered anything in my life. I don't know why it worked for Ron and is as bad or even worse for me unless it has something to do with the coil or headphones. Those are the only variables that I see. It did go through one stretch of about an hour that it worked for me but that's it. Monday I'm going to my local Minelab dealer to see if they have a coil, any coil that I can throw on it and see if that makes a difference. I'm not optimistic though. I hope it doesn't have to make a trip to IL or FL but if it does so be it.
 
Tony,I would check the batteries with a multimeter.Start with new batteries and log in your run time,remove the battery pack when not being used. HH Ron
 
I pulled my battery tabs on the alkaline holder today. Sorry, thought they had contacts under them but see now that they are soldered to wires. Still might want to slide them off just to make sure the solder connection is good, and slide off the right battery terminal PC board and look at it for breaks.
 
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