issues with my MX7

[dfmike]

I wrote that I had battery holder issues a short while ago. I don't know if this is related but I was out hunting with the MX7 today and it powered off by itself on three occasions in about 2 hours. No matter how I close the battery holder, it never fully locks and I can't open it with my bare hands alone even after pushing one of the release buttons (the other one never fully locks).

Also, the MX7 has been plagued by falsing issues. It's driving me nuts and results in a lot of time wasted rechecking targets. It beeps twice for a good target like it should but it also constantly beeps only once and because I often think I have a good target, I pass the coil over the area again. Sometimes it will beep once again with the same tone or a different tone but most of the time it will go completely silent as if there was nothing there in the first place. I've tried ground balancing in several areas and the numbers are almost always the same and identical with what I get with other detectors in the same are. I have also tried lowering the sensitivity. I usually hunt at a setting of 5 and I've lowered it to 4 with no effect. I've had a Fisher F44 that would also false way too much for my liking but no other detector I have used exhibits this behavior on such a scale. Unfortunately the standard coil is the only one I have so I can't try another.

Is regular falsing normal for this detector ? I haven't noticed an inordinate amount of falsing in the videos I have seen on youtube of either the MX7 or MX Sports.

I wrote to White's regarding the battery holder issue.

 

[Hombre]

... It sounds like a battery pack issue, are you slamming it back into position? Because that is what it takes, just pushing it in will never work... The MX5 has the same battery pack design and in the manual it says to gently "slam" the pack into the battery box. Monte explained that well in a previous post about your battery issue.

 

[dfmike]

I've tried slamming it in gently and as forcefully as I can and only one of the release buttons will lock. Getting the holder to completely come out cannot be done without prying it out with a flat head screw driver.

I should have sent it back to the dealer when I got it. I'm communicating with Whites now and will hopefully get it fixed under warranty.

 

[MattBullSummerville]

MX 7 if it's like the MX Sport runs real hot. I run my MX5 around 7-8 on the sensitivity. My MX Sport will really lick up a lot of ground noise in many locations if I try to push the sensitivity that high. Try bringing it down to 5-6 if you are running it higher than that. I had a problem with the battery holder on the MX5, (same set as the MX7), once the contacts issue was corrected and I made sure to get the pack firmly snapped in and did a factory reset all the issues went away. On the MX5 factory reset instructions are on the bottom of the battery housing.

 

[dfmike]

Thanks for your input Matt. The battery holder issue will be corrected when detection season is over. It seems to work with no problems if I slam the dickens out of it. One of the release buttons still doesn't lock but at least I don't lose power.

I'm also thinking that the MX7 runs unusually hot (at least compared to the machines I have used). I can manage the noise better by playing with some settings. I've still never used gain past 5.

On the MX5, do you have to press a set of buttons to physically reset the machine ? There is a menu option on the MX7 to perform a reset and I've already used it the first time I got the machine out of the box.