mxt acting up

[qwerksc]

Hello all, long time lurker, just joined. Had my mxt for over 4 years, love the thing, today set out for a short hunt at a local park with a volleyball net, in sand. turned the machine on and it acted very jumpy, chirpy. not normal, I usually run low disc, kinda noisey threshold with the gain as high as i can stand. I also run in relic mode w/ the toggle forward, dual relic. I don't know whats up, i still found things coins and trash, yet very unstable, not my normal chaos. my batteries read 11 and the ground is 45 to 50, at this park. The batteries have been in for awhile though, many hours and multiple hunts. I hunt 2 to 3 days a week at 1/2 to 3 hrs a pop. Just find it strange, my mxt is usually trouble free. I'm going to check it now that i am home, see if it still wonky. maybe change batteries as well. I love the forum, tons of good info and lots of great finds here.
Thanks,
Mark in Santa Cruz, Ca

 

[Aarong81]

There are a lot of variables with batteries besides voltage that cause the problems you described. I'm an avid believer that batteries are a very common problem due to experiencing the same problem myself and new Alkalines fixed the chattering and unstable issues. The manual says you can use non-Alkaline batteries but DON'T use 'heavy duty' batteries in any electronic device that you care about. The manual claims you can detect till the lo-bat indicator comes on, I've had extensive chattering well before then. Usually, I change batteries around 10 volts because that is the fine line where I notice extra chatter. It takes a LONG time for Alkalines to drop to 10 volts so I get a lot of life out of each set of batteries. I have not used rechargeables in my MXT but most are only 1.2 volts each and total a max of 9.6 volts at full charge. There are some rechargeable AA's that are 1.5 to 1.7 volts each(lithium, zinc, Eneloops?, Ni-ZN, ect) use at your own risk. Some of these have been tested to 1.9 volts per battery, well above the claimed voltage! I remember seeing a post from Whites that claimed any "AA" battery was acceptable. It came down to what the voltage regulator could handle and it is rated to around 15 volts if I remember right. When you get unexplained chatter and instability just think about batteries. Its really easy to check the difference with fresh ones so you can tell pretty quickly if that fixes it.

Another possibility is EMI interference in the area that you were detecting. It could be completely underground if you don't see a lot of power lines, ect. I was sure I had that problem in my local park because it only acted up when I got to one side of the park. I gave up and went home but it was months later that I ventured back to the same area and didn't have a bit of trouble that time. That was the first time I realized that new batteries fixed a common misnomer blaming EMI interference.

See THIS Topic about the MXT acting up, It has some good info in there and seems to be what you are having trouble with as well.

 

[qwerksc]

There must have been something underground at that park, I checked it a my home and back to normal. Odd, I think I'll change the batteries, then go back to the park for a test, see how she runs. love the mxt, pulled many a ground score with it and would hate to see something wrong with it.
Aaron, I read that thread, thanks for the heads up.

 

[Joel-Winnipeg]

Underground wiring or over head wires maybe.
Had problems with telephone/ microwave towers in the past being to close by.