Hey guys, I still have a few months left on my warranty for my E-trac and I was hoping I would be able to send it in for a Checkup, just to make sure everything was working properly and what not....I called minelab a while back and asked the guy how to go about sending it in for a checkup and he said I can't really do that unless I know something is wrong with the machine and then I would have to let them know ahead of time why I'm sending it in....I guess I'm just confused about how the whole process works, so if someone has sent theirs in for a checkup or knows who I can go through, I would appreciate it. I'd like to do it while the weather is still cold
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Not allowed to send in E-trac for a checkup while it still has warranty?
- Thread starter DigDugNY
- Start date
sprchng
Well-known member
Your machine came with a warranty not a maintenance agreement. If it's working alright then what are you concerned about? Maybe you can pay for an extended warranty?
I sent a detector to White's once to have it gone through and declared fit--it cost me $125---expect the same from Minelab today to cost $200
I sent a detector to White's once to have it gone through and declared fit--it cost me $125---expect the same from Minelab today to cost $200
I've seen plenty of people who when selling their machines say they sent it back to the factory to get a good bill of health and to make sure they are functioning correctly. I never actually bought the machine new, so before the warranty is up i figured why not send it in to make sure there aren't any small things that might become a problem later after the warranty is up. Idk, if they wont do it that way, then I will have to just deal I guess
I dont mind paying some money to get it checked up, but the guy didn't even give me an explanation on what I would need to do about sending it in...their explanation on the website is confusing. idk about you guys, but when you buy something used, especially a detector...sometimes you get a voice inside your head saying you might want to get it checked, even if there is nothing wrong with it. That's just me anyways. I'm not trying to sound selfish
surfchunker
New member
I'm sure if your willing to pay for it they would check it out for a price, Kellyco does the repairs for Minelab now in the US so maybe call Kellyco and ask them
GeorgeinSC
Well-known member
it is my understanding that Kellyco will not touch a machine that still has Warranty remaining. If they did so it would void the warranty.
surfchunker
New member
nope Kellyco is an authorized repair center now
Illinoismic
New member
This is why I have issues buying used.. from sites like ebay. You can never really go off of what people say ( this is sad) but I am also thinking about sending my detector in to be refurbished. Just cause they are so technical and are computers... once in a while I would think having them opened, cleaned, and inspected by a professional is a good idea. Alot of things happen in the field and some we can't even see. Warranty should only cover the machines defects tho and an out of pocket expense is a reasonable request.
My take on this subject is if it works, don't fix it!
Having said that and since my eTRAC is out of the warranty period, i took a peak inside just to see what makes it tick.
The most concerning issue is that there are a lot and i mean a lot of electrical connecters involved in the design. For one thing there is a mother PCB and a daughter PCB tied together with connectors. Connectors in my experience can/are/could be the weak link in any electronic design depending on the quality of the connectors used and other factors such as thermal cycling, connect/disconnect cycling, corrosive environment, gold plated contacts, etc.
In electronic circuit MTBF or MTTF calculations, each connector contact in a design can bump down the overall reliability number, how much depends on the quality and the connector's own MTBF specification furnished by the connnector's manufacturer. These numbers are typically derived in a test lab and can be misleading depending on the customer's application and the environment the connector is used in.
Electrical connectors can fail permanently but more typically a flaky connector contact causes intermittent issues.
One example i can give is my 1st job out of college was a field engineer for a large main frame computer company. The designers for purposes of field trouble shooting and ease of field repair decided to use chip sockets for each and every IC chip. Further, for ease of field upgrades, they also decided to wire wrap all electrical connections to each socket.
This mainframe computer was a reliability nightmare with many many intermittent failures some of which required to replace the entire and very expensive PCB rather than field repairing it. Sometimes we got lucky and just re-seating the chips fixed the problem.
Towards the end of this computer's manufacturing period, the PCBs were re-designed with all chips soldered in and the wire wraps were replaced by PCB traces.
The result? Those last main frames were very reliable.
As a design engineer before retirement, i tried to avoid connectors and chip sockets as much as possible in my circuit designs. Sometimes its just not possible to avoid them. The age old design dilema......Manufacturability OR Reliability OR Ease of field troubleshooting/repair.
IMO, my bottom line would be to only send in a detector if its either permanently broke or has ongoing intermittent issues.
For intermittent issues its extremely important to try to recreate the problem at will, then relay that failure procedure to the repair facility.
That will help prevent a NPF (no problem found) when the detector is returned.
Having said that and since my eTRAC is out of the warranty period, i took a peak inside just to see what makes it tick.
The most concerning issue is that there are a lot and i mean a lot of electrical connecters involved in the design. For one thing there is a mother PCB and a daughter PCB tied together with connectors. Connectors in my experience can/are/could be the weak link in any electronic design depending on the quality of the connectors used and other factors such as thermal cycling, connect/disconnect cycling, corrosive environment, gold plated contacts, etc.
In electronic circuit MTBF or MTTF calculations, each connector contact in a design can bump down the overall reliability number, how much depends on the quality and the connector's own MTBF specification furnished by the connnector's manufacturer. These numbers are typically derived in a test lab and can be misleading depending on the customer's application and the environment the connector is used in.
Electrical connectors can fail permanently but more typically a flaky connector contact causes intermittent issues.
One example i can give is my 1st job out of college was a field engineer for a large main frame computer company. The designers for purposes of field trouble shooting and ease of field repair decided to use chip sockets for each and every IC chip. Further, for ease of field upgrades, they also decided to wire wrap all electrical connections to each socket.
This mainframe computer was a reliability nightmare with many many intermittent failures some of which required to replace the entire and very expensive PCB rather than field repairing it. Sometimes we got lucky and just re-seating the chips fixed the problem.
Towards the end of this computer's manufacturing period, the PCBs were re-designed with all chips soldered in and the wire wraps were replaced by PCB traces.
The result? Those last main frames were very reliable.
As a design engineer before retirement, i tried to avoid connectors and chip sockets as much as possible in my circuit designs. Sometimes its just not possible to avoid them. The age old design dilema......Manufacturability OR Reliability OR Ease of field troubleshooting/repair.
IMO, my bottom line would be to only send in a detector if its either permanently broke or has ongoing intermittent issues.
For intermittent issues its extremely important to try to recreate the problem at will, then relay that failure procedure to the repair facility.
That will help prevent a NPF (no problem found) when the detector is returned.
sprchng said:
If that is indeed true a $900 MB replacement, that IMO is BS and Minelab knows it. What are they thinking?
How can a PCB be more than half the cost of a new detector? For crysake, you can get used eTRACs for that price. Ridiculous!
It wouldn't surprise me if some/most MB replacements are the result of flakey connectors.
I know how some technicians work. They just instantly replace a PCB which then fixed the problem....But i'm sure In a lot of cases just reseating or replacing the MB to DB connector(s) could end up fixing the problem also. A much much cheaper fix.
Sad troubleshooting! Even sadder cost to the customer.