Received my xterra 50 today - intersting experience

[dfwdetector]

First I must say it was delivered quickly with all the free items as promised by the dealer.

It was easy to put together. My first 10 minutes with the detector on was livng hell though. It was noisy, beeping at anything, erratic and a pain in the butt. The manual said just turn it on and its ready to go so that's what I did..... Right! ...... WRONG!

I remembered since I have an XLT that probably the default settings were not correct. Yep, I was right the volume was at max 20, the sensitiviy at max 20. So what goober at the factory decided to make the max settings the default then have a quick startup guide that says just turn it on and its ready to go... Sheesh...

Any way I dropped the sensitivity to 15. I did the Ground Balance then it acted almost right. The Pinpoint button they should indicate is a toggle button as well as the All Metal Button. Maybe I should have spent more time in the manual....

I kept getting confused between the Pinpoint/All Metal and trying to return to either the Pattern 1 or Pattern 2 Discriminators. I'll figure it out eventually I am sure.

I went to the local park for 2 hours with it where I had went with my white's xlt last week. My son went along who had never used a metal detector before and I gave him the whites and a quick course on how to use it. Needless to say he out hunted me by 6 cents. He found a quarter, nickel and 7 cents and I found a quarter nickel and 1 cent.

I am somewhat confused by the xterra response still. I ground balanced then detected for a while and went back to ground balance again and I did'nt get a threshold tone at all no matter where I adjusted the ground balance so I turned it off then back on. Then did the ground balance and it worked ok. So I detected again for a while and went to check the ground balance with the same result no tone again.

So I set it at 6 and hunted anyway. I like the weight of the machine, but I think maybe I still had the sensitivity too high since at times it still seemed erratic. The quarter I found read an unstable 39 and the nickel which was in amost the same area 3 inches away read a shaky 32. Maybe it was influenced by the quarter.

I have also written to Kellyco about my order since their was a factory service slip in the box indicating the unit had been returned to the factory for warranty service in January and the factory had replaced the coil with a new one. Who ever heard of a dealer advertising new prices and selling serviced machines without a disclaimer?

I think I will like the xterra once I get used to it.

dfwdetector

 

[tony (Orlando FL)]

I think that packing slip explains why the defaults were the way they were.

I would not be happy knowing I was sold a pre-owned unit at full price that was already shipped back for repairs.

I have an x-30, I can run it everywhere at full sens with no problems at all, the unit rarely chirps falsely.

Only you can decide what to do next.

Best of luck

Tony

 

[alaskaseeker]

Send it back to them, the unit should have gone to Los
Vegas for repairs not back to the big K.......Geo

 

[Mike Bearden]

The pinpoint button does act as a toggle when you have went into the menu to adjust something, the pinpoint button pushed ONCE again puts the 50 back into the detect mode it was in before you pushed MENU. Just a suggestion but I always start out in all metal with low sens to find the clean ground needed to GB properly. You can toggle back and forth from pattern 1 and 2 by just pushing the button, of course all metal is done separately.
The 32 reading on the nickel doesn't make sense unless it was averaging with another target ? You may be running it to hot for your area, what number does it GB at ? I have some areas where it GB at 4 but I still get excellent depth with the sens set on 12, like wheat cents at 8-9" deep in hot ground. So don't worry about turning it down if you have to.
All of my common nickels have locked solid on 12 so far and war nickels sometimes come in at 9. I dug a small piece of gold today that must have been the center piece of a class ring, it locked on 9 too.
Hope you get it worked out, pretty simple unit really, once you use it for a hunt or two.
H.H.
Mike

 

[dfwdetector]

Maybe I wasn't clear. The dealer Kellyco was the one who sent the unit back to minelab where minelab replaced the coil with a new one and returned it to Kellyco, who then shipped it to me when I ordered one. The serial # was 64 so it was out for a while. I can only guess that the dealer Kellyco checks each unit before selling it and possibly found that this unit was non-functional then returned it to minelab for warranty work. I would like to assume that anyway. I have sent an email to the dealer expressing my concerns and am awaiting a reply. Nothing was missing in the box and it looked like a brand new unit except for the pink minelab service slip in the box. There was no signs of previous use at all.

dfwdetector.

 

[dfwdetector]

Thanks for the info. Have you tried to check the ground balance after you hunted for a while? Do you have to always do that in All Metal mode? It seemed like sometimes I would GB at about 10 then sometimes I had to have it higher around 12 or so to get the tones to minimum change.

dfwdetector

 

[Mike Bearden]

Well the main reason I use all metal for initial GB is to make SURE there is no target under the coil before I balance the 50 and that's IMPORTANT.
Think of pushing the sound into the ground (is to positive) or pulling it out when you are doing it (is to negative) and when it equals out you're as close as it gets. Some like to run the GB just a tad bit on the positive side and YES it's a good idea to re-check the GB every now and then or obviously when the 50 starts acting up. If I think the GB gets out of wack during a hunt, I change the noise cancel first to see if it's electrical interference causing it, if not, I GB again.
But, it sounds like your in fairly neutral ground with a GB setting of 10 - 12.
H.H.
Mike

 

[Mike Bearden]

Kellyco is known for checking a detector BEFORE it leaves the store so you are probably correct with you assumption

Mike

 

[Digger]

Call JW at Kellyco first chance you get. 1-800-327-9697. You paid for new X-Terra. Not one that has already been serviced. HH Randy

 

[Eddie Currents]

I would return it. Seems like it's a refurbished unit, not a new one.

EC

 

[JW]

Yes, it does need to be returned and replaced. Minelab sent that detector to us by mistake, mixed in with new detectors, and Mr. Shultz wants it back. Call me at 800-898-6673 and I will arrange for a replcement.

JW

 

[dfwdetector]

Thanks for the prompt contact and offer to replace the machine with another new one. This confirms that you care about your customers and want them to have only the best. I appreciate it. However, since the only thing was that the coil was replaced with a new one, I don't see a need to return a perfectly good machine that there was nothing wrong with and has not seen any use until I received it. I have read the manual and returned the presets to the intial factory presets. Once again I thank you and your dealership(Kellyco) for their honesty in addressing this concern to my satisfaction.

dfwdetector

 

[JW]

DFW,

Sent your warranty card and keychain Next Day Air, you should have it Monday. Also you should be receiving a care package from Las Vegas.

Call me anytime.

JW

 

[dfwdetector]

Just a heartfelt thanks for everything. Received items and was overwhelmed by the response. Thanks so much it is truly appreciated! You prove that customer service and satisfaction takes first place.

Thanks again!

dfwdetector