sorry 1st time post, frustrated w/ false signals, my own inexperience

[kaintuckman]

I went out yesterday and today with my new Exp II and I have some questions. It behaved very erratically in one yard, beeping and booping like crazy. I was in the factory default setting and had done the auto noise cancellation after start-up and then again in a different location. There were some power lines nearby, but just the house feed....? Today I was getting alot of false targets and using the 8" coil I had trouble detecting a silver 50c piece I buried at 6-8". Also I noticed that with the digital display, I would get a high conductivity signal that would not repeat consistantly so I would move away and as I searched on, the display would still have the same numbers on it from the prievious signal. How often does it refresh? Also does the pinpiont mode relate depth and conductivity info, or does it just give out the audio signal for locating? Finally, I had problems with it shutting down if I moved it too quickly or jarred it. Once it shut off when I turned it on it's side. Is there any way to take up the slop in the battery pack? Is it because it came with the alkaline battery pack instead of the rechargable one? I hate it that the headphone cord plugs into the end of the handle. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[AK in KY]

Guessing your from Kentucky. If we are close maybe I can help.

AK in KY

 

[kaintuckman]

I'm in Lexington but travel to Owensboro, Richmond and Irvine alot.

 

[AK in KY]

I live in New Castle. Not all that far away. If you have a couple of places to keep us busy I would be willing to help you out. Like most everyone else I'm still learning.

AK in KY

 

[Joe G]

Oh man, I feel your frustration... I was pretty much blown away by all the sounds when I first used mine 6 months ago. You really have to study up on the manual and go through this forum and look up all of Cody's posts as he goes through the manual. Very informative and helpful. With my limited experience, I'll go on the limb here and offer some advice

My machine had some intermittent problems with it being erratic almost from the get-go. One minute it was fine and the next it was going crazy. I recently had to send the unit back because the coil was bad; totally died on me one day. Not beyond the realm of possibility that there's simply something wrong with your machine.

However, I do have one area (my front yard) where I cannot run this machine above a sens of 16. It chatters all over the place no matter how many times I press noise cancel or where I set the noise manually. I have streetlights in front of my house and the electric runs under the sidewalk, not too far from the front lawn. (at least that's what I think it is). Haven't had any problems elsewhere.

Yes the unit will shut down if you give it a good jar, but simply laying it down shouldn't cause it. There is a spring at the bottom of the battery compartment and you want to be careful putting the battery pack in. Don't drop it in or you might damage (compress) the spring (happened to a friend of mine)

Regarding the headphone jack, well, I don't think there's much you can do about that one. I really never found it to be a problem. It doesn't get in my way.

I would check your gain and make sure it's not set too high. Depending on where you're hunting, it can cause a lot of chatter that will drive you up a wall.

Did you silicone your coil cover to seal it from dirt and moisture?

No offense but check your shoes and make sure they're not steel toed and don't have metal in the eyelets or around the laces.

Lastly, others have posted elsewhere of having success correcting strange problems by simply performing a hard re-start on the machine to put it back to the original factory settings. If I'm not mistaken, it's like re-booting your computer.

The best thing of course is to get together with someone else who uses one. I had the opportunity to hunt with a couple of guys who were long time Exp users and that was most helpful. Pretty neat to be able to compare what you're hearing or discuss whether or not it's diggable.

 

[kaintuckman]

Thanks for the reply! I went to a local park today, dug alot of trash and seven pennies. I've had no more unexpected shut-offs and I'm digging fewer ghost holes so it may just be the learning curve. I still am not finding the really deep stuff, maybe that comes with experience?

I never considered my boots could cause problems! They have metal eyelets. Can that really cause ghosting?

I've done the hard reset several times to the factory setting and have used some of the "programs" available in posts as well(thanks posters!). I've read alot online and keep the manual with me so I can use it side by side with the detector, so I know more each time I go out. The quick start setting is supposed to be the turn on and go feature? I seem to have limited sucess with it.

I'm finally getting the hang of how the Exp2 pinpoints so I'm digging fewer bomb craters. Twice today when I popped the pulltab out of the ground with my screwdriver, I had put the shaft right through it.

Is it wrong not to have a coil cover?

 

[Cody]

Metal toes and even eyelets can be detected. One thing I have found is all the Minelab detector I have purchased have battery packs with oxidized contacts. Oxidation can be very resistive so should be cleaned off the contacts. The battery pack should "snap" in place and when removed the yellow tab at the end has to be activated to release the battery pack. The pack should not be anywhere near being not tight in when in place.

If I question the depth of detection on any detector I go to all metal and see how deep I am detecting iron. The only reason I use iron is the ground is full of it so we get a quick idea of depth. If we can detect a small piece of iron at 10" then we will detect a coin at that depth. I realized we have to gain confidence in our detector and that will come as the deep coins are detected. However, depending on where you are hunting there can be very few deep coins to find. Many of the public parks, as an example, have been gone over pretty good. We have to pick thought he deep iron and trash and do find the coins but one can get the idea that we should pick them up like pecans under a tree. I have gone for days with no really good find depending on the site then find that really good deep coins that made it work the effort.

Good luck,