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XS going haywire

A

Anonymous

Guest
Hi,
I've had an Explorer XS for about three weeks now and I'm wondering if anyone can explain why the unit goes crazy after a few minutes use. By crazy, I mean the display(digital) will start to jump from one reading to another to another and so on, without even moving the coil. The audio in the meantime goes completely bonkers, chirping, beeping, etc. I usually cycle the power to stop it but yesterday this procedure didn't work. The battery indicator shows full charge. The settings were as suggested by a gentleman in the Explorer forum last week, for better results at coin shooting. I thought this may be the problem so I reset the unit to the factory defaults. It still goes crazy. Any ideas to what the problem may be?
 
Ron, I don't remember exactly when but sometime ago there was a posting on this forum about just such a problem. If I remember correctly the cure had to do with turning the unit on and while it was operating, removing the battery pack for at least one full minute, and then re-inserting the battery pack. This was supposed to reset the microprocessor chip and resolve the problem. Perhaps the writer of that post will be so kind as to post it again, or maybe someone else will have a copy of it and post it for us, or email it to you. That's the best I can do for you, sorry I couldn't be of more help. Good luck and HH, Jim. <IMG SRC="/metal/html/flag.jpg" BORDER=0 width=32 height=17 ALT="usa~"> <IMG SRC="/metal/html/ml.gif" BORDER=0 width=30 height=15 ALT="m~"> <IMG SRC="/metal/html/whites.jpg" BORDER=0 width=29 height=18 ALT="w~">
 
Jim, I found the info about resetting the unit in a post from Bill in Washington about the crosshairs sticking in one place.
Bill referenced a website: Mikes detectin Page http://mike45177.tripod.com/index.html. In it's Tips and Tricks section there are instructions for resetting the unit.
"have the rubber door opened with the battery inside turn the power on and when you hear the first tones on startup, pop the battery out. Wait a little, then place the battery back in and restart."
Incredible. I'll give it a try and post the results here, in case anyone else is having a similar problem.
Thanks Jim and Bill
 
that your sensitivity is way too high. You were probably too close to some electrical interference. There is a recent post about this on the FBS forum. Switch to manual and drop the sensitivity to low single digits and see if it becomes more stable. Also try another area. If it still does this at low MANUAL settings and at every site you go to... then your explorer may have issues. Try the reset Jim described.
There are places that it will go crazy at any setting above 10. One thing I suggest if you are new to the Explorer is to go to an open screen when listening for noise. It can be going absolutely nuts becasue of too high of sensitivity but if you have lots of discrimination you might not realize this; only hear a null.
Chris
 
Make sure the cables are connected tightly and reseat them...is it happening when you first start hunting? make sure you allow time for it to adjust to temp outside.. taking it from warm to cold causes condensation which can cause falsing as well
 
Hi Jim,
I haven't tried anything with the cables yet. The unit was pre-assembled when I got it, so maybe I should go over the whole thing and make sure everything is tight. Good thinking.
Thanks
 
Hi Chris,
I'll check the sensitivity when I get home today and let you know where it was set.
Do you think the factory defaults sets the sensitivity too high?
I haven't tried any area other than my yard so moving to another location just might do the trick.
Thanks for your help
 
Ron, as Jim said, you may want to re-seat the cable. There is only one cable I know of that would require this re-seating and that's the coil cable.
So you may also want to turn your unit to ON, WITHOUT the main cable from the main search coil or any other coil(such as the X-1)attachted and see if the detector "behaves" in the same way.
You won't be swinging a coil but it MAY help to know if the control box and battery are part of any problem.
Does this problem occur in at one particular place or is it everywhere you are detecting?
Some soil and general search and surrounding envioremental conditions underground, overhead and next to you, may also be the cause.
Eg: Searching next to a zinced galvinised "chain lock" or zinced galvinised "ring lock" wire fence caused me to reduce SENSATIVITY right down to 2 or 3 just so I could get to within about 8 inches of it, for a search, with my stock 10 1/2 inch coil.
A lowering of the SENSATIVITY in this case, may have had me finding very little that was buried any deeper than a certain amount for ceratin types of matal but any increase would have meant moving further away from the the source of "interference" which is not actually what it is as such. The fence was simply being detected before any other target was.
(This may have not been the case,of course, if I had used my M/L 8 inch or even a smaller coil.......MAYBE although I a pretty sure a smaller coil would have allowed me to get closer in such a "tight" and close search situation).
So it's just possible that you may be TOO close to an interefering external source that can't be cut out with a NOISE CANCEL or a simple re-setting to the onboard defaults.
Hope what I have mentioned here helps you out.
Hardnosed
 
I think the factory default is 16 Auto. Switch it to semi-auto and drop it down and see if it settles down. If not the others have posted some good advice.
Chris
 
I am speaking from personal experience. This summer I took my explorer from a cool airconditioned environment(inside my home)to the warm/hot outdoors to use it in a park only a couple of blocks away. When I got there and turned it on, it just freaked out! I mean it went nuts, squealing ,beeping,etc. sounded like it was trying to detect dozens of targets all at once. This happened on two trips, one right after the other. I ended up going right back home both times.
The solution was to put it in the warmest room in the house for a while prior to taking it outdoors.
If this is what's causing the problem, the noise cancel function will not help at all. NO ADJUSTMENTS, will remedy the situation I just described.
Hope you get it figured out soon!
Bill/Wash.
 
Who would have thought temperature would play such a critical role in a detectors operation.
You didn't happen to notice if your coil cable connector was loose did you?
 
Chris,
The settings I used were: Sens.- 28 semi-auto
Fast - on
Deep - on
Threshold - barely audible
Iron Mask - 10
Sounds - conduct
These setting were suggested in the Explorer forum posted about a week or two ago.
After it went crazy I reset to the factory defaults but it didn't change anything.
 
turn the sensitivity to a single digit, like 5 or 6 and see what it does as some areas you may have to. If it still does it than make sure the coil wire is tight where it conect to the control head and if it still does it then disconect the coil wire from the control head. if it still does it than you have a problem with the control head as there is nothing else hooked up to it and it will have to be sent in. If it dont do it with the coil wire attached than it has to be a bad coil. One more thing is try a differnt battery too.
I had one come in that chattered real bad from start up and I went though all of these steps and found out it was in the contol head itself. Sent it in and was told there was a inductor bad and it was repaced and works good now.
Rick
 
Hey Ron,
Just read Rick(ND)'s post above. He suggests the same thing. Lower the sensitivity way down. Preferably in manual. To me it sounds like classic too high sensitivity in a noisy environment. This subject comes up over and over again. Many have sent their detector back in for service but for naught. Once in a blue moon it is a loose connection or something else but almost always it is a user/operator error.
The settings you have are good; and all of them EXCEPT sensitivity you can almost leave as set until you get much more experience. Sensitivity is the one you will have to tweak. It's like the accelerator on your car. Some times you need to back off a bit, depending on conditions. If it is still going nuts at 5 or 6 then you may have other issues. And that is 5 or 6 outside, away from computers and TV's.
It will take you almost 10 seconds to do this.
Chris
 
I checked the connections out and they were nice and tight. I'm not sure where the condensation took place that caused the problem. I just know how to keep it from happening again. I put it in the warmest room in the house for a while before going out so that it will be as close to the outside temperature as possible(in the summer time).
Bill/Wa.
 
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