Your pro pointer acting up? Check this.

[LuckySteve]

I was fed up with my pro pointer as I thought it had broke. The symptoms were it would turn itself off and on or just not turn on at all. I replaced batteries, scraped off water proofing, and removed and resat my power button.

Today while I was out I noticed that when I tipped the pro pointer back it shut off. So I figured it was an issue with the battery contacts.

So I opened up the battery compartment and sure enough, the battery bump had shifted over and was no longer keeping the battery in place!!
So the solution I could find out in the field was shove some foil I dug in the cap and retighten the battery compartment. FIXED!!
Now it's working with no issues. No need to send it in. No need to buy a new one, or suffer through an unreliable pro pointer!

 

[John-Edmonton]

I figured that it was a battery connection issue. I had to add a thin piece of cardboard underneath the cap to get the contacts to touch better.

 

[fongu]

Glad you figured it out. So far, mine only acts up when the battery is low.

 

[WaterWalker]

Same thing happened to my Cannon camera. Looking into the problem I found out that the tolerance on rechargeable NiMH AA cell length / diameter Min Max (IEC & ANSI standards) are:

AA-Rechargable 47.3 50.5 / 13.5 14.5 mm - (1.94 -1.99 inches length only)

Also note that cheap-O batteries may not adhere to the US standards and can vary even more in length and diameter. A longer battery may compress the battery holder's contacts while a shorter battery may not made a good connection. This is true especially if a longer cell had been previously used.

Also the the tolerances (both length and diameter) can cause fit problems in confined spaces. This was my problem with the Infinium and Excalibur detectors. Most things have simple fixes, if you understand what caused the problem! Just using batteries from only one manufacturer, a small shim or removing wrapping are simple things anyone could do.

 

[grumpysrb]

A nickel inside the cap. This is not a new issue and has happened to many Pro Pointer users.

 

[5900_XL-1]

I use a clad quarter, even though my 2 Propointers never gave me grief for 5 years. Seems to me that a nickel could shift to only focus on one battery terminal. I find a quarter is a good match, and good-god, I have lots of quarters.