Etrac freezing

[johnkarl]

Just wondered if any one has encountered the same problem that i have with my Etrac, when i am on the field it sometimes freezes and emits a steady tone through the headphones that is louder than the threshold hum, to get it working again you have to lightly tap the coil on the ground [and i mean lightly ] and then things resume to normal, this happened over 10 times yesterday and was getting quite annoying, any help on the matter would be greatly appreciated

[Iron Mask]

Hello
Have you tried another coil? What does the control panel do? Do you get a freeze up completely?
Give us some more details.

[shep]

I have noticed a similar thing once or twice but never that many times.
I couldn't pin it down but I thought it might be my mobile going in and out of signal and causing interference for a second or two, never had to bang the coil down to cure it, maybe it stops without the coil tap?
Be interested to know if it still does it no where near power lines and with no phone in pocket

[Captainpugwash]

When you say you tap the coil and it corrects the problem, you have diagosed your own fault. Why not contact Minelab in Ireland to see if they can help you with a repair.

[Little bob]

Its normal, most of them do it.

It will go away when you swing the coil and it hits another target...nothing to worry about.

[chriscolle]

I've had it on the E-trac and even the CTX.
Especially when around major interference of some kind or other.
Like a whole orchestra playing out of tune in your ears!

E-trac and CTX needed OFF-ON to get going again.
Only happened a couple of times, I guess somethings don't compute and it freezes.

[Hermes]

My etrac did it the same day as I took it from the box, it still does it..
its like pitch hold.
It goes when the coil sees another target.
A bug in the software?

[moparado]

H'mmm, never encountered that problem with either the stock coil or the NEL Tornado coil and i've got a lot of hours on my eTrac - YET?!
Wonder if Minelab upgraded the firmware for the latest batch of eTracs?

Aside from a spooky combinatin of settings, overload condition, EMI, firmware bug, etc causing this, the first thing i'd suspect is a loose coil connector or an intermittent open or short circuit in the cable.... based on tapping the coil apparently fixes the issue.

Try wiggling the cable near the coil to see if that will reproduce the problem and also check the cable connector. You might want to unplug the connector and replug it back again, basically reseating it. Could be a small amount of corrosion or something on one of the connector pins.

Also, could be weak batteries, corroded/dirty battery holder contacts or even the battery contacts in the detector itself lost their springiness causing intermittent power drop outs to the circuitry just enough to cause a 'hiccuping' glitch.

[johnkarl]

Battery full , tried the wires next to the coil, and i have also tried unplugging the lead from the box , but it still does it every now and again, no corrosion as it is only 6 months old and has been extremely well looked after,never happened to my previous Etrac, but it looks like it is quite a common problem, might be a faulty batch,still dissapointed as they are not cheep machines. If anyone finds a cure can you please post, thanks Karl

[Nuke em]

I have had this fault on all my ET's over the years and all i do now is push the detect button to clear it , or jerk the coil in the air too.

Minelab have been told about this and i have sent one back and they could not find the fault .It came back and did it again . Think all ET's do it.

[Captainpugwash]

I had mine three years and never came across this problem.

[Tony Hunt]

I have had this fault on all my ET's over the years and all i do now is push the detect button to clear it , or jerk the coil in the air too.

Minelab have been told about this and i have sent one back and they could not find the fault .It came back and did it again . Think all ET's do it.

Could be something peculiar to the way you use them Richard Never ever had a problem or even heard of anyone else having one.

[whigsvolt]

Its normal, most of them do it.

It will go away when you swing the coil and it hits another target...nothing to worry about.

Agree this is normal.
Your attempt to tap the coil is just a reaction that does Nothing in reality.
This use to happen to me allot with eh Et and lasts only a few seconds.

[DavidS]

Mine has same problem

[Nuke em]

There is a lot of it and if you run in Normal sounds it is more noticable i think but every ET i have had has done it but has not stopped me finding all the stuff i get.

[moparado]

This is turning out to be interesting.
If my math is correct, 7 experienced the problem while 3 never experienced the problem.

I find it hard to believe based on this very unscientific poll of replies here that 70% of eTRACs exhibit this problem.

There's got to be a reasonable explanation why 30% here never experienced the problem. Hopefully its not a glitch in the detector itself.

Settings? Hot weather? Cold weather? High humidity? Damp coil? Inline probes? Dirty coils? Metal in shoes? Ferrous soil? Digging tools too close?, EMI?

I've never experienced this and i've got at least 150+ hours on my eTRAC.

[Nuke em]

Happens to me every trip ,land or beach , whatever screen programme and all the settings i have. I dont worry about it any more. Not a big deal.

[Gold Finger]

I have also encountered this singular tone while the ET freezes. It doesn't occur very often, but I press the pinpoint then go back to normal detecting minus the whine. I'm not too bothered about it, especially as I now Know it is obviously common to most ETs.

[GaryS]

My ET had something similar a while back.
It started with the threshold going fading out for a short time before it came back to normal. Then, sometimes when I turned it on,I just got a click without the detector starting up. Changing the battery pack and coil cable made no difference. Eventually I found if I bumped the coil, the detector fired up and I could detect normally.
During this period, the ET died suddenly once while detecting with a fresh battery, and once it gave the startup tone when I put it down to dig a target.
It was looking like a trip to the Minelab doctors was imminent.
Anyhow,thankfully ,my E-Trac somehow fixed itself and for the last few months it has performed perfectly.

[defenderben]

Me too
My Et will just emit a single monotone every now and then but as soon as you move it over another target it stops.
Only happens maybe once every 3 or 4 outings. I just accept it now , in fact it may do it more often but it is so insignificant now I probably do not notice it like I used to when I first got my machine some 2.5 years ago.

Ben

[Jeff Brown]

This noise is so normal, if your etrac stops doing this...... it's broken.
Just swing the shovel past the coil and it's gone.........till the next time. no worries.

[moparado]

This noise is so normal, if your etrac stops doing this...... it's broken.
Just swing the shovel past the coil and it's gone.........till the next time. no worries.

I gotta say, if my eTRAC starts doing this, i'd consider it maybe not broken per whats been said, but a glitch of some kind.

After reading these replies, it appears the majority of eTRACs exhibit this wierd snafu. But why do some not?

Where are the Minelab Engineers and/or Tech. Support lurkers when you need em?

[johnkarl]

My thoughts exactly, if i bought a car and it cut out at the traffic lights, would i be happy to just turn the key and it would start again, i don't think so, the difference is it costs to send the Etrac away, then you have no detector, then, as the man said in an earlier post, it comes back just the same, i find this hard to swallow, there must be a reason why this happens, come on you tec people, what do you think is wrong with the machines, as i said any help would be great, cheers Karl

[whigsvolt]

My thoughts exactly, if i bought a car and it cut out at the traffic lights, would i be happy to just turn the key and it would start again, i don't think so, the difference is it costs to send the Etrac away, then you have no detector, then, as the man said in an earlier post, it comes back just the same, i find this hard to swallow, there must be a reason why this happens, come on you tec people, what do you think is wrong with the machines, as i said any help would be great, cheers Karl

Yes but if its the same thing that every one else is Talking about that has used the Etrac allot its a blip and does not affect performance.It doesn,t shut down as such and cannot recollect anyone saying this.
Nothing to worry about.

[Jeff Brown]

I gotta say, if my eTRAC starts doing this, i'd consider it maybe not broken per whats been said, but a glitch of some kind.

After reading these replies, it appears the majority of eTRACs exhibit this wierd snafu. But why do some not?

Where are the Minelab Engineers and/or Tech. Support lurkers when you need em?

This is another fault which often occurs, when there is an obvious problem with a machine the minelab people aren't allowed to answer on here.
Probably because they would loose their job.
What we all should have done, was to send the machine back during the warranty time, and let them sort it out. But we made the mistake to accept this minor problem.
Things will change with the CTX. If any similar problems turn up - the machines will be in the express post back to minelab. In this price range there will be no room for "minor" ailments.