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Problem With My Gold Racer???????


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I bought my Makro Gold Racer a while ago and finally got the chance to get out with it. It works fine around my home. The first gold area I took it too, it went bonkers with a pulsing noise and the display target  reading bounced all over the place. I was in the all metal mode with tracking on. I thought it might be EMI, since there was a massive radio tower about 1 mile away. I took it to another area away from any known towers and it did the same thing. The ground in both places is highly mineralized and variable. In the last place I turned up the iSat and that helped some. I also turned down the sensitivity which also helped some. Any ideas would be welcome. Maybe there is a problem with the detector or is it me???????

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Hi,

I don't think I've ever had the problem you are describing. My only thought is were you able to ground balance your Gold Racer? Also, did you try using it in Disc 2 mode and did you have the same problem. I live in a high EMI area with very mineralized soil. If I turn up the sensitivity too high (over 70) in All Metal my Gold Racer will overload just on the iron content of the soil with no target under the coil!!! It makes kind of a pulsing sound when that happens. Are you familiar with its overload tone?  My Whites MX7 will do the same thing. 

The only problem I've had with my Gold Racer was that the original 10 x5 coil was just too noisy so that I couldn't bump it against anything without it having tone breaks in the threshold and wildly jumping VDI numbers for no reason. So, I sold the coil and bought a Cors Fortune 9.5 x 5 and got much more stable threshold and more depth too!

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If you have another coil to put on it, try that and see if helps.

I bouggt a new small coil for mine and it sends my Racer into fits?

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Is the detector causing any problem with the coil off the ground? If not it is not EMI. The Gold Racer is very high gain and can overload on the ground itself. The overload signal sounds like a siren - same as if you put the coil on solid metal. From my Gold Racer review:

“The Sensitivity setting is familiar to anyone who has used a metal detector, except that there are three base levels of sensitivity or gain. Significant boosts occur between 39 - 40 and again between 69 - 70. Most detectors max out at what is a setting of 69 on the Gold Racer. Settings of 70 and above are a type of hyper gain setting that takes the machine above and beyond, but in extreme ground overload signals may occur. Overload signals are indicated by a “warning siren” audio and the machine is telling you that there is either a large metal object under the coil, or that you are encountering extreme mineralization. In the case of mineralization, either raise the coil slightly while scanning, lower the sensitivity setting, or both. Overloads occurring at 70 will almost always be eliminated by dropping to 69.”

Not unlike the White’s GMT overload warning “raise coil or lower sensitivity”. The key jumps occur from 39 going to 40 and again at 69 going to 70. If the detector is behaving fine otherwise but overloads on bad ground going from 69 to 70 then it is probably normal operation. Though a bad coil can perhaps be involved also.

This “stepped” gain system is common to the several Racer models. This clarification was put out by Makro:

”Hello all.... as we see a lot of posts on the Racer overload situation, we wanted clarify it for you: The electronic gain of the RACER consists of 3 levels to eliminate the internal electromagnetic noise and to adjust the saturation level. The electronic gain change points correspond to levels 39 and 69 on the Gain setting. In case of saturation (overload), you may raise your search coil a bit or adjust the Gain to the lower electronic gain level. For example, in the All Metal and Two Tone modes, if the Gain is set to 70 or above and if saturation occurs, adjusting the Gain to 69 or 39 will minimize or eliminate the saturation. Similarly, if you experience saturation in the Three Tone mode, adjusting the Gain to 39 will be sufficient. Reducing the gain will not cause a dramatic decrease in depth.”

Anyway, I did experience this myself on some bad ground in California. Not the ground below... that’s Nevada!

makro-gold-racer-with-nevada-gold-nugget-herschbach.jpg

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It been a couple of weeks since I used it. I don't remember a siren sound. It was more like a machine gun and pulsing noise. I didn't raise the coil too high off the ground. It must be that I had the sensitivity to high for the bad ground. I wasn't aware of lowering the sensitivity below 39. It seems like I ran it about 50 and the Isat at 8. I guess I need to go back to the last place I was and try it again with the sensitivity at 38 and go from there.

Thanks for the replies Jeff, sjm, and Steve!

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On 07.04.2018 at 5:14 AM, snakejim said:

It been a couple of weeks since I used it. I don't remember a siren sound. It was more like a machine gun and pulsing noise. I didn't raise the coil too high off the ground. It must be that I had the sensitivity to high for the bad ground. I wasn't aware of lowering the sensitivity below 39. It seems like I ran it about 50 and the Isat at 8. I guess I need to go back to the last place I was and try it again with the sensitivity at 38 and go from there.

Thanks for the replies Jeff, sjm, and Steve!

Hello. My name is Dilek and I am the Sales&Marketing Manager for Nokta&Makro Detectors.

What you are describing (pulsing sound) does not sound like an overload to me. Please do me a favor and send me an email at dilek@noktadetectors.com including the serial number of your device as well as a short video showing the issue if you can. This way we can determine whether there is an issue or not. Is your detector new or a used one? When was it purchased?

Thank you! 

Dilek 

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Snakejim

I know Dilek will stay with you on this problem you’re having and won’t stop until the problem is corrected or you have a new detector in your hands. I know first hand what great service you will get being I’ve been there myself .

Chuck Anders 

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