New Simplex Won't Turn On

[Crader11c]

Thanks again for the help! Yeah, I've checked my connections multiple times, the pins seem to be in good shape too. But no change in the outcome unfortunately. I'm going to give Kellyco a call in the morning and see what they can figure out. Sucks it's only been out of the box for about 4 hours and didnt get to swing it once. But, bound to get a bad apple here and there. Thanks again guys.

Greg   

[Nevada Brian]

4 minutes ago, Crader11c said:

Thanks again for the help! Yeah, I've checked my connections multiple times, the pins seem to be in good shape too. But no change in the outcome unfortunately. I'm going to give Kellyco a call in the morning and see what they can figure out. Sucks it's only been out of the box for about 4 hours and didnt get to swing it once. But, bound to get a bad apple here and there. Thanks again guys.

Greg   

Greg, if your able to, perhaps making a quick video and uploading it of what your doing and seeing may further diagnose the issue.   Just a thought.

Brian. 

[Crader11c]

Well, just got off the phone with the repair center in GA for Nokta. Very helpful gentleman helped me diagnose the machine over the phone and appears it came with a bad coil. Machine charges and powers on without coil connected, but as soon as you connect the coil to the unit, it shorts out, shuts off and wont turn back on. Took my info and said he would get one sent to me. Just thought I'd update you all and maybe help someone in the future. Thanks again for everyone's help.

Greg

[Jeff McClendon]

Thanks for the update. The original shipments had some coil problems. Looks like another one somehow slipped through to you. Nokta Makro will definitely make it right.  

Good luck,

Jeff

[Crader11c]

12 minutes ago, phrunt said:

You're a retailers dream customer Greg.  A perfect attitude and you went above and beyond to try diagnose the problem yourself then instead of complaining you sorted out a solution.   Good work.

Appreciate the kind words Phrunt. I just knew it was an issue with the machine, not any doing of Kellyco. They promptly emailed me back and said they could replace the machine or try and call the repair center to see if they could help. Kellyco definitely is a solid business in this field and I must say that Nokta was very helpful as well, diagnosing the problem and working on getting a new coil sent to me at no charge . I'm just starting in this Detector hobby and so far everyone has been great to work with and the community has even helped me out before I've made my first swing. So far without even using my machine yet, all you guys are showing that the detectorist community is a pretty good place to be. 

Greg

[Sven1]

I found the solution to this shut down issue experimenting with several power heads and two coils.

I did relate my findings back to Nokta.

It was an easy fix when you understood what was happening.

Short version:

Part goes bad in the search coil, shorts detector. Powerhead goes "dormant". It will no longer turn on.

Unplug bad coil, will not power up. Plug in charger into wall out and Simplex. , Simplex blinks. And that it.

Plug in a known good coil. Powerhead will still not power up or turn on. Powerhead is not dead its dormant.

With good coil attached. Plug in charger into wall outlet and Simplex for 1 minute, maybe less. This re energizes the powerhead, re-establishes a brain connection. Removes short. Unplug wall charger. Press the power button and the powerhead fires back up, good as new.

This is the solution that worked for all three powerheads that failed when the bad coil was plugged in.

Just a note, if you plug the bad coil in again. The powerhead will not turn on again. You'll have to do the fix above with the new coil and charger.

By the way, many manufactured brands of DD coils have a very small circuit board with electronic parts epoxy encapsulated within the coil itself. So if you ever had a coil go bad, now you know why. Attached pix, for example is a Minelab Xterra coil.

 

[Chase Goldman]

10 minutes ago, Crader11c said:

So far without even using my machine yet, all you guys are showing that the detectorist community is a pretty good place to be. 

We'll break you of the perception soon enough.  Just start posting your finds.  

Seriously, glad you got it sorted without having to send your detector or even the coil back.

[Crader11c]

Sven1, yes, that is exactly the issue. So Nokta is sending me a new coil. Even with this issue, them sending me a new one without question makes them a great company in my opinion. 

Chase Goldman, hopefully I'll have plenty of pull tabs for you guys to laugh at soon enough! Lol. 

Greg

[Sven1]

2 hours ago, Crader11c said:

Sven1, yes, that is exactly the issue. So Nokta is sending me a new coil. Even with this issue, them sending me a new one without question makes them a great company in my opinion. 

Chase Goldman, hopefully I'll have plenty of pull tabs for you guys to laugh at soon enough! Lol. 

Greg

And the best thing you can do with the bad coil is take off the coil cover. Loosen up the strain relief fitting where the coil cable goes into the coil, then wrench off the coil fitting from the coil itself. Cut the coil cable down into the coil. Save the coil cable and fittings, for whatever, shame to toss it out. Then throw the bad coil into the trash. As much as you might like to save it, it's trash, get rid of it.

Happy Hunting

[Sven1]

Not much to see, two bundles of wire and possibly a small circuit board, provided you want to spend hours chipping away the epoxy filling. If you hunt around there are many pictures on line as to what's inside a search coil.

Also pictured are my Mirage Pi mono coils showing the wire bundled coil being potted with epoxy.