New To Forum And First Problem!

[motumatai]

Hi everyone! I'm new to this forum, and to ownership of a Minelab detector(the 800 turned up today in the post:). Woohoo....I think)

I have used Minelab equipemnt in the past, back in the mid 90's we ran a fleet of 60 odd minelab mine detectors in Cambodia. But those versions (the predecessor to the F3) were several iterations of complexity behind todays generation of detectors.

 

Anyways, I unboxed it, connected the magnetic charge cable up to a usb charger, and sure enough about an hour later the green flashing led stopped flashing and stayed on, indicating a fully charged battery.

Press to turn on. Nothing. Not a flicker. Pressed and held momentarily, pressed and held for 1 second, pressed and held for 5 seconds, NOTHING 

Is there a trick I am missing? Does this happen frequently? Or am I just the unlucky one to purchase a late-friday-afternoon-just-before-a-long-weekend assembled one thats a dud??

TIA

 

 

[2Valen]

Where did you purchase your new 800 at? There have been some places dealing fake units for some time now and that is why I am asking.

The upper left button hold for about 10 seconds to see if it will do a factory reset, also you stated that after an hour it showed it was fully charged. When I charged my new unit it took several hours, so you may want to try to charge it again and see what happens.

That is all I can think of as these units are very good and their support are next to none.

[motumatai]

46 minutes ago, 2Valen said:

Where did you purchase your new 800 at? There have been some places dealing fake units for some time now and that is why I am asking.

The upper left button hold for about 10 seconds to see if it will do a factory reset, also you stated that after an hour it showed it was fully charged. When I charged my new unit it took several hours, so you may want to try to charge it again and see what happens.

That is all I can think of as these units are very good and their support are next to none.

Theres only 2 franchised dealers in NZ and I purchased it off one of them, so I expect the warrenty claim will be a non issue.  Trouble is it always puts a sour taste in your mouth when you have been hanging out for something you have saved for, for a long time...and its a dud! 

Will try the recharge, but the book says it will work fine running off a powerbank when the internal battery is flat, so it should turn on whenever the battery is only even a bit charged.

[TedinVT]

The initial charge usually takes several hours so a full charge in one hour the first time out sounds very suspicious.  Even after using the detector for 3 or 4 hours requires several hours to recharge the battery.  Try a Factory Reset like 2Valen suggests and see if that fixes the problem.  Like the others above, my guess is the detector is at fault and it's time for a warranty repair or dealer replacement.  Good luck, hope you're back in the game soon.

[Chase Goldman]

1 hour ago, TedinVT said:

The initial charge usually takes several hours so a full charge in one hour the first time out sounds very suspicious.  Even after using the detector for 3 or 4 hours requires several hours to recharge the battery.  Try a Factory Reset like 2Valen suggests and see if that fixes the problem.  Like the others above, my guess is the detector is at fault and it's time for a warranty repair or dealer replacement.  Good luck, hope you're back in the game soon.

1 hour initial charge is not necessarily so unusual. Should take less than 4 hours from a fully discharged state at the max charging rate of ~2A according to ML documentation below.  And considerably less when shipped from the factory as they are typically shipped 3/4 full (the ideal long term Lithium cell long term storage charge level).  I suspect a bad power switch.  

 

[Steve Herschbach]

I’d certainly try the factory reset, and try charging again even if nothing appears to happen. Eight seconds minimum on the power button. Use a different charger if possible just for yucks.

[motumatai]

Just to update people who were so helpful:  The control unit was evaluated as 'dead on arrival' at the NZ Minelab repair facility, so I wasn't being dumb when it would not work for me.

Took two weeks to process and courier its way back to me. Mail is still very slow here, even with the country almost back running normally.

Now to spend some time getting my head around this very capable unit. Certainly a whole lot more to it than turning it on and doing a ground balance, as we used to do in the 90's.

 

[mn90403]

I had to replace my 800 because of a faulty off/on switch.

You can, and probably 'should' just turn it on and use it as it came from the factory for the first few trips.  Just follow the getting started routine and don't read any of the advanced threads.  Many of us have returned to near basic settings after we own them a while anyway.

Mitchel

[Randy Dee]

5 hours ago, motumatai said:

Just to update people who were so helpful:  The control unit was evaluated as 'dead on arrival' at the NZ Minelab repair facility, so I wasn't being dumb when it would not work for me.

Took two weeks to process and courier its way back to me. Mail is still very slow here, even with the country almost back running normally.

Now to spend some time getting my head around this very capable unit. Certainly a whole lot more to it than turning it on and doing a ground balance, as we used to do in the 90's.

 

Pleased you have got the problem sorted.   Good Hunting with an excellent detector.

.