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What's Up With My Garrett Pro-Pointer At?


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I'm a beach hunter and never used a pin pointer before now. I bought a Manticore and find myself sifting through the sand looking for a target that's the size of a large pinhead.

Wasting my time searching, so I ordered a Garrett carrot to speed things up. First one came defective, I turn it on and it just beeps and vibrates pulses continuously at the same fast pace and won't quit no matter what I do until I long press to turn it off.

I open the cap, remove the battery and replace it....same stuff. So I send it back for a replacement. Got the replacement and it has worked good for two hunts. Third hunt, I went to put my finds belt/pouch on and the carrot dropped out at waist level onto the concrete.

Now it's broke doing the same fast vibrate/beep as soon as you turn it on. Are these things one drop and done? Am I missing something? Anybody else have theirs do this?

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They're generally very durable. Been using mine for years with no issues. This might be too obvious a question, and if so I apologize, but did you ground balance it? Hold it to the ground as you turn it on so that it detunes to ignore mineralization. 

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Had you had either one in the water?  I ask because I had one with a cracked housing (couldn't see the crack, but...) and it went haywire after I used it in a creek.  I sent it in for repair and Garrett replaced the housing and some parts inside, too, under warranty.  Came back looking like new.  That was many hundreds of hours ago (warranty long expired) and the replacement now looks well worn but still ticks.  I do have to take the battery out after a hunt since the LED light often stays on and runs down the battery (I use rechargeble), but as far as its performance -- as good as ever.  But I don't use it underwater.  However I do dunk it during cleaning every now and then.

I suspect your housing cracked when you dropped it.  I suppose they could argue but Garrett is known to be very accommodating to customers so I'd give them another chance.  I've learned to take my pinpointers out of my pouch and off my belt before taking that stuff off as I've dropped my (irreplaceable 🙄) White's Bullseye TRX on pavement more than once.  (So far, so good, though....)

 

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12 minutes ago, Rattlehead said:

They're generally very durable. Been using mine for years with no issues. This might be too obvious a question, and if so I apologize, but did you ground balance it? Hold it to the ground as you turn it on so that it detunes to ignore mineralization. 

Yea, second one was working fine and I did GB it when used. After dropping it, no need. I turned it on holding it in the air to make sure it still worked and it started beeping and vibrating right away and wouldn't stop.

9 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Had you had either one in the water?  I ask because I had one with a cracked housing (couldn't see the crack, but...) and it went haywire after I used it in a creek.  I sent it in for repair and Garrett replaced the housing and some parts inside, too, under warranty.  Came back looking like new.  That was many hundreds of hours ago (warranty long expired) and the replacement now looks well worn but still ticks.  I do have to take the battery out after a hunt since the LED light often stays on and runs down the battery (I use rechargeble), but as far as its performance -- as good as ever.  But I don't use it underwater.  However I do dunk it during cleaning every now and then.

I suspect your housing cracked when you dropped it.  I suppose they could argue but Garrett is known to be very accomoting to customers so I'd give them another chance.  I've learned to take my pinpointers out of my pouch and off my belt before taking that stuff off as I've dropped my (irreplaceable 🙄) White's Bullseye TRX on pavement more than once.  (So far, so good, though....)

 

I certainly don't see a crack, even with a magnifying glass. I think it hit on the black battery cap when dropped. I only splashed it on the two hunts it worked ok. After the hunt I turned it on to make sure it worked and it did, so the drop caused the problem.

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I've found the two that I have had for years now to be virtualy bullet proof original A\T and Z-LYNK.That said they can be temperamental at times and like you I have pulled the battery out and replaced it. And sometimes I do the long press and cycle through the settings to get it to settle down and also try to G B it.I hate to say it but it could be a build quality issue and maybe Garrett quietly outsourced their manufacturing to Malaysia? (sorry I couldn't resist)

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Thanks for posting that information.You have helped me decide that my next pointer will be either the Teknetics Tek-Point or Fisher F-Pulse.

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Never had any issues with my original Garrett pinpointer,out every week and it still keeps going,when this one finally gives up the ghost i will certainly buy another new Garrett but saying that i do have a brand new XP mI-6 pinpointer which i have never used but have had it as a backup for nearly 12 months.

Not worried about the XP probe as i brought it half price bran new so could still sell it for much more than i paid for it,but have tried it out on my Deus and it does work well so will keep it.

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Dropping onto a hard surface is bad news for pinpointers. The ferrite rod has probably cracked, in which case, it's terminally damaged, unless you are patient and skilled. But even with a rebuilt search-coil, it may need recalibration - which is the tricky bit. The earlier black Propointers had a 'master calibration' function built into them. The AT doesn't; it may be that it's done when the software is burnt into the microprocessor. But there's nothing the user can do.

Additionally, the vibration-motors are fragile, and they can break out of their retaining clip.
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I abuse the heck out of my Garretts...toss them on the ground next to me all the time before I dig..never dropped one on concrete however..they do have their problems like the light not wanting to turn off on one of them so remove the battery after I hunt. Send it back I'm sure Garrett will take care of you  regardless of the circumstances. 

strick 

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Thank you all....I'm getting a RMA and sending it to them. Was just weird that I got two of them to act the same way.

I said earlier that it was a vibrate and beep, it's not a beep.... it's like a vibrate every half second and a continuous alarm sounding like an English police siren at half volume. Just weird.

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