SDC 2300 Worrying Problem

[Northeast]

Afternoon forumers,

A few days ago I turned on the SDC to check a few hot rocks.  It was going crazy with EMI (I thought) and I felt it was the bit of a storm that was happening up the valley.  Although when I held it dead still (sat it on the plastic garbage bin) it was fine.  Ran the hot rocks over it and they all 'pinged' which was strange because I felt that only the bit of quartz had the potential for actually having some gold.

Turned it off, crushed the quartz, no gold, was confused.

Turned it on the next night and same thing - very wavering, noisy threshold and would only be stable when dead still.   Changed batteries to new, non rechargable - no difference.

Took it up the bush today as I thought maybe it was just house, power lines, etc - although I have never had a problem with it near the house.

Miles from nowhere in the bush and same issue.  Any movement - especially rolling the machine side to side - it just went bananas.  Sounded off on anything it went near on the ground. 

Took the coil cover off when I got home - thought maybe a sliver of wire had got caught.   No change. 

There is no trouble shooting guide in the instruction manual.  Tried different batteries again and no better.

Re-read the manual and the only thing I could find was to turn the machine on when the sensitivity dial is at '2'.  Made sure it was at 2 - no difference.

To me it sounds like there is something loose in there or something has made it hypersensitive to any little movement.

Any suggestions?  Anyone had this issue?  There does not seem to be any 'factory reset' type function/button.

Feeling like it may be a return to Minelab job 

[Reno Chris]

It is sensitive to household EMI - However EMI problems make no difference if you are moving the machine or not, when there is an EMI problem, the waves are moving past your coil even if you are perfectly still. I am assuming you did a noise cancel run on it. If the machine is quiet in the bush when held still and makes noise in the air when moved (held say a couple feet above the ground), then I thin you have a repair problem that needs to go to ML.

[GoldEn]

Hi Norheast

sorry to hear you have this problem.

Did you try to tune it? Did you try to ground balance it?

How many light red dots bars you have on?

Sure its strange and i am leaning on back to Minelab way.

 

Good luck with it.

 

GoldEN

[Northeast]

Yes, forgot to mention that.  Noise cancelled about 4 times each time I have had it on - no difference. 

And I have had times where it you can hear lightning and transmission lines coming through - this is completely different. 

And yes, even held off the ground, as soon at it is moved it's going nuts. 

Contacting dealer on Monday - person to speak to not there today. 

Thanks Chris.

[Northeast]

Trying to ground balance was the worst - went really spacko then!

 

Actually, jokes about German sausage - they are the wurst 

[Steve Herschbach]

Sorry to say it does not sound good. The better news is some people have been given brand new machines under warranty so it may work out well in the long run. I would be interested in hearing how it all gets resolved. Minelab service has been terrible for time taken in the U.S. (supposed to be improving) but I hear things are better in Australia.

[Digger Bob]

Here's something that may be related.  It took me a long time to figure it out, as mine was doing essentially the same thing.

It seemed it was sensitive to my cell phone in my pouch.  The phone was on but not receiving calls or texts.  As soon as I turned the phone completely off, the problem went away.

I had noticed something similar with my 3500.  I could tell when a text or call was coming in about 5 seconds before the phone told me.  The detector started making increasing warbbly sounds until the call came through.  Then it was fine.  Again, this was a few years ago when I had a flip phone, not an Iphone.

Something to try anyway.

[Reno Chris]

A few SDC's have issues with the waterproof connecting plug. It is possible you are having an intermittent connection issue which is showing when the detector is jostled. 

[Northeast]

Digger -About the first 4 times I used the SDC it drove me nuts - random warbles for no apparent reason.   Finally dawned on me that the mobile phone in my right side pocket would bump against the control box. Moved the phone and no more issue.  

Steve - I will certainly keep the forum updated re: what the issue ends up being. Still under warranty so that makes me happy. 

Chris - that is my gut feeling. It seems that it is something loose that triggers on movement. Have never used it under water (except the coil) so confident that water ingress isn't the cause. 

We will wait and see. I mostly use the Z anyway so I won't be too lost whilst it is away.