Garrett probe and hot weather

[Radnor Bandit (Ian)]

Has anybody else been experiencing the probe acting erratically during the hot weather? I was out today and the probe was useless, sounding off every where but on the target . Even when held to air 2 foot off the ground. (no nearby elecrical interference) I did notice that when it was acting up, the range was reduced by approx a third (using my watch as a target). Changing the battery made no difference and as soon as the the weather cooled down it started behaving as normal,
Very strange and annoying. 

[Napoleon]

Garrett gohstpointer 

[DEADLOCK]

Im gettin grief off mine aswell

[Radnor Bandit (Ian)]

Im gettin grief off mine aswell

Grief thats putting it mildly Al . The way I was feeling yesterday, If Mr Garratt had come on the field and asked me what I thought of his product..I would have told him to bend over and take a deep breath
                                               

[The Ferret]

my Probe shrinks in the cold

[Howie114]

Like your turn of phrase Ian! Howard

[Jeffc]

Just to confuse things I was out Wednesday morning (gave up due to the heat around one) and my probe was working perfectly as normal!

[Chef Geoff]

All coils will expand in the heat, that is why Detech originally only made the ultimate in white as to try and cut down on the effect. Nautilus machines have the ability to tune the coils so the the receive and transmit coils are kept balanced as they expend as it gets hotter.
Now I know we pay £80+ for probes and probably think they should react better but in reality, these things cost less than £5 to make and so are not precision instruments. My only suggestion would be to keep it covered somehow.

[Radnor Bandit (Ian)]

All coils will expand in the heat, that is why Detech originally only made the ultimate in white as to try and cut down on the effect. Nautilus machines have the ability to tune the coils so the the receive and transmit coils are kept balanced as they expend as it gets hotter.
Now I know we pay £80+ for probes and probably think they should react better but in reality, these things cost less than £5 to make and so are not precision instruments. My only suggestion would be to keep it covered somehow.

Out of interest how do the aussies and other hot country dwellers overcome this effect Geoff, and would you recommend using an explorer / etrac in auto mode rather than manual in these conditions,?

[Chef Geoff]

that is a mystery and I have to say that I haven't actually heard of this happening to a pro-pointer but I'm not surprised it's happening.
But it's quite possible there are less of them detecting in the summer as there are here. Up until about three years ago, my detector went in to the cupboard in April and didn't come out again until the harvest in August.

No I would never recommend auto over manual, even when the Etrac says it's running, lets say 25 sens in auto it still isn't going as deep as the same 25 in manual.

[rjm]

It's possible the Garrett probe is playing up as the battery has swollen with the heat.

Best advice is to use only top quality Alkaline PP9 type.

Try a slight turn of the battery top to relieve pressure.

[peanut]

I presume that the Pro Pointer  uses some smd componants which would be more suseptible to heat than discrete components but they should be more than capable of withstanding the sort of temperatures we have in out climate except if the probe was left out in direct sunlight perhaps.

Most electronic items come with a warning not to leave them in direct sunlight so maybe they are getting too hot if they are out in the sun all the time. After all the probe has no ventilation provision to disperse internal heat.

[Chef Geoff]

No it won't have anything to do with components it's purely the coil windings expanding

[peanut]

Your absolute conviction about everything is awesome Geoff 

Garrett manufacture these detectors to function in extreme climates all over the world so I'd be surprised if the Pro Pointers did not have auto stabilisation circuitry for the coils to cope with variable temperatures.

That said ...I would be very surprised if any electronic item worked 100% if left out for a few hours in our current heatwave.

[Chef Geoff]

LOL. It's because I've looked inside and know what's there and that's not a lot. If you go study coil technology you'll find this has always been a problem, no matter how much resin you bury them in.