E-trac "Over Voltage" Message

[srcdco]

A couple of times this year, I've got to my destination to start detecting, turned on my E-trac, and was greeted by a low grunt and the message "Over Voltage", then it shuts off. It doesn't happen every time, but it does seem to happen when I travel a long distance. I've tried taking the battery out. I've tried a different battery and when it happens, it persists. I can get it running again by holding down the power button causing it to do a reset. Then I quickly reprogram it and it's good to go as long as I don't turn it off. The next day, it's fine. This happened this past Saturday. Sunday, it worked without an issue.

Has anyone had this happen? What did you do to fix it? I'm hoping I don't have to send it in for repair just as the season is getting started.

Scott

 

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[Treasure_Hunter]

Are you using AA battery pack or the stock rechargeable battery?

 

[Mach1Pilot]

Some of the lithium batteries produce just a bit more charge than a standard alkaline.... if used in the AA battery pack you can get the voltage too high for the detector to work properly. If you are using those, try a set of regular alkaline batteries.

If you are not, I'd do a factory reset and see if the problem persists.

 

[srcdco]

I'm using the stock rechargeable battery pack. I've swapped it out with my old Explorer battery pack and have the same results. Also, once it does it, it will do it all day, unless I leave it on after I reset and reprogram it.

One question: Is holding down the power button and resetting it the same as the factory reset? That's what I've been doing to get it running again.

Scott

 

[Dan(NM)]

Your charger may be overcharging your rechargeable battery packs, may be time for a new charger.

 

[I can dig it]

User modes and user discrimination patterns are not erased when the detector is reset by holding the power button. Those are only reset if you use master reset. The master reset is accessed in the expert menu.

 

[Mach1Pilot]

No doubt you can rule out the batteries....

I can dig it is correct... you need to go into the main menu to complete the master reset. If that doesn't fix it, you probably will have to make a call to Minelab service.

 

[srcdco]

Thanks for the information. I'm glad to see that the power button reset doesn't lose all of the settings. It does reset some, though, as I have to go in and change them after doing it. It only takes a couple of minutes and I'm ready to go.

I hadn't thought of the charger itself. I can switch to using my old Explorer charger and see if I have the same issue.

Another thing I thought of is that I've been putting it on the back seat of the car when traveling and the sun was shining in on it through the windows, getting it pretty hot. In both of the cases that it happened, I had traveled at least 45 minutes like that. I'm going to start putting it in the trunk to keep it from getting overheated in the car. I originally dismissed this as once it does it, it does it all day, no matter how much it has cooled down later.

Scott

 

[I can dig it]

The heat may be the problem. But also after you charge the battery pack, check the voltage with a multi tester, if it's over 13 volts then according to the manual that will cause problems.

 

[Jake2701]

A couple of times this year, I've got to my destination to start detecting, turned on my E-trac, and was greeted by a low grunt and the message "Over Voltage", then it shuts off. It doesn't happen every time, but it does seem to happen when I travel a long distance. I've tried taking the battery out. I've tried a different battery and when it happens, it persists. I can get it running again by holding down the power button causing it to do a reset. Then I quickly reprogram it and it's good to go as long as I don't turn it off. The next day, it's fine. This happened this past Saturday. Sunday, it worked without an issue.

Has anyone had this happen? What did you do to fix it? I'm hoping I don't have to send it in for repair just as the season is getting started.

Scott

Customer of mine brought E-Track detector displaying "Overvoltage" message. After I found manual for this detector, I was able to start it with Reset. But Master reset didn't help. But I noticed that after power-up, using Reset, battery indicator was showing flat battery (which it wasn't). It was obvious that microprocessor wasn't reading battery voltage at all, and the was a message just as safety feature. After closer inspection it turned out that socket strips on power supply and transmitter board, which connects to main board just partly broke off PCB. Computer didn't have battery voltage feed. It's disappointing that Minelab used cheap, Arduino type sockets and headers for such expensive detector, which is prone to vibration and shakes. Off course replacement fixed the problem.

 

[cudamark]

Welcome to Tnet, and thanks for your input!