My Musketeer Advantage May Need Service - Not Sure

[Lloyd0161]

I have been experiencing the following behavior. Not sure if this is normal for this detector:

With all metal mode, ground adjust set to fixed, ground adjust enable toggled, and sensitivity adjusted from approx 3 o'clock to full, an increasingly louder audible tone is heard; almost like a threshold tone. At full setting the tone is so loud it nulls out any detected targets. If the detector is switched from all metal to discriminate, the tone becomes a static spitting sound within the same sensitivity adjustment range. I have tried the detector at several remote locations in case of possible electrical interference and the result has been the same. This is supposed to be a silent search detector. The manual states that some "noise" may be heard depending on interference and ground minerals. But what I am experiencing seems different than this. The detector actually works and I have found quite a bit with it. I just want it to work correctly. Is there is something wrong, out of calibration, etc?

Please advise me if you think there may be something wrong with the detector.

 

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[Sandman]

Have you cleaned out the coil cover? Using alkaline batteries and not Lithium, fresh and inserted correctly? I suspect the sens knob is turned up way to high. Having it set in the middle of its range is enough for max depth and any more than that can cause your problems. Good luck.

 

[Lloyd0161]

Have you cleaned out the coil cover? Using alkaline batteries and not Lithium, fresh and inserted correctly? I suspect the sens knob is turned up way to high. Having it set in the middle of its range is enough for max depth and any more than that can cause your problems. Good luck.

Hi Sandman,

Yes coils are clean, batteries are fresh, proper type and correctly installed. I am also using the rechargeable pack with same result as AA pack. I suspected what you say may be true about maximum sensitivity being unstable. However, I am a little concerned since the owners manual says that at the maximum sensitivity setting some noise may be heard due to electrical interference and ground minerals but it does not say anything about a increasingly louder constant audible tone that sounds like a threshold tone like on the Sovereign or X-Terra for instance. I wish I could remember a bit about the last Advantage I owned but it has been 8 years.

Other than this I have found some coins at incredible depth with this detector; coins that my other detectors did not find. This includes my Sovereign XS-2, X-Terra 305, Tesoro Vaquero and Garrett ACE 250. I know this because I have been testing the detectors in my own yard and keep finding older and deeper coins. My house was built around 1940. My wife keeps telling me there is nothing left in the yard. I told her there is plenty left in the front yard and it is just deeper than the detectors can reach. My yard has about 6 to 12 inches of fill dirt which makes me mad that this happened. Apparently around 1970 or so when the rest of the sub division was built down the street and they raised the grade in the whole area. So far the Musketeer Advantage has been the best performer of the lot.

 

[Sandman]

You are going to have to send it in to Tesoro. Something is wrong and it isn't your settings. Good Luck.

 

[Lloyd0161]

You are going to have to send it in to Tesoro. Something is wrong and it isn't your settings. Good Luck.

You meant Minelab I hope

 

[TomNWMI]

The all metal/disc switch might be the culprit. Try wiggling it in the all metal position to see if the noise quits. Also, if the internal gain pot is set to maximum some noise at or near full sens on the dial is to be expected, this is the way they should be set. If it runs smooth at 3:00 or some point between 3 and full you are probably OK.

Tom Z

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Yes, he meant Minelab.

Here is where you need to send it;

Attn: Customer Service Repairs
2777 Finely Rd. Unit #4
Downers Grove Ill. 60515

Make sure it's still under Warranty ok?

Your problem sounds to me to be, wire fatigue. Easy fix.

Do this.
1. Unscrew the cable from the back of the control box
2. Then turn machine on. Quiet? Then you have wire fatigue or faulty coil.


Take the coil to a reputable "Mom and Pop" electronics store. They can locate the "fatigue" easily.
Your repair will only take a couple days and cost maybe 20 bucks. VS. paying shipping and waiting longer to get it back.

I hope this helps.

Mike

 

[Lloyd0161]

Yes, he meant Minelab.

Here is where you need to send it;

Attn: Customer Service Repairs
2777 Finely Rd. Unit #4
Downers Grove Ill. 60515

Make sure it's still under Warranty ok?

Your problem sounds to me to be, wire fatigue. Easy fix.

Do this.
1. Unscrew the cable from the back of the control box
2. Then turn machine on. Quiet? Then you have wire fatigue or faulty coil.


Take the coil to a reputable "Mom and Pop" electronics store. They can locate the "fatigue" easily.
Your repair will only take a couple days and cost maybe 20 bucks. VS. paying shipping and waiting longer to get it back.

I hope this helps.

Mike

Mike,

At first I doubted your response but now believe you are being sincere with your help. Actually I tried disconnecting the coil and turning the detector on before you mentioned this test. Yes the machine was quiet. The thing is I have two coils and both exhibit the same behavior when connected. When I bought this detector the TS800 coil cable had been shortened to 4'-7"; I thought probably because someone wanted a shorter cable for shaft mounting in lieu of the hip mount bag. The TS1000 coil cable appeared stock however with an 7'-8" cable. The coils also appeared as new with not signs of use or abuse. So I am a bit baffled.

I contacted Kevin at Minelab and he actually called me and told me to try a different test. He said to turn the detector on and sensitivity up until I could just hear the audible threshold which is broken chatter in discriminate and a somewhat stable tone in all metal just past 3 O'clock on the knob dial. This audible "threshold" tone increases in volume as the knob is advanced to full sensitivity. Then Kevin said to move the switch up from ground adjust enable to threshold reset and back down again to ground adjust enable. This did nothing to change the threshold tone in ground adjust enable. If this was the case he felt there may be something wrong with the detector. This is all smoking mirrors to me so I am not sure what this test proved. I am not an electronics guru. I am capable of soldering wires, etc. and that is about it.

I also had another person PM me and stated that his Musketeer Advantage behaves in the same manner as mine and there should be nothing wrong with it. So now I have no idea if there is an issue or not. How exactly is this detector supposed to sound normally in all metal and discriminate with the sensitivity turned all the way up, provided there is no electrical interference, etc? The owners manual does not talk about this threshold tone unless I missed something in reading it.

Maybe there is nothing wrong with this detector and I should just drop the issue and move one. I don't know. I have made some deep finds with it so far.

I have contacted a local club to see if anyone has another example of the Musketeer Advantage for a comparison test before I draw any conclusions.

Thanks for you help so far.

 

[fwcrawford]

Lloyd,
Apparently you are still unsure about how your detector is working and whether or not there is something wrong with it.
Like I stated before, when testing mine, I came up with the same results as you are experiencing.
Personally I don't believe anything is wrong with your detector, but if you contact someone in that club, let me know what they say if they are familiar with the Musketeer detector.
I had a dealer demonstrate the controls on the Musketeer before I bought mine and he stated that the sounds heard at full sensitivity are an indication of the detector being very sensitive and a "hot" detector.
He stated that he set his at the point where it was just quiet and hunted that way.
Felix

 

[Lloyd0161]

Lloyd,
Apparently you are still unsure about how your detector is working and whether or not there is something wrong with it.
Like I stated before, when testing mine, I came up with the same results as you are experiencing.
Personally I don't believe anything is wrong with your detector, but if you contact someone in that club, let me know what they say if they are familiar with the Musketeer detector.
I had a dealer demonstrate the controls on the Musketeer before I bought mine and he stated that the sounds heard at full sensitivity are an indication of the detector being very sensitive and a "hot" detector.
He stated that he set his at the point where it was just quiet and hunted that way.
Felix

Hi Felix,

The local club does not have any members with the Musketeer. So for now I think I will just use it as is. It does seem to work and is capable of finding deep coins. I believe I mentioned to you that I pulled a clad dime from 9 inches measured in my front yard while testing the detector. So I will just let this go and use the detector until I know differently. I can't imagine improving upon its present performance which appears excellent. I am heading out in the morning with my hunting partner to detect some old parks and ball fields. Thanks for your help as well.

Lloyd

 

[Lloyd0161]

Thanks to all for your help!!! I believe I have solved the problem for now....

Talking to Digger over at Minelab Musketeers forum on Yahoo, he thought that there may be something wrong with the all metal pot adjustment. I also read the article about adjusting the all metal and discriminate threshold pots. Tonight I opened up the box and carefully opened up the RFI foil cover to reveal the circuit board with three potentiometers. I connected the battery and coil and positioned the coil so as not to have any metal within reach. I located the two pots with "104" marked on the side of them. These were identified in the article I read to be the all metal and discriminate threshold adjustment pots. The third pot in the upper right is marked "103" on the left had side and is the ground balance adjustment pot. The article said "DO NOT TOUCH THIS POT" so I left this one alone and focussed on the other two. Then I carefully marked the pots with a sharpie fine point so I could return them to their original position if my experiment failed. With the coil cable connector facing away from me I switched the detector on and advanced the sensitivity to maximum. Prior to this experiment, maximum sensitivity produces an offensive threshold volume in all metal mode and an obnoxious amount of chatter in discriminate mode. I started by switching into all metal mode with zero discriminate and with ground adjust enabled. After trying the pot on the lower right I found this pot had no effect on the all metal mode threshold. I found that the potentiometer on the lower left with the cable connector facing away from me was the all metal discriminate mode pot. I adjusted this to have a stable but soft threshold tone. This pot was now off roughly 90 degrees from its initial position. Next I switched into discriminate mode and adjusted the lower right hand pot to a soft tone as well, which was again off by roughly 90 degrees from its initial position. Once the adjustments were made and I felt the tone level was not obnoxious, I carefully re-taped the foil RFI cover and reassembled the control housing and detector with with the TS800 7 inch coil. I then attached my headphones and took the detector out to my test garden where I have a clad dime and clad quarter buried at 9 inches. These have been in the ground for roughly 4 months now. I switched on the detector and tested the ground balance which now works as described in the owners manual. I then adjusted the sensitivity and discriminate to full and tested the detector over the two coins. Both coins were detected with the 7 inch coil and gave a very nice soft round tone over the coins. Before I had made any adjustments, the target response had not been quite as good as it was now. I will continue testing my adjustment through the week and next weekend before drawing any final conclusions. This is impressive depth for such a small coil with coins buried this spring.

Thanks again,

Lloyd

 

[Lloyd0161]

Even better yet,

I tested the Musketeer, following the aforementioned adjustments, in the front yard again and pulled a 1951 wheat penny from a measured 8 inches. This was again with the stock 7 inch coil. The coin was under a tree root. I used 5 detectors this spring and summer and scoured over this spot in my front yard and none of them came close to finding this coin. Or at least the signal was not apparent. These included a Tesoro Vaquero, Garrett ACE 250 with 6x9 and 8x12 coils, Minelab X-Terra 305, and Minelab Sovereign XS-2 with 8 inch and 10 inch coils. Again, I wish they had not discontinued this detector as it is performing valiantly. Last week I found a clad dime at a measured 9 inches with the 10 inch coil. The Musketeer appears to be working much better now so I can get back out there and finish out this season with a little more confidence.

Lloyd

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Yes, he meant Minelab.

Here is where you need to send it;

Attn: Customer Service Repairs
2777 Finely Rd. Unit #4
Downers Grove Ill. 60515

Make sure it's still under Warranty ok?

Your problem sounds to me to be, wire fatigue. Easy fix.

Do this.
1. Unscrew the cable from the back of the control box
2. Then turn machine on. Quiet? Then you have wire fatigue or faulty coil.


Take the coil to a reputable "Mom and Pop" electronics store. They can locate the "fatigue" easily.
Your repair will only take a couple days and cost maybe 20 bucks. VS. paying shipping and waiting longer to get it back.

I hope this helps.

Mike

Mike,

At first I doubted your response but now believe you are being sincere with your help. Actually I tried disconnecting the coil and turning the detector on before you mentioned this test. Yes the machine was quiet. The thing is I have two coils and both exhibit the same behavior when connected. When I bought this detector the TS800 coil cable had been shortened to 4'-7"; I thought probably because someone wanted a shorter cable for shaft mounting in lieu of the hip mount bag. The TS1000 coil cable appeared stock however with an 7'-8" cable. The coils also appeared as new with not signs of use or abuse. So I am a bit baffled.

I contacted Kevin at Minelab and he actually called me and told me to try a different test. He said to turn the detector on and sensitivity up until I could just hear the audible threshold which is broken chatter in discriminate and a somewhat stable tone in all metal just past 3 O'clock on the knob dial. This audible "threshold" tone increases in volume as the knob is advanced to full sensitivity. Then Kevin said to move the switch up from ground adjust enable to threshold reset and back down again to ground adjust enable. This did nothing to change the threshold tone in ground adjust enable. If this was the case he felt there may be something wrong with the detector. This is all smoking mirrors to me so I am not sure what this test proved. I am not an electronics guru. I am capable of soldering wires, etc. and that is about it.

I also had another person PM me and stated that his Musketeer Advantage behaves in the same manner as mine and there should be nothing wrong with it. So now I have no idea if there is an issue or not. How exactly is this detector supposed to sound normally in all metal and discriminate with the sensitivity turned all the way up, provided there is no electrical interference, etc? The owners manual does not talk about this threshold tone unless I missed something in reading it.

Maybe there is nothing wrong with this detector and I should just drop the issue and move one. I don't know. I have made some deep finds with it so far.

I have contacted a local club to see if anyone has another example of the Musketeer Advantage for a comparison test before I draw any conclusions.

Thanks for you help so far.

"At first I doubted your response"

Seriously? Why?

 

[Lloyd0161]

Yes, he meant Minelab.

Here is where you need to send it;

Attn: Customer Service Repairs
2777 Finely Rd. Unit #4
Downers Grove Ill. 60515

Make sure it's still under Warranty ok?

Your problem sounds to me to be, wire fatigue. Easy fix.

Do this.
1. Unscrew the cable from the back of the control box
2. Then turn machine on. Quiet? Then you have wire fatigue or faulty coil.


Take the coil to a reputable "Mom and Pop" electronics store. They can locate the "fatigue" easily.
Your repair will only take a couple days and cost maybe 20 bucks. VS. paying shipping and waiting longer to get it back.

I hope this helps.

Mike

Mike,

At first I doubted your response but now believe you are being sincere with your help. Actually I tried disconnecting the coil and turning the detector on before you mentioned this test. Yes the machine was quiet. The thing is I have two coils and both exhibit the same behavior when connected. When I bought this detector the TS800 coil cable had been shortened to 4'-7"; I thought probably because someone wanted a shorter cable for shaft mounting in lieu of the hip mount bag. The TS1000 coil cable appeared stock however with an 7'-8" cable. The coils also appeared as new with not signs of use or abuse. So I am a bit baffled.

I contacted Kevin at Minelab and he actually called me and told me to try a different test. He said to turn the detector on and sensitivity up until I could just hear the audible threshold which is broken chatter in discriminate and a somewhat stable tone in all metal just past 3 O'clock on the knob dial. This audible "threshold" tone increases in volume as the knob is advanced to full sensitivity. Then Kevin said to move the switch up from ground adjust enable to threshold reset and back down again to ground adjust enable. This did nothing to change the threshold tone in ground adjust enable. If this was the case he felt there may be something wrong with the detector. This is all smoking mirrors to me so I am not sure what this test proved. I am not an electronics guru. I am capable of soldering wires, etc. and that is about it.

I also had another person PM me and stated that his Musketeer Advantage behaves in the same manner as mine and there should be nothing wrong with it. So now I have no idea if there is an issue or not. How exactly is this detector supposed to sound normally in all metal and discriminate with the sensitivity turned all the way up, provided there is no electrical interference, etc? The owners manual does not talk about this threshold tone unless I missed something in reading it.

Maybe there is nothing wrong with this detector and I should just drop the issue and move one. I don't know. I have made some deep finds with it so far.

I have contacted a local club to see if anyone has another example of the Musketeer Advantage for a comparison test before I draw any conclusions.

Thanks for you help so far.

"At first I doubted your response"

Seriously? Why?

As I stated before, both of these coils are in almost new condition. There was no signs of wear and tear at all, not a scratch. As it turns out, this was not the problem and I think I have fixed this detector enough to hunt the season out. Anyway, thanks again for your input. I may be looking to purchase a new detector in the spring and may be contacting you.

Mike, if I have offended you in any way I did not intend to do this and wholeheartedly apologize. I am a newcomer in this forum and after seeing your involvement and the things you have done for your community, I think you are to be commended. Anyway, did you read what I have done this evening with my Musketeer? It seems to work better now than before. But I am not by any means an electronics expert. I value your input. I will probably send this detector in to Minelab when the season is over as this is the only detector I currently own and want to continue using it till the snow flies. I explained this to Kevin from Minelab as well.

I probably paid too much for this detector off eBay at $500 for the package and have just been very frustrated as issues with this purchase have become apparent after the fact. I guess I was excited to have Musketeer again as I have not had one since 2003 when I had to part with this hobby in order to move myself to a new residence. I loved this detector when it first came out and still am impressed with its abilities. It is by no means a slouch and is very overlooked. Too bad Minelab discontinued it. Oh well, I have said enough.

Best Regards,

Lloyd Stephens