Troubleshooting a Toltec 100

[guitarvp]

Hi everyone,

Newbie here trying to figure out what might be wrong with a used Toltec 100 I picked up a couple of weeks ago. The first few times I took it out to play with it, I was able to do the All Metal Tuning with now problems and was quickly able to find some old soda cans and what looks to be a very old retention pin of some sort. So I went to take it out again a couple of days ago and it was acting very differently even though the settings were the exact same. In all metal auto tune mode I get a constant alternating tone and it will not pick up on anything smaller than my small shovel. I tried tuning it again but it continues with the same alternating tone and does nothing when I attempt to adjust the threshold. I tried changing the batteries with no change. I'm hoping the problem is user error rather than something being wrong with the detector. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

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[Sandman]

Maybe there isn't anything wrong with the Toltec. I think what the problem is is EMI from either your cell phone or something else that wasn't present the first time you used it. If worse comes to worse Tesoro will fix it. Have you removed the coil cover?
http://www.fisherlab.com/hobby/davejohnson/Electrical Interference.htm
This link will provide info on what EMI is.

 

[guitarvp]

Sandman, thank you for the response. I will definitely try keeping my phone away from it, although it kept doing th same thing when I was 10 or so yards from the phone. I have not removed the cover off the coil yet.

 

[Hot zone]

Maybe you are detecting an area with lots of buried metal!

 

[randyalbin]

It sounds to me like it is not ground balanced correctly, put it in all-metal, adjust threshold to a low humming sound and pump the coil towards the ground. The threshold should remain a constant humming sound as coil gets closer to the ground. Make sure that there is no metal in the ground you are ground balancing to. If the threshold gets louder as coil gets closer to the ground then it is too positive adjust GB knob counter clockwise a little at a time until the threshold stays the same low humming sound. Likewise if threshold goes silent as coil get closer to ground adjust GB knob clockwise a little at a time until you get a steady threshold tone (hum). Hope this helps.

 

[guitarvp]

Randyalbin, thank you for the response. I attempted to do the ground balance as well but I don't here anything in terms of threshold whether I turn it up or down. I have tried different ground to include hard packed lawns and sand with the same alternating tone.

 

[randyalbin]

guitarvp....

Since you are in Japan and it costs $50 to fix it at the Tesoro factory. then shipping costs to USA and back would be more than the Toltec 100 is worth. If you can't get a threshold, all metal is useless, then you can't ground balance in the traditional way. The only option I have for you is to hunt in motion Disc. mode accessed by front panel toggle switch. The motion Disc. mode is silent search with no threshold sound. Then if the Disc. mode is noisy, you could do a "Power Balance" as explained by Monte V. Berry, just GOOGLE it and he gives a thorough explanation on how to do this.

 

[Corben]

I had a Toltec 100 and towards the end it was kinda loopy too. It just wasnt the same detector it was before. Sent it to Tesoro and they found no error. Try this...Disconnect the coil and inspect the wires pins and connections. Take out the batteries and put them back in. Say a little prayer and maybe all will work as should. Good luck. If it is busted I recall that it had a eight inch widescan coil on it. So hang on to it and look for a uMax model with the donut concentric and you'll have a pretty good set up.

 

[roobinjake]

hi just seen your trouble with toltec ,had a problem with mine ,it was the spring at the coil cable shorting out where it fits to the controll box see if it will pull out further ,this was sometimes a problem with these conectors, i still use it great machine on the thames london.
hope you get it going.