TCosbyJr
Forum Supporter
Hello I'm just getting restarted detecting after a few years.
With my budget constants and not wanting a beginners detector again, after my last detector was a new Tesoro Outlaw, I found the Fisher Gold Bug. I'll likely never prospect for gold, but many say its great for relic hunting and a bit of coin shooting - which is perfect for me.
While I would have preferred a Fisher F75, my wife put her foot down on that, maybe a upgrade trade later. Anyway as I am restarting from scratch I found Amazon (they were the seller, no 3rd party) was happy to sell it to me broken up on payments which allowed me to go ahead and get all the other goodies too (coil cover, rain cover, spare coil bolts, rechargeable battery setup, pinpointer, trowel, etc... some $200+ of goodies).
After waiting a bit over 2 weeks the detector finally arrived today, the rest of my goodies were already delivered and waiting. I put together the metal poles, connected the coil, and pulled the pull battery tab from the battery box and it came to life.
Problem was the On/Off switch was in the off position. (see image of the switch I am talking about)
Further testing reveled that the only way to turn the detector off is to remove the battery. The On/Off switch itself seems solid, has a nice click, and the main function of the Gain works 100% on the switch as it should - the switch for On/off simply does nothing electronically. The rest of the metal detector also seems to function as it should.
So this is where I need the advice.
I have some options available to me at this point to fix my brand new detector, all of which I am not happy with besides the even longer wait time. What money I had left was spent on accessories, some of which was for this particular detector so are worthless if I have to get something else.
Amazon itself (not a 3rd party) is sold out too which means if I send it back to them I am in for a long wait for a replacement (or simply a refund). Which is enough for a beginner machine... which is what I trying to avoid to start with.
I contacted Fisher directly too when it arrived and I'm waiting for a response. However in this day and age with the pandemic who knows if support is even around at all to respond.
Should I...
So much for the parks and everything else that recently opened back up in my state. Hopefully soon though I can get back to swinging a detector.
With my budget constants and not wanting a beginners detector again, after my last detector was a new Tesoro Outlaw, I found the Fisher Gold Bug. I'll likely never prospect for gold, but many say its great for relic hunting and a bit of coin shooting - which is perfect for me.
While I would have preferred a Fisher F75, my wife put her foot down on that, maybe a upgrade trade later. Anyway as I am restarting from scratch I found Amazon (they were the seller, no 3rd party) was happy to sell it to me broken up on payments which allowed me to go ahead and get all the other goodies too (coil cover, rain cover, spare coil bolts, rechargeable battery setup, pinpointer, trowel, etc... some $200+ of goodies).
After waiting a bit over 2 weeks the detector finally arrived today, the rest of my goodies were already delivered and waiting. I put together the metal poles, connected the coil, and pulled the pull battery tab from the battery box and it came to life.
Problem was the On/Off switch was in the off position. (see image of the switch I am talking about)
Further testing reveled that the only way to turn the detector off is to remove the battery. The On/Off switch itself seems solid, has a nice click, and the main function of the Gain works 100% on the switch as it should - the switch for On/off simply does nothing electronically. The rest of the metal detector also seems to function as it should.
So this is where I need the advice.
I have some options available to me at this point to fix my brand new detector, all of which I am not happy with besides the even longer wait time. What money I had left was spent on accessories, some of which was for this particular detector so are worthless if I have to get something else.
Amazon itself (not a 3rd party) is sold out too which means if I send it back to them I am in for a long wait for a replacement (or simply a refund). Which is enough for a beginner machine... which is what I trying to avoid to start with.
I contacted Fisher directly too when it arrived and I'm waiting for a response. However in this day and age with the pandemic who knows if support is even around at all to respond.
Should I...
- Return it to Amazon (who is out of stock for a replacement) for a refund?
- Wait for Fisher to possibly respond and wait weeks/months for a repair sending it in?
- Use the detector as is and remove the battery each time?
- Unscrew the 4 Phillips screws on the control box and repair a possible solder connection, replace the switch, or whatever is necessary myself? With my knowledge and past projects I would have already - but fear it may not be something so simple and if the electronics board is faulty I just voided my warranty and return.
So much for the parks and everything else that recently opened back up in my state. Hopefully soon though I can get back to swinging a detector.
