garrett gtxa 500 eats batteries

[homefire]

Just use a Ohm meter and see what the battery conectors going to detector shows.

[Qiaozhi]

Whats the best way to check the current with the detector turned off? The detector has 2 battery packs?

The GTAx 500 has a battery box mounted under the arm rest. There are 4 screws on the bottom that you can remove to get access to the connectors. The simplest method would be to attach some crocodile (some people call them alligator) clips between the connectors and the batteries / multi-meter.

[jc77]

I got infinity on all 4 clips

[homefire]

Maybe the batteries are just Tits up!

[grungymike]

is it really off?

High current rate with detector on is one thing, but a drain with main switch off makes me suspicious of the switch itself. See if your switch is really going to "infinite" resistance in the off position.

[ivconic]

No switch there, just soft touch. I am not sure if those batteries are "split" as on TA300 and one pack is only to supply audio driver, or not. But if that is the case there, than that audio driver must have some leakage, most probably come cap. Or maybe transistor at audio is open all the time (without signal on base there is still small drain only if transistor or cap are bad - easy to check; locate which pack is for audio and connect amp meter in series).