Tom
03-29-2014, 01:12 PM
Something that new and old V3i users alike might need to be aware of, if they are not already. Is the fact that whites has had a lot of problems with their 10" D2 V rated coil. Now don't get me wrong the coil is a dam fine one when it is working properly, maybe one of the best. However, when it starts to go south and if it does so slowly or intermittently, it can drive someone just trying to learn the V3i absolutely nuts! It did just that to me!
Some good willed folks will unintentionally mislead you into believing that testing the coil is a simple matter of going outside, holding the coil waist high, cranking the RX Gain to 15 (TX Boost off) and if it overloads its bad, if it don't it's good. I wish it was that cut and dry, and that simple! If it in fact overloads during that test, YES you do have a bad coil, no doubt about it, unless there is a magnet stuck to the bottom of your coil that is. Call whites customer service right away and I’m sure they will take care of it. However, Go-No-Go tests rarely work with intermittently failing electronic components. Some of these same good meaning folks will tell you based on this test that you have a good coil and therefore something else must be the problem. Maybe it’s you not understanding such a complex and state of the art machine and they will try everything, unsuccessfully possible to help you figure it out and get you happy and hunting.
Well I want to tell you if you find your V3i working great one day and rewarding you with quiet operation and lots of deep targets, only to find yourself at the exact same spot with the exact same machine settings another time, and you now have a misbehaving and unstable V3i you may have intermittently failing electronic components. All things considered, if you do exactly the same thing, exactly the same way, under the exact same conditions, you should get the exact same result. If you don’t, something else is happening that is affecting the outcome. It might not be you or your inexperience with your complex new toy, stop blaming yourself! Conversely Albert Einstein defined Insanity as: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Please don’t go insane over your V3i, the design and operation of it is solid and good. It might not be something you’re doing wrong or right even that is causing your grief! You might just simply be the victim of an intermittently failing electronic component.
As your coil begins to gradually fail, as mine did, you will be able to compensate for it with many of the V3i’s varied settings. Yup, turning down the RX Gain will help the most, in the beginning, along with frequency offsets, different filters, and frequent manual ground balancing etc. etc. etc. ad nauseam. If you don’t consider this as a possibility you are going to go crazy reading everything out there and seeking advice from anyone who will listen trying to figure out what it is you’re doing wrong! Again, you might not be doing anything wrong. If you maintain your sanity long enough, and not ditch your “too complicated for me” machine, the coil will fail completely and you will get a replacement and begin to learn why so many out there love their machine.
Is there anything to help you determine if you might be the victim of an intermittently failing coil? Sure. You could subject your coil to complicated environmental cycling tests, you know, hot to cold and back along with fluid immersion resistance testing along with vibration testing and shock tests. Might want to leave those for the factory though unless you have access to thermal shock chambers and vibration tables! You could try a light tapping of the coil with a small piece of wood and see if it overloads, don’t beat it with a hammer you will just void your warranty! You would be surprised at how effective a few light taps can be.
The moral here folks is that whites spent a lot of time creating a nice piece of technology that you should not be afraid of, intimidated by or feel is above you. The V3i should and does work well out of the box using the stock programs. If it does not, it might not be you! As with anything manufactured defects will and do happen, always have and always will. But before you blame yourself you just might be the victim of an intermittently failing electronic component. I was lucky, mine worked great in the very beginning before it began wandering into that gray area. My fear is some folks started out in that gray area and just pounded their heads against the wall trying to figure out what they did wrong when it might have been nothing at all. I sincerely hope that someone finds value in this and possibly regains some lost sanity.
Some good willed folks will unintentionally mislead you into believing that testing the coil is a simple matter of going outside, holding the coil waist high, cranking the RX Gain to 15 (TX Boost off) and if it overloads its bad, if it don't it's good. I wish it was that cut and dry, and that simple! If it in fact overloads during that test, YES you do have a bad coil, no doubt about it, unless there is a magnet stuck to the bottom of your coil that is. Call whites customer service right away and I’m sure they will take care of it. However, Go-No-Go tests rarely work with intermittently failing electronic components. Some of these same good meaning folks will tell you based on this test that you have a good coil and therefore something else must be the problem. Maybe it’s you not understanding such a complex and state of the art machine and they will try everything, unsuccessfully possible to help you figure it out and get you happy and hunting.
Well I want to tell you if you find your V3i working great one day and rewarding you with quiet operation and lots of deep targets, only to find yourself at the exact same spot with the exact same machine settings another time, and you now have a misbehaving and unstable V3i you may have intermittently failing electronic components. All things considered, if you do exactly the same thing, exactly the same way, under the exact same conditions, you should get the exact same result. If you don’t, something else is happening that is affecting the outcome. It might not be you or your inexperience with your complex new toy, stop blaming yourself! Conversely Albert Einstein defined Insanity as: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Please don’t go insane over your V3i, the design and operation of it is solid and good. It might not be something you’re doing wrong or right even that is causing your grief! You might just simply be the victim of an intermittently failing electronic component.
As your coil begins to gradually fail, as mine did, you will be able to compensate for it with many of the V3i’s varied settings. Yup, turning down the RX Gain will help the most, in the beginning, along with frequency offsets, different filters, and frequent manual ground balancing etc. etc. etc. ad nauseam. If you don’t consider this as a possibility you are going to go crazy reading everything out there and seeking advice from anyone who will listen trying to figure out what it is you’re doing wrong! Again, you might not be doing anything wrong. If you maintain your sanity long enough, and not ditch your “too complicated for me” machine, the coil will fail completely and you will get a replacement and begin to learn why so many out there love their machine.
Is there anything to help you determine if you might be the victim of an intermittently failing coil? Sure. You could subject your coil to complicated environmental cycling tests, you know, hot to cold and back along with fluid immersion resistance testing along with vibration testing and shock tests. Might want to leave those for the factory though unless you have access to thermal shock chambers and vibration tables! You could try a light tapping of the coil with a small piece of wood and see if it overloads, don’t beat it with a hammer you will just void your warranty! You would be surprised at how effective a few light taps can be.
The moral here folks is that whites spent a lot of time creating a nice piece of technology that you should not be afraid of, intimidated by or feel is above you. The V3i should and does work well out of the box using the stock programs. If it does not, it might not be you! As with anything manufactured defects will and do happen, always have and always will. But before you blame yourself you just might be the victim of an intermittently failing electronic component. I was lucky, mine worked great in the very beginning before it began wandering into that gray area. My fear is some folks started out in that gray area and just pounded their heads against the wall trying to figure out what they did wrong when it might have been nothing at all. I sincerely hope that someone finds value in this and possibly regains some lost sanity.