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In the following case Garrett works really unprofessional - instead of serious and durable buttons
they are using one of those picky touchpad buttons for the pinpoint-function which has to be pressed all the time and not just for a half second!
They are using this for their "expensive" and "professional" GTI 1500 and 2500 while the much cheaper Garrett Ace Series have reasonable pressbuttons!
Unbelievable!
No wonder after some time this crap doesn't works anymore and usually the owner has to replace the whole touchpad-unit!
Repairing such a bended, sticked or shifted and whatever broken touchpad button is really no fun:
You have to open the housing, next you must remove the touchpads flatribbon-cable and only after this procedure its possible to tear away the "softglued" Touchpad plastic-foil from the outer part of the housing.
Now this foil contains two parts, see: touchpad2.jpg
With caution remove the very sticky second foil and be careful not to lose the little metallic buttons (they are free movable after you have lifted the foil)
After this gently bend the faulty buttons back to its original shape, but not with too much force.
When reinserting be careful to put them with the correct side ahead back on its formerly place.
The little hills have to show into direction "outside" of the detector, into direction touchpad describtion.
Use clean fingers otherwise the sticky glue inbetween the layers can't hold the buttons on their correct places.
Be extremly carefully not ripping or tearing the foils itself apart.
You also should polish the small contact areas carefully because I found out those starts to oxidate after some time!
btw. I was successful to repair the Touchpad and my Garrett GTI 1500 now works as before - all buttons are functioning.
But from now on I really will avoid to use this pinpoint-button because I have absolutly no motivation for such a repair-work again
and because of this now already a little bit damaged softglue-layer, a second repair perhaps wouldn't be successful anyway!
However, now you know how it works and you can decide by yourself if the whole trouble is it worth for you or not!
And finally a note for all who built Metal Detectors:
Touchpad buttons are OK as long as they have very high quality and as long they're only used for short-pressing !!!
But for scan, pinpoint or other functions where the button must be pressed over many seconds or even minutes they are absolutly no solution !!!
And Garrett for the future should use the cheap parts for the cheap detectors and the reliable button solution for their premium products - not vice versa !!!
they are using one of those picky touchpad buttons for the pinpoint-function which has to be pressed all the time and not just for a half second!
They are using this for their "expensive" and "professional" GTI 1500 and 2500 while the much cheaper Garrett Ace Series have reasonable pressbuttons!
Unbelievable!
No wonder after some time this crap doesn't works anymore and usually the owner has to replace the whole touchpad-unit!
Repairing such a bended, sticked or shifted and whatever broken touchpad button is really no fun:
You have to open the housing, next you must remove the touchpads flatribbon-cable and only after this procedure its possible to tear away the "softglued" Touchpad plastic-foil from the outer part of the housing.
Now this foil contains two parts, see: touchpad2.jpg
With caution remove the very sticky second foil and be careful not to lose the little metallic buttons (they are free movable after you have lifted the foil)
After this gently bend the faulty buttons back to its original shape, but not with too much force.
When reinserting be careful to put them with the correct side ahead back on its formerly place.
The little hills have to show into direction "outside" of the detector, into direction touchpad describtion.
Use clean fingers otherwise the sticky glue inbetween the layers can't hold the buttons on their correct places.
Be extremly carefully not ripping or tearing the foils itself apart.
You also should polish the small contact areas carefully because I found out those starts to oxidate after some time!
btw. I was successful to repair the Touchpad and my Garrett GTI 1500 now works as before - all buttons are functioning.
But from now on I really will avoid to use this pinpoint-button because I have absolutly no motivation for such a repair-work again
and because of this now already a little bit damaged softglue-layer, a second repair perhaps wouldn't be successful anyway!
However, now you know how it works and you can decide by yourself if the whole trouble is it worth for you or not!
And finally a note for all who built Metal Detectors:
Touchpad buttons are OK as long as they have very high quality and as long they're only used for short-pressing !!!
But for scan, pinpoint or other functions where the button must be pressed over many seconds or even minutes they are absolutly no solution !!!
And Garrett for the future should use the cheap parts for the cheap detectors and the reliable button solution for their premium products - not vice versa !!!