Alpha problems

[roswellhounder]

I am having trouble with my Alpha and 1 of my tt10s. One of my collars will charge and turn on fine, but shuts itself off after a little while. Sometimes five minutes sometimes thirty. I have done a master reset and updated but no change. My alpha also will not track my dogs past about 900 yards. As soon as they get closer I can track them again. I am using the short antenna in wide open areas. I have updated everything two days ago and no change. What else can I do? I use my system two to three times a week, and can't really do without.

[sheimer]

I would say that if all your collars can't be tracked out past 900 yards, but tracked well inside that, you need a better antenna on your Alpha. If your in a truck, use the magnet mount one, they work very well. If your on foot, you can get a hand held "long range" antenna and the work well also. I don't hunt wide open ground so I don't have any comparisons for you as to what range to expect. Up here in the mountains, we can lose them at 400 yards and the next time we have signal at 5 miles....

About the collar, is it just powering down or is it out of battery? What do the lights do when charging? Are you using the splitter so you can charge 2 at a time with one plugin? I have had one with a bad power switch. I ended up poking a hole in the rubber on top of the switch and when it got wet it would power off. Just an idea. Good luck.

Scott

[bowtech36]

Even with the short antennae you should track past 900 yards

[roswellhounder]

The battery is not running out it just powers off and will not power back on. I have the long range antenna that came with the unit but keep forgetting to use it. I am also hunting off a four wheeler in the pecos river, so there Is water involved, but the collar will power off before it gets wet. I am kinda disappointed in this whole system, I love the features and the service from buddy was awesome but after spending the money for six collars I could buy a lot of gas chasing dogs. If it would work right it would be a great system but until then I may just leave it at home and just have fun with the dogs.

[scrubrunner]

I run my hounds with a reg. collar, telemetry and TT10 collar, I was having problems with tt10s freezing up or shutting off. I now tape over the charging contacts with several layers of electric tape or duct tape, seems to have eliminated the problem on all the hounds except one. I had that collar replaced and the new collar shut off within 10 min. of releasing hound. I than took the regular collar off that one hound and have hunted her a lot with just the telemetry and tt10 on her with no problems. Don't know if that's your problem or not just some ideas and what I had to do. I have also had tt10s come unbuckled in extremely thick brush and had to walk in and find them so now I zip tie the buckle. It's aggravating having to do all this Jerry rigging on a system that cost so much but I love it when it is working. Here on flat ground with extremely thick brush my alpha will track about one mile with the long range antenna.

[B/T]

Not sure if this is your problem but I have one collar that turns off the problem is the on/off switch is too sensitive and if I put the collar on the dog to tight her movement would turn the collar off. When the collar is on looser no problems.

[roswellhounder]

I thought that maybe I was having the same problems so I tried the collar not even on the dog, just sitting in the truck and still would shut off. I guess I will try and get a hold of garmin and see what they will do. the last time I had to call them it was a major headache, but we will see. thanks for all the info. I will let everyone know the outcome.

[scrubrunner]

I just took the one I had that didn't seem to be working right back to the dealer I bought the system from. I told him what it was doing, handed it to him and he handed me a new one in the box no questions ask.

[roswellhounder]

I bought mine from buddy just over a year ago so garmin wont warranty it. I plugged the collar in to the charger and it blinks green very fast and starts beeping until I unplug it. I don't have the money to pay garmin to fix it yet so I will have to wait on getting it fixed. I am pretty fed up with this technology crap and may just go old school and stay with my dogs the whole race, lord knows I'll stay in shape that way.

[KellyD]

I know the battery appears to be charged and full but you might try swapping the battery/housing with another TT10 and see how both react. Its possible to have a faulty battery even though it appears good.

[roswellhounder]

I sent my collar back to garmin and they replaced it free of charge. they also found that somhow when I updated my alpha I ended up getting some corrupt data causing the lack of range. Garmin was very helpful this go round, and took care of everything as quick as possible. No word on what was wrong with the collar just that it was un repairable. Much happier with the alpha now. Happy hunting