2 schools of thought on the C$ settings...

[Anonymous]

from the posts below and I agree with both with some caveats.
For max depth of course high sensitivity settings are best but you have to run stable as Mike pointed out or risk losing targets in the noise. Lowering the threshold to smooth it out is not the answer in most cases IMHO. Of course if it is stable at sens 9-10 with -5 or 0 threshold, go for it! If not, then lower sensitivity first.. and this applies to areas with thick trash too unless you are the type that is very tolerant of all the responses the C$ will give and are willing to work it slow to take advantage of that. Remember too though that the C$ works well with a moderate sweep even in some pretty nasty trash and you do not need high sensitivity settings to get great depth when operating it that way.
Kevins deep settings... I totally agree and have posted before that lowering the sensitivity kills depth much quicker than lowering the threshold to negative numbers. Its how the C$ works and is a great thing!
Sensitivity is gain in the receive circuit and higher settings increase response to weaker signals, interference and ground noise included, threshold is well, threshold. LOL
Falsing? Most falsing with the C$ is from interference and lowering the sensitivity first is important (again IMHO) The C$ does false (if you can call it) that on some tin and rusty cans that other machines blank a little better but what do you want, good response on the iffy coins or a quieter smoother machine in ALL circumstances? If you do prefer a smooth quiet machine that retains most of the C$ abilities then get the ID Excel it has an unbeatable combination of shoothness and perfromance. The C$ is not perfect but until something better comes along in a TID machine its at the top of my list for now.
Tom

 

[Anonymous]

Why would you lower sens. first when you know it looses depth?
I agree that Sensitivity is gain in the receive circuit, but wont call the threshold a threshold like on other machines. It's an adjustment that lets me run high sensitivity for good depth in areas that I would have to cut the sens. back on other machines to get them to run stable. I know my confidence in the CS$ on deep coins is much better now than it was with my old way of trying to keep the threshold up near 0. I also get much better ID readings now to. I've dug silver dimes at 8+ inches in the past few weeks with the Threshold at -35 and sens @ 10. They had a sure coin high tone and near perfect ID. I know from all my past experience with the CS$ that I wouldn't get that depth with the threshold at -5 and the sens. down below 5.
HH'n

 

[Anonymous]

I don't have hundreds of hours on my C$ yet but I tried this today. I set sensitivity to about max for my area at 6 (at 7 or 8 it starts falsing). With the threshold close to 0 this is a very noisy machine, as it will sound off on very minute pieces of trash. So I set the treshold lower (larger minus number) to -50. To me that sets the "trigger" to sound off on larger pieces of metal. This seemed to quiet the C$ down conciderably. As far as depth, I found 1 silver mans ring at just over 8". And I recovered 2 dimes at 6" and 7" range (using my 9" digging tool as a guage).
This was done in a very trashy park. Disc Mode at(76), no notching, tracking, averaging, and salt off.
Next time at the same area I will set threshold at something like -70 or -80 and try that.
Just my two cents......HH Ernie

 

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Kevin,
I only lower the sensitivity when neccessary due to RF or working in highly trashed areas.
The few areas around here where the C$ does have stability problems are due to RF interference not ground conditions... with one exception, when hunting abandoned RR grades it high tone falses constantly.
Lowering the threshold into neg numbers has never solved the RF problem for me. Your conditions must be different, you said other machines are unstable at higher settings in those areas also. How does the C$ react if you don't lower the threshold using the high sensitivity settings? Maybe there is some difference in machines too??
I will try some of my iron infested sites using high sens and low (-) threshold settings to see how it works out for me. I have a couple fields where I know there are deep targets mixed in with deep iron and I hope it works! Last summer and fall I was hunting those areas with sens at 4-5 and threshold at 0 to -5. I felt those settings helped on masking with the lower sensitivity and then gaining back some of the signal response by keeping the threshold at a more sensitive level. It seemed to work well as I dug quite a few coins at decent depths where most machines were blind due to the iron masking the good targets.
HH Tom

 

[Anonymous]

When I ran high threshold and sens in disk mode, I got lots of iron falsing in the foil/nickle range, many little high coin false signals off iron, Jumpy ID numbers, lots of little trash targets reading like possible deep coins, and most important [I want finding as many deep coins as I am now.] I believe I was missing the deeper coins with high threshold because of all the false signals and masking by all the iron that seems to be everywhere around here. I test my settings on deep targets every time I hunt and have seen good signals go bad by increasing the threshold, and I have also seen good deep signals stay good all the way to -99 threshold with sens. on 10. I wish Fisher would come out and tell us what the so called threshold is actually adjusting.
Also, I have better luck in high trash by cutting the threshold way back rather than running low sen.
I keep good depth and greatly improve seperation and ID. Tried it both ways many times.
HH'n

 

[Anonymous]

Kevin,
Thanks for the response. Getting more detail helps put us on the same wavelength and I agree that Fisher could give us more info on what the threshold really does.
I know what you mean about the iron falsing into the foil area. That is well known and your way of handling it sounds good! I have another method that may help on that also, after the initial GB turn the tracking on for a while in the area you are hunting. When you find even a small area with no signals make a few sweeps over that spot and then turn the tracking off. That helps immensely with those foil falses. What few are left disappear on resweeps. It may not work in your area but give it a try sometime. For me the auto trac setting that gets locked in fine tunes the machine better.
HH Tom