2nd impressions on T2 :inlove:

[earthmansurfer]

Ok, perhaps love at first sight is a bit strong. I put in a few hours on the T2 yesterday. The area I hunted ground balanced at around 70 and was littered with iron and small objects in many areas. The first target I decided to dig hit well in modes 1 through 4 but in 3b and db it said iron. Sure enough it was a slightly rusted bottle cap. Also, the iron meter went up to the third marking on the bottle cap so I'll have to see if that's a consistent aid. The 3b and db mode served their function, also once again later with another bottle cap. I preferred hunting in modes 2 and 3 and then checking good hits with 3b and db. My next target hit good and went through the 3b/db check (OK) and turned out to be an approximately 15 year old key/bottle opener. I thought that was a good sign digging a key . I didn't dig but 3 targets as 1. I didn't get that many clear hits and 2. I wanted to play with the unit.

My observations from my earlier post seemed true though. Having all of these modes seemed to really be an aid, as others have stated. Also, you really must keep the coil in motion to get good signals. I would like an "investigate (slow) mode" to look closer at targets. I know we have all metal but something with discrimination would be nice. I'm sure as I get more used to the unit I'll adapt to it's quick nature. Boy, I was getting so many signals and numbers were all over the place. Tough area to hunt but lowering the sensitivity did help in the end.

Setting the settings upon start-up is just too quick, I can't complain. I noticed many signal id's jumped around so I didn't dig those. when I have a better spot I'll dig some more of the signals.

The units sounds are a welcome thing. I love how with my Nautilus IIB that I can get so much info from the all metal sound. The different modes sort of have that same affect here. I didn't play with the all metal mode on the T2 yet though, nor did I try a manual GB.

The unit is definitely sensitive but I didn't have too much of a problem running it with the ground balance at 70 and the sensitivity between 40 and 60. Since the area was not too old and littered with junk I eventually dropped the sensitivity down to the 30 or 40 range (I believe) and things quieted down quite a bit. Lots of practice ahead but I'm really happy with the unit so far. The balance is really nice and I'm adjusting pretty quick to the units information filled screen.

The depth was within 2 inches on the shallow stuff (app. 3 or 4 inches) so that was not really an issue. Pinpointing was mostly dead on, depending on the target. Also, on the shallow stuff in the 3b and db mode I got the raise coil warning so that also told me the depth of the target was shallow.

Earthmansurfer

 

[KCK]

And that's just what I'm going to do. It took me almost a year of detecting to get the most from my GTI2500....It's going to take a while for me to understand and see everything this T2 can do.... BUt I'll say this it has been worth the time spent with the GTI, and It will be fpr the T2 also I'm sure!

Oh yea...slow learner here so post any updates in your process here so that we all learn from them!

Hope you really enjoy that T2!

KCK

 

[earthmansurfer]

Hey KCK,

I think it's sometimes more fun reading about and researching my detectors than using them. Bad habit I guess, but so much fun. I wish I had used my Naughty more and I'd be great with it, but I'm already having so much fun understanding this machine. If the Naughty had a meter I'd really be in Love with it as it's just so descriptive.
I think I'll end up being OK with this detector but I can't stress enough the T2 looks to be very very powerful with the modes, speed, iron meter, etc. I'll have to get used to how sensitive it is but I'm sure it's just going to take some time like with you and your GTI. I'll stick with this detector for a while and maybe some day pick up the next version super detector, you know, remote digging able, do it from your computer screen, etc.
It seems the posts have really dried up here. What ever happened to Ralph looking deep into this here detector. I read some great posts on this machine???



Where have all the posters gone?

Earthmansurfer

 

[KCK]

Easy Digger! Hard at work!

 

[Mike Hillis]

The hardest thing for me to learn was to be willing to turn the sensitivity down when the machine said to.

You mentioned wanting a good slow mode. Try the Dp mode for the real slow stuff and just use the audio, don't look at the meter. I find that helpful. Also the pinpoint mode is good for profiling. You can learn alot from the pinpoint mode. One last thing that can help is to check the target in all metal. Negative and positive hum level settings are helpful in different circumstances too.

I think you and the T2 will be getting along just fine.

HH

 

[earthmansurfer]

Thanks allot for the suggestions Mike. I hear you about the sensitivity. Just got in from hunting for a couple of hours in a children's park and had problems with the sensitivity. It lit up the ground, there was just too much stuff in it. I had to run it at 20 or 30 for a bit, but it was just full of junk and hard to understand. Eventually I found a quiet place and turned it back up, which is where I got my finds. The T2 is processing so many sounds and I could barely keep up. I did learn to listen for good sounds. I am getting fairly adept at understanding good sounding targets as they sound a bit clearer and the numbers don't jump around. The aluminum stuff often (not always) bounces from 40 to 80 or so. I'm still digging allot to "get a feel" for the machine but the two coins I dug sounded good from the get go.

I found a 1940 5 cent Reich's Mark with the swastika logo, only the third I've found and it's in good shape. You can't even buy them here because any Nazi stuff is basically banned. Also found a 1980 1 Deutsch Mark. Three times as big as the 5 cent piece but it hit at about 50 or so, but sounded good. The 5 cent piece was in the 70 range. Though garbage occurs there, the numbers were consistent and sound clear. About 5 inches deep on the latter. I also found a small, I think fake, silver pendant with fake diamond at about 3 inches and a really interesting... think it's an iron stone, not sure. About an inch across and heavy. I want to post some pics but need to learn how to cut the pics down in size and memory.

I used the 3b mode at first, but then moved to 4 and finally db. The garbage was there and I liked hearing a wider variety of sounds from the db mode.

Being a Nauty user I used the pinpoint mode intuitively to "feel" the ground like you said. The aluminum stuff just sounds "wider", like iron does on my Naughty. Not bad for my third time out. I used the all metal mode a bit, liked it and will experiment more with it later. What does checking the target in all metal mode get me? I'll play around with the the hum and try to figure it out.

Will do the "Slow Sound Stroll " next time out, thanks for the suggestion

I'm loving the machine so far.
Earthmansurfer

 

[Mike Hillis]

you know the ones I'm talking about, those small signal falses. Switching over to all metal with either a negative hum level or a very positive hum level will cancel many of them allowing the stronger signals to stand out better.

If electrical interference isn't a real issue then a negative hum level works pretty good at canceling a lot of them. Don't be afraid to turn it all the way down to a -9 (-45)and then tweak the sensitivity. You can really balance it out with just a little practice. If electrical interference is an issue then its better to go with a more positive hum level. Usually a +3 cancels the rf and a +5/6 does good with the small signals from the micro trash. I prefer the negative hum when I can just because it is quieter on the ear, but the positive works well too.

One more way to pick out good targets from a sometimes noisy background.

HH