A couple of technical questions

[relic-hunter]

Hey all. First of all I think I am addicted. Okay now for the q's first a general question about detectors. They seem to be pretty decent about battery consumption. I have somewhere between 15 and 20 hours on the first set of alkaline batts. Is this good or bad? The meter just dropped from 4 bars to 3 bars. Supposedly when it drops to 2 bars you have about 2 hours left. Second question is specific to the GTAx what factors can effect the accuracy of the target id feature? I have been detecting mostly sandy ocean beaches. Sometimes coins read as gold and foil indicates nickels. Does depth affect the accuracy? How about target size? This morning I was using all-metal mode for the first time, dug almost all the beeps, except those where the indicator read iron or foil. In a couple of hours on a well detected beach I found 2 nickels, a dime, a newer penny, a 1927 wheat penny and a Canadian cent piece. Plus some bottle caps, a couple of pull tabs, a foil condom wrapper and a pellet from a pellet gun ( the smallest target I have recovered so far).

Thanks in advance for the answers.

Ken

 

[John-Edmonton]

All sorts of things effect the probability that any metal detector will be affected by.... Some of these are:

Soil matrix mineralization, salt content, ferrous content, oxidation on the coins surface, moisture in the soil, horizontal lying position of the coin or target, sharp points on the target, smooth/roughness of the surface, metallic/ alloy composition of the target, size of the target, depth of the target. There are many more, but these are some of the major ones. Your job to be successful is to be aware of these variables and not blame the machine. It is only responding to what it sees in the ground.

 

[relic-hunter]

Thanks for the answers. I am not blaming the machine one bit. I really like the 550 it seems like a very good unit. I would definitely recommend it and the Garrett line in general. So from what you say about the different conditions that can affect the accuracy of the target id feature it is more or less about learning how to read the ground conditions of the area you are detecting and the readings the detector gives you.

Ken

 

[Black Davy]

Ken,

Sensativity/Depth setting are your key to beach hunting with this unit. They need to be adjusted as you go.
I have a older GTAx550, it was my first mordern area machine since my brothers old Compass that I had used for 25 years, boy was I behind the times but it's frequency was good for gold so whatever.
Battery life with the 550 unit is great, I use to wonder some times when the meter was going to drop. Your battery life is normal.
My unit has the old solid coils and my experiance at the beach is sensativity setting are your key with this unit. Up high in the dry sand you can keep the sensativity up. When you get to the area that is still wet this is were you need to adjust your sensativity down otherwise you start to get ghost or false readings in the nickle/foil/gold area. So you need to use your largest coil so when you drop the sensativity so you can still retain some depth. Pennies really jump around on the 550 depending on its age and soil conditions, some read in the gold and dimes area. I can always tell a newer penny that may be mineralized because it will jump around some between settings. Nickles are pretty much right on. Some trash reads in the largest coin setting. I did end up purchasing other units that were more specific for beach conditions such as my Infinium and Quattro so I could work the wet sand.

I hope this helps some.

Dave
This is great begginers unit, great for parks, dry sand and trashy areas but not really a wet sand beach unit. It works well on fresh water beaches right up until the water, but not in it unless the sensativity is reduced.

 

[John-Edmonton]

n/t