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A peak under the iron mask

I

Ism

Well-known member
I was doing some experiments with my Sov in the house. I placed 3 nails in a line, 4 inches apart from each other on a piece of cardboard. I then placed a Roosevelt clad dime between the nails so I had "nail-dime-nail-dime-nail". This is the recovery speed test so often seen on detecting videos. I wanted to see just what the Sovereign had to offer in both recovery speed and ability to see good targets in the midst of trash. With iron mask off, I waved the line of targets across the face of the coil at about 4-5 inches away. I got zero target response no matter what speed I went. I ran it next to the coil and got nothing. So I switched to iron mask on and tried the test. I got the same dismal results except when I got within 2 inches of the coil the Sov would chirp and pop. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I wasn't expecting fast recovery, but I was expecting the detector to see the dimes in iron mask on.

As I was moving the cardboard further away from the coil, I got a signal. An amazing thing happened...at between 6-7 inches and further from the coil, the Sovereign started seeing the dimes. It even indicated 2 targets as there was a woo-woo of the high conductor tone. Believe it or not the faster I swept the line of targets in front of the coil, the better the Sov saw the dimes. I got an easy 180 on my meter.

I had my suspicions about iron mask just being a higher sensitivity level. So I placed the Sov in iron mask off and repeated the test. Nothing, not a peep. I then cranked the sensitivity and the results were the same...nothing.

I have proven beyond the shadow of a doubt (to myself) that iron mask on is not a gimmick.
Ran
 
Ran you are right, its not a gimmick.

Iron mask is simply ferrous discrimination and its preset on the Sov. On the explorer/etracs it is adjustable. I would love to see it adjustable on the Sov as well, perhaps the next Sov we will be able to adjust it?

One of these recent posts here Jim replied (deepdigger) with a link to a Bruce Candy report. I will try and locate it, you can click on deepdiggers name on any post and it will bring up all this posts listed by date. It was within the last two weeks. Anyways in this Bruce Candy report(Bruce was the main engineer on the Sov I believe), at the very end he describes about seperating up the ferrous signal and iron mask. You being the electronic guy you seem to be, might benefit from the entire report. I didnt, Im not savy in electronics.
 
Alot of the ability to see the dime depends on which way you are sweeping over the nail. If you are hitting the nail at a 90 degree angle to it in effect the signal from the coil is blocked from going any further. Also, lay the nail right up against the dime and try wiggling the coil over the dime. You can easily see it in that situation. I wrote some mask testing on the 10" Tornado and the S-5 and found out a few things about coil placement and use to unmask targets. I'll see if I can dig it up. It includes pictures of the masked targets.
 
Here ya go. It's lengthy but very detailed on unmasking data. It also shows that the S-5 does indeed unmask targets better than a larger coil.

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,1131053,page=1
 
Ism said:
I have proven beyond the shadow of a doubt (to myself) that iron mask on is not a gimmick.
Ran
Click to expand...

I don't think it's a gimmick either. I've probably dug more coins laying with iron on this machine that I have with any other I've owned. Just the other day I dug a wheat 6 or 7" deep that had iron in the hole with it. Gave me a perfect signal from any direction. And this was at a spot that we've pounded for years using many different models of metal detectors.

Another thing I'm amazed by (did some testing on this) is that the Sovereign seems to average two targets (when it is seeing them both at the same time in the magnetic field) together less than other detectors I've owned. Meaning, place a pull tab with a silver dime and it will still give a 180 signal, or perhaps only average down to like 176 or so on the meter. Doesn't happen every time, but when I've done this test with other detectors they usually average the signal down to somewhere half way between the conductivity value of both targets.
 
Here is that report by Bruce Candy Minelab Neil was talking about , if the PDF is to big just right click the report and adjust the size. Jim
http://www.minelab.com/__files/f/11043/METAL%20DETECTOR%20BASICS%20AND%20THEORY.pdf
 
Thanks for the responses and info. I guess I was approaching it from the point of a skeptic trying to prove that it was only a jacked up sensitivity switch.
So it was to my chagrin that I discovered physical evidence when trying to prove iron mask didn't work. I will read the article, I didn't see it before.
 
Wow Digger, that is one heck of a report - time to do some mulling over that file.... Thank you! :thumbup:
 
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