Ace 250 battery power question.

[CliffHanger]

This question not only pertains to the Ace 250. I'm using the 250 as the example because I have one. Matter of fact I ordered another one just in case they stop making them sometime soon.

If battery power is less as the squares move down, would running at higher sensitivity be the way to make up for less battery power?

How much depth is lost as the batteries drop down to the 3rd square and then to the 2nd? (The bottom square being #1, the top being #4)

I imagine it would be like a flashlight. As the batteries loose power the light gets dimmer. If that's the case with a detector then the depth would suffer as the batteries drain. Right?

Thanks

CliffHanger

PS - To those that have an Ace 250 but don't have the Sniper coil... GET IT!!!

 

[Hightone]

Ya can't compare it to a flashlight. A flashlight does one thing, burns a bulb. A metal detector has current going to the coil, circuit board, LCD display, etc. Which ever draws the most power will be the first affected.

Turning up the sense would make things worse, like turning up a radio when batteries are dying. You just get louder distortion.

I always carry two sets of fresh batteries in my large bag, one set in my fanny pack.

 

[khouse]

A metal detector has a voltage regulator built into it. If the 250 detector was designed to run 4AA batteries at 6 volts then as your battery runs down so would the effective power of the detector. Also you would be readjusting it constantly. I don't know what the regulated voltage is. But let's say it's 4 volts. Your detector will not show a decrease in power until your batteries are lower than 4 volts. With a regulator your detector will be stable for quite some time.
Now saying that if your battery falls below the designed operating voltage then it will be erratic.

 

[Uncle Willy]

Actually not. Your detector wil perform the same right down to the last square. Turning anything "up" on your detector consumes more juice. It takes power to run all those functions.

Bill

 

[Parkit]

Interesting discussion, this is one I was wondering about. Personally I have an unlimited supply of fresh, free AA batteries so I've been replacing all 4 in the ACE 250 after the first bar goes dead but I'm sure that's completely unnecessary. Having said that, it does seem like I get more false signals and shakier pinpointing if I wait for the second bar to go out, that's why I haven't been waiting for it to get that far. Probably just a psychological thing, since I have all the free batteries I want I don't obsess over batter life and just use fresh ones every 15 hours or so.