ATP Newbie/Long time detector

[IKSDoomsday]

So I am trying to get use to this new machine. That said..I have a few questions from you experts. I have been running in Pro zero with iron disc set at 35-40 because of the trash levels in my hunt area. I also set Iron audio off until I get a nice tone then check with the iron audio. The thing I have come to notice is the amount of chatter and almost signals the ATP gives out and I have wondered if this is normal? When I do come to a coin or something like a pull tab it does give a much better ring that is consistent as I have found tons of clad and a few Wheaties in my first couple days. I just worry about the deep signals with all the chatter and hope I am not missing them by going past thinking it is just the ground talking. I do a GB auto at every site and sometimes more than a few to make sure that the GB is correct. I am in western Washington St. and it seems to GB around 90-93 most of the time if that info helps at all.

Thanks ahead of time for any advice.

Steve

 

[Night Crawler]

Hi IKSDoomsday

I'm not an expert, but maybe I can give you some things to consider here about the chatter your getting. As for Washington and Oregon states, I don't know if you can recall about Mt. St. Helens blowing her lid some years back. This absolutely saturated those 2 states with very high sulfur content mixed in with a lot of microscopic iron based metals over that whole area. Over the years, this volcanic ash eventually mixed in with the soil.

This is 1 thing to take into consideration here, the next would be EMI that can cause any metal detector to chatter. Are you located near any under ground cables, airports, cell towers, power lines? This can adversely affect any metal detector.

Another consideration here is the coil wire plug-in. Mine didn't stop chattering until I figured out the coil wire plug-in wasn't installed correctly by me. Once I got that straightened out, the machine ran like a top.

As you can see, when it comes to any metal detectors performance, theirs a lot that needs to be taken into consideration here that can give you problems. Everything I mentioned above I have come across myself personally, and they all made the machine act up in one way or another. I stay away from those areas now.

I'm sure others with more experience will chime in if they can.

Hope something here helps you in some way IKSDoomsday.

 

[BigCatDaddy]

You don't say where you have your Sens. set. Garretts tend to chatter with it set very high. Higher Sens. on a Garrett doesn't neccessairily mean greater depth, just more chatter as it responds to all of the stuff in the soil. I run mine at 4 bars all of the time. I've been swinging Garretts for years and all of them have responded like this. Some guys run them with full Sens, and try to pick out the good signals from all the chatter, but I found it's fruitless to operate like that.

 

[IKSDoomsday]

Hey guys thanks for the great info. I will answer each question as best I can. Yes I have the sens maxed because of my ground tests where I buried dimes/quarters/pennies and nickles at 6'' then 7'' and then 8.5-9'' I am unable to get a reading at all on a clad quarter at 7'' so you know for the rest. Silver does the same max 6.5-7'' for a quarter. I also dug about a 5-6'' open hole and just laid a clad quarter in it with no signal. The cable is secure/ fully inserted with electric grease. Settings are Pro zero/max sens iron audio off/ cable is wrapped snug starting at the first joint with electrical tape to help hold it. My ground balance is at 93 when I auto balance. With the amount of chatter and how light even a 4-5'' quarter sounds I am sure I am missing stuff mainly because my other detector has found stuff right behind me.

After reading your posts I did go out today and test it with sens down 3 bars. Less chatter however the depth detection did not improve that is for sure.

About the EMI: I take care to look out for any type of EMI and change the freq as needed. The place I am detecting as of now has 0 overhead and 0 underground cables as it is about 5 miles from anything

About Mt St Helens: I have thought about that and it may just be that the Garrett can not handle this type of soil/hence I may need to return it.

After 5 days digging and having pretty bad luck then going over it with another detector just to find the stuff I have missed is getting to me....

Also my serial number is 53241996 I know some of them have trouble but not sure on the numbers,

 

[Night Crawler]

The Serial number is the latest production number IKSDoomsday. My Serial number starts with 5131**** and that was the new updated version when I got mine. Here where I live, most places were still selling the old 49****** and earlier models, so I had mine shipped up from the US and why mine is an AT Pro not the AT pro International.

You should be getting much better depth than that with the 8.5x11 coil that's for sure. I balance out at around the same as you do IKSDoomsday (92-94) when I'm relic hunting and I have no issues with my machine. The way I would check this interference out with your machine is to hold it up in the air and see if the chatter goes away or not. If it doesn't, then you are definitely getting EMI interference.

If the machine gets quite in the air and starts to get noisier closer to the ground (after you have ground balanced of course), then it's an underground cable or the soil at that point. Might I suggest you try a "Factory Reset" and start the process over again (ground balancing) to see if that makes any difference. If it doesn't then maybe try another area completely with a different soil type to see if the machine acts up the same way. If it does, then something is definitely off with the machine then.

Another suggestion here just for trial and error sake, is to just run the machine in Pro Mode - Zero Discrimination - No Iron Audio (Wide Open). When discrimination is used, you do loose depth (at least mine does for sure).

- Wide Open
- Factory Reset (hold it in the air at least 3 feet off the ground when you reset it)
- Good Batteries in it (and installed correctly)
- Plug-Ins are seated properly
- New area and soil type
- Ground Balance and see how the machine acts then.
- If it acts up still, then try the Manual Ground balance feature and frequency off set again.

This should give you a pretty good idea if ti's the machine itself or the soil type your in.

The AT Pro is quite a sensitive machine and picks up more things that a lower end machine won't and why you get so much more out of the AT Pro than a lower end machine.

I would really like to know how things work out for you IKSDoomsday, thanks.


PS: And for this test IKSDoomsday, don't carry anything electronic on you, If you wear steel boots as I do, I can pick them up 2' feet away from the coil and why I have to extend my coil almost all the way to the end so i don't get to much interference from them which I do on occasion even at that point. Just something else to take into consideration here.

 

[IKSDoomsday]

Thanks Night Crawler,

I will be doing the test today in order to see if I can get any more depth and less chatter out of the pro. The black sand and hot soil here in Washington does not help depth at all. But I was easily getting coins at 6-8'' with the Ace 250. As far as manual GB goes I have little exp with that... So I have stuck to auto until I actually learn a little more. When GB is at a 93 I would think I would negatively GB lower though correct...perhaps a few clicks backward? The biggest thing that I have been worried about is the depth to be honest because when I placed that clad quarter no more than 6'' in to an open pit and the detector could not read it that kind of freaked me out a bit lol. My ACE went over the same hole and rang like it was on fire.


P.S. For the most part it is the soil causing the chatter( I say that because she was quiet as a sleeping baby on another local park earlier this week.) I just need to lower my sens...but with the depth problem I am having I am afraid to do that.

Wanted to touch on something though....I have been running the iron dis very high between 35-40 in pro zero with full sens/// If what you say is true I may be losing my depth right there...

Steve

 

[Night Crawler]

Hi IKSDoomsday

An Ace 250 can see that quarter and the AT Pro Can't?
My metal detecting friend has an ace 250 and I run circles around him in both salt water and high mineral ground we hunt in (92-94). The Ace 250 as you know runs a stock concentric coil which is a lot more prone to hot rocks than the at pro with the dd coil.

The ace 250 as you know can't be ground balanced and the at pro can be, so after what you just said that the ace 250 can see that quarter and the at pro can't, then their is something way off here for sure IKSDoomsday, my friend always picks up hot rocks with his ace 250 and asks me to check it for him to see if it's a good target or not.

(Just something to check) - If you see "Gnd Bal" displayed on the AT Pro screen, then it's in the manual ground balance mode and needs to be deactivated by pushing the "Ground Balance" button again. I did this once, and forgot about it and it didn't run right at all until I deactivated mine.

It's nice to have another machine along side to compare, and their is no way an ace 250 should see something the AT Pro can't, no way. I have absolute proof on that one with my friends ace 250, so something isn't banging right at all with your AT Pro IKSDoomsday and you need to be more Methodical here to find out why that is.

If you can try the suggestions I mentioned above and let us know what the out come is, I would appreciate that very much, thanks.

Here are the Garrett Instructional Videos on You Tube for the AT Pro that I found very helpful:

Main Site:
http://www.youtube.com/user/GarrettDetectors

AT Pro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buxjNWjETSk&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL604F7F89599F7075

Hope something here helps IKSDoomsday

 

[IKSDoomsday]

Went to a new hunt site today(Almost 20 miles from my previous site). Held the detector 3 feet in the air and did a factory reset. Set to pro zero/zero disc and max sens. GB'ed(93 auto) and dug a 5'; wide x 6'' deep hole. Placed a clad quarter in the middle. Detector would not find it. Ace 250 rang like a charm. Found plenty of large/iron/brass targets up to 6-8'' down with the pro today but only new pennies up to 2''. Ran back through with the ACE and picked up a clad quarter 4-4.5'' that the ATP missed but that was all this time. The ground test still failed in a new area though. Ground did not chatter much at all even with high sens so it was def the soil where I was at before. That did not help the depth however. Got home tonight and used my yard once again and buried the coins at 5/6/8/9'' Since a quarter is common I used that for this new test after repeating the factory reset pro zero/zero disc and max sens with an Auto GB of 93. The ATP would slightly grumble if you could call it that on the 6'' quarter only when I placed it in a perfect flat position and came at it from all directions.

Before I forget to mention: Re-seated the cable each time with new grease as well. No cellphone/steel toes/I do not carry anything metallic when I hunt other than my small predator. The bag I left by a tree over 5 feet away. Freq was perfect as there was no static and the ground was rather quiet. I also did attempt to manual GB and set the detector first at 90 with no better result then at 95 with no better result. I also decided to try a battery change/ Used Sanyo eneloops first then energizer regulars second both with no better results.

I have to call fail on my ATP perhaps the coil? I do use a cover on the coil but that has never had any effect before on any other detector I have used.
EMI was non-existent today
I must have watched that video 100 times before and after I bought the ATP love it and learned so much from it. It just is not helping my depth problem.

I did the test over and over again

 

[pitcher]

I have two ATPs and they do the same thing, I dig a hole 6" deep and the ATP will not see it, but then I hunt and find coins at 4 to 9", make no sense but thats how mine works, another thing with both of my machines is when the target is over 7" deep I get a high tone but VDI at all.
The first time this happened to me I dug a 1943S war at 9" with two other guys watching, its the deepest coin Ive ever dug with any detector that I have ever had and over the past 25 years I have had alot of them.
But this was also the case with my Omega 8000, fresh dug hole at 6" and the Omega could not see a dime or quarter, Crazy hobby for sure some times it can drive you nuts.

 

[Night Crawler]

Well you did everything mentioned KSDoomsday and at this point, I would say the same thing. Pitcher does bring up a good point but the ace 250 shouldn't be any better than the AT Pro.

I know the AT Pro does have the ace 250 settings in it and would be curious to see if the Stnd - Zero - would act the same way as your ace 250 (see the same things). Either way, at this point KSDoomsday, I would give Garrett a call and talk to someone about the issues you are having with this machine. Something just isn't running right at all either way with it (I feel).

Here is Garretts Contact Information:

Garrett Electronics, Inc.

Hobby Division
Division de Pasatiempo

1881 W. State St.
Garland, TX 75042

Google Map

Telephone: 1-972-494-6151 (International)
Toll Free: 1-800-527-4011 (USA/Canada only)
Fax: 1-972-494-1881

Hobby Division Email: sales@garrett.com

Hours of Operation: 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM M-F CST



Let us know what they have to say about it KSDoomsday, thanks.

 

[IKSDoomsday]

I am going to contact Garrett to get it sorted out. Though I do find it interesting that your ATP does the same thing.

I DO WANT TO GIVE THE ATP SOME CREDIT where it is deserved though.

I brought home today what at first I thought were meteorites...I know unlikely. Anyway I have about a half a pound of the stuff and I get to washing it up and it turns out it has a beautiful metallic/silver tone under the crud. So I think an iron ingot just a strange shaped ingot....took out the rare earth magnet and nothing at all so I am super dazed and confused. I have a jewelers test kit here at home and some steel wool as well as ice cubes lol...decided to test the stuff......it is SILVER....the ATP found silver nuggets today!!!!!! about 4'' to about 6'' in the ground...no joke people I am freaking out at this point because I threw a bunch of them back in the holes that I dug thinking they were hot rocks.....guess where I am going after I call Garrett in the morning. Depth detection was not hurt on the size that these babies are!!!


I will also try standard settings tomorrow...Maybe he is right though...fresh tilled soil just messes up the ATP and many other detectors...hope that is the case.

 

[Night Crawler]

I do think Picther has a good point for sure. What I can't wrap my head around, is the Ace 250 performing better than your AT Pro. Up here (B.C.) that sure isn't the case with my friends Ace 250.

One thing I forgot to mention here IKSDoomsday is the coil cover. I do have one on mine and it's been on the coil since the first day I got it (actually both coils). I used some auto motive black silicone gasket maker to seal mine up completely (air tight) and I don't have any issues with it. I can remove it (with some effort) if I have to.

If you just snap your coil cover onto the coil without any sealer, then might I suggest you take the cover off after using it and give it a good cleaning (coil cover and coil), their has been some issues with them picking small metal pieces up and getting caught in between the cover and coil which in some cases made the machine really act up. That's why I sealed mine after reading those stories (from day one).

Silver Nuggets? Wow, what a score. And theirs more you say? Hmm, care to indulge us of that huge score you came across (Location) I can zip down their tonight and "help" take some of those off your hands if it's to much of a burden for you, hehe (ah, just kidding). 1/2 a pound you brought home? and theirs more IKSDoomsday. Yeh, Dazed and Confused would be an understatement for me that's for sure, More like Cardiac Arrest, hehe.

IKSDoomsday, If you say theirs more out their, I would really recommend keeping this site to yourself and mark it off on a map each silver find (plot the finds). You "may" have come across a real Hoard their from what you said.

If it is IKSDoomsday, I would really like to see your finds (picture wise) if that's not to much trouble. Just be aware of some cameras that have the GPS in them like mine. I make sure my GPS is turned off when i come across a site of value when I take pictures. The camera "will" imprint the location where each picture was taken and those co-ordinates can be read if you post them up on the internet.

Just a heads up on that one if you weren't aware of it.

Man this has become more exciting than waiting for the ATX release date. IKSDoomsday, I really wish you the best when you go back out their.

Let us know how things work out IKSDoomsday, thanks.

 

[IKSDoomsday]

I will not say where lol but it is crazy how under people noses it has been. I would not believe it unless I was the one who actually found it lol....been running around the house all night telling my wife how I am the greatest treasure finder in the world. Honestly though I must have thrown back 10-12 good sized ones thinking they were trash. When they are mucky from sitting in the ground it is hard to tell... As soon as that sun rises in the morn or just before I am going to be back there pulling them out. In the air tonight we ran one by the ATP and it rang at 75-80 give or take deeper though they do not ring as good. People are going to start wondering tomorrow when I have a 30' patch of soil moved off to the side LOL! I am going to try to get these ones cleaned up so i can take some proper photos.

 

[Night Crawler]

So you threw 10 - 12 good sized ones back, eh. Yeh, If that was me, their would be no sleep tonight after that, hehe.

Might I suggest you keep the same settings you had when you found those nuggets. Maybe experiment a bit with the AT Pro "after" everything has been cleaned out.

That's the way I would do it at this point. GB in a clear area before starting though, which I'm sure your aware of.

I do wish you the best out their IKSDoomsday, let us know how things turn out, thanks.

 

[IKSDoomsday]

Garnet from my secret place here in Washington..just wanted to show it off. Can get some stars in them once polished.


Nugget from todays hunt. Did a little steel wool work on it as best I could to get you some of the shine. Tests out perfect and hits perfect on the ATP


Nugget trying to get a good pic.


Also from todays hunt an old ladies makeup compact.

 

[IKSDoomsday]

The pics just to not do justice but I had some great finds today..too many to post pictures of.

 

[Night Crawler]

All that in one day IKSDoomsday, Wow, Outstanding work I must say.

Thanks for sharing those finds (great pictures). If you keep this up, you should have the AT Pro paid for in a day or two, really.

 

[pitcher]

Great finds on the silver, I can tell you on my two AT PROs using STD does not change anything on fresh dug holes, not sure why your 250 hits it but the 250 I had would not run in my soil, no GB killed it.
The AT PRO is a fun detector to learn, after having many Whites, fishers,Tesoros and minelabs this machine has more of a learning curve than people think, I dug a 1960 penny at 7" today with a huge nail in the hole, its all about learning the sounds and be willing to dig those targets.
I started out reading the VDI#ers on every target now I dont even look at it, yeah I dig alot of junk but thats just part of the hobby, sure finding a silver coin with a soild VDI is cool but theres nothing like digging that iffy signal and finding some iron or can slaw mixed in with a old coin or a ring, love those targets.

 

[Night Crawler]

No news Yet?

Hmm, hope he didn't get busted or something. was pretty excited last night, I'm curious to see if he had found anymore silver that he said he left behind.

Hopefully he will get back to us soon.

 

[M_d_in_guy]

Nice finds IKS, love the pics you posted, Nice seeing silver in raw form, is it Ruby Silver by chance? Good luck on filling a big bag with them nuggets, cheers.

Jon