ATpro iron audio function simplified. :detecting:

[khouse]

OK, I read the manual twice online. I saw all the videos. But I still got confused some on the iron audio function on the ATpro when it got here. It worked flawless right out of the box. But last night passing iron targets over the coil I "thought" it was working backwards. I thought "what the crap!" I mean you have heard the people say that when iron audio is on that it's really off. When off it's really on. There is even a video on youtube that states that he believes it working in reverse. I guess my simple brain couldn't wrap around this iron audio thing either. But just as I thought my machine was bad I figured it all out. It was me! So here is how the iron audio works. The iron audio works hand in hand with the iron discriminating setting. Wave a nail over the coil in any mode with the iron disc set a zero. You will get a iron grunt and number. Now turn the iron audio on and wave the nail. You will now get a medium tone! This is correct as the iron audio feature shifts the medium tone down to the iron disc setting. In this case you had set it on zero so all iron tones will be a medium tone. Now raise the iron disc up 2 numbers higher than your nail reading. With the iron audio off your nail now will not beep or will be a broken tone. Now turn the iron audio on and you'll hear the iron grunt. Where you get confused is when you have an iron target that is reading a higher number over your iron disc setting. Also if your running in the zero mode with the iron audio off your iron will be a grunt - but as soon as you turn the iron audio on in that mode iron will be mid tone as long as you have the disc at zero. Right now I don't see any need to run in zero mode with the iron audio on. I may have confused you further? It's these simple things that get me confused. But after reading page 27 of the manual and another 10 minutes of testing it finally clicked in my brain.
BTW. I explained this to the guy on youtube and he said he already figured it out with a call to Garrett. They told him the same thing. He says his machine is doing great.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Good post Kenny.


I know I get turned around on some of the features and have to read and re-read several times until the light comes on. I really like the manual and it tells us HOW to use the features they designed into the new machine.


That is very important as not everyone is willing to dig through posts to learn how to make it do what it was intended to do.


It seems marketing and engineering at Garrett have a close relationship where marketing does not say that such and such is what the customer wants,

 

[Macedonian]

Hi Kenny,

It was my youtube video and me that you have been talking to, strangely I thought I had made that video private as I did not want to be responsible for bad press unnecessarily and only intended to use it to illustrate what I was talking about to Garrett although I know I posted it here as well which brought about some useful responses.

To me the the simplest and most important thing to remember is that Iron Audio only works above the set disc level that has been set, at least that was my stumbling block at the time, once I had recognised that the penny dropped

 

[khouse]

I think this iron audio feature once understood will set this machine way ahead of others. Not to mention it's waterproof.

 

[Uncle Willy]

Yeah once one gets that function all figured out there may be no limit to the experimenting and results one can achieve. Maybe this is one of the features Garrett didn't tell us everything about.

Bill

 

[Macedonian]

Garrett are not the first to focus on fast response and recognising a good target in iron there is a european detector that made it's name from these features.

Maybe Garrett was aware of this and have produced the AT as a direct competitor, at least that is my suspicion, I have owned this detector and it does what it says on the tin but it is not the easiest to interpret what it is telling you in fact I found the subtleties in it's audio ambiguous sometimes which inevitable left me digging the target because I was not sure.

Admittedly I have not used the AT in the field as yet but from the bench testing I have done I think the audio is more easily interpreted and would not mind betting that there will be less digging iron because of the confidence the AT's audio produces.

Many detectors have problems with deep iron seeing it as a good target, I have swept an all steel claw hammer, the biggest lump of iron I had to hand, past the AT at maximum detection range and reassuringly it still recognised it as iron.

If the AT is as good as that european detector or perhaps even outperforms it a little then at this price point the AT is a bargain, oh..did I mention it is waterproof

 

[synthnut]

This explanation is still the best one I have seen yet, and I can wrap my head around it ..... A picture is worth a thousand words .....Jim

When you hit this link, scroll down, and look , and read the Iron Audio secton .......To me , it's a great explanation ....

http://www.kellycodetectors.com/garrett/atpro.php

 

[khouse]

Yes, that is from page 28 of the manual.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Like anything new it will take time to adjust to a new unit....As far as the concept heck in 1993 bottlecap reject was introduced to the metal detecting community so its not new just a different version which I am sure will be a valuable detecting tool once understood....

 

[synthnut]

I'd like to see someone come up with a SCREW CAP rejecting program .....Bottle Caps are a none issue ....It's those pesky Screw Caps, especially the GOLD colored ones that come on cheap wine that fool me ..... I was in an old Park that I know for a fact holds some old Silver , and I ended up digging down a good 8 inches and came up with these gold Screw Caps !!....I remember thinking " how do these wino's dig these wine tops so far under the ground ? " ....Jim

 

[Finder82]

Garrett are not the first to focus on fast response and recognising a good target in iron there is a european detector that made it's name from these features.

If the AT is as good as that european detector or perhaps even outperforms it a little then at this price point the AT is a bargain, oh..did I mention it is waterproof

The European brand you a talking about is the XP range of detectors with it`s iron id feature.

If Garrett AT pro comes even close to the performance of the Xp Deus, then it will be very good indeed, in due time we shall see if that is true or not.

It is good that Garrett put similar feature to the AT pro, because it will help get the goodies in the more iron heavy places.

 

[Macedonian]

You are right of course, although it was not the Deus I was directly comparing it to as I feel that would be like comparing apples with oranges.

It was the Goldmax Power I was hinting at.

The Deus as you probably know has the choice of 3 frequencies to play with is completely wireless between all it's major components and is probably the lightest detector on the market the only thing about it that is not lightweight is the price.

But what has to be born in mind is the Deus could not have come to light without the success of previous models such as the GMP.

 

[Finder82]

It was the Goldmax Power I was hinting at.

The Deus as you probably know has the choice of 3 frequencies to play with is completely wireless between all it's major components and is probably the lightest detector on the market the only thing about it that is not lightweight is the price.

But what has to be born in mind is the Deus could not have come to light without the success of previous models such as the GMP.

Actually The Deus has 4 frequency options to choose from: 4 kHz, 8 kHz, 12 kHz, 18 kHz.

Well the goldmaxx power has the similar iron id feature that the AT pro have and like you said because the goldmaxx power was very succesfull in Europe, they put similar features to the Xp Deus, if it works dont fix it.

My golden mask 3 detector has almost similar precise iron discrimination, it becomes very noisy in very iron heavy places, but that way it gives me plenty of information when to slow down my swing speed and listen to the positive signals between iron trash.

Once the users of AT pro becomes good with the iron id feature it has, the finds will start pouring in at a alarming speed, so enjoy your AT pros.

 

[Macedonian]

Yep, I thought you would know the specs on the Deus.

The GM3 is very underestimated given it's price point.


In fact the AT Pro has 2 may be 3 iron id features, assuming that is if you count the pro mode audio and roll tone as separate, the third being iron audio above the disc setting.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Bottle cap rejection is actually iron rejection and in my model can be set 1 to 4.....As far as screwcaps when pinpointing they just cover a bigger area but then again we have whole ones, bent ones, flattened ones , various degrees of mettalic content which may alter this( no one ever said it was an easy hobby) but over the years we learn little tricks...depending on the model and type unit we are using...

 

[khouse]

If your the kind of hunter that likes to hear it all then you'll be running the AT in Pro/zero mode with zero iron disc. This gives you a lot of information on all iron targets. But the iron audio feature gives you more iron identification. But if you run your machine with zero disc with the iron audio on ALL iron will give a medium tone. So here's how to set it up to activate the iron audio and mimic zero iron disc. All you have to do is run your iron disc up to 40. Then turn iron audio on. You will now get even more iron hints. Now this may be too busy out in the field so I don't know? But I can tell you there is a difference in the two ways you can accept and hear all iron. Because like the manual says with iron audio on you get more iron info. This is very true.

 

[TN Mike]

All this positive talk about the AT is killing me! I cant wait to file my taxes and buy me one

 

[Onus]

Many if not most bottles of beverage now have aluminum screw off caps. Bottle caps have not been a problem per se for me but it is those darn screw off aluminum caps. An example is an old house site I hunted where a wealthy family lived. I mus thave dug a hundred aluminum screw off wine bottles that were giving a "silver" signal in my ACE250. A family secret revealed. Someone in the family was a wino as the caps were all were from cheap wine! I finally gave up in disgust and only found a few pennies for every ten aluminum wine bottle caps. So far I haven't been plauged by iron bottle caps. Onus