Auto sensitivity or manual???

[cz70pro]

Thanks Dave. That made my day! Glad my 3 cents turned into a dime for you. LOL Greg

I was able to try Greg's method below last weekend and it resulted in a very deep silver coin. I had my NEL Thunder coil.
I was running Auto +3 at a site where I had pulled a couple halves and a few silver dimes this year. My sensitivity in auto was running at 22.
I bumped up the sensitivity to 25 manual and hit a repeatable signal that was close to burying the depth gauge. It didn't even sound like a coin but more like a real deep piece of thick wire or piece
of brass that I will sometimes chase so I wasn't real excited about digging it but I did.
I switched back to Auto +3 and swept the signal. I could still just barely hear it but the signal was very hollow and I probably wouldn't have dug that one. In the Manual 25 it was more of a solid signal in this case.
Out popped a 1923 D mercury dime at a measured 11.5 inches.
I Got to thank Greg for that one!

Dave




One thing I often do is see where my sensitivity will be running in Auto +3. Say it is 19, I will then switch it to manual and run it a couple numbers higher at 21 or so as long as the threshold is relatively stable and not nulling out too badly. If it will not run stable, I will at least run it in manual at the same number as Auto +3. I have tested it and it goes deeper in MY conditions running in manual even if it is at the same number as it was running in Auto.

One other thing, high sensitivity is, of course, not the only thing that will cause the threshold to null out. Iron will obviously cause that as well. If you are having a nulling problem switch over to a completely open screen wide open and see how much iron is in the ground. If there is a lot, I would run in Auto, switch to 2 tone ferrous and slow way down or better yet switch to a smaller coil. That way you can pick items out between the iron. The E-Trac is actually quite good at that. You just have to swing slow.

Another thing I do if I get an iffy signal in Auto +3, I will switch over to manual and check the signal with that. Often times, the signal will become clearer and/or stronger. There's my 3 cents! lol Greg

 

[EtracTom-AdirondacksNY]

No, 22 at +3 Auto is where the machine wants to run the best of it's ability and still be smooth from what it see's .

25 manual is like 3 or more steps hotter sensitivity wise.

Say plain AUTO is showing 19 after a bit of sweeping to get it to settle in and you bump it up those +3 more in Auto it is probably right around 22 or 23 sensitivity wise reading on the screen.

Manual is more as it makes the 3 channel bins run all the same at full capacity.

In Auto the 3 channel bins run different amounts as one is low, one is medium, and one is high. The machine runs at the average of those 3.
Manual runs all three at full. Should be hotter or maybe a bit deeper. Notice he only went a couple more numbers higher at 25 in manual than the 22-23 it ran in Auto. Anymore and the machine starts to become sparky and runs slightly unstable depending on your ground and EMI in the area and starts to give not so good readings anymore.

 

[WV62]

Just finished doing a air test on manual sensitivity starting at 30 and backing down by one to sensitivity 10. This time I had the 11" coil on the stick and used a silver dime for the test. Nothing magic here but it does give some idea of the sensitivity break point settings.

Ron in WV

 

[IDXMonster]

Just finished doing a air test on manual sensitivity starting at 30 and backing down by one to sensitivity 10. This time I had the 11" coil on the stick and used a silver dime for the test. Nothing magic here but it does give some idea of the sensitivity break point settings.

Ron in WV

Thanks for the effort Ron! This is exactly why I don’t like going below Manual 18 on my Explorer2,the performance starts to fade out of range of where I expect to find older coins around here. I think this is another exclamation point on the fact that other factors really do come into play depending on where you are,with bad ground,EMI(which is my personal WORST enemy),etc. But having a starting point with SOME expectation of performance is good! Well done...