Compadre in Pac NW - worth keeping as 2nd unit?

[StvS]

I recently picked up a used Compadre as a second/easy-to-use loaner/keep-in-the-car unit. I've learned that the highly mineralized soil around Portland requires me to turn down the sensitivity to reduce "falsing" which in turn reduces the depth of detection too. I'm wondering if its my inexperience and/or the Compadre's fixed sensitivity and ground balance that are frustrating me. I used the Compadre in two locations;
a) at gravely/sandy beach along a swimming hole on a river - and kept finding "hot rocks", so I gave up and went to...
b) an older city park - where I was getting pretty solid "bings' on rusty nails and foil even with the Compadre's discrimination set high at one cent Zinc. I was able to work out that some were nails based on their "shape" (sharp signals in one direction, inconsistent, weak signals at 90 degrees).

When I test the Compadre with targets on the ground, it will discriminate out the targets pretty well in the order on the Disc. dial.

Is the Compadre's lack of adjustable GB and sensitivity getting in my way? How much of this can I learn to compensate for with experience?
The bigger question I have is, given where I live, in the Portland area, is it worth me keeping the Compadre as a second/backup unit?


Thanks for your experienced opinions!

 

[Darkflight]

I use a Silver in the area. I ended up adding an external pot for the GB. It helps with the beaches(fresh) but it still won't handle saltwater soaked sand. It also allows me to maximize the col selection. I found my 10x12 ran very "hot" & is much more useable after GB.

Take one of the "hot" rocks from the beach & bring it home. I found mine in my lawn-they are everywhere around here. Then with the faceplate off you can adjust the GB till it just makes a tiny chirp at max sensitivity. That will be your optimum setting for this area with that coil. Wich you can't change so there really is no need for an external pot IMHO.

Or sell it to me real cheap....

Carl.

 

[StvS]

Thanks for the tip Carl! I'll try opeing up and rebalancing the Compadre using hot rocks - then I'll let you know if I'm interested in selling the Compadre

It's ashamed if I can't get the Compadre to work better around here - its perfect for when I have my niece or nephews here. I may need to resort to a Discovery 3300 (since it has manual GB) instead as the loaner/turn-on-and-go/travel unit, but then again I still prefer sound ID over visual ID, so I'm still planning to get a Vaq. - if I could only find a used one!

Also, I used a Minelab X-70 today, with tracking GB, I only have a couple hours logged on it, but had a much higher coin/trash yield than I did yesterday with the Compadre; was mostly relying on tones - I was assured in hearing the gaps of silence in the threshold tone, letting me know that I had passed over iron, foil (maybe jewelry too though).

 

[slingshot]

That's what I did with mine. I inadverdently reset the GB too negative and started finding some of the tough pea gravel rocks in some of my tot lots. I finally was able to find a pretty good size one and brought it home and readjusted it to the rock. I found out with my Royal Sabre in true a/m mode that this rock caused the threshold to go into the null, so I turned the GB with the Compadre set at lowest disc to where the rock just quit sounding off and have had great results. Just about everyone who sells their Compadre ends up regretting it. I'm on the outlook for another one in all the classifieds in case something EVER goes wrong with mine I will have a backup. I could NEVER sell mine.

 

[StvS]

Thanks for the advice; glad to get other's experience with this. So I'll open the front panel, mark the pot's current position and readjust the GB (per Monte's Power Ground Balancing posts).

Here's a photo of the Compadre Circuit Board similar to mine - any idea what the 3 pots from top to bottom adjust?

I'm pretty sure I read the bottom pot is the GB. If so, for my future reference, which of the remaining ones adjust sensitivity?

Apologies - this may be drifting into the Modifications Forum...

 

[digitaltim]

I wanted to respond to your original post, but couldn't speak from experience in your area.

Now that you've mentioned an interest in Vaquero I will tell you it's slightly better in iron. Hunting side by side with the compadre and using a 5.75" coil on the vaq I can better distinguish iron with the Vaquero.

I say this while believing the Compadre is excellent in iron too, but the lead goes to the vaquero.


If anyone disagrees, please say so... This has been my experience in Connecticut.. I welcome any opposite views


Oh and I also want to mention I'm on my 3rd compadre.. Having regretfully sold the previous 2... I was trying them and eventually decided it's a keeper.. I won't sell the 3rd

 

[StvS]

I followed the advice some of you gave me, and adjusted the lowest trim pot in the photo (above) to balance the Compadre to some hot rocks I found.

Wow what a difference! It's a like a whole new detector - discrimination settings are right on now! I can actually discriminate between foil and zinc pennies!

Unit was set positive - I'm surprise it took only a slight counter-clockwise turn (towards negative GB) to correct - I moved it about one screwblade width towards negative to find the right balance.

I tried the newly balanced Compadre for a couple hour this morning - it works like I'd hoped and read about! So, I'm very happy with the unit now, and will keep it!

Still would like to know what the top and middle trim pots adjust though....

Thanks all!
Steve

 

[Monte]

Ground Balance trimmer can easily be 'off' in many turn-on-and-go detectors which results in a lot of falsing. This is especially true if you're hunting in a very mineralized sites, such as the Columbia or Willamette River beaches (in late summer and fall when the water is low) or some black sand filled volleyball sites in some parks. It's also a challenge working renovation work on dug-up sidewalks and streets and such around town.

I still prefer to have a detector with either automated Ground Balance and/or manual Ground Balance simply for the versatile performance they provide. Even then, however, a lot still depends upon the particular brand and model. For example, Tesoro has produced several models in the past that had an internal GB trimmer that you could set properly for work in either the All Metal or Discriminate mode ..... that is, as long as you didn't change the Disc. setting! Those models would actually shift the GB higher or lower if you increased or decreased the Discrimination level.

Anyway, if you have the GB set now so that your Compadre is behaving itself, that's good. Happy Hunting!

Monte

 

[StvS]

Thanks Monte,
You've provided me a boost in confidence. I've been in Mazatlan this week and tweaked the Compadre for hunting in dry sand - I had to change the GB back to where it was preset. Though a newbie, I think it worked pretty well, I was finding pull tabs at 6 inches, and little falsing.if I stuck to dry sand. I found that Mexican coins read across the full spectrum (some are magnetic), so pretty much used the "All Metal" discrimination mode.

I'm considering a Vaquerro - any idea if the GB adjustment on the Vaq's apply to both All Metal and Disc mode? I

Steve