Did ground balance test

[jabbo]

Ground balanced my Vaquero in a park that has soft and mild soil. Located some targets, some gave weak signals, some targets gave a little stronger signal. With machine ground balanced properly I noted the signal strength of targets. Then I turned the GB knob fully counter clockwise so that I had a negative ground balance, bobbing confirmed negative GB. Signal strength didn't change. Then I turned the GB knob fully clockwise, again signal strength didn't change. Tests were done in discriminate mode set about at Iron or Foil. Targets were junk. Like I said, the soil is not highly mineralized. Take this info for what it's worth. Jabbo

 

[tvr]

Interesting data point!

 

[SkiWhiz]

Were these targets still in the ground or air tested. And how deep were they, maybe the ground balance settings + or - only helps with deep targets, I don't know. Interesting indeed, doesn't make me feel so bad about having a factory fixed ground balance setting on my Silver Sabre uMax. Steve.

 

[wayne_etc]

I bet the key point in this test is that the ground was not highly mineralized. I would suppose the results would be much different if the ground was highly mineralized. In neutral ground wouldn't depth and target response be similar to air testing? Therefore ground balancing wouldn't matter much. This is why folks who are lucky enough to live in areas with neutral ground generally do fine with factory/preset GB while folks with tougher ground need the manual adjustments.
JMHO


w

 

[tabdog]

Hay Jaybo,

Thanks for the report. Those findings sound normal to me.

It would be more informative if you dug the targets and ID

the target and it's depth. That may not be practical now

though, but.

It would be nice if you did an air test with a common coin

to test the V at full positive and then at full negative and

report those results. You could control distance that way.

It would not be a lot of trouble, and the results may be

interesting and informative.

Report all settings to make report more informative.

You may be supprised at the results.

Happy Hunting,

Tabdog

 

[jabbo]

In discriminate mode and/or all metal mode, quickly raise and lower coil to ground. If up-stroke produces a loud sound then GB is set too negative for your soil. A loud sound on down-stroke means GB is too positive. The louder the sound, the worse the GB setting. A slight sound means GB is pretty good, no sound is best. This is how I understand it, others might correct me or add more info. Jabbo

 

[Monte]

[size=large]

 

[BarberBill]

Monte, on a post several weeks ago you discussed checking whether ground balance on preset machines was positive or negative while set in the discrimination mode, rather than the all metal. I'm not clear on that as I would have thought that one would check it in all metal, just like on a manual ground balance? I'd like to be clear on this as it may make the difference between sending Tesoro a detector with a bag of soil or living with it as is.
HH
BB

 

[Monte]

Monte, on a post several weeks ago you discussed checking whether ground balance on preset machines was positive or negative while set in the discrimination mode, rather than the all metal. I'm not clear on that as I would have thought that one would check it in all metal, just like on a manual ground balance? I'd like to be clear on this as it may make the difference between sending Tesoro a detector with a bag of soil or living with it as is.
HH
BB

[size=large]BB,

Yes, as a rule, you would use a Threshold-based All Metal mode to properly tune (set a slight threshold audio) and adjust the Ground Balance. Not all makes and models offer a true, conventional Threshold-based All Metal mode.

Also, not all makes and models have the manual GB tied in with the motion Discriminate mode. Three examples are the DeLeon (both modes have their own preset GB's); the Cort

 

[slingshot]

And BTW, thanks to you and Tab for the discussion on the ground balance on the Silver umax. Mine would not make a sound when I "power" ground balanced it so I reset it. I have already found some coins in places where I've already worked that were in tough conditions and the coating on the coins show others have missed them, too. Also, I've noticed the shallow coins signal more on the outside edges of the coil than they used to.

 

[BarberBill]

Thanks Monte, I was especially interested in relation to my SSumax and DeLeon. Both are silent in discrimination mode when bobbing the coil, so from you're explanation I feel I'm good to go. I can get positive and negative reactions in different locations when in all metal, but the discriminate mode seems perfectly stable as I can set the sensitivity into the red a bit and still not get chatter.
HH
BB

 

[Monte]

n/t

 

[slingshot]

I'm not sure, but I think they said in a former article that if the sound doesn't change that it might be slightly negative. I left my Silver alone, then thought about that and went to one of the sites that I know from other detectors to have more mineralization and reset mine Wasn't much of a change,though-just a small turn CCW.