Does the Minelab Explorer II and SE have Manuel ground balance

[tomjj]

How does the explore respond to the red soil of Georgia, Tenn, and parts of Virginia. I am told the ground mineralization is really bad in a lot of those areas, and that you should use a detector that has manual ground balance. I am going to be detecting in some of those areas. I looked in the Explorer II and SE manual and could not find anything about manual ground balance. SOmeone said the explorer is one of the detectors that have manual ground balance. The manual says mineralize ground is handled automatically by the explorer SE's ground compensation.
Can anyone tell me how the explorer does in this type of soil condition? What kind of settings do I need to use?

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

The Explorers DO NOT have a manual ground balance...the ground compensation is done automatically. Many folks confuse GROUND BALANCE with Noise Cancel, but they are NOT the same thing.

The Explorers DO have a Noise Cancel function, but it has NOTHING to do with Ground Balance...it's for cancelling out the effects of power lines, cell towers, other metal detectors, and that type of electromagnetic interference. But as far as the ground balancing, that's done on the fly, automatically.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Personally ground balance that does it automatically usually is more effective as mineralization can change from one end of a football field to the other..As far as the dirt your talking about imagine it would cause problems and depth loss no matter what unit you are using.
Mike brings up some good good points about noise cancel and it would seem to me holding your coil in the air rather than flat on the ground would be more practical as it finds the best setting to work in for outside external interference but I do the noise cancel flat on the ground and works for me with little or no outside interference...
In addendum your Explorer is constantly adjusting your ground balance and you have it confused with cheaper units that have a set ground balance set slightly positive for most ground conditions.

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Yeah, I hold mine 18" off the ground and run it, but I really don't think it matters a lot. I HAVE heard that if you're looking for relief from a specific transmitter tower, power lines, dish, etc. that it works very well to AIM IT at that source when you run it. Makes sense.

Also, when hunting with a friend or friends, FIRST THING we do is to all "power up" and do the noise cancel thing. I was with two friends today...one with a CZ-70, one with a Quattro. We all fired up, standing about 15 feet from one another, and the Quattro noise cancelled and then I noise cancelled. (The CZ doesn't need to, but needs to be on for when WE cancel) Makes for MUCH more pleasant hunting!

 

[JHM]

It works pretty good in TN red clay but you have to lower the sensitivity or the reset to threshold will be longer than normal. Also I dont think it's as deep in red clay.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Hunting with two CZ's will cause interference and talk back at fairly close ranges and even depth loss if two are hunting in same vicinity. One wonders if the same applies to two like units in the Quattro and Explorer..have the same effect...

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

No, I don't think so.

I have a CZ-70 and a few CZ buddies and what you say about the CZ's is definitely true. Their two frequencies (5kHz & 15 kHz) are fixed and that's that, so when you get two within close proximity to one another they will be "stepping" on each other. With the Quattro and the Explorers you have the Noise Cancel feature. And what it does is to sense what other frequencies it's picking up around it and then it SHIFTS it's 28 frequencies slightly higher or lower as needed to prevent interference. As long as you have both machines fired up when one runs noise cancel, that SHOULD be all that's required...though we usually BOTH do it, but I don't think we need to. Because once it's done, they're NOT operating on the same frequencies and therefore don't interfere with one another at all. It works very well. Times when forget to do the NC, you remember real quick because the two machines will be gack-gack-gack-gack-gackin' to beat the band!

 

[James N.D.]

The Quattro and the Explorer can be ran on different Channels so there is no cross talk what so ever, of course unless the 2 user's didn't do a noise cancel on one or the other machines, then they might cross talk if on the same channel. I hunt with my Explorer in Competition Hunts along with a lot of others with Explorer's, and before I start the hunt I noise cancel to knock out the other Explorer's so I don't get the cross talking from them during the hunt. But there is always 1 or 2 that are on the opposite side of the field that do cross talk with my machine and then I just walk away from that person's detector. I would bet that there is between 8-10 Explorer's out on the field during these hunts. Good Luck and HH.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Yep that noise cancel button on an Explorer works wonders and some areas that I had had problems hunting with other units are no problem for an Explorer..Heres another thought if my buddy and I hunted together with Explorers would want to be the first to noise cancel for the optimum setting...

 

[James N.D.]

Optimum Settings might give you a slight advantage over the other user if he is using a slightly less Optimum Setting, then you would have your detector running better and maximum performance and the other user could only be running his machine with good performance and probably not even know this if there was no interference or falsing from his machine. Excellent Point you sly dog you!

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

I question whether or not you would get an "optimum setting" by running Noise Cancel first. As long as ONE of you ran Noice Cancel, neither would be on the same frequencies and both should operate equally well. The issue is strictly with EMF/RF interference and not ground mineralization or anything else, so as long as the two Explorers are operating on slightly different frequencies, it should make no difference.

Now...and this is where it gets interesting...if you argue that "Yes, but I want MY Explorer to be on the frequencies that Minelab intended and not some "adjusted" compromise frequencies..." then you would want HIM to run Noise Cancel. Because then HIS machine would sense YOUR machine (which is already operating on the "optimal" frequencies!) and HIS machine would adjust to "the next best thing". I'm still not sure it would make any difference but if you did it that way it would be YOU hunting on the freqs Minelab intended and HIM using the "workaround" freqs.

This is of course just a theory, but I think it's sound.

 

[James N.D.]

Good Point! You always know how to throw a stick into the spokes of the wheels when there turning! Should give everyone something to thinks about. Good Luck and HH.

 

[23950522]

BBS AND FBS is similar to pulse induction ,,multi frequency and can handle Mineralisation better than single frequency ,, if that makes sense...

 

[Elton]

Minelab said this. Multi frequencies are sent into the ground. After the processor that was located in the coil sampled the ground, one frequency was designated as the ground by the processor. All other frequencies picked up targets. Not sure if that still holds true..But it did make sense back in the early 90's... ???????????????????????
????