E-TRAC AND SUNRAY PROBE

[mascard1]

Does anybody have a hard time with the SUNRAY PROBE on there E-TRAC?...I have it on my Se and it seems to work better?...With the pinpointing turned on the E-TRAC( with the probe) is fine.When it is in regular mode with the SUNRAY.... It just seems like it does not have the depth , like on the SE....anybody have this happen?

 

[madmax800]

I had it on my explorer 2, work ok.
On the Etrac it will not work at all except in pinpoint???

Maybe SunRay can comment

 

[tmanfromtexas]

I havent had any issues with mine that I know of. I get about 2 inches of depth with mine in coin mode. TMAN...

 

[Dennis 2]

sometimes it won't pick up the target.....So I have to use it pin-point

 

[Frank in NH]

Just tested mine this minute in an air test, mine works perfect in both modes got 3" on a nickle.

 

[burnitup]

mine works great ,no problems at all

 

[Ray-Mo.]

How are you running your sensitivity as in man or auto and how high?I found if you are in auto and set man. at 30 and switch to manual when using probe it does much better,Ray.

 

[Jesse W. McComas]

I get the advertised depth on my E-Trac. Even at the Blue & Gray Hunt, with all the rain, It worked perfectly. Never a problem. HH...Jesse.

 

[Ralph Sun Ray]

Dennis,

If you have to use pinpoint to pick up the target with the X-1 that means that the target you detected slipped through the discrimination pattern you had set up with the coil due to the aura of the target. Once you broke ground you disturbed the aura and the X-1 was able to correectly discriminate the target and null instead of giving an audio response. By going to pinpoint (which is all metal) you were able to pick up the target with the X-1.

Ralph (Sun Ray)

 

[Yeasty]

Recently I was on a field, and because there was very little trash and interference, I had the Etrac sensitivity really cranked up and in Quck Mask with only a couple bars on the bottom. This was the first time I had hunted with the machine set up hot like that. When I went to locate a target with the X1 all I would get is a lot of "hootin and tootin". When I switched to PinPoint mode it quieted down. I also found that backing down on the Sensitivity would allow the X1 to quiet down using discrimination. I think the Etrac/X1 combo, when the machine set to its near max limits, might be a little too sensitive for the X1 in those conditions. Since I dont often encounter ground conditions like that, I still love the X1 and wont hunt without it. Next time I run into those conditions I'll know what to do.

Pete

 

[mascard1]

that sounds reasonable....thanks ralph....So that means that more than likely it is a bad target...when after I break ground, it does not pick it up!...I just never had that problem with my Se.....I run the E-TRAC in coin mode and auto +3...This E-TRAC is a trip....my buddy has a probe and his does it to....I will have to tell him!...I guess the E-TRAC is just so good...it even wants to pick up after discrimination....THANKS TO ALL THAT REPLIED!!!!!!!!

 

[Dennis 2]

Thanks Ralph

 

[digitrich]

It's the same with mine, but I don't think it's the probe. For $#it$ and giggles I set my Etrac up for just finding SILVER and just silver, fast on, dense trash, difficult soil, auto +3 and all of the screen blacked out except for the right upper corner quadrant, and 1-30 to 1-40 disced out. I did this in an area where it is basically a junk pile full of soda cans and iron galore and somewhere in that null I got a dime signal that sort of repeated. I dug a huge hole and could not pinpoint it for the life of me with the SR probe what so ever. I turned off the probe and swung over the hole and got nothing, swung over my dirt I had dug out and spread and got a signal. Tried it with the SR probe and again could not get a signal. Switched to pinpoint and the probe nailed it. The coin was a beaten the heck out of Merc dime, I mean it literally looked like someone had laid it on a sidewalk and beaten it with a hammer for an hour, by far my ugliest merc yet. With heavy discrimination and the Etracs wavy ID you could easily disc out a target on the SR probe. Once a target is not perpendicular to the coil (any coil), which is what the probe is, just a small coil, the Etrac skews the ID quite a bit and can easily land in an area you have disced out and cause you to miss it or null. In pinpoint, you are in all metal and can then hear it regardless of your disc settings or coin orientation. Same thing happens on high iron falses or tiny targets, you may hear it (a kind of good signal) with the large coil, dig a hole and then not hear it with the probe because the probe now reports it correctly as iron (ghost signal). This is a very frequent episode for me in that I probably chase more iffys with my Etrac than most would as I am trying to squeeze the very last thing I can out of the grounds I have already hunted, in very dense trash. For me the ID on the Etrac is way less accurate and reliable than my SE's, whether I am using the main coil or the probe, it's the machine; and the need to use disc to take advantage of the high trash setting. In manual sensitivity running this machine hot, I literally have to switch the machine into auto sensitivity to use the probe effectively during recovery. You just push the auto sens button and push it again after you recover to go back into manual. Seems like work though, when I just don't have to with the SE and the SR probe works fine while running in high manual sensitivity. But in comparing my results with the SR probe on my SE's and the ETrac, the probe is allot more stable on the SE's. That is the Etrac's problem, not the probe as I have switched the upper shafts and probes on my SE's and Etrac numerous times to check them out and also to fly with the exact same results. It's a just the way it is, kind of thing and you kind of work around it.

 

[Dennis 2]

Digitrich you did a very good job explaining it. That's exactly how it works for mine also. It's not the probe...It's the ET.

 

[Ray-Mo.]

Quote: I did this in an area where it is basically a junk pile full of soda cans and iron galore and somewhere in that null I got a dime signal that sort of repeated. I dug a huge hole and could not pinpoint it for the life of me with the SR probe what so ever. I turned off the probe and swung over the hole and got nothing, swung over my dirt I had dug out and spread and got a signal. Tried it with the SR probe and again could not get a signal. Switched to pinpoint and the probe nailed it. The coin was a beaten the heck out of Merc dime.

So you are saying that once you removed the dime from it's resting place and then had it next to hole in the spread out dirt pile the E-Tracs big coil could locate it and the probe could not in disc. but in pinpoint?Even with all the heavy trash you said was colocated with the dime?How does that equate to the E-Tracs failure? It sounds like if the big coil would pick it up but the little tiny probe would not then it must be a probe or operator error .The only problem I have had with the probe is it does not get as good of depth if the E-Trac is running at a low sensitivity level auto or manual,Ray.

 

[digitrich]

It specifically happens on small lead bullets also. I thought it was my Probe but when I switched upper shafts and probes it still happens, but only on my Etrac, while using heavy disc and or manual high sensitivity. It also falses a great deal and I find myself pushing and re-pushing pinpoint to settle it down. I am also finding that I have to be much closer to the target with my SR probe to pick it up on my Etrac. If I knew what caused it, I would correct that. My SR probe(s) get better ID and more depth on my SE's than my Etrac, period, so does every other coil I own for that matter, which again the SR probe is just a small coil, so that would make logical sense to me........Why is that so hard to comprehend????????? I didn't call your wife fat or your kid ugly? It's a machine Ray, made by someone other than you, don't take offense.

 

[Ray-Mo.]

No offence but just have a hard time understanding how you could put several hundred hours on a machine you think is so inferior to you favorite machine.Maybe that is what is bugging me?I am not a negative person by nature and would have known after the first couple of hundred hours if it was going to cut it for me.

I do notice you love to post your negative opinion and find fault with the E-Trac at every opportunity.And I guess I have every right to post my positive experiences with it and let others know it works very well for me.
And yes your personal vendetta of negative posts on the E-Trac does get old after a while.If it is the biggest waste of $1500.00 as you so loudly squealed shortly after getting the E-Trac why did you put several hundred hours on it.We know you are in love with your Se's and that is fine but do you think that by running down the E-Trac you will make the Explorers better?

If Minelab had presented it as an improved Explorer I could understand you sour attitude.But it is quite different and very effective for many of us who are using it.I am not saying your machine is not working well for you.I just have to wonder if perhaps yours is not up to par with the average E-Trac.If that is the case it would help me understand your findings a lot better.Or maybe a few of us got exceptional machines and got the luck of the draw?
Either way I will continue to praise mine because it works very well for me in my beat up old sites,Ray.

 

[digitrich]

Ray, I have put all that time into it because I am trying to pay for it before I sell it and I want to give it an absolute fair shake. Many said it was unfair of me to post anything negative until I had allot of experience with it. What I am looking for is a niche, a situation that I can find stuff that I otherwise wouldn't. The longer I try and the longer I fail, the harder it is for me to understand how others are having such success with their machines to the point they completely gave up their old Explorers. That flat out boggles my mind. I really don't think I am that much of an expert with my SE and I guess I was fully expecting this Etrac to pull out more, not only because I expected it to be better, but because it was not an Explorer, it was different and then it would have strengths and weaknesses compared to my SE. I am starting to believe that I am trying way to hard instead of "walking dumb". When I swing my SE and get a maybe, I don't keep rubbing it with a coil to the point I change it into a coin. "the genie effect" With the Etrac, because I have found very valuable targets that were the crappiest sounding maybe, I find myself rubbing and rubbing the coil across that maybe trying to make it into a good target. It's become this sick abusive relationship with a cheating lying woman but every now and again, she's telling me the truth, it's hard to explain, other than almost knowing is worse than never knowing to begin with. So I guess I honestly am liking my Etrac less and less each day, and yes, I continue to use it, now that is a sick relationship.

 

[Ray-Mo.]

I understand what you are saying but when I loose confidence in a machine I have a hard time hunting with it.I am very patient but only when I have faith in something,Ray.

 

[mascard1]

I have a heck of time with the probe and the E-TRAC.....my buddy does also...he got a new one( sunray probe) ,and does not like it to much...he has tereso treasure probe ...he says works better.....he loves his E-TRAC!!!!!!!!!!!!