E-Trac settings

[WV62]

Here is the settings I loaded into my E-Trac and all seems to be good but I don't seem to be getting a lot of depth even when air testing. I went to the goes4ever sight and copied these settings.
Any suggestions to get some more depth?

Ron in WV

E-Trac Goes4ever settings
Sensitivity Auto +3
Threshold level just barely audible 26
Volume limit 29
Volume Gain 29
Response Normal
Tone ID Multi
Sounds Conductive
Variability 29
Threshold pitch 28-29 (makes silver scream out)
Deep off
Fast on
Trash high
Ground difficult
Note noise cancel at every site, now only if getting inference

 

[sprchng]

I would suggest playing with the threshold pitch and nickels if you are interested in gold items. Everyone's ears hear a bit different and i find the setting you are showing to be create too much distortion The silver warble is basically distortion. At threshold 22-24 I find nickels and gold takes on a special sweet and distinctive tone while the silver and other high conductors retain enough of their high pitch sound to unmistakable and easy to pick up.

From a tonal perspective I think the threshold pitch is the best feature of the etrac when it comes to learning the language for identification of targets. It deserves some special attention to tune it to your specific hearing.

 

[IDXMonster]

The two biggest things you can do to help see targets that are deeper WHERE CONDITIONS ALLOW....larger coil or more manual Sensitivity. Places with many targets will be more difficult to get depth in simply because of other junk targets detracting from the machines ability to single out good targets below all the garbage. Expecting to see a 9" dime in a place that is horribly contaminated is not going to be a realistic goal.
Good location
Larger coil
Manual Sensitivity as high as possible without falsing while the machine is sitting still

 

[sd51]

Which discrimination pattern are you using? A deep coin will most likely not give you a Ferrous reading around 12. It can be in the low 20s. Also, try turning on the Recovery Deep ON and the Recovery Fast OFF.

 

[sd51]

Also do your ground balance every time you turn on the E-Trac and do it with the coil on the ground. Also do it again about every half hour. The noise cancel is not intended to just pick up EMI, it also looks at the minerals in the ground and selects which channel will work best in that particular piece of ground. The E-Trac has the ability to use 28 frequencies but each of the channels only use 3 of the 28 frequencies.

 

[sd51]

Sorry, called the noise cancel ground balance , my mistake...

 

[5900_XL-1]

I don't NC each time. Mine stays stable about any channel, predominitely 6-9. However, I will NC in the field if I have any doubts. So far, the Etrac usually settles to 6 to 9 and I like 6 so that's my goto channel. I read a post once where it was suggested using 2-6 or 9 so I don't use 8. My hunt buddy, a KILLER FBS deep silver hunter, likes 11. He's always on 11.

A mystery, new-hunt spot....I'll maybe do a NC if it seems unstable in the least. I am prone to re-hunt many of my old spots though. Texas clay :-(

 

[mascard1]

I have dug a lot of wheats in the teens with Ferris number at 1..........DEEP !!!








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Which discrimination pattern are you using? A deep coin will most likely not give you a Ferrous reading around 12. It can be in the low 20s. Also, try turning on the Recovery Deep ON and the Recovery Fast OFF.

 

[WV62]

Which discrimination pattern are you using? A deep coin will most likely not give you a Ferrous reading around 12. It can be in the low 20s. Also, try turning on the Recovery Deep ON and the Recovery Fast OFF.

Andy S or QuickMask with the bottom blanked out up to line 28.

Also I am learning to trust the tones over the meter numbers.

 

[WV62]

I would suggest playing with the threshold pitch and nickels if you are interested in gold items. Everyone's ears hear a bit different and i find the setting you are showing to be create too much distortion The silver warble is basically distortion. At threshold 22-24 I find nickels and gold takes on a special sweet and distinctive tone while the silver and other high conductors retain enough of their high pitch sound to unmistakable and easy to pick up.

From a tonal perspective I think the threshold pitch is the best feature of the etrac when it comes to learning the language for identification of targets. It deserves some special attention to tune it to your specific hearing.

Well I took your suggestion and tried your threshold pitch numbers and I like what I hear at 24. All this was done in the house air test. I did have to use multi tones to get the good separation of tones. Next hunt I will give them a real world try.

Thanks for the tip,

Ron in WV

 

[Jeff in Pa]

I can say that without a dout here in my ground manual 22 sensitivity is deeper than auto +3 running at 24. I have tested it in a coin garden I placed just a couple of months ago. This is an area with very little EMI. I can run my 13" Ultimate at 30 manual but I run it at 26 or 28. That coil smacks and ID's a dime correctly at 9-1/2 inches without any problem running at manual 22. If I turn it up to 26 I get even more depth. My ground is very neutral most everywhere around my town.
Give manual a try.

 

[WV62]

Jeff in Pa,
You are right on the money about manual sensitivity running deeper than any of the Auto settings. Just to add to what you are saying, Each of the coils I have reach max depth at different manual settings So I etched each coil cover with the lowest sensitivity number for max depth.
The Ultimate reaches max depth at sensitivity setting 27.
The 11" stock coil is 25
The 8x6 butterfly coil is 27
The little 5" coil is 26

Just to compare let's say Auto sensitivity +3 is running 20 and you switch to manual sensitivity and set it to 20 you will get 1" to 1 1/2" more depth out of manual.

Ron in WV

 

[Jeff in Pa]

Glad to hear you have tested your coils.
Here are 2 other tests I have done with my coils. I will test each one over the same buried coin that is deep for my area. I will swing each coil from different directions and take note if there are any hot spots on the coil but more importantly I check to see if the coil will hit that target over the entire length of the coil detection area. If you think about, in general we are after the deepest targets in the ground because typically they are the oldest. Many coils have defining hotspots in them. This creates a problem for me. If a coil won't hit that deep target across the entire area of the coil, let's say only 60% of the coil will hit the target. When this happens and you are trying to find deep targets you are actually hunting with a much smaller coil at depth.
Both of my Ultimate coils will hit the deep dime all the way across the coil surface.

Try it and see what you come up with.

Jeff in Pa,
You are right on the money about manual sensitivity running deeper than any of the Auto settings. Just to add to what you are saying, Each of the coils I have reach max depth at different manual settings So I etched each coil cover with the lowest sensitivity number for max depth.
The Ultimate reaches max depth at sensitivity setting 27.
The 11" stock coil is 25
The 8x6 butterfly coil is 27
The little 5" coil is 26

Just to compare let's say Auto sensitivity +3 is running 20 and you switch to manual sensitivity and set it to 20 you will get 1" to 1 1/2" more depth out of manual.

Ron in WV

 

[WV62]

You can see I have went through a lot pattern work and I try not to just blank things out, I try to keep info and still show what I want for now. So just to help with understanding, any colored in area is closed areas on the pattern and the white areas are all open.
All these patterns are what I use for coin hunting here in WV.
The first pattern on the left is my most open and is what I use to find most coins that I hunt.
The center pattern you can see I just closed up the nickel area.
The pattern on the right is what I use for silver coin hunting and it will find pennies and clad coins as well.

Now you will notice I have the open areas open from top to bottom. The bottom red area is iron and I want to hear and that gives me an idea if I am over a target that is good or iron. Now why the open area above iron. For this test just use a all open pattern. Take one each coins outside and find a clean area of earth and lay the coins on the ground. Then swing the coil over each coin one at a time from close to as high as you can detect the coin. Now watch your numbers as you move high and you will get numbers jumping all the way from line 1 down to about line 22 to 24. So if you are looking for deep 12 - 46 you would miss a 22 - 46. Hunting like this you need to check you depth scale for a target that is at least a little over half the scale.
Also for me I think you need to run multi tones to give you a correct tone for the coin you are looking for.
Now to get away from that high tone iron I set the sounds for Ferrous. This will give you the low tone for all iron at the bottom. If you were set to Conductive sounds all the iron in that that far right open silver area will sound high tone and you will be digging bent rusty nails. So if you want your hearing to give you a better idea of the target first, Ferrous is the way to go. Once you you hit something that sounds good go to you ID numbers and your depth scale. For me I think of the depth scale as another form of disc.

Hope this helps somebody out there.

Ron in WV

 

[WV62]

I did some more testing this evening just to make sure setting sounds to Ferrous is the way to go.
I set the sounds to conductive and tried both multi and 4 tones. Man I sure like the sound of that silver dollar and half dollar in front of the coil. But when I ran a big rusty nail in front of the coil it took the wind right out of me, it sounded about the same as the $ and H$.

I set the sounds back to Ferrous and the $ and H$ were not near as high tone as in conductive but they were both good clean high tones. The rusty nail was now a low iron tone. So I am staying with sounds set on Ferrous. This will let my hearing do the first round of discrimination and from there I can work the ID numbers and the depth gauge.

If you think about what is going on with the sounds in Ferrous and Conductive. In Conductive the sounds run from left to right on the screen, so my rusty nail comes in at about 35-46 which is in the far right side of the pattern and is high tone. The $ and H$ come in about 01- 44 & 46 also in the high tone area.
Now in Ferrous sounds go from top to bottom so that nail hit 35-46 and comes in low tone. The $-H$ comes in at the top of the screen which is High tone.

For me and my coin hunting Ferrous sounds and multi tones is the way to go.

Ron in WV

 

[coin pirate]

The difference between what you are running and TTF is a few extra tones? or are there some setting differences as well....advantage to additional tones?
Thanks...still learning the etrac

 

[WV62]

I would say MTF over TTF there is no real advantage but for me it gives me a extra clue as to what the target is, say big or small silver or penny. I would dig all those targets but I dig harder if I think that is silver half dollar down there. LOL
Here is the rest of my today's settings and notes to myself for those that may be interested.
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Ron’s E-Trac Settings 3/14/20

Sensitivity = Minimum setting for max air testing depth for each coil.

5” coil = minimum sensitivity @26, so far most deep coins found

8x6” coil = minimum sensitivity @27, nest in line for deep coins but this coil is newer.

11” stock coil = minimum sensitivity @25

13” coil = minimum sensitivity @27

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Threshold level = (20) barely audible for me, adjust Threshold Pitch first

Volume limit = (30),

Volume Gain = (20) at this setting it gives me a sound of something deep. Air tested this with big and small silver to get a different volume at max depth.

Response set for = (Long) (Normal), (Smooth), (Long) the manual says long may add some depth. Don’t think I would use (Pitch Hold) \—Need to work with long response

Tone ID set for = multi Tones, (1) tone, (2) tones. Just pick what you like 1, 2, 4 or multi tones

TTF, stands for 2 tone Ferrous, 4 tones Ferrous gives best tone ID between small and large silver

Sounds set for = (Conductive Ferrous), conductive some say is best for coins. (Ferrous) some say is best for Relics and jewelry.

Variability = (30),

Limit = (30) Leave set at 30 but only works when tones are set to Multi.

Threshold Pitch = set first, (24) (15) for me, once you get what you like don’t change this one it makes everything sound different.

Deep = (off) in high iron trash, with low iron trash run on. Also deep ON slows the response speed down, more filtering. On=Better ID. On and off air tested the same. So off should get better separation.

Fast = (off) if the trash is real bad run this on. On=Filters off, off = filters on with better ID

Trash = (high)

Ground = difficult
Noise Cancel = Run this manual between 2 thru 4. So I pick 2 or 3 the machine seems to run good at these numbers. For auto, run it several time and go with one it most hits on.
Notes:

Slow and low sweep, listen for repeat signals. I like the shorter mini strokes and push the grass down. Listen for any high tone (squeal), check depth, and then work the numbers. Note I found a 1919 penny, 3 silver dimes and 1962D silver quarter with the little coil at the park sled run at 6”+ and only had high tone, no repeatable ID numbers.

High tone one direction, low tone at 90 = iron

Have fun Ron in WV