EX2 and depth

[Chezhinkle]

Hello, I had posted this message on the main Minelab EX board. I will also post it here, trying to get more responses and help.

Greetings,
I have been using the EX2 since September. I am pretty comfortable with all the adjustments and settings, and do understand the theory behind them. I am pretty good at pinpointing by now, even with the 10.5" coil. I bought the EX2, as I was advised by more than one source that it was the best machine for 1) depth and 2) mineralized soil. My problem is that I have not been able to get depth with it. In the field, I have never found a coin deeper than 4". I have found iron that has falsed as a coin at lower depths. I took the EX2 to my test garden (basically ideal conditions) and found that with the 8" and 10.5" coils, I could detect coins to 6". It would not detect my 8" and 10" targets on any setting. With my 4"x7" Excelerator coil (awesome for pinpointing and in trash) I could not get deeper that 4". Although I did detect coins at 6" in the test garden, in live field conditions, I have not gotten below 4", and that was when the soil was wet. I have searched some virgin sites that are yielding old wheaties at 2 & 3". Deeper stuff should be there. What settings do I use? I have tried everything; IM -16 to full discrim, ferrous tones, conductivity tones, deep and fast on and off, auto and manual sensitivity. Nothing produces depth, even in the test garden, where I know the targets are there. Our soil in northern CO is considered highly mineralized. A sensitivity setting of even manual 15 can mean false reads in the swing; sometimes several. Please, if any of you have had this problem, and figured it out, help me. I will try any combination of settings! Also, the iron falsing as coins gets really old. I have spent a lot of time digging these and always come up empty. Any more, if the cursor is bouncing back and forth between the top two corners of the screen, I ignore it. I will only dig it if it is a pretty solid upper right corner target. Am I missing something here?

Thank you for your help,
Mathew

 

[AU MARC]

Howdy
just my humble opinion,but you must have extremely mineralized ground that your testing with,I have found brutal ground at a nearby cw campsite and experienced similar depth challenges,I have got out of that ground and gone back to very good depth capability in normal(less mineralized ground) when using my EX II,it likes ground with minimal mineralization for max depth capabilty.

Marc

 

[Chezhinkle]

Monsieur Marc,
Ah, I only dream of the detecting depths and easy types of soil that I read about elsewhere in the country! Perhaps some day I can take a detecting trip...

chezhinkle

 

[Ace]

Read this:

Your gain may have to come down if you have it high.....but one point I'd like to point is the wrong way to noise cancel. I hunt areas with alot of high overhead power lines and was having a hell of a time trying to figure out how to get good signals...I kept improving thru the years but was still disappointed in the Explorers performance. I thought I had a lemon detector. One last thing to try was a new set of head phones...I compared all over then I called Ralph, owner of Sun Ray and we had a long talk...more listening on my part. I explained my dilemma and he outlined in detail all settings to try and they worked! The main problem was that I was noise cancelling the way the Minelab manual said to do it and the same way Andy Sabbith said to do it. Ralph said they were absolutely wrong!!! Ralph said:

"YOU HAVE TO TURN YOUR SENSE ALL THE WAY UP...THEN HOLD YOUR DETECTOR PARALLEL TO THE GROUND AT WAIST HEIGHT...THEN HIT THE NOISE BUTTON!! KEEP IT HELD PARALLEL TO THE GROUND TILL IT STOPS.

NOISE CANCEL IS NOT FOR GROUND BALANCING. IT IS FOR ELECTRICAL INTERFERENCES IN THE AIR AROUND YOU. BY PLACING THE COIL ON THE GROUND YOU ARE NOT LETTING THE MACHINE DO WHAT ONLY THE Explorer CAN DO AND YOU LESSEN DEPTH AND SCREW UP THE GROUND BALANCING. Ralph TALKED TO MINELAB ABOUT IT AND THEY SAID THE BOOKS ARE WRONG AND HAVE NEVER BEEN CORRECTED.

ALSO...EVERYTIME YOU CHANGE A PROGRAM IN ANY WAY YOU HAVE TO NOISE CANCEL AGAIN ON THESE MACHINES. IF YOU ARE NEAR WIRES AND MOVE CLOSER OR FARTHER BY 50 FEET YOU HAVE TO NOISE CANCEL AGAIN. ALSO GROUND MAGNETISMS CAN CHANGE IN A 100 FEET AND YOU HAVE TO NOISE CANCEL AGAIN...REMEMBER TO KEEP IT WAIST HIGH AND PARALLEL TO THE GROUND. IT WORKS!!!BELIEVE IT OR NOT ASK RALPH. I'd LIKE TO HEAR FEED BACK IF ANY OF YOU WANT TO TRY THIS.

________________________________

Run sensitivity in Manual not Automatic, that's usually the problem in most cases.

 

[Cody]

This is not the correct way to noise cancel according to Minelab. I don't know how that got started but it is not correct. Noise cancel just as explained by Minelab.

Colorado has some of the most difficult soil in the US which is why it is used to test detector. I don't doubt that the depth suffers as it with all detectors in the ground that is common for Colorado.

 

[Ace]

That way to Noise Cancel was posted in the Explorer forum here in Findmall, the one who posted said Sunray (From Sunray detectors) told him that's the correct way, I haven't tried it yet but it seems right, I dunno.

 

[RingPowers]

About 7 -8 inches WITH some target id is the best any detector ever made is ever going to detect and id a single coin . This is the hard facts many wont agree with but its true. 9 - 11 inches on a coin without id is possible - Coins deeper than 8 inches sound like IRON trash on ALL detectors. Most of the very deep targets that gave no id usually turn out to be junk!. 4 inches is poor depth by any standards. My average depths on coins with the explorer 2 is usually about 5 - 6 inches Not because the explorer wont go deeper but because in my opinion the coins are not there beyond 6 inches MOST OFTEN..

 

[Dan-Pa.]

In some areas coins are not deep and a 5 or 6 inch one may be a deepie in your area...In my neck of the woods silver coins drop deep.
With the XS and stock large coil most of my silver finds are 6 to 8 inches, but on occasion
get one 10 inches plus but of course usually have to play with it from on top using different directions..You are not the first one to complain about no depth and either your settings are killing depth or
perhaps your unit is faulty...Perhaps a clubmember or local experienced Explorer user could help you out....you might want to run it in quickstart and see if your depth improves, if so your settings are killing depth....

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Certainly Minelab U.S.A. should supply the correct way..
Heck I could argue either way..
Would seem waist high without any ground intererence would seem plausible, however Minelab hates air and signal seems to mix with ground matrix so perhaps flat on the ground is plausible also...
I do know it is a aspect to explore and whether it affects depth I don't know but surely it gives you the best channel to operate your unit with stability.
I still feel a local mentor to work with you is the way to go for depth and one hopes you have an Explorer experienced individual which can shorten the learning period for maximum performance..

 

[John LA]

RingPowers you must not sell detectors or represent any of the manufacturers. You don't seem to be afraid of the truth.

 

[RingPowers]

New users of the explorer 2 can get 6 -7 inches on a coin easy with out of the box settings. Experts can get an inch or 2 extra ,but lets not forget the explorer's most important attribute - ITS AMAZING ALMOST MAGICAL ABILITY TO LOCATE COINS (ESPECIALLY SILVER COINS AND SILVER JEWELRY) ON TRASHY SITES THAT OTHERS WITH OLDER DETECTORS HAVE WALKED RIGHT OVER. LET NO ONE BE MISTAKEN ABOUT THIS BECAUSE I HAVE HAD GREAT SUCCESS LOCATING OLD SILVER AND COPPER COINS ON SITES THAT HAVE BEEN WORKED BY OTHERS YEARS BEFORE.

 

[Steve(MS)]

is the DD, it will cover an area much better than concentric and the Exp is made to use them, so you will get more hits in an area simply because the coverage is better... gosh, I ought not give away so much info...

 

[John LA]

I'm not totally sure I'm understanding all you are saying. I would believe that you could pick out good targets that were near trash by listening to the sounds even in the 6"-8" range. I myself have trouble determining most good targets by the visual ID especially if they are near trash. If your experience is different help me out. John

 

[RingPowers]

The audio sounds coming through the headphones on a trashy site are so complex and varied it would be impossible in words to describe just what a deep coin or a coin close to trash sounds like. I dont look at the screen only to confirm the general area the cross hair has landed in - A consistent cross hair that falls in the same area of the screen with consistent sweeps over it i have found to be a round or roundish target like a ring or coin. Cross hairs wont lock on to a specific area of the screen if the target is not round (like odd shapen non ferrous bits. Coins close to trash always cause the cross hair to bounce all over the place. The smart screen is pretty useless on trashy sites at correctly identifying just what the target is weather good or bad , however the audio is superb , MAGICAL AUDIO is the only way to describe the audio coin and ring sifting qualities of the explorer series.

 

[John LA]

I wasn't trying to be argumentative. I wanted to hear your opinion. I value it. Thanks for your response.

 

[RingPowers]

Now were both smiling.

 

[Dave Z]

Coins over 8" don't sound like iron on my detector.Large cents at the foot deep range can sound like pull tabs,BUT knowing that a target is deep and giving off a pull tab sound,you can pretty much assume that you are over a coin.Halo's will bring the signal up however.I found a 1783 Nova Constellatio a few weeks ago.It was down about 10-11" and read like a silver quarter.It fooled me.Usually that would read about 3-5 #'s lower.I think the halo brought it up.The spot it was found at was most likely undisturbed for a few hundred years.You really need to forget about your meter dingy.Maybe cover it up with something.Just learn your machines tones,you'll find a lot more.Dave

 

[richg]

I disagree, on the beach I have no problem knowing its a quarter at 12-16", sound and visual, Also I had a solid copper reading on a
1797 George III cartwheel penny and with the 8" coil that guy came out from the 16-18" range. It was very soft dirt but a solid reading nonetheless. You may be running the machine to hot (sensitivity to high) and this might be addressed in a reply, I dont know. It could also be your ground but I doubt it, it is possible though. Good Luck!

 

[RingProfessional]

I doubt if the explorer would even pick a cartwheel up at 18 inches in air.

 

[richg]

OK, I guess you are a master and I am not so it is impossible!! I dug the signal and my digger is 31" long with marks every 4". It did not fall back in the hole because I did not make it wide enough and I kept digging and digging until it came out, I could care less what your air test says and if you dont believe me, good for you, I dont give a crap, I have the penny in olive oil as the proof and I know how deep I dug to get it. Or maybe because you are the professional I guess that was in my dreams and the coin in the olive oil is really an old metal gas cap I just dont know any different.