Exchanging files for the E-Trac

[Andy Sabisch]

Since the E-Trac first came out there have been threads talking about swapping files for discrimination pattens, modes or settings. Minelab's vision was that this would be a selling point and allow people to leverage experience and share files.

The problem with that is the wide variation in types of targets people look for, the ground conditions they search in, personal preferences and the like. If you notice, there has been very little interest in these files once the initial novelty wore off especially when you consider you really one can hunt with one pattern or file at a time and tweaking it in the field for actual conditions takes a minute or less.

Understanding what each adjustment does and when to use it is the best way to get the most out of your E-Trac . . . getting a file from a user 100 or 1,000 miles away hunting in vastly different conditions will more often then not be counter productive.

I have posted a few PATTERN files for others to try but when I did, I always provided the basis for how I designed it . . . so if you wanted to tweak it you could see what to change and why I ran it the way it did.

I have been asked for MODE or SETTINGS files, but the value is very limited as even locally I find I need to make changes - often slight - to get the most out of the detector.

I saw that In2Deep recently posted that "I am working on something for trading modes / patterns.. Its a big project but I will explain more as it gets down the road" and while developing some application for this may be an interesting project, without the associated explanation of what the settings are designed to do and under what conditions they work, it will likely be used as much as this exact capability has been on FindMall (Gary added the ability to attach the E-Trac files to messages and it has been used very rarely). I wish In2 Deep (and anyone else looking at doing this) the best but even Minelab has opted to not pursue ideas of posting users files for others to share. There are some easy-to-configure commercial programs (<$100) that would allow one to do this but since they are not being used, there must be a reason . . . . .

A lot of time can easily be wasted loading files from users around the world that will not work as well as stock settings causing frustration and less finds than one would otherwise make . . . . .

Be interested to hear from others that would want to see SETTING or MODE files posted for use from users that are miles away and use their E-Trac's for different types of hunting.

Andy Sabisch

 

[bcoop]

I think the biggest asset to sharing modes or patterns involves hunting partners that live and hunt in the same area or hunt together. This allows sharing their productive settings so each will have similar results on a particular site and saving that program to a file and naming the program for specific sites. However like you said Andy even in your own area you have to change settings to make the machine stable or get the best results depending on the ground and surroundings. So sharing a specific program with someone in California may not work for the person that lives in New Jersey and could be more frustrating than just creating your own.
It would be interesting to see a program sharing site set up by state and regions in each state.

bcoop

 

[Nick A]

I agree with you 100% Andy. "Understanding what each adjustment does and when to use it is the best way to get the most out of your E-Trac . . . getting a file from a user 100 or 1,000 miles away hunting in vastly different conditions will more often then not be counter productive." People ask me for my settings and I am hesitant to give them as I know their hunt sites and local conditions may vary from my own.

Trading programs is not very effective unless you understand what the settings are and why. With the White's machines like the XLT, I feel it's a different story as there are so many options to tweak and the results of such tweaking are rather vague, that having a place to start is helpful with those machines. The preset E-Trac programs are awesome, so it really is ready to go right out of the box.

I agree too that this is why you are not seeing a great clamoring to provide a forum to exchange programs - it's not necessary. Most E-Trac users are out finding good stuff rather than sitting at home trying to find the prefect program.

Local users trading settings or making adjustments for specific local conditions or hunt sites is important and may be necessary in some cases, but most users who understand the settings and what they do will make these adjustments on their own as the sites require.

 

[Andy Sabisch]

I posted this a while back and a number of people have made use of it . . . some with minor adjustments based on the type of targets they were looking for or the area they were in . . . . . but the PATTERN file combined with a good description of why the adjustments were made is the key . . . several people have sent me files and without the "key" to understand the logic behind the specific details of the file, it's hard to interpret and hence use in my local areas.

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?63,894336,894336#msg-894336

Andy Sabisch

 

[In2Deep]

So what if there was a site that let you exchange programs with people by area?

 

[Andy Sabisch]

To be honest, I doubt there are enough E-Trac users 1) in the same area, 2) that hunt the same type of targets or sites , 3) that are Internet active to make that a viable project . . . . but anything is possible.

In my general area - say a 50 mile radius - I know of a dozen E-Trac users . . . probably a few more but since many people know me from club talks and books, they tend to look me up but let's say there are 30 users. Ground conditions in that 50 miles radius vary from sandy soil to red clay to cinders to plain old dirt . . . . . even Minelab's engineers were pretty amazed at the variation of ground conditions when they were here during the E-Trac development last year.

Then we have the targets people hunt . . . . . obviously there are the coin hunters (at sites that range from schools & parks to 1800 homes to abandoned sites) as well as Revolutionary & Civil War relic hunters, prospectors (1st gold rush was in the area) and just plain old relics at old foundations.

As conditions change - even at sites a mile apart - the required settings change as well. On a recent hunt, one of the guys I hunt with was getting frustrated wit the lack of finds he was making at a site which was a vacant lot that had contained several 1800 era houses while I had found several pre-1900 coins. We stopped and discussed his lack of success and I asked him if he had adjusted his settings . . . well, he had not changed the settings I had loaded into his E-Trac which had been dialed in to hunt a specific site in our home town and had produced in spades. The lot we were hunting - although only 15 miles from our home town required changes to several settings including 1) VOLUME GAIN, 2) RECOVERY - FAST, 3) TRASH DENSITY, 4) AUTO LEVEL and some tweaks to the PATTERN being used. Once we made those changes and discussed why we made them he was off and 3 sweeps later, hit a nice Mercury dime followed by a Victorian silver ring and several other keepers . . . . . . he also learned a few things that has allowed him to make subtle but necessary adjustments to base settings at each site he hits resulting in the finds he makes routinely to go up . . . . I asked him about a "collection of local settings" and his response was that it would be of very limited value since sites - even nearby sites - often dictate different settings in order to be able to hunt them productively.

I guess if you have the time and want to put in the effort, you can move ahead with the project but with the large number of Internet sites hunters tend to go to, and the fact that others have tried this already (there used to be a minelabetrac.com site which bit the dust for lack of use), not sure how much traffic you would actually see . . . . . . . The Minelab Owners site already has a section exchange Patterns and Setting files . . . . and even there they see little activity and use of that option . . . . if you want to see how much interest that generates, try posting a few files there and see what reaction you get . . . . . .

Again, just one perspective but to be successful with one's detector, spending time in the field learning what each adjustment does will be far more productive than downloading a dozen files to try and finding out in fact that none work in your local area for your type of hunting.

Andy

 

[Willee - Texas]

Andy, are you saying that the USB port on the E-Track is nothing short of useless ???
I understand what you are saying about settings from other parts of the country not being very useful but if it is not good for that then what is it good for?
Isnt there one valid use for it?

I thought that perhaps one might be able to upload new verisions of the operating system saving the cost and lost time of sending it in to Minelab.
That might even give Minelab some reason to improve the operating system as they could then charge a small fee for the upgraded software.
Just as there are now "software defined" ham radios there could be a software defined metal detector.
THAT would be useful ... but as I understand it ... that is not possible either.

I also thought that you might be able to adjust all the settings in the computer software program and then save and upload them to the E-Track ... but no.
The software is just a simple program that uploads and downloads a file ... it allows no changes to be made.
Very primitive software in my humble opinion and the whole concept falls short of being anything useful.

All that time, money, and labor Minelab spent to design and implement the USB port into the E-Track ... Wasted?
Perhaps the hackers will find some useful way to use it.

Willee

 

[Andy Sabisch]

Being able to download all of the settings and patterns that work for you in your area and save them on your computer is a real value in case you need to do a Master Reset which wipes them all out. If you send it in for service, the first thing the technicians will do is a Master Reset so again, all of your save files are lost unless you have saved them before sending them in.

If you exchange Pattern files - with the accompanying explanation to tweak them as you need - then getting files from or sending files to others and uploading them to your E-Trac is another use for the Xchange application.

I have sent some people files of settings such as a recent guy that was going to hunt a specific beach in Charleston that I hunt regularly when I get there and I knew the settings would work for him . . so an E-mail with attached files was easily uploaded to his detector and he is ready to make his vacation trip to the area.

As far as making adjustments on the computer and uploading them . . . that is available via the application . . . the one thing it will not do is allow you to edit or modify patterns or discrimination settings. All the other settings can in fact be edited from the SETTINGS tab of the program and then either saved or uploaded to the detector.

As far as updating the software . . . not a chance of that happening . . . . the production detectors have protection in place to prevent that from happening and the test units we had during development had to go back and have that capability removed which we used during the development . . . . just the way it is with Minelab and their proprietary application.

Could Minelab have done more in terms of the USB capabilities? Sure and I think they see that as well . . . . . Whites has connectivity with their V3 and are expanding it as we speak . . . allowing full edit capabilities on the computer which will be great tool once released.

As far as hackers getting into the E-Trac via the USB port, I am sure some will try (at least two have contacted me asking for information to access the core which I can not provide), but the protection is built to wipe the unit if hacked and once returned to the factory for service, care to guess what the answer will be when the cause of the problem is found?

So while the engineers could have made the application more useful, there are several uses for it that I have found useful . . . sharing files however is not one of them.

Andy

 

[Andy Sabisch]

Here's part of the screen that shows you can in fact adjust settings on your computer and upload them . . .

 

[In2Deep]

I dont have time to read all of this thread at the moment. Mom is visiting from the Seattle area and she is chomping at the bit to go to some garage sales for some of the "country folk" haha

I was avoiding post my outline for my idea, but maybe its just better that I post the outline and get everyones input.

So Andy, I will read your threads in more detail when I get back and give the answer they deserve. Just dont have time at the moment

Brandon