Explorer II Continuous Signals

[Boony]

Hi Guys & Girls,
On Saturday I went out to a little church, (Built around 1920) at Deloraine here in Northern Tasmania. After firing up the Explorer II I started to get continuous threshold nulling after switching to Iron mask -16 I found that I was getting a continuous signal as if the entire ground was covered in ferrous metal. Can anyone tell me why this happened and is there anyway to successfully search this type of ground. ( signal were still present even when the sensitivity was set at 1).....All the best Boony.

 

[Steve(MS)]

Hi,
How does your unit run at other sites,what did your depth meter read while at the site with the constant signals, also at an old site expect that there will be a lot of iron, finally, if there are a lot of power lines around then it could affect machine operation.
Steve(MS)

 

[Boony]

Hi Steve,

Other sites seem to be Ok, I have had the Explorer II for about 12 months and found a lot of stuff with it. My own block has a lot of iron stone gravel in it but the detector works Ok here. This site on Saturday was way out in the country so I don't think it was interference from anything. There were odd patches in the ground where it worked Ok but for the majority it was as I described. Can't say I took a great deal of notice of the depth meter.
All the best

Boony

 

[dfwdetector]

Sometimes the good county buries drainage ditches which are over 6-8 foot in diameter in the ground and they are METAL! Maybe it was one of these?

 

[Boony]

Hi,
Thanks for the response, but there is no sewage, and no water.
The ground is very red and I noticed a few mentions on the forum of red clay so maybe this is the problem.

Perhaps someone may have some tips for searching this type of terrain.

Regards....Boony

 

[Steve(MS)]

Hi Boony,
You will have to go back and watch your depth meter as you sweep as that may give you an idea of whether there is some large objects under the ground, lift your coil 10" off the ground and see if you are still getting signals , also it could be filled with small iron objects like nails and if they are congested will give a continuous signal while sweeping same deal watch depth meter.It sounds to me that the place is loaded with iron but that may not be a bad thing, try a smaller coil and see what happens,may be able to pull something out...You could use a little disc if you don't won't to hear cont. signals, -15 or -14 on iron mask. I search areas that there is always something under my coil, I just keep detectin.Good luck,
Steve(MS)

 

[Boony]

Hi Steve,
Thanks for the reply, I'm still inclined to think it was something to do with the red clay, perhaps it is highly mineralised, causing the EX II to go off it's tree, I was still able to get a few signals and dug up a bit of junk and an old brass shoe buckle.

I reckon I'll give the site a miss, there are plenty of other sites to search that I hope will not give me so much trauma.
All the best....Boony

 

[Travis]

Just a simple question, did you do a noise cancel on the ground with a STILL coil before starting your search? Also try a 5" coil if available. Old churches are GREAT, don't give it up so quickly.
Just my 2 cent
Travis

 

[ED-NH]

Just for fun try noise cancel and also try setting the frequency (channel) manually and see what you get. It does sound like a large concentration of iron. I have that happen to me in certain spots too. Smaller coil may be of some help for that site.

 

[Mike Bearden]

I've been metal detecting since 1974 and have used the Explorer since it was released. Bottom line is, re-boot the Explorer back into factory pre-set, do a noise cancel if you can even find a spot to do it and then if it won't hunt don't worry about it and go to another spot !
Some areas are simply not huntable ... period, with any detector including the Explorer. It's RARE to find those spots but it does happen.
H.H.
Mike

 

[Boony]

Hi Guys,

Thanks again for all the responses, I did a lot of noise cancels and a few reboots, all to no avail, personally I think the red soil was just to mineralised to search successfully. Also I tried the 15" DD WOT and then changed to the 12.5" Platypus eliptical, I know the owner pretty well so I can go back there anytime I want,, might leave it until winter and see what it's like when the ground is wet, you never know it might make all the difference.

Anyway thanks once again to all the people who responded to this topic, happy detecting....Regards....Boony

 

[Cody]

I have run into a few sites as you describe. Sometimes this appears to be an area where "clinkers" have been dumped to melt snow. If coal was burned for heat we end up with clinkers and that would be dumped as waste. Folks would also use the clinkers and there are times when they are so many around an old house or school that it is really tough to hunt to marking the site off. This is only an example of some of the reasons why there can be so many targets in the soil that IM-16, all metal, is going to give so many hits that we have to do something else. We can decrease the sensitivity and gain and often find goodies at those sites even if we may not get the deeper ones. I figure it is better to get what we can than to miss them all. So, I would suggest trying to go to a lesser IM setting, decreasing sensitivity and gain, and see if you can find setting that work. Most of the time I can do this and do just fine. We fall into the trap of thinking we need everything maxed out when the Explorer is very good at no more than the factory presets or even a little less.

 

[Boony]

Hi Cody
Thanks for the tip I'll keep it in mind for next time I search this site, however I think I tried just about everything on the day including reducing the sensitivity down to about 1 and still got continuous signals. It was a strange site something I have never come across in the 12 months that I have had the EX II.

All the best....Boony

 

[DIGGERBEGINNER]

Talked to Mine Lab and a service rep said we are all Noise cancelling wrong!!!! It was a mistake made by the author of the manual (I won't mention names) and never changed. Holding it on the ground in a clear space is for ground balancing on other machines not the purpose for a new revolutionized EXPLORER I and II...the author just did not take into account..... Noise cancelling is for the electrical and magnetic waves in the air NOT for ground balancing! This machine automatically ground balances!....To Noise cancel correctly hold the detector waist high...parallel to the ground and cancel. You can move around but keep it parallel to the ground. Makes a big difference! Another point is when using the probe before pin pointing try holding the probe up in the air then hit noise cancel....your pin pointing will amaze you, but you will have to Noise cancel again when switching back to the coil. Also remember to Noise cancel each time you make a program change or move closer or farther away from power lines, go into valleys or up on hills. The type of soil makes no difference! LAST THING...make sure that coil cover is clean with no magnetic dust build up in between the coil and coil cover! John Harvey (DiggerBeginner)Michigan

 

[Boony]

Hi John,

Thanks for that information, it makes sense, it would be handy if Minelab posted these manual updates on their Web Site, most of us detector owners go back the the manufacturer sites to check out new products etc from time to time.

I would think that there will be a lot of other user on this site that would be grateful for this info.

All the best.....Boony

 

[Travis]

Wow, this is a news flash. We should start a new thread about it so all can get the info (burried in this thread) and comment on it.
Travis

 

[Boony]

Hi Travis,

Sounds like a good idea to me, would you or diggerbeginner like to start it off.

Boony

 

[Boony]

I think a lot of people will be interested in then correct way to Noise Cancel....Boony

 

[MattR]

Boony.

You didn't tell us what your Audio options Response was set at.

I hope they were not on audio 2 or audio 3.

Having seen the red dust around Australia's Ayres Rock..WOW.

I was trecking around the desert there, last year.

I know now, just why Minelab designed their detectors with their unique mode of ground cancelling......MattR.

 

[Arron(upstateNY)]

I ran into this problem in a corn field last summer. I had detected this area before and stayed with it because an 1865 2 center had come from here the year before. After pulling my hair out for the better part of a day I discovered the owner of a nearby farm house had installed an invisible fence for his dog. Constant signal was strong out to 150 feet from the buried cable. Inside the fenced area was even worse signals jumped everywhere, but outside it was a constant signal. I tried everything to no avail, he said when the dog is trained he will shut it off for me.