? for Cody

[Dennis 2]

Cody , (When setting up your program as you )Would going to the Select Screen and Checking off Nails ( except ), Then save it ,Do the same thing as you suggest , As going to the Edit mode and clearing a Few Pixels for nails in the left hand corner?
Thanks Dennis 2

 

[Cody]

It does with more iron hits. I have played around with how much of the nails area to open up so I get a good stable threshold but not overloaded with iron hits. Most iron will hit in that area in sort of a cluster at the upper left and at the top of -14 then down about a quarter of the way in the -15 IM zone. If I open up only a few pixels I keep a solid threshold which I like to hear. This is a carry over from the old TR days when the threshold was how I knew or at least believed I knew what is going on in the ground. I think pick from the signals the ones I believe are good ones.

I don't know if I posted it or not but I have tried to find a happy medium between discrimination and all metal which I think I have and keep a workable threshold. As we know there can be a point in heavy trash where we can get signal overload and our mind shuts down. If the threshold is set to the lowest tone and audio gain to about 4 - 6 the low tones are in the background but mid and high come through very nice and clear.

 

[Dennis 2]

n/t

 

[dsurcy]

This post reminded of something that happened to me
the other day...
8" coil, Factory presets.. except. IM -16, ferrous..
sensitivity 16/auto..

I was listening for what I thought would be "good" sounds...
on several occasions I heard what sounded like a really
good signal.. examined the smartfind screen and the cursor
was "nailed" to the uppermost, left top of the screen
(only the right and bottom side of the square around the
cursor was visible)?!

I bypassed these targets.. and continued hunting.. afterwards
I kept thinking I should have dug on at least on of these...
Can someone explain what may have been happeing?!
hunting in ferrous it seems the location should have given a sound
more like ferrous.. it seemed to be giving a sound like
extremely NONferrous yet showed extremely ferrous?!

The question in this post reminded me of this experience...

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

dsurcy,

What happens is that the audio on the explorer is much faster responding than the screen, the position of the target crosshairs stays where it was for the last target and does not move again until you get the threshold back. If you are hunting in heavy trash/and or have the sens cranked you will often be presenting the detector several targets per second and the screen tends to lag behind. You might have heard people describe the minelab "wiggle"; with this technique you circle the target and move the coil over the target in short rapid strokes, while listening to the sound and seeing how the target icon bounces around. And it will bounce.

This is where experience comes to play. Generally iron can make the high coin sound even in ferrous, but it will not do it every sweep or even most sweeps, it also tends to be a bit more difficult to locate the exact spot, tends to move around some, and will be a shorter narrower signal. Iron also tends to bounce from extreme upper left to far right a bit lower on the screen.

Unfortunately deep coins can also cause the cursor to bounce, sometimes even to the extreme left, and coins next to iron are notoriously tricky, they may sound good and register in the right location from only one small angle, much like iron does.

Judging which ones to dig is pretty much a gut feeling. A good sounding signal gets my attention and then I swing over the target many times while watching the cursor, if it bounces in a pleasing manner it will get dug.

The fact the that each sweep over the target can generate a different response is what dooms trying to use exacting discrimination. Say it bounces into the coin area every one of three swings means that you will miss the target two out of three if you have other areas disc'ed out. Even though these other two swings might not sound like a classic coin sound they will generally sound different enough from iron to make you notice and further check out the location.

Chris

 

[dsurcy]

Chris,

The sounds I was hearing were clear and consistent..
I did sort of a "wiggle" on them.. I didn't circle them while
doing the "wiggle"... I just seemed such a clear "good"
sound.. and such a contradictory reading on the screen...
I believe I stood there for a while.. "wiggling" over the targets...
not believing what I saw and heard...

I did try to make sure I wasn't hearing a signal from the outer
edges of the coil.. because it seems to me that sometimes
nonferrous sounds will come from there.. and then sound
ferrous when centered on the center bar of the coil...

I do not remember if I reestablished thresh-hold before hitting
these signals.. If I had hit another target with a extremely ferrous
reading... and then these targets before getting back to thresh-hold,,,
then... I could be hearing the sound of the new target.. but continue
to "see" the response of the old target on the screen?! Right?

That could be what happened... I will have to watch for this to recur
and then test for a thresh-hold before "wiggling" the target.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Steve(MS)]

I just had to ring in on this one. Chris is right on with what he wrote, The Explorer being a very sensitive machine will chirp on iron laden detecting. The key is slowing down on sweep speed and working the area with patience. What I do is "test" the signals and if I am getting a signal that seems to be good I'll dig it and find out if it's good or not. If it's not good I make an assumption that similar signals in that area are not good either. Many times I have found out that the false good signals are the result of having more than one target ( sometimes many) under the coil at a time. It doesn't matter whether you use conduct or ferrous sounds either, you will have to deal with "chirps" and determine if the signal is legitimate and one has to learn the way the machine reacts to a given area and that will change from spot to spot. When I obtain a questionable signal, I will look down at the screen and determine from the information it gives me whether I want to further investigate the target or not such as where the cursor is landing. If it is in the far upper left and not moving then more than likely it is iron. If it moves from that position to the right, then it could be a good target. How far it moves to the right makes a difference too. There is a place to the right if it moves to, I will dig it no matter what (along with the right sound), it takes practice and a lots of digging to determine when it is worth it. The one other important screen info to take in consideration is the depth meter. Watch and see what the depth is. The closer to the top of the scale (shallow), the more you can trust where the cursor is landing and if it is toward the bottom, you have to lean toward trusting the sound. Then does the signal sound good back and forth and 90 deg. how does it sound? And then does the pinpoint agree with where you are getting the signal from. If the pinpoint moves the target from the spot you get the signal from then it may not be a good target. All this info is rule of thumb and by no means be followed all the time but I think is a good starting place. I personally use audio 1 all the time and I think it gives me more info in such areas, although many use normal and do great with it. Hope this helps and HH.
Steve(MS)

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

n/t

 

[dsurcy]

I definitely will try digging the next time I find this type situation..
I will also try examing by circling/wiggling, etc...
I didn't even try to pinpoint these targets...?!
I guess I decided if there is such a discrepancy in sound
and view it must not be worth digging... just inexperience
with the Explorer I guess....still kicking myself
but, I know the generally location of the targets and will
try some of what you suggested.. next time..

Thanks again for the info.

 

[dsurcy]

Steve,
Thanks for ringing... I'm still sitting here wondering why
I didn't try to pinpoint these signals and at least try to dig
one of them?!

I have no doubt that you and Chris are right on with your information...
I have catalogued it for future type situations.. I just appreciate
that you guys take the time to "think back" and share your
experience with us "newbies" out here.

All the information shared from experience gives me more
to work with.. and.. I definitely need it at this point.. such as...
using Audio 1... this is the second suggestion to try it..
I definitely will..

It would be interesting to know how many others find Audio 1
useful... and how many use normal, audio 2 or 3.. and why?!

Anyone willing to share their preferred audio setting?!... and
why they find them best for their specific use?!

Thanks,
Dan