Ground Balance & Ground Tracking Question

[Elton]

On all detectors that have GB feature it clearly says.. Find clean ( NO Metal ) patch of ground to perform the GB...

Ok that being said, and done.............. When the detector is tracking..does it track to the trash in the ground when it momentarily tracks if trash is there???..Or, does it track to the ground around the trash.

Why if it Ground Balances/Tracks over trashed sites is it so critical to have clean ground for the manual part of the GB ??

 

[Thound]

On the VX3 it ground balances to everything that's in the coils Field so if you balanced over a target and the moved on your GB will be off . Thats in loctrack. In autotrack a lot of targets under the coil will cause GB to drift as it is trying adjust to every thing it is seeing.HH

 

[Elton]

What I thought.So in Trashed ground on the V series it's best to GB and lock it right ??

 

[Thound]

Yeah that works best for me. Machine is more stable. HH

 

[Mike Hillis]

Elton,
Its best to ground balance and lock all auto tracking detectors. You loiter over the target making multiple passes, your ground balance is shifting. You put the detector down to dig and the ground balance is shifting, you get into a high iron trash area and your ground balance is shifting. You get over alum trash and your ground balance is shifting.

Then you have to worry about how fast is it updating. Is it updating fast and getting into a wide pendulum type swing from one side to the other, over compensating, and never actually cancelling the ground signal, or is it updating too slow, ground cancelling, right or wrong and then never or only occasionally getting back to true.

I prefer to balance them, then lock em down. Check my balance point with the pinpoint function ever so often and rebalance as needed.

HH
Mike

 

[Larry (IL)]

I'll get in line behind Mike. I lock mine even when I am NOT in trash. It seems to work quieter and more stable for me.

 

[MANDAD76]

You can locktrac after gb...or, if you have v3i you can "inhibit" ...keeps machine from tracking to targets...gl and hh!!!

 

[Rob (IL)]

On all detectors that have GB feature it clearly says.. Find clean ( NO Metal ) patch of ground to perform the GB... I know you have a V so:

Ok that being said, and done.............. When the detector is tracking..does it track to the trash in the ground when it momentarily tracks if trash is there???..Or, does it track to the ground around the trash.
Elton, that's what the tracking speed is all about. If your speed is set correctly it doesn't have time to track to the momentary pass over the trash.

Why if it Ground Balances/Tracks over trashed sites is it so critical to have clean ground for the manual part of the GB ??

Only if you want to start being balanced to start. The V can take a long time to get the balance correct depending how far off you start. The V3i had it's tracking software slowed so it can take quite a few pumps to get to balance. If you lock it you better be over a clean patch. It's not a bad idea to leave it in tracking for a while to get a good sample of the soil before locking.

 

[Larry (IL)]

Inhibit

 

[Elton]

Ok Rob..I did notice it took some pumping to get it Gb'd. But I didn't mind that.. You know it's true Gb when it runs as smooth as mine has been running..

Thanks for the advce of letting it track for awhile before locking..

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[Critterhunter]

I don't care for ground tracking as it can track out deep targets and also is never trully optimized for the best depth which you can do better via a fixed GB you set yourself. Then there are machines were the GB is set at the factory and can't be changed, which is also a trade off in depth. Don't confuse auto tracking with how Minelabs compensate for the ground signal. They use a very unique way via multifreqency to just simply ignore the ground signal and pay no attention to it. This has it's advantages over a conventional GB, in that setting a GB on a machine in effect simply sets up a filter. Because of this any deep target may have trouble breaking through that filter in order to sound off and be ID'd.

 

[BarberBill]

I'm with Mike Hillis on this one. I balance my MXT at the start, then lock it. Check and/or re-balance every few minutes, but hunt with it locked most of the time.
BB

 

[Critterhunter]

That's the best way. Never used tracking on my QXT Pro or 6000 Pro XL. It never gives the best depth and even large junk targets can throw it off for seconds if not minutes at a time. I always set it myself and locked it in place, then re-checked every half hour or so...Unless I was really moving far distances and then I'd re-check more often. About the only time I'd use tracking was when it was obvious the soil was changing rapidly due to say fill in one area and other soil in another. On the other hand, better to manually GB over one time, hunt that, and then GB again at the new soil and hunt that separetly.

 

[5900_XL-1]

Very good question Elton. Finding a big enough clean spot is sometimes the trickiest part. I have recently begun doing as Rob after getting as good a GB I possibly can over my discovered clean spot, and then let AT run for a few minutes until I see the arrows-switching once or twice, while moving across open ground before locking it. It is true that if you lay the V3i down with AT on, and the Auto cycle runs, it is pulling "whatever the" tilted coil is aiming at the time. I read that you can put the display in the the Menu Screen before laying it down to stop AT activity, but I'd never remember to do that so I just lock and forget about it.

I am sure that I wasted lots of practice time here in my yard in the beginning with AT engaged, because there's just to much trash around my house, plus not knowing about the ATracking while laying the V down. It took me a long time to really grasp all that was going on with AT, and a drifted GB is probably the worst thing you want for good depth consistency.

martin

 

[Critterhunter]

Yes, never ground balance in a spot with metal. Instead. Stop the ground balancing and just search in all metal (so no targets are being ignored) and find a clean spot to ground balance at. In fact, on some machines that want you to sweep to ground balance you can often just pump the coil up and down over a tight clean spot and set it when the threshold doesn't change or only SLIGHTLY increases as you slowly approach the ground. By setting it a little "hot" (threshold SLIGHTLY increases as you approach the ground) you'll get slightly better depth than a neutral setting where it doesn't change from air to ground. Usually, at least with every machine I've owned featuring a manual GB, you want to pump the coil slowly from air to ground and back and fourth, and not really totally squash the coil into the ground hard. Just "kiss" the top of the grass. In fact, I always prefered GBing by only lowering the coil to the height I normally hunt my coil with at...Which is usually just brushing the top of the grass. If you lower it all the way into the ground GBing compared to the height you normally hunt at you are throwing things off a bit. Also, be careful about when you think it MIGHT be balanced. Most machines feature a SAT, or self adjusting threshold. Which means that the threshold will even out in matters of a second as it changes from air to ground, even if the GB isn't set right yet. Pay attention to that and notice if the threshold is staying the save (or slightly increasing for more depth) as you approach the ground, and not just resetting due to the SAT.