Ground Balance Help

[digging_solo]

I just got a new cz3d today in the mail and got to try it out for a few minutes before work. Problem...I never could get it to ground balance. The whole time I tried all I got was a constant "click,click,clicking noise",it just beeped and chattered worse each time I tried it. When I put it to the ground, without even moving the coil it just kept chirping and beeping constantly. Not sure what is wrong here. I set the sensitivity to "10", the volume to "10", and discrimination to "0". I tried everything and was about ready to toss it, the most frustrating half hour of my life! I even tried a different area on my lunch hour and still no luck. I was wondering now if the sensitivity is supposed to be set that high while balancing? I tried it in the salt and enhanced modes....even tried it above my head,LOL. When ever I push the pinpoint button it just goes crazy on me. Now lowering the coil to the ground it just keeps clicking as well as alot of other noises. I know it has to be something simple and maybe stupid on my part here. I am not new to detecting at all and currently use a x terra 70, and a white's xlt. Any ideas or did I get a bad one? HELP !!!

 

[Treasure-Hunter]

Your sensitivity setting is critical on the 3D. Set it on 3 and leave it there until you get at least 40 hrs use on the machine. After that you can adjust up to as high as 4.8 on sens but I have never gone higher than that. There is no need to. It is very deep even at 3 sens. There is no way you could GB with the sens at 10. Use the red preset numbers on all adjustment knobs until you know the machine.

TH

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Older CZ's you could set the sensitivty at perhaps 6-7-8 but never found an area where I could use 10...Volume at 10 is good and can always lower that when balanced as you can hear the difference in sounds better..Personally would try the sens at 2-3-4 and see what happens as sens. parameters are set different than older CZ's and 4 seems to be the number for most areas. Remember if you set it at 2 and then wish to set it at 3 you have to balance again but if you set it at 3 you can drop down to 2 with no problems. In other words you can go down but not up without having to ground balance again..Holding it in the air and having problems makes me think you may have a bad coil and have had heard of the ground balance being faulty which causes an erratic unit.In this case of course it would have to go in for repair..My gut feeling is it may be operator error as you are new to a CZ so try to find a CZ user or perhaps a Fisher dealer and he could tell right from the get go..

 

[digging_solo]

I thought 10 was high but was going by the manual. For start up, set it at 10. I am going out here really soon to give it a try. I thank you both for your responce. I will let you know how it works out for me. Looking forward to trying the fisher line for a change, wish me luck!

 

[AllenOK]

Your volume doesn't need to be at 10, either. I usually keep my volume set at 4 1/2 on the box of my CZ-5, and then adjust the volume on my headphones to where it's comfortable.

As long as you're in Auto-Tune, search around until you find a quiet piece of ground. It's not a good idea to GB underneath powerlines or near a transformer, as they put out RFI. When you do find quiet piece of dirt, start pumping the coil up and down and LISTEN! If the sounds starts soft and gets louder as you approach the dirt, you're positive (the detector sees the dirt as a positive, or good, target). It will sound like you're approaching a target in pinpoint mode. If the sound hits hard and loud, then falls off in volume and pitch as you move away from the dirt, then you're negative. Whichever one you are, you want to adjust the GB knob until there's hardly any change in sound. This is when you have achieved a good GB. I've heard that to achieve a little extra sensitivity and depth, you want to GB slightly negative, with a little bit of sound on the up-stroke. This helps pick the positive targets out of the ground mineralization.

Another tip: The amount of mineralization present in the dirt doesn't determine which number gives you a good GB. The mineralization determines how big of an arc on the knob will give you a good GB. The higher the mineralization, the less amount of "play" on the knob before you notice a change in the GB'ing. In areas with low mineralization, you can have an arc that may encompass one or two numbers on the dial that are "sweet", and will give you a good GB. In highly mineralized dirt, the "sweet" spot is really small, and may be to small to accurately hit. You can get close, but not right on it. In that case, tune the GB slightly negative. An extreme example is the sandy beaches of Florida. There is NO mineralization. The "sweet" spot on the knob is so big, that it actually encompasses the entire range of motion on the GB knob. There has been debate for years about where to set the GB knob in that situation, 0, 5, or 10. They all work.

Once you've gotten a good GB for your hunting area, turn the Sensitivity down and start hunting. Tom D. has mentioned several times that a CZ reaches it maximum depth at 4 1/2. This is optimal in trashy areas with deep targets, as you have the ability to reach down there, with little interference from nearby trash targets at the same depth. Shallow trash, however, will still mask deeper targets.

HH from Allen in OK

 

[digging_solo]

Ok, things are really good here now. I figured it out, the manual should not say start out in the "10" sensitivity level. I ground balanced at "4" and it did really good. Started finding coins in a trashy area next to a old concession stand that I could never get much out of. This machine has to be killer with a small coil! I found only $2.43 in clad but considering this is nearly impossible to hunt with my normal detectors and that 6 of those were nickles, not bad for a hour hunting. I did find the bobbing method worked a lot better on balancing and noticed a big difference in the sensitivity by doing this. I think the key is to remember to turn the level up until you hear the slight buzz. I found I could have ran my sensitivity up to as high as "7" with this mode, but felt from reading here that 4 1/2 was good enough. I understand you can bring the level down without reground balancing...but not raise it. I have to add that I ran today in the "0" discrimination and was amazed at how easy it was to listen to. The tones are pleasant, so to speak, to listen to compared to other machines I use. And love the High tones, easy to hear. I am one that has read and watched the forum for some time and never felt the need to sign in, but I am glad I did. I just freaked because I knew it had to be something simple and only had 5 days to decide if it should go back or not. Guess what...this is a keeper for sure. I am looking forward to trying it out on some of my better sites that have yielded only a couple of v's and buffalo nickles in the past. Sure, I dug some trash, but I think this will be a enjoyable learning period. Enjoyment, isn't that what it is all about? Good Luck to all and thanks for the help.