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Ground balancing
- Thread starter FFX2
- Start date
Forget about the CTX for a moment, is it suggested the 800 run in 'tracking' or not? Should we run it at '0' and not auto gb? I have, since day one, noise cancelled, found some clean ground and auto GB'ed, then activated 'tracking'! It is deep, fast, and does a very good job at picking stuff out of nails and rusty bolts. I do think I get far better results on 6-10" deep targets if I slow my sweep speed a bit with recovery at 6 and bias at 2. Is there some correlation between the auto GB, Tracking, and my 'feeling' I need to slow the sweep speed??
sgoss66
Well-known member
jas -- according to the manual, either running "0" as your GB number, or setting a FIXED ground balance (using the auto balance procedure) is recommended for most dirt. Tracking is recommended ONLY for very HOT soil, that changes rapidly over short distances. I can't be certain for the reason they recommend you DON'T run tracking unless the soil requires it, but that's what it says. Possibly, because with tracking GB running, you run the risk of "tracking out" small targets.
Steve
Steve
Steve is concise and correct.
Additionally, you run the risk of tracking out not just small targets...but the deeper targets as well.
(It's the very weak signals that tend to disappear with ground tracking on.)
This is pretty much true with all ground balancing metal detectors.
Additionally, you run the risk of tracking out not just small targets...but the deeper targets as well.
(It's the very weak signals that tend to disappear with ground tracking on.)
This is pretty much true with all ground balancing metal detectors.
For those who have auto ground balanced and/or used ground tracking, what were your numbers? I am curious, what numbers warrant the use of auto ground balance and/or ground tracking?
I have set it to manual 0 and checked it with auto ground balance and tracking, and noticed that my 800 runs noticeably quieter after auto ground balance and tracking. My number at home run between 50-60 range most of the time and I checked it at a park 40 miles away and it was running around 30.
It appears that the numbers 50-60 is quite a but higher than the 0 that is recommended. Here at home, with my CTX and with the NOX, it is all I can do to get a hit on a 7" quarter.
For those with the NOX 800, do an auto balance and see what your numbers are. Then post them on this thread. I am curious to what other people are getting. Maybe this will help determine what is best for people's individual locations.
I have set it to manual 0 and checked it with auto ground balance and tracking, and noticed that my 800 runs noticeably quieter after auto ground balance and tracking. My number at home run between 50-60 range most of the time and I checked it at a park 40 miles away and it was running around 30.
It appears that the numbers 50-60 is quite a but higher than the 0 that is recommended. Here at home, with my CTX and with the NOX, it is all I can do to get a hit on a 7" quarter.
For those with the NOX 800, do an auto balance and see what your numbers are. Then post them on this thread. I am curious to what other people are getting. Maybe this will help determine what is best for people's individual locations.
sgoss66
Well-known member
halfstep --
Mine vary, based on site. Most dirt here in Oklahoma is irony-red clay, and on those sites, balance numbers well into the 50s are common. On sites though where more "humusy" topsoil prevails, I get numbers in the teens.
I am not sure if there is a "number" per se, where if you are over that number, you "should" run at least a fixed GB, but I think one clue is that if you turn off all discrimination, and you are getting a lot of very low-tone, low ID (-9, -8, -7ish) mumbing/rumbling/noise, that is probably ground mineral that you are hearing -- and thus a clue that your ground balance could be adjusted to better account for ground signal contaminating the return signal being processed by the unit.
Steve
Mine vary, based on site. Most dirt here in Oklahoma is irony-red clay, and on those sites, balance numbers well into the 50s are common. On sites though where more "humusy" topsoil prevails, I get numbers in the teens.
I am not sure if there is a "number" per se, where if you are over that number, you "should" run at least a fixed GB, but I think one clue is that if you turn off all discrimination, and you are getting a lot of very low-tone, low ID (-9, -8, -7ish) mumbing/rumbling/noise, that is probably ground mineral that you are hearing -- and thus a clue that your ground balance could be adjusted to better account for ground signal contaminating the return signal being processed by the unit.
Steve
sgoss66 said:
Thanks for the reply. People talk of mineralized ground but who's to say if that is always true. I suspect the some soils may have something specific in it that the detector has a difficult time ignoring. 7" on a quarter is all I can get with the CTX and NOX so I suspect that either my ground is highly mineralized or something specific is making it difficult. I'm not a dirtologist or a detectorologist so I just speculate.
I just figured that the ground balance numbers may be a good indicator that the soil is resistant to detectors. I wonder how the ground balance number correlate to depth and falsing?
sgoss66
Well-known member
I agree, halfstep; I'm not all that knowledgeable with respect to soils, and their effect on detectors. The only thing I know to do is listen for what may be "ground mineral feedback" and then adjust ground balance to compensate for it.
What I do know is that "red dirt," as we have here, and in other parts of the country, is "red" due to iron oxides. And the effect, in general, on a single freq. unit, is to reduce "effective" depth, in disc. modes, because the soil iron content is so dominant in the return signal, that it "biases" target return signals (especially on deeper targets, where the target return signal is weak) toward an "iron" ID. In my dirt, the average single freq. VLF unit is incapable of IDing a non-ferrous target as anything but "iron" beyond say 6" to 7" in depth. If you switch to "all-metal mode," you can pick up the target MUCH deeper -- like TWICE as deep at times, down to say 12" to 14", if using a powerful unit like an F75, for instance. But, the machine assigns largely "iron ID" to all targets beyond that 6" to 7"/8" range.
Minelab multi-freq units do better; they are capable of giving fairly accurate ID to deeper depth, and thus they "work best" in my irony dirt. However, I still notice a "loss in depth" here in my dirt, as compared to the depths other FBS users report in areas with "milder soil" such as a beach, or the fertile topsoil in the Midwest/Ohio Valley.
Steve
What I do know is that "red dirt," as we have here, and in other parts of the country, is "red" due to iron oxides. And the effect, in general, on a single freq. unit, is to reduce "effective" depth, in disc. modes, because the soil iron content is so dominant in the return signal, that it "biases" target return signals (especially on deeper targets, where the target return signal is weak) toward an "iron" ID. In my dirt, the average single freq. VLF unit is incapable of IDing a non-ferrous target as anything but "iron" beyond say 6" to 7" in depth. If you switch to "all-metal mode," you can pick up the target MUCH deeper -- like TWICE as deep at times, down to say 12" to 14", if using a powerful unit like an F75, for instance. But, the machine assigns largely "iron ID" to all targets beyond that 6" to 7"/8" range.
Minelab multi-freq units do better; they are capable of giving fairly accurate ID to deeper depth, and thus they "work best" in my irony dirt. However, I still notice a "loss in depth" here in my dirt, as compared to the depths other FBS users report in areas with "milder soil" such as a beach, or the fertile topsoil in the Midwest/Ohio Valley.
Steve