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Hey Critterhunter or anyone who knows a bit about the Sovereign's inner workings... a question:

J

jbow

Active member
Do you know if there is any way to adjust the AUTO sens to run a little hotter? Thinking of the way the E-TRAC has the AUTO+/- adjustment. I don't have any expectations that the Sov could have such an external adjustment pot or but I wonder it there is an internal adjustment pot or possible resistor change that could make AUTO SENS run a little less conservative. Even drilling a hole and adding a switch to run it the way it is or a little hotter would be a MOD I would be willing to do it it worked.

This surely is something that I would REALLY like to see on any future Sovereign design, they could keep it totally analog, just maybe a fine tuning AUOTO sens knob. That might really improve the Sovereign, a machine that can hardly be improved...

So, for those who know, or who might be able to take a looksee... is this something that could be done?

I think I will send an email to Nenad or someone at Minelab and ask them. Mine is out of warranty already so...

J
 
That's a good question. I'm not sure how it's set on the Sovereign. I know it's dynamic, meaning it constantly adjusts higher or lower to compensate for changing ground minerals and RF noise in the air. That would be a handy little mod.
 
the only 2 adjustable pots inside that i have seen/tweeked are the threshold and the target tones, i think the auto will be in the programming of the microchip as its constantly adjusting depending on the ground, bit out of my league.
 
I'm wondering if there is any soil or sand or any matter that can really handle MORE sensitivity than the Sovereign already puts out ?.....As it is , too much sensitivity is not beneficial to depth in mineralized ground .....Where is the ground that can handle higher Sensitivity than the Sovereign already puts out ? ....... It''s a good question, but I"m wondering where or why you need more Sensitivity ??.....Thanks, Jim
 
synthnut said:
I'm wondering if there is any soil or sand or any matter that can really handle MORE sensitivity than the Sovereign already puts out ?.....As it is , too much sensitivity is not beneficial to depth in mineralized ground .....Where is the ground that can handle higher Sensitivity than the Sovereign already puts out ? ....... It''s a good question, but I"m wondering where or why you need more Sensitivity ??.....Thanks, Jim
Click to expand...

try checking some deep targets that youve found in manual sens by switching to auto sens and you will see what they are talking about.
 
Neil ,
If Auto Sensitivity is not hot enough for you, what is to prevent you from switching to manual sensitivity if you think it will go deeper, or check a target ? .....Auto Sensitivity is an AVERAGE sensitivity ....It's a great feature , but can be changed to manual if you think the ground you are in warrants it .....

jbow,
The next evolution in machines is your E Trac .....You have Auto Sensitivity +1 +2 +3 as well as -1 -2. and -3 ...... I've run into this on my synthesizer forums ....If you build an analog synth with the same features that a digital synth has , it will be as big as a house !!!..... There is not enough real estate to house all these features on an analog machne, not to mention how much more circuitry has to go into a machine , raising the price .... I'm guessing that Minelab thought that they gave enough variatability with the manual sensitivity to augment the Auto Sensitivity ...... I can however understand wanting yet more features on the Sovereign as its a great machine ..... I'd like to see a fine tuning knob on the notch so it would be more useable for what I do .....
 
synthnut said:
Neil ,
If Auto Sensitivity is not hot enough for you, what is to prevent you from switching to manual sensitivity if you think it will go deeper, or check a target ? .....Auto Sensitivity is an AVERAGE sensitivity ....It's a great feature , but can be changed to manual if you think the ground you are in warrants it .....

jbow,
The next evolution in machines is your E Trac .....You have Auto Sensitivity +1 +2 +3 as well as -1 -2. and -3 ...... I've run into this on my synthesizer forums ....If you build an analog synth with the same features that a digital synth has , it will be as big as a house !!!..... There is not enough real estate to house all these features on an analog machne, not to mention how much more circuitry has to go into a machine , raising the price .... I'm guessing that Minelab thought that they gave enough variatability with the manual sensitivity to augment the Auto Sensitivity ...... I can however understand wanting yet more features on the Sovereign as its a great machine ..... I'd like to see a fine tuning knob on the notch so it would be more useable for what I do .....
Click to expand...

Jim I didnt know if you were following what they were saying, thus my reply to you. Myself I dont like the way the auto sens works on the sov and would rather run mininum sens than use auto sens to quite it down. I find the auto sens and notch both slow the sov down more and its already a slow detector.
 
n/t
 
Auto Sensitivity shouldn't be used in most cases unless you don't know how to use the detector or are in extremly bad ground where the mineral conditions constantly are changing. Manual sensitivity will allow you to get max depth without falsing. Just turn it until the detector falses and then back off a little. For my area here in CT., I usually can't turn it up to more than 1 oclock, as a clock dial would show. Bypassing it to full sensitivity would cause all kinds of falsing.
 
At some sites Auto will get more depth and run much more stable than the highest possible static manual setting. Typically Auto for me gets about the depth of somewhere between 2 and 3:30PM on the dial. However, I've been at sites were the lowest manual setting possible was deeper than Auto. I think stray RF noise and certain ground conditions can cause Auto to adjust much lower than even the lowest manual setting some times, but it's usually getting about the depth of around 2 to 3:30PM. At some sites for me any manual setting, even the lowest, will cause a lot of nulling due to fast changing ground content or random RF noise. In those situations I find Auto to get deeper and run smoother. Some of the sites I've found this to be true are dirt with packed heavy clay, or sites with a lot of rocks and perhaps boulders in the ground. A static manual setting won't adjust as you pass over these and thus cause a lot of false hits. Best way to tell which is better at a tough site is to calibrate manual for highest possible without too much nulling, then flip over to Auto and see if it gets the same depth on a buried test target. If it does and Auto is keeping the threshold much more stable then hunt in Auto. I've found silver coins at sites that weren't all that deep and yet I've missed with numerous machines over the years when I *KNOW* I've passed over that coin gridding countless times before. For that reason I think Auto can unmask coins when a static manual setting can't, probably due to a hot or cold spot in the soil right where the coin is that manual would either be too high or too low for. Dynamic sensitivity "tracking" much like ground tracking can be useful in certain spots.
 
I would think that making auto sens. hotter would defeat the purpose. It's meant to be conservative so you can hunt in the worst ground or EMI. I try to stay out of auto if possible. Manual sens. as low as 3:00 is deeper than auto in my ground. Turning iron mask off enables me to use manual sens. in most places that would require auto sens. with iron mask on. I surely don't need more sensitivity because at best I can only use half of it now. The Fisher CZ's were the same. They had a sensitivity adjustment between 1-10 and the recommended setting was 2 and most people couldn't go above 5 without the detector sounding like an orchestra from mars and singing out on every rust flake in the ground.
 
In a lot of cases I will start out with Auto Sens just to check the ground on a new site ....If it's still pretty noisy, I know better than to switch to manual .........If it's quiet , I will go to manual ...... I have ALWAYS used my Iron Mask "OFF " as just another filter to quiet things down a bit just as Crazyman does ./... I am a believer in Auto Sens in some cases, but not all .....It does have it's place though .....

Critter ,
Interesting comment that you made about Auto Sens maybe have lower sensitivity than the lowest setting in manual ......I 've found similar results , but I thought that maybe I was just glad to get away from all the noise in manual and that Auto Sens made such a difference after trying so hard manuallly ...... It would be interesting to know if Auto Sens actually had a wider range of Sens, than manual .......:shrug: .....Jim
 
I tried Auto and maunal as low as 4:00 and couldn't keep a threshold, really at all. Maybe a foot here and there... and I was creeping, really swing super slow... after digging several rusted nails that read 180 from 4 directions I gave up and went to the E-TRAC, it handled the ground much better.

I think the GT would have found anything that wwas under the coil but I hate having to dig those short pieces of nail.

This place is full of iron and well hunted. I tried several machines over several hours and the ET did the best job. I guess that is why I wonder if a way to run the auto sens cooler or hotter on the GT would also be a good thing... then again I was running the ET in Auto+3 with no problem with both the SEF13x10 and 8x6. I didn't try the Pro coil today.

J
 
Julien,
I'm convinced that there is somethiing in the way the E Trac is built , that it definitely discriminates iron better than the Sovereign ..... It almost doesn't matter where I have my bells and whistles on the E Trac set ....I've noticed that on a lot of sites where iron is a problem .... I'm not sure if it's the processor , or the coil , or ?????, but there is a definite difference ...Jim
 
Did you try turning Iron Mask OFF to keep the iron from giving you as much trouble? That's not really a fair comparison when using those coils. Did you try using an SEF coil like the 12x10 on the GT, or at least something smaller like an 8" to match the smaller coil? Doing either would for sure equal less nulling.

Here's the thing- The right coil for the right job. In that kind of ground either go SEF or to an 8" or smaller coil. You may not have to do that as much on the Etrac (heard people say that) but it's the normal routine for any other detector to match a site's needs.
 
No, I don't have an SEF for the GT. I used the 12x10 and 8x6 on the ET, the D2 on the V3 and the 10" elliptical on the Omega. I knew the 8" would null less but didn't feel like changing it. I will try it there next time. I was trying several machines and really they all worked about the same there, the ET was a little better and I didn't notice much difference between the 12x10 and the 8x6 other than depth. I switched to the 8x6 because the ground was really hard and I didn't feel like mining... The 12x10 SEF on the ET ran circles around the GT with the 10" Tornado, in this ground. Other places are not as bad.

J
 
I can't speak for the 10 x 12 SEF , but the one thing that surprises me about the the 12 x 15 SEF is that it's even more quiet than the stock Pro Coil , and its a bit bigger !!.... In the salt, it's espeicailly quiet using the same setup on the detector ......The fact that the E Trac is running a DD coil doesn't hurt either in minteralized soil / sand .....Jim
 
I wouldn't say the 12x15 is more quiet than the ET pro coil. I does give better coverage. It is stable on the wet salt sand for such a big coil. The "Pro Coil" and the SEF coils are made by the same company.
 
The SEF coils are made in Bulgaria I believe it is, are you sure thats where the minelab pro coils are made?
 
I think so too neil, the SEF coils are made by Detech and the 11" pro is a minelab coil, weather or not minelab subcontractred Detech to make them or not i don't know but doubt it
 
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