Mike Hillis
Well-known member
I didn
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How to manually ground balance the V3
- Thread starter Mike Hillis
- Start date
Mike Hillis
Well-known member
Rob,
The manual is a good place to start from but it is pretty rudimentry and contains no instructions for manually ground balancing the V3.
So what you are reading are NEW instructions that are not contained in the manual.
When you manual ground balance, you are not using the tracking function. You have to turn the tracking function off. The only way to do that is to enter into the LockTrac mode of operation. That turns tracking off.
With ground tracking turned off, your reference tone is now your threshold tone. If you are set too positive, the threshold tone will increase in volume as you approach the ground. If you are set to negative your threshold tone will go quiet or silent as you approach the ground.
WIth Offset selected, use the down arrow if you are too positive, use the up arrow if you are too negative. It only takes seconds to get a perfect threshold tone on both the up and down strokes using the offset control.
Then test it in pinpoint and see if you like where you are. I find that I'm always just a tiny bit positive and I'm ok with that.
HH
Mike
The manual is a good place to start from but it is pretty rudimentry and contains no instructions for manually ground balancing the V3.
So what you are reading are NEW instructions that are not contained in the manual.
When you manual ground balance, you are not using the tracking function. You have to turn the tracking function off. The only way to do that is to enter into the LockTrac mode of operation. That turns tracking off.
With ground tracking turned off, your reference tone is now your threshold tone. If you are set too positive, the threshold tone will increase in volume as you approach the ground. If you are set to negative your threshold tone will go quiet or silent as you approach the ground.
WIth Offset selected, use the down arrow if you are too positive, use the up arrow if you are too negative. It only takes seconds to get a perfect threshold tone on both the up and down strokes using the offset control.
Then test it in pinpoint and see if you like where you are. I find that I'm always just a tiny bit positive and I'm ok with that.
HH
Mike
Larry (IL)
Well-known member
I think manual offset adjustment or manual ground balance overrides the Lock Trac Rob.
tony (Orlando FL)
New member
Hi Mike,
Glad the manual GB is working out for you. By no means is this method new, It is the very same method I have used in the Spectrum, XLT and DFX.
I intentionally set the GB one # positive so I can hear the current ever so slight ground balance setting.
Tony
Glad the manual GB is working out for you. By no means is this method new, It is the very same method I have used in the Spectrum, XLT and DFX.
I intentionally set the GB one # positive so I can hear the current ever so slight ground balance setting.
Tony
Will it never end? 
Hi all, I tried to ground balance like this but I must be missing something. In live controls I go to ground tracking then locktrac then offset. Then I guess I do not know what to do next. when you go to ground tracking in live controls are you hitting enter or zoom to get to loctrac and offset? Thank you guys.
tony (Orlando FL)
New member
pointer80
What we are doing here is manually ground balancing the V3 with a technique similar to the older units that had a dial for manual ground balance.
In most cases, using the GB procedure in the manual should work very well, in autotrac or tracloc.
Using the older styled GB control, we would find a clear spot of ground and pull the Pinpoint button and lower the coil to the ground from about waist high. If the threshold become louder as the coil approched the ground, we would consider this TOO POSITIVE and turn the control to the negative side usually to the left and then release and pull the trigger or push the button and lower the coil again and listen to the threshold. If the threshold still increased we would turn the control a little more to the negative side in hopes of getting the threshold to be only slightly positive as the coil approached the ground. This was manual GB as we knew it years ago.
IF you wanted to take control and be responsible for your OWN GB settings, you can accomplish this as Mike indicated in his post above.
What we are doing is this....
in the tracking live control window we are setting the tracking to LOCTRAC and then move the cursor to the OFFSET column.
Now, raise the coil off the ground (while over an area with no metal) and pull the pinpoint trigger and keep it held and lower the coil to the ground while listening to the threshold. (Hopefully your V3 is set to hear the threshold.)
Now you make an observation on what your heard. Did the threshold increase? Decrease or stay the same?
Optimum GB is when the threshold does not change much as you lower or raise the coil to the ground while continuously holding the PINPOINT BUTTON..
IF the threhold stayed about the same, you are most likely set to a near perfect GB.
IF the threshold went quiet on you, this means the V is currently set too negative and you need to raise the offset #s while bobbing the coil in hopes of achieving no change in tone.
If the threshold increased, the V is set too positive and needs to be set in the other direction towards a negative #.
This can all be done while holding the pinpoint and pressing the appropriate up or down offset button till you achieve the GB of your choice.
As you can see, some folks will think this is too cumbersome and simply go back to the method explained in the manual.
Others, who want and understand what true manual GB is and what it can accomplish will use this method.
Both methods, meaning the method in the owners manual and THIS method work, its simply a choice is all.
Hope I got this written clearly for all to follow along.
Tony
What we are doing here is manually ground balancing the V3 with a technique similar to the older units that had a dial for manual ground balance.
In most cases, using the GB procedure in the manual should work very well, in autotrac or tracloc.
Using the older styled GB control, we would find a clear spot of ground and pull the Pinpoint button and lower the coil to the ground from about waist high. If the threshold become louder as the coil approched the ground, we would consider this TOO POSITIVE and turn the control to the negative side usually to the left and then release and pull the trigger or push the button and lower the coil again and listen to the threshold. If the threshold still increased we would turn the control a little more to the negative side in hopes of getting the threshold to be only slightly positive as the coil approached the ground. This was manual GB as we knew it years ago.
IF you wanted to take control and be responsible for your OWN GB settings, you can accomplish this as Mike indicated in his post above.
What we are doing is this....
in the tracking live control window we are setting the tracking to LOCTRAC and then move the cursor to the OFFSET column.
Now, raise the coil off the ground (while over an area with no metal) and pull the pinpoint trigger and keep it held and lower the coil to the ground while listening to the threshold. (Hopefully your V3 is set to hear the threshold.)
Now you make an observation on what your heard. Did the threshold increase? Decrease or stay the same?
Optimum GB is when the threshold does not change much as you lower or raise the coil to the ground while continuously holding the PINPOINT BUTTON..
IF the threhold stayed about the same, you are most likely set to a near perfect GB.
IF the threshold went quiet on you, this means the V is currently set too negative and you need to raise the offset #s while bobbing the coil in hopes of achieving no change in tone.
If the threshold increased, the V is set too positive and needs to be set in the other direction towards a negative #.
This can all be done while holding the pinpoint and pressing the appropriate up or down offset button till you achieve the GB of your choice.
As you can see, some folks will think this is too cumbersome and simply go back to the method explained in the manual.
Others, who want and understand what true manual GB is and what it can accomplish will use this method.
Both methods, meaning the method in the owners manual and THIS method work, its simply a choice is all.
Hope I got this written clearly for all to follow along.
Tony
tony (Orlando FL)
New member
yazoo-
IF the ground isnt changing at all, the offset surely isnt supposed to change, therefor my hunch is, the V is locked solid at its newly assigned offset and will stay that way.
I am not 100% sure that the GB actually changes when you are in Loctrac and balanced per the procedure in the owners manual.
The only variable 'should be' the ground we are tecting over.
I tend to set my GB a hair positive and do check it every once in a while, yet rarely ever change it. Out soil here in Fl , our ground is like potting soil for the most part, no detectable minerals to speak of.
I guess my answer ultimately is, 'I DONT KNOW'
IF the ground isnt changing at all, the offset surely isnt supposed to change, therefor my hunch is, the V is locked solid at its newly assigned offset and will stay that way.
I am not 100% sure that the GB actually changes when you are in Loctrac and balanced per the procedure in the owners manual.
The only variable 'should be' the ground we are tecting over.
I tend to set my GB a hair positive and do check it every once in a while, yet rarely ever change it. Out soil here in Fl , our ground is like potting soil for the most part, no detectable minerals to speak of.
I guess my answer ultimately is, 'I DONT KNOW'
Hey Tony in Orlando, pointer80 here. I tried the manual ground balance and the detector did not change in sound at all when I lowered it to the ground so I started adjusting the offset toward the positive side to see what would happen and when it got up in the positive numbers then the threshold started to sing and get louder. When I lowered it back toward zero it calmed down and was quiet(almost silent). I believe here in northern michigan we have pretty good soil as far as low mineralazation. Does those results make sense to you or am I still missing something? Thanks pointer80.
tony (Orlando FL)
New member
Hey pointer80-
sounds like you got the hang of it alright and also seems like your tecting area is nice and mild.
While we are on this topic, I might add that 'some' detectors have a preset GB value that never changes, it is simply preset at the factory and does a good job in most or at least many areas.
Knowing what your ground balances at by using the offset value, we could use the V as a preset ground balanced unit too, if we wanted to. If your ground tends to always balances out at say a +2 you could leave it this way and simply start detecting BUT, why would we want to, right? Its simple enough to GB the V several different ways and ne assured it is as close as possible to perfect.
Even though my tecting grounds also GB at approx a +2, right after a rain or while in a drought condition, the GB surely changes.
Glad you got a handle on what we were disussing.
HH
Tony
sounds like you got the hang of it alright and also seems like your tecting area is nice and mild.
While we are on this topic, I might add that 'some' detectors have a preset GB value that never changes, it is simply preset at the factory and does a good job in most or at least many areas.
Knowing what your ground balances at by using the offset value, we could use the V as a preset ground balanced unit too, if we wanted to. If your ground tends to always balances out at say a +2 you could leave it this way and simply start detecting BUT, why would we want to, right? Its simple enough to GB the V several different ways and ne assured it is as close as possible to perfect.
Even though my tecting grounds also GB at approx a +2, right after a rain or while in a drought condition, the GB surely changes.
Glad you got a handle on what we were disussing.
HH
Tony