how to set threshold?

[Anonymous]

Can I hunt deeper while still nulling ever so often (50% of the time)?
I have tried hunting in auto and it seems way quieter and the threshold is oh so smooth.
I am trying to fine tune my sensitivity between stable and depth or am I mistaken. Is it stability that gives depth?
bing

 

[Anonymous]

Bing,
REGARDING THE NULLING ISSUE:
In my opinion there is no way that discriminating (that causes the nulling) will an increase in depth. The reason is that good targets may not pull the detector out of the null and you will miss them. If you use no discrimination then you will hear the <span style="background-color:#ffff00;">effects</span> of all targets (even though you may not hear them separately because of target averaging).
The advantage of discrimination is that you do not have to listen to all the sounds caused from junk.
REGARDING AUTO VS MANUAL:
Here is where you get a lot of different opinions. Some think that semi gives better depth under some conditions. Personally, I always hunt manual and adjust the sensitivity for stability
Hope this helps. HH,
Glenn

 

[Anonymous]

There's some places I hunt that are almost a constant null and it doesn't ever seem to affect my finds. I am definitely NOT a believer in AUTO. I have switched from manual to auto on several occasions to see what the Explorer would do... in auto the deep coins they would 'vanish' and not even give a peep once I switched to auto. Like everything with metal detecting that may or may not apply in your area. I know that auto sounds more pleasing but I can stand the chirps and pops for the sake of better depth. I like to run my Explorer on the *hot* side but doing tests in my coin garden prove to me that there is a point where deep coins start sounding 'crappy' too. It's a balancing act... <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=""> I have tried both manual and auto quite extensively and manual wins out by alot in my area. Unless the ground varies alot and you have to keep adjusting you sensitivity then you might want to use auto.
-Bill

 

[Anonymous]

I have tested setting my sensitivity manually to approximate the smooth thresold that auto gives me and the results are satisfactory.
When usually I would have my sens at 28 and stick there, I find that at my usual parks, I can still set it between 22 and 26. It is required to adjust every now and then to reduce too much nulling and the pitter patter of interference.
I was able to attain satisfactory depth with my X-8 coil. Recovered 3 wheaties at depths ranging from
5-8 inches and a merc at the test sites which to me is pretty good for that coil.
Results also replicated the surprising "popping up" of a find that is experienced in AUTO. There was no need to increase gain to 10. I was using 6 and the merc came in at the bottom of the depth gauge and still came in clear and whole.
I theorize that excessive nulling and interference will be detrimental to finds as good, deep and faint targets may be AVERAGED with the nulls and the interference.
If you arent willing to tune the EX every now and then, this isnt for you. Up next, I want to see the sens is using the WOT.
Rgds, bing

 

[Anonymous]

Around 10 inches deep. It registered 00-31, but repeatable each and every way. I took a chance knowing the the no.s said iron. Notable is that the tone was good and high but had an iron bump in the end. Like "bling..bump". Very interesting.
After a long recovery process, it was a nail.
btw, to most of you, it may be obvious where to set your sensitivity. I am only writing the experience as an exercise for myself and whomever it may benefit.
I am learning, from using the auto feature on the sov and the ex, what a decent threshold should be and find that using the EX is much more satisfying this way, as a personal choice.
Previously, I just waded through all the sounds to find targets and it seems it is not necessary.
rgds,
bing

 

[Anonymous]

Mayumi,
Today, I ran silent threshold (1 tick below the level you can still hear it) and IM wide open. I thought it worked pretty good.
I had earphones with the volume on the EX-XS at 1.
Gain was at 1. Yes, 1. Gives unbelievable depth resolution! You can lock on to a deep one and it still sounds good. The faint blips and plinks due to fast noise seem to fade away.
Audio 1. Just plain the only way to go in my book. Hit a quarter and you can circle it for hours, hearing nothing but good. Other objects seem to take on their own unique sound pattern. I'm still practicing on hearing the difference between pull tabs and rings. I'm digging a lot of good sounding pulltabs lately...
The nicest thing about this setup is that you hear EVERYthing, unless there's nothing, in which case you won't even have to listen to the background threshold tone! You probably won't dig the nail sound as it will be surrounded by iron sound usually. IM-16 eliminates the threshold nulling problem because there isn't anything to null on - period. It also prevents the null from clipping any audio responses because there's nothing to cause it to blank the sound. You don't have to run "fast" because you don't need to recover from any blanking.
Try it! Your mileage may vary. <img src="/metal/html/biggrin.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="">
HH - (Happy Howl-o-ween!)
Rhoderman

 

[Anonymous]

Great tips. It is amazing that gain can be set at 1 and you still hear the stuff.
I'm not in IM mode but am using DISC/SMART SCREEN wide open. Nothing blanked out. It should be similar to IM-16 except that I am even accepting all iron.
The nulling I talk about is when the threshold disappears. There is hardly any nulling when you set the sens just right as the deep iron/falsing does not give of a signal.
My threshold is so low that it virtually disappears when a car passes by. I think that is as low as I'll set as a matter of preference.
Happy Halloween too!
I like using Audio 1 too but reserve it for when targets are more seperated. I get confused in situations when 2 to 3 coins are in a 2 square foot area. Although I use AUDIO 1 as much as I can. On faint targets, I find myself turning audio 1 on to pinpoint and hear the tone better.
I cant believe that after 2 years, I am still able to tweak the EX. Compared to a video, the playability of amazing.
bing

 

[Anonymous]

If you don't know the sounds you can not run the detector hot, therefore, you will not see much of an advantage in manual over auto. The one thing that still amazes me with the explorer is I seem to blast through iron for small targets better than if I back off the sens. I don't think many other detectors can do the same.
I read in a post above (Bing I think) that if you are not willing to adjust an Explorer it may not be for you, well after a couple years of steady trial and error settings my explorer does not get a button pushed other than maybe power and noise cancel. My current settings work good enough that the only time I will ever change is if we see something on the market, even then maybe not.

 

[Anonymous]

Hello CC,
What I meant in my last post was that technique for sens adjustments I described above may not be for everyone, not the explorer itself <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=""> .
I have hunted just like you, using the same settings all the time and found a lot. However, living out west and having little time to find new sites, I find myself pounding a lot of dead horses. I really like the explorer since I am able to keep tweaking and tweaking and tweaking, and get just a little bit more performance from it and keep my sites producing. Fine tuning helps a lot. And if you find that you have tuned it to the max for your purposes, all the best to you!
rgds, bing

 

[Anonymous]

or I did. I have tried many times going back to beat sites with different coils, or a change in settings, and never have I found more targets than I do once I change back to my stock coil. I fully understand the principle of smaller coils but as of yet they haven't been proven to me over the stock.

 

[Anonymous]

"I fully understand the principle of smaller coils but as of yet they haven't been proven to me over the stock."
I have noticed that I find more gold with smaller coils on the explorer. When I look over my gold ring finds, I am certain that I found the thinnest gold rings with the smaller coils. My thinnest one is only about 2 grams and it came in 10-02 and found with the X5 less than 3 inches deep.
<span style="background-color:#ffff00;">I cant prove it though</span>. Just a thought. I would like to hear of anyone else's exprerience.
bing

 

[Anonymous]

I've had good luck using 5" excelerator coil in junk infested old school yards and old parks, the 8" Minelab coil works fine as well. I switch coils alot and the settings constantly tweaking. I have found very little of value with the stock coil in these junk filled areas it just gets confused in all the JUNK!
I absoulutely don't like the EXP2 on salt water beaches it is tooooooooo noisey if you use any SENs at all.
I use my Excalibur its easy to operate and does a fine job. All Minelabs are HEAVY so I switch from right to left arm abt every 15 minutes
randal