ToddB64
Active member
Hi All ! 
When I first bought my Tesoro "Bandido II µMax" metal detector, I read the manual thoroughly several times and to me it seemed voluminous and some of the material poorly arranged. As an example, as stated on page 6-4 of Robert H. Sickler's book DETECTORIST, First Edition Printing, July 1993 that I highly recommend, "The most important and often overlooked first step in manual ground balancing is locating an area of ground free of metal and highly nonconductive sources such as "hot rocks" and black sand deposits.", and he goes on to explain in detail how to setup and find a clean area and then Ground Balance your detector.
Well, being an imperative first step, it should be explicitly covered at the very beginning of all Ground Balancing instructions for metal detectors with a manual GB control, whether a digital button, soft-touch pad, or dial knob as employed on the analog Bandido II µMax.
Unfortunately the first and only mention of Ground Balancing over a clean area in the Bandido II µMax manual is on page 9 of 16 where it simply says "Second, make sure you are Ground balancing in a clean area and not lowering the searchcoil down over a piece of metal.". That seems like a skimpy offering for an imperative instruction and lacks explicit detail. I suppose there are times when the writers and editors of instruction manuals can opt to rely on readers using their intuitive powers to understand instructions, but I'm sorry IMHO, that instance wasn't one of them.
Another source of help I received was from a Find's Treasure Forums member, Randy Albin (Username: Hombre), who had mastered his Bandido II µMax at the time and kindly offered me his advice. I also received much help from another of our members, the indomitable Monte V. Berry, who was long-suffering with me giving advice over a period of years when I needed help and was bombarding him with questions.
I just wanted to help any folks out there having difficulty understanding their Bandido II µMax operation, by relating my own experience and sources of help.
My sincere thanks to all three of these fine gentlemen.
ToddB64
When I first bought my Tesoro "Bandido II µMax" metal detector, I read the manual thoroughly several times and to me it seemed voluminous and some of the material poorly arranged. As an example, as stated on page 6-4 of Robert H. Sickler's book DETECTORIST, First Edition Printing, July 1993 that I highly recommend, "The most important and often overlooked first step in manual ground balancing is locating an area of ground free of metal and highly nonconductive sources such as "hot rocks" and black sand deposits.", and he goes on to explain in detail how to setup and find a clean area and then Ground Balance your detector.
Well, being an imperative first step, it should be explicitly covered at the very beginning of all Ground Balancing instructions for metal detectors with a manual GB control, whether a digital button, soft-touch pad, or dial knob as employed on the analog Bandido II µMax.
Unfortunately the first and only mention of Ground Balancing over a clean area in the Bandido II µMax manual is on page 9 of 16 where it simply says "Second, make sure you are Ground balancing in a clean area and not lowering the searchcoil down over a piece of metal.". That seems like a skimpy offering for an imperative instruction and lacks explicit detail. I suppose there are times when the writers and editors of instruction manuals can opt to rely on readers using their intuitive powers to understand instructions, but I'm sorry IMHO, that instance wasn't one of them.
Another source of help I received was from a Find's Treasure Forums member, Randy Albin (Username: Hombre), who had mastered his Bandido II µMax at the time and kindly offered me his advice. I also received much help from another of our members, the indomitable Monte V. Berry, who was long-suffering with me giving advice over a period of years when I needed help and was bombarding him with questions.
I just wanted to help any folks out there having difficulty understanding their Bandido II µMax operation, by relating my own experience and sources of help.
My sincere thanks to all three of these fine gentlemen.
ToddB64
it's a nice change from the way of detecting with the digital machines.
