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Manual vs. semi-auto sensitivity

A

Anonymous

Guest
Hi,
I have owned my XS for about a year now and have experimented with about everything except manual sensitivity. I did try manual last night in a fairly trashy area that I have hunted many times and pulled out two pieces of silver. There seemed to be much more falsing and generally eratic behavior. Is this normal in manual or should I be compensating with other adjustments? Your input is appreciated.
Paul
 
thats normal with the sense up.Just lower a bit at a time till you can tolerate it.I run IM -16 with sense 28-32 in the woods,pretty clean areas then around the cellerholes down to 28 manual or as much as I can get because even the brush will set it off(false)
 
Hey Paul,
I'm a relative newbie too: Played a little with auto/man last fall, been reading all the posts on the subject over the winter and finally the ground thawed enough to play some more this last week.
In manual I ran the sensitivity up until the machine became unstable and very chirpy, then ran it down a couple of notches until the hits were stable and repeatable. If I switched to auto I would lose many of these signals. I've found that for any given sensitivity I get many more hits in manual than auto.
However, many of the faint signals that I only got in manual mode turned out to be hot rocks. Some of the signals showed up on the smart screen in the far upper right corner (like big silver) and sounded good, repeatable from any angle, but turned out to be granite rocks. With the rocks out of the hole I could occasionally get a hit on the first sweep in auto mode, but not after unless I moved away from the rock for awhile.
I'm wondering if the ground canceling/tracking circuitry needs to change the sensitivity in order to work properly, and in manual this cannot happen. Sometimes I think I'm getting more iron falsing in auto, that the explorer is constantly trying to raise sensitivity in auto and will sometimes overshoot when a target is hit. Some people say they do a rapid wiggle over an iffy target to determine whether to dig or not, suspect this may be related.
I've been reading up on detector technology on some of the MDing and patent sites, trying to understand the theory and how it applies to the explorer. Anybody out there from Minelab or elsewhere able to explain how the circuitry works?
It's a powerful and complicated machine. Everytime I think I have it down pat I'll dig something that suprises me and have to rethink technique. Guess that's half the fun.
Any of you guys finding the deep silver or other try switching back from auto to manual on any of the stuff you dig?
Enjoying the info and hints everyone is posting.
 
Hi Paul(IA),
I started on manual sensitivity set at about 16 up to 28 and as low as 5 with my stock 10 1/2 inch coil.
This was both in an IRON MASK, set at about 15 or when using SMARTFIND I would I would discrim. only a very small portion if none out. my SOUNDS set to FERROUS and AUDIO to 1 or 2
In both cases if I was searching in a trashy site I would set my GAIN at about 5 and or on the beach at 10. I tend to bring the THRESHOLD to about 6 which should be 1 increment into a silent background, but keeping a check to ensure that there is a THRESHOLD by "glancing" or switching up to THRESHOLD 7 to ensure that I have a THRESHOLD but not to hear it(my Preference). The GAIN set up higher seems to cause more false and erratic behavior. I must add that you may want to manually select the NOISE location or NOISE CANCEL
at each change. If that does not help then.
If you can pair up with someone else who has another Explorer , this may also possibly help you to determine whether your detector is functioning properly. It would not be the first time that ther has been a "dicky" detector in amongst us Explorer owners pretty sure that covers it , but by all means if you think I may have missed the mark, please let me know.
have A GOOD ONE.
Hardnose
 
Hello Paul,
I'm not a fan to the Manual setting. There are a couple of hunters in my area that do use Manual and one other person including myself use the Auto. I believe that when the unit is used in a high level of Manual mode, the unit will not always get the depth that it claims. I've noticed that during the swing, In Manual, the unit's threshold will disappear for long periods and return when the unit swing has slowed down or stopped. During this silence, I've noticed from my testing that the depth is not consistent through out the swing. "Meaning" That during the silent swing, the coil may get maximum depth and then with the snap of a finger the coil is getting far less depth.
Try this test? Next time you are out in the field. Use the unit in auto. Once you detect a very faint target that sounds good and shows promising on the meter. You'll notice that the threshold will remain smooth during the back and forth swing over the target. Now, go to Manual and start to swing back and forth over the target. Sure! It may sound a hair stronger, But! Notice how the threshold has disappeared and the response may even be getting weaker in that Manual mode "meaning it's losing depth". Now, switch back to Auto and you'll notice that it still sounds strong and you'll have the threshold. In Auto, you are getting the same depth through out the swing.
My deepest coin that I have recovered is 8 3/4 inches in depth. It's not uncommon for my Explorer in auto to recover coins near or over 8 inches of depth. I use the Periscope Probe. There's no mistake on the depth using the Periscope. You probe down until you hit the coin, then remove the probe shaft and measure the tip of the shaft to where you finger and thumb are holding the shaft. It's amazing hold deep the Explorer can detect a coin.
I also want to add that the other person in my area "Ted" who uses Auto, the two of us always seem to out detect and find more silver coins than the two that use Manual. The other two have been using the Explorer for almost two years each. While Ted has been using the Explorer for one year and I've only been using the Explorer almost three months. Also, You lose depth if you start to notch out trash.
Sorry to have rambled on. Stick with Auto <IMG SRC="/forums/images/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT=":)">
HH, Paul (Ca)
 
Paul
I think it depends on the ground you are searching. I believe that manual will get more depth, but is more erratic. Over the last couple years I have tested this many times, and have had a number of targets at the edge of detection range that I can only pick up in manual.
However, in really bad soil, or in rapidly changing ground auto can better. I think this is because being on the wrong "channel" in manual can reduce depth more than being in auto.
Another interesting experiment is to see what sensitivity you need to set at in manual in order to get the same threshold you get in auto. Although, I'm sure this isn't perfect, I found that it can be quite a bit lower than I want to run at. However, I'm willing to put up w/ a bit of falsing to get an extra inch or 2.
Jim in MN
 
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