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NEWBIE HERE IN NEED OF SOME GOOD HELP

L

LMTJL88

New member
Im very new to metal detecting,I just got my new AT Pro yesterday. I live in the rocky Mojave Desert on the edge of Apple Valley Ca.
So today after watching the instructional At Pro DVD twice I took it out to give it a go here in open desert a mile or so from my house in open desert.
After failing twice to ground balance I think I finally got it and it read 95 and went quite. Ive got the mode set to STD ZERO,Iron Disc set at 40 and the detector is going nuts picking up dozens of things going non stop. (did this in every mode) so I reduced sensitivity and it seemed to calm down dramatically. So Im searching around and I must have found 11 targets between 60 and 99 and each one the target depth indicator was jumping up and down being crazy. So pinpointing I dug 11 holes 12"x12" not knowing the correct depth because of its jumping,and I found nothing. I checked my dirt piles thoroughly and once most of the time i would dig so far down and run the detector back over the hole and the target would either move or disappear. I must have been out there for hours trying different settings and adjustments and I always had the same issue. Nothing found or it was going nuts every other step I took. Its gotta be user error? Am I doing something wrong? Does anyone have any advice,tips or answers?
 
Sounds like hot ground or hot rocks, You got to get the ground balance down . I( have an AT Gold its a little different, but it has to be ground balanced right also. and I think its you problem. The desert is very mineralized. Grubstake
 
Were you hunting around or very near power lines? I have never run into any emi issues like you describe, but that can be one cause for what you experienced. Did you try changing frequencies?

Then, check that your coil connection is seated properly and securely tightened. This frequently is the culprit.

If that doesn't work and you have no electrical sources nearby, you could have a bad coil.

Good luck, HH jim tn
 
Welcome! :clapping: Lots of people here to help you get started on the right path!

You are very new huh? how about you try taking some coins along with you and tossing them on the ground? Like you said, drop your sens setting a few bars...heck, I usually hunt three bars down from full sens with great results. Anyway, lets assume this is user error or hot ground and not a machine issue as we walk through this...if you can drop some coins on the ground in your yard and start working with the settings to get some stability...then you are going to be OK and we can work from there.:thumbup:
Mud
 
mudpuppy said:
Welcome! :clapping: Lots of people here to help you get started on the right path!

You are very new huh? how about you try taking some coins along with you and tossing them on the ground? Like you said, drop your sens setting a few bars...heck, I usually hunt three bars down from full sens with great results. Anyway, lets assume this is user error or hot ground and not a machine issue as we walk through this...if you can drop some coins on the ground in your yard and start working with the settings to get some stability...then you are going to be OK and we can work from there.:thumbup:
Mud
Click to expand...

:thumbup:
 
It sounds like you might be operating in standard mode with too much sensitivity cranked up. Use PRO mode and turn the ground balance down to half. Did you ground balance it?
 
I would say something does not sound right with your ground balance. That is very high number. You need to sure you are not balancing over some iron targets, you don't want any targets under the coil when you are ground balancing.
 
make sure you have coil wire wound correctly, and are you running with iron audio on ?
 
Let us know how things turn out for you and your machine. Make sure the coil wire connection to the control box is clean and tight. If you have a coil cover make sure there is nothing inside it. You could try turning every thing down then moving settings up until you have an idea which setting is causing you problems. I have a inline probe and have forgotten to switch back to the coil and start find thing all over turns out it was the change in my pocket. Do you wear shoes with steel in them?
 
I got some pretty tough pockets of mineralization here in Northern California, also. You can run into ferrous mineralization and run into salt mineralization down where you are. I personally would recommend using Pro mode Zero for ground balancing and Pro Mode Custom for hunting. Pro mode Custom retains the adjustments last used when you turn off the AT Pro. Set your hunting adjustments there. I use Pro Mode zero to ground balance. Iron Discrimination 0, Iron Audio off, Sensitivity at factory or no more than 1 from maximum. Use your Pro mode zero to find a spot clean from targets and ground balance. If you have a combination of salt and ferrous minerals you won't be able to determine it. I've hunted in areas where the ground VDI number has been 92, which is an indication of highly ferrous mineralization. If you are using a coil cover, make sure between the coil and cover is free of any water, dirt or debris that may be trapped. Also check for tightness at the cable connector to control box. Mine sometimes will get loose and I have to snug it up. Is EMI a problem where you tried to hunt? First line of defence is lower sensitivity. I don't know the specific situation you've encountered, I hope this has given an idea or two what to try. When you can consider the smaller 5x8 DD coil, it is the 2nd line of defense. It helps reduce ground reactivity noise. In many cases, a smaller coil (percentage-wise) will have slightly better performance in bad ground; yet, specific site conditions dictate. I wish you the best of success with the AT Pro, it is one fine machine. Happy hunting and good success on getting your difficuties solved.
 
Once you get it ground balanced automatically , then manually turn it down 4 or 5 points or so from there. That should eliminate some of the iron interference.
 
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