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One Way to hunt you might like to give a shot.

A

Anonymous

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I am not suggesting to anyone to change the setting on their detector or go to a different way of detecting! If however you enjoy trying something different then you might think of this. Let me give an explanation as to why this is one of the ways I like to use the Explorer.
We all know the horizontal axis of the display is ferrous to the left and nonferrous to the right while the vertical axis is conductivity. With the IM set to
 
Here are a couple of nice features to this method. We know that coins have a nice sound that we can hear "most of the time". If we add visual to the hearing then we have two senses instead of just tones. If you sweep the coil from left to right and you think you hear a difference in the tone you can watch the digital display to aid your hearing. As an example a piece of trash metal I hit this afternoon would read 3.25 in one direction and 5.12 in the other. It was hard to hear the tone differences at my age but I could see as I looked at the digital numbers and changed directions of sweep that the tones were indeed changing.
It is also very simple to increase or decrease the iron mask setting depending on preferences. I can use this method in heavy trash and very clean ground simply by changing the IM setting. I also cut down the number of tones if I start to suffer from overload from too many tones by changing iron mask.
Hear is someting else that is nice. On a deep Indian head cent insread of a jumping hit that is high and high I see a jumping hit that is low tone to the top left of the display and a high tone to the upper right of the display. I can hunt and only look at the display if I hear a jumping tone that is high low or low high and consistant.
This simply change to the tones is much more comfortable to me in that I only mostly focus on tones and use digital to help ID the tones I am interested in. None of this is 100% but is a nice method of hunting for me.
HH, Cody
 
Cody,
I'm guessing about half of more experienced Explorer users hunt like I do, Open screen/IM-16. I do usually have bottle caps blacked off. If you hunt this way it is pretty much mandatory that you use FERROUS. Otherwise all the iron hits will sound high like good targets.
I'm always amazed at how much iron trash is in the ground, there have only been a few times that I found sites where the machine isn't constantly sounding off on iron, one was with Rick(ND) at an old baseball field that must have never been built on.
Anyways, long story short at most sites you will be in almost constant null if you have any Iron mask on at all, unless you turn the sensitivity way down. It seems that the explorer takes longer to recover from a null than it does from a tone and this allows you to hear more.
Another benefit is that nickels and other lower conductivity targets that hit more to the right of the screen will now give a higher tone and are more likely to catch your attention.
Chris
 
I think most long time users are going to recognize this as a very effective method and one they use. There is nothing at all new about this but one that hundreds of us have come to one way or the other.
I decided to take a change of direction from the more technical post and get into use and finds. I am getting more into relic hunting and have access to a lot of private land that has some very interesting sites. The method posted is the best I know of for both coins and relics and results in maximum good finds for me.
HH, Cody
 
Ferrous (with the iron mask set to -16) is the only mode I use for beach hunting.
In general, hunting in the ferrous mode gives much better tone seperation than hunting in the conductive mode. I think that this is especially true for coins.
CAUTION ABOUT USING THE FERROUS MODE AFTER BECOMING EXPERIENCED USING THE CONDUCTIVE
#1 One must learn a new set of tones and train you ears and mind to the new tones. The reason is that you will get a significantly different tones for coins in the ferrous mode than you have become accustomed to when using the conductive mode. This is true even for shallow coins.
#2 Because of the mineralization of the ground and iron trash, one almost never finds a deeper coin hitting (on the screen) where it does in the air tests. Almost all of my coin finds, deeper than about 5", hit to the left of center on the screen. One must be very careful about neglecting targets that hit on the left side of the screen (and with a much lower tone) than experienced in the conductive mode.
HH,
Glenn
 
I think Cody said he used digital and not the smart screen, so unless you were using th smart screen, you wouldn't know what part of the screen they were on, you would just have the numbers. Which should give you a pretty good idea. This is more of a question, than a statment, as I'm new, on the explorer. I know a nickle I have in my small test garden at about 9 or 10 inches doesn't lock on the numbers even, as they change each time I go over it. I think that is to be expected though at that depth.
 
I wondered from the moment I saw how the display, conductivity and ferrous was indicated and tones as to the value of conductivity for tones. However, that seems to be how most people use the detector and might be to keep in line with how other detectors use tones.
A nickle and gold ring are the most problems right off the top of my head to ID. That has been true since the first tube type detectors I used. If you look up the tables for metals you find that nickle is much less stable as far as relative conductivity is concerned and decays in the soil. It is too bad that a gold ring hits just about right to be confused with tabs and foil depending on the shape and size of the ring. Nickles also fall in that area where we like to reject trash so makes it an even greater problem
Glenn, I noticed the frequency question raised again on the other forum. You know that question will never die or will how deep and discrimination. I feel like our email communication kind of laid that to rest in my mind but then find that Kellyco has PR that really promotes the frequency aspects of the "new" technology.
Have a good one,
Cody
 
Cody,
I think that the concept of frequency has gained a strong foothold, because it is relatively easy to think in terms of how various targets will respond to any given frequency.
Larger/more conductive targets respond better to higher frequencies. Smaller/less conductive targets respond better to lower frequencies. Therefore, if the detector uses more than one frequency, then it can more effectively cover a greater range of targets than using a single frequency. In fact, using even more frequencies can better cover a wider range of targets than just two frequencies.
The Explorer operates in the time domain (both in the transmitted signal and the analysis of the received signal) and uses a series of square wave cycles with each cycle having a different period than the preceding cycle. This stimulus excites the targets with a wide range of frequency components (all at the same time). I believe it is for this reason that Minelab advertizes the fact that they use broadband of frequencies in their detectors.
HH,
Glenn
 
I think that it helps to recognize that the Explorer computes both the conductivity and ferrousity of the target. There is a number associated with conductivity and number associated with the ferrousity of the target. The next step is to inform the user of those numbers that have been computed.
The detector can give you both numbers at the same time, but there are two different ways to do that. They can give you that information in number form (the digital screen) or in graphical form (the graphical or smart screen). Either way you are getting the same numbers.
In addition to giving the user the numbers on the display, it also gives information by tone. But, when the tone is given, it can only give one of the numbers at a time. The user has the option to get a tone that represents either the ferrous number or the conductivity number.
I hope this helps,
Glenn
 
Yes, as you know this is correct. I use the digital screen simply becasue it is quick and easy to see the digits and having spent a lot of time in digital electronics I relate well to this presentation. As you know the digital numbers reperesent the position of the crosshairs. Which combination of screen or tones to use is another one of those preferences that we make based on what we like.
I am searching the old road from Fort Gibson Oklahoma to Fort Smith Arkansas and find relics and coins. The method I posted works very nice and leaves the selection of target to dig or not up to me with no rejection by the circuits. I have always liked to have a lot of data from a detector and then use my own senses to select targets. I think that comes from the old ealy tube and transistor type detector that had no discrimination. I alwasy thought I would be satisfied to just be able to kill iron and I can do that if I want.
HH, Cody
 
'Time Delay DOME Pulsing' v Frequency Domain which is Frequency Specific.
 
Glenn, I agree and would only add a couple of comments. The first detectors were driven by a sign wave and were single frequency. Although the harmonics were there they served no purpose and were filtered out if anything. Manufactures and book explained the value of higher frequencies and played around with different ones. The VLF introduced very low frequency and ground balance, which was a great technology leap, and there started to be more interest in the operating frequency by users. Multiple frequency really got things jumping so here we are.
The concept of frequencies is further complicated as it has become common knowledge that the Minelab process was purchased in some kind of deal with Whites and the DFX was born. On the coil of the DFX it has "harmonic" and they have a Correlate and also Best Data. Frequency is major PR by several manufactures and if you go to Kellyco they make a great deal about frequency.
We the users have become frequency oriented, as most of us don't use a PI so have little concept of pulse induction and the time domain.
When I first looked at the patents for the Explorer I thought I had the wrong ones. It took a little reading to realize what I was reading and thought about it for a while. Frankly, I thought it was easier to talk about the operation from a frequency point of view where most users are concerned. However, when it comes to engineers and some technicians it is as you say a square peg in a round hole.
I have reached the point where I have little interest in discussions the technical aspects of any detector on a forum. There is as you know too much confusion and it only appeals to a very small number of users. Electronics can be as dry as bathing in popcorn unless one is really into that which most user are not so I don't blame people for having little interest.
You then have people that have heard an electronic term or two or changed out black boxes for some organization so throw the terms around not understanding that anyone with any serious training or education in the field knows how incorrect the comments are. We fall into thinking we know and that is about it.
Bring up depth, discrimination, halo, soil minerals, and which detector is best and the fight is going to start. Frankly, I don't care which detector is best nor have any interest in beating a dead horse.
My guess is a good 90% or more people that use the forum just want to know how to set their detector up and find soon good stuff.
<img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol">
HH, Cody
 
Greg,
I do not understand the terminology <span style="background-color:#ffff00;">'Time Delay DOME Pulsing' </span>. Is "DOME" an acronym for something? How does the term "Time Delay" fit into the discussion?
I think it safe to say that "all signals have a frequency spectrum associated with it". It is just a matter of whether the analysis is done in the frequency domain or the time domain.
HH,
Glenn
 
You'll have to ask the engineers... Its a bit too technical at this point...
Basically, the Minelab Transmits its frequencies into the ground similar to a PI. White's, Fisher, Garrett and Tesoro uses Motion Compensation Filters.
For those that really want to get into the technical stuff, there are several good books on the subject... Andy Sabish has a very good book, and one coming out on the Quattro. Garrett puts out Modern Metal Detectors. Mark Rowan and Bill Lahr, White's Engineers, put out a booklet on 'How Metal Detectors Work'.
 
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