Questions and might be long

[ikon]

hey guys,
got up early and took the GT out along with a pencil and paper. it rained last night so i didnt want to dig so i took notes.
i set the meter with a dime at 170. i was getting 166 to 167 with a penny and 137 on a nickle using the digisearch meter which i found was locking in real good and consistant so i was happy with that.i had disc. set all the way cc wise, left notch cc, volume all the way up, disc. switchdown on iron mask,threshold switch on, sens. was in auto,fix position on the track, fix pinpoint switch, noise on 2 band and threshold barely audible. kind of wished i brought a digging tool because i was get a few readings in the 150 to 154 range and wish i knew what they were. next time. also i found a couple pull tabs that i was getting 143 to 144 with.
now some questions. when i'd be moving along and not getting hits the meter would read - 478 to - 479 what is that telling me? now as soon as i came on a coin the detector would lock on it being either a dime, penny or nickle then once i passed it the meter would go back to - 478 or 479 till i hit another target.
as far as the track, fix, pinpoint switch goes. what is the track mode? i kept it in fix mode but was wondering about that. pinpoint i feel i can do with just the fix mode cause i know these double D coils because of my explorer and its works almost like a no motion if your quick.thats about all the questions i got for now.
i thought the GT worked excellent. very smooth and also i was using the 8" minelab coil. it was nice to see when i hit a target the meter locked on solid. i liked the straight shaft , the response was fast.
i know this GT is going to be alot of fun and very easy to use. next week if i get out early i'll do some serious digging then.i think taking a note book was definitly a good move.

stan pa.

 

[Art (NWOH)]

Not sure quite what you're doing here.

Did you decide to calibrate to 170 because the book said so? Most do 180 calibration.

Some of your switch settings confuse me. Also your notch setting.

Think you need to read your book again in respect to how the controls work.

The large negative number displayed indicates iron. You must have a lot in the dirt to keep getting this after coin hits. You must be getting a lot of nulling in the threshold too unless you are running silent search.

HH

 

[Art (NWOH)]

Figured out what you were doing with your disc and notch controls. Had to read that a couple more times.

HH

 

[ikon]

awwwww man thats right. i thought it was 170 instead of 180. darn what was i thinking. maybe i should rewrite that post.
my mistake, stan

 

[Art (NWOH)]

This is based on calculation Stan, as I don't do 170 or 180 either one.

Your penny (166/167) was a zinc.

150, 154 should be tabs.

137 nickel is a bit lower than normal.

Strange you mention that your Sov is fast. Nobody ever said that before. How fast are you sweeping?? Faster than 3 seconds per sweep is too fast. That's in clean dirt when you are not looking for deep stuff.

This might cause some comments, but I would not have dug that penny if it was a strong hit. With the meters I use, your 166 would have been a ring tab with tail, and the 167 would have been a screwcap.

HH

 

[Art (NWOH)]

What you were doing with the all metal/disc switch was confusing.....down is iron mask off.

Your all metal control in fix is for all metal searching AFTER you have ground balanced in all metal. May not work worth a hoot for pinpointing when not balanced.

HH

 

[Rick(ND)]

First thing off the track and lock is for all metal use and find most hunters will use the disc as this is what make the Sovereign so good, so flip that one to pinpoint and keep it there. Next flip the disc all metal to disc with iron mask on, this is what you want to pick coins up close to iron, if off it may not give a signal of a close good target next to iron. With it on it may give a little false signals too, but are easy to tell they are not repeatable. You disc off along with notch off is where most of us use it. I run with the threshold on most of the time and rare I use the silent search, so set the threshold with a slight hum in all metal while the other switch in in pinpoint like I mentioned. Make sure you have the coil away from any metal when you set the threshold and then switch the toggle back to disc. Set your meter to 180 on a new dime as the book has a typo I believe and this way we can tell you more about the numbers you are getting and what they mean.
Now as you see the numbers do change a lot and I like to tell people only to use these numbers when you want to ID a target. Any negative number and a null is iron as the Sovereign hates iron unlike your Explorer and you will get some iron too, but as you will notice it don't lock on. You will also see and hear that there will be a lot of nulling as it is seeing iron and find in some area you have to go slower too so the threshold will be coming and going and not a solid null, this is another reason I like the threshold so I know how fast I can swing the coil.

Now when you get a signal you think is a good Tone just go back and forth over just the target and try to get the meter to lock on the highest number you can, if you get a 179-180 (that is if you have the meter calibrated to 180) and smaller target you will have a copper penny, a clad or silver dime quarter or half. If you can only get 176-177 you will have a new zinc penny or if deeper sound could be one of the first Wheaties or a IH penny. If you get a 144-145 it will probably be a nickle. Now to pinpoint this target all you have to do is switch the disc all metal switch up one notch to all metal being you are hunting in the iron mask on in disc. The other switch is already in pinpoint so you will be ready to pinpoint. Very easy to do with only having to flip the one toggle switch from you disc mod to the pinpoint mode. This is why I say just leave the one switch in pinpoint as that switch is only activated when in all metal and for coin hunting you don't need the trak or fixed as it is more for gold hunting where you need it to track the ground minerals while running in all metal.

Good luck Stan, I think you will love the GT when you get to know it a bit.

Rick

Rick

 

[ikon]

lol ok men , back to the drawing board. i'm pulling the manual back out. i thought i was right on cause everything seemed to be working. at least i thought it was.
ok i thought down was iron mask on ,now i see it was off.now tell me again about ground balancing and how i do this.
what i meant by fast was the tones changed pretty quick as soon as i hit a target. any kind of target.
maybe when i set the meter to 180 rather then 170 my readings on pennies and nickles will change also to the numbers you's are talking.
i just printed out Arts and Ricks posts to study.
i know i can be brain dead at times but i know it will all stink in soon. lol
thanks guys,
stan pa.

 

[Art (NWOH)]

n/t

 

[Rick(ND)]

Stan
You don't need to ground balance the GT unless you are going to use it in all metal mode for gold hunting. If you were than you would switch to all metal and go to the track and find a area with no metal and bob the coil a few time so the threshold will sound the same as in the air and on the ground. Now it will track the ground minerals. If you want to keep that setting and not have it track any more then you flip the toggle to lock position.
Now if you are doing coin and relic hunting and use the disc mode than you don't have to do any of this and just run the one toggle in disc and the other one in pinpoint so when you do go to all metal to pinpoint you will be ready to go.
Now on the meter reading the 180 is a reference point to use for all your IDing. You can use anything you want for a reference, but then you have to learn what numbers mean what if you run lower than 180 than our coins we get at 180 will read lower on your meter as it is set lower and why calibration is important each time you use your detector so all numbers will have the same meaning every time.

Rick

 

[ikon]

ok rick, so i wasnt that far off base. i have know idea what made me set the meter at 170. must have been one of those senior moments i guess.
so ill set the disc. toggle to disc with iron mask on and set the other toggle to pinpoint so when i come on to a target, all ill need to do is go from disc. on to all metal and that should be it. right ?
ive read my manual last night on ground balancing and i think i understand that ,
when i come home from work today ill give all this a try.
thanks,
stan pa.

 

[Rick(ND)]

n/t

 

[ikon]

hey rick and art,
ok did alot of detail reading this evening on the GT and now i can see some of the things i was doing wrong. there are just a few things i didnt realize that i should have been doing but i think i gots it now. after work tomorrow im going out to my coin garden in the yard and check some stuff out. i want to see how well this notch knob work as far as the manual goes.
i got those sunray pro's , nice.
oh yea i know why i set the meter at 170. thats what it tells ya in the manual. i brought that reading up to 180
stan pa.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Good to hear Stan you got the Headphones.
It takes a little while with the GT and remember some of the thing that are in any book are not correct as you will see. I was told that back when I went to school for electronic servicing and see this in some schematics too, so I feel you will learn more by doing than reading on some things.
Now the notch is a great thing to have on the Sovereigns, but I think you will see most don't use it. If I hit a area where there is a lot of pull tabs so I hear a lot of them I may crank it up all the way as it will get rid of those that read close to a good coin tones, the rest don't bother me that much. If you have another trash target that give you a problem then you can swing the coil over it while turning the notch control until it give a broken signal. Just remember the notch only works on items that is not disc out and you can not disc out or notch out screw caps or any zinc Penny's and higher coins.

Good luck Stan.

Rick