Sweep Speed on the XT 70 ??

[Rick(ND)]

I wonder what everyone else that has used one think on the sweep speed of the XT 70 in order to get some depth out of it.
I have to go to work now, but will post more latter and just wonder what those that have used the 70 think on the sweep speed to get the depth and target ID. Fast, med, slow or super slow. I seen something today and wonder if anyone else notice what I see on the sweep speed.
Also how many run trak while hunting for coins and relic and also which tones to you use and find works good.

Rick

 

[Rick(ND)]

I seen something today with the XT 70 I never notice last fall with the XT30 or the XT 50 and it may be there too, but never noticed it.
I went detecting at a fellow hunters lawn to see if I missed anything with the Sovereign GT or the Explorer and he ask me to go over this one area as he said there were some good signals there he got with his Explorer and MXT. I got nothing other than some chirping in this areas with the XT 70. I was at pattern 1, sensitivity at 25, threshold just so you could hear it and had done a auto noise cancel, ground balanced then switch to track. I was swinging the coil at about normal speed which is about 3 feet a second and thought that should be fine. Now when I got no real signal i was told there was a silver dollar, a silver half, a silver quarter, dime and penny plus a nickle buried in this area at around 6-7 inches deep. Now that I knew they were there I went back over this area looking for any signal I could get to see if i could find them. I found them all now and seen I have to go slower with about 1 foot a second to see these coins. I have to listen closer to the chirping and then work the signal and they lock on good, but as soon as I swing the coil faster they are gone. Now if I lay a coin on top of the ground I can swing quite fast and still get a good signal on it and wonder if anyone else has notice this??
I found that I didn't dig much iron like I do with the 30 and 50 that fooled me. I found a smaller rusty nail in on hole that sounded good, but there also was a very small copper washer off the old harness rivet, so it can see a good item in with nails as I felt it would with the air testing I did before I could get out. I also dug a couple of 22 caliber lead that were down a little too. I also found the few new coins and the one older wheatie the numbers would bounce around a bit, more than I thought they should and some of these sounded deeper than they were. I also had a couple of signals I couldn't find with my Uniprobe, but found out they were some very small pieces of alum foil that were so small the Uniprobe couldn't see them.
Bottom line is I wonder if anyone else sees they may have to swing the coil a little slower to get the depth and to lock on a target, never notice this with the XT 30 or the 50, but this is a different site too than I used the 30 and 50 at. Myself I feel the 70 runs smoother too and I like the threshold on the 70 as it make is so much nicer to hear the targets. Going to the patterns from the pattern to all metal to check out some targets is nice too as you can hear the iron beside a good target.
I also seen something the day before at my daughters yard with the 70 and that is it seen the wire burred from the house to the garage that is about 8-10 inches deep that I never seen before with any of the other detectors I have used there. I am going to take my Teknetics T-2 to this guys yard and see how it will work on these buried coins and how the sweep speed will affect the depth.

I was hopping some would have posted on the sweep speed to see if they had notice this too with their XT 70.
Like all detector there is a learning curve and we will learn more as we use it.

Rick

 

[Des Dunne]

Rick,

Just saw your Q.
Here, in my neck of the woods, with varied soils from neutral to low to moderate to high (70%) mineral levels during various stages of coil testing I noted the following:

Coil type/sweep speed

Using the round Med-Freq, round Hi-Freq, DD Med-Freq, Low-Freq round, elliptical Hi-Freq coils, they may all have to be used at different speeds/lengths of sweep to generate good signal return from targets. For example, the stock 9" round 7.5Khz Medium Frequency coil seems to work best with

 

[Shenandoah Digger]

I may be incorrect, but it sounds like you have to vary your sweep speed depending on the item you're looking for. If I'm looking for gold, I gotta go slow, and if I'm looking for coins, I gotta go fast. Is that correct? The only problem is, I don't know what I'm looking for, so I guess in a particular area I gotta swing both fast and slow. Sounds like there could be a little glitch in the system.

 

[Jackpine Savage]

I saw the other day with my 70. I was hunting an iron trashy site and experiencing the same chirps and sputterings you mentioned. I knew I was missing targets. My settings were 3 tones, track off, small iron segment notched in and sensitivity at 25. With a sweep speed of "about" 2-3'/sec it was not a pleasant experience due to the sputterings, chirps and bleeps the audio was producing! Taking a note from what Andy mentioned about the 70 having more gain than is practical in tough conditions, on the return trip to the same site I reduced the sensitivity to 20 and slowing the sweep speed slightly to the 1-2"/sec range the detector smoothed right out! I then rehunted the same exact area picking out the good non-ferrous targets in the iron with ease and at very good depths!

I think the "problem" is two fold here, but it is a good problem! There are two important things to keep in mind with the X-terras. The improved circuitry has allowed the designers to increase the gain to the point that in tough conditions you are likely to experience problems with high settings. Secondly the filters are setup to quickly report the next target the coil sees, the resetting is so fast that the audio responses will be cutoff or abrupt in dense trash/iron conditions when using what we generally consider a moderate sweep.

Those two factors, too high sensitivity and the quick resetting combine to produce the falsing (chirping) and poor abrupt audio responses in high trash/iron. The solution? Reign in your machine by reducing the sensitivity and slow down the sweep in dense targets areas.

I know this is preaching to the choir, but do those two things, reduce sensitivty, slow the sweep and the X-T 70 will be not only more pleasant to use but the results will be much more rewarding.

HH Tom

 

[Daniel Tn]

I've now relic hunted a few times with the X-70 and coin hunted too and done lots of playing in the test garden.

First as with any machine, it is going to vary with where you are located. Here where I'm at, most machines struggle in the ground and read alot of goodies as iron.

The X-Terras are no exception to this with deep objects. So for relic hunting, all metal is a must on the X-50 anyway. With the X-70 you have the same option but what I've found is to go throw that sucker in prospecting mode with iron disc. Put the iron disc on around 2 or 3 and dig everything that doesn't null. For some reason in Coin/Treasure mode with the patterns, they have a tendency to read good things as -6 on the X-70 UNLESS you swing super slow like what you are talking about. But what I found is that prospecting mode adds a new degree to it and it will absolutely null on any piece of iron that is there but if its a good target, it is going to give a good beep EVEN if it is IDing it as iron in Coin/Treasure mode. I'm not sure why but that has been my finding.

What I've found myself doing is hunting primary relics in prospecting mode. When I get a decent hit that doesn't null, I'll swap modes and check the ID on it. I found that by getting the coil DEAD center over top of the target and doing a slow wiggle will sometimes get the signal to read close to where it should be. But I've really started to trust that prospecting mode Iron Mask. I set it to null a piece of iron a little bigger than a nail and go at it. And with it set like that, you can move pretty good with the detector.

Not sure how that is going to work out for you old coin guys but I know when I took it clad coin hunting that I was having loads of fun hunting in Coin mode with Pattern 3 preset. Guess that is what makes the X-70 so great...it's versitle and fun.

 

[John LA]

Rick "i was told there was a silver dollar, a silver half, a silver quarter, dime and penny plus a nickle buried in this area at around 6-7 inches deep. Now that I knew they were there I went back over this area looking for any signal I could get to see if i could find them. I found them all now and seen I have to go slower with about 1 foot a second to see these coins. I have to listen closer to the chirping and then work the signal and they lock on good, but as soon as I swing the coil faster they are gone. Now if I lay a coin on top of the ground I can swing quite fast and still get a good signal on it and wonder if anyone else has notice this?? "

John Yes I noticed this. It was good to hear it wasn't just me going crazy.

 

[B sperty]

thank, Brian

 

[BobH]

n/t

 

[BarnacleBill]

n/t

 

[BobH]

n/t

 

[BobH]

n/t

 

[Rick(ND)]

Tom,

I went back this time to the same area with my Teknetics T-2 and see what it could do and seem to pick them up a little better than the XT70 did the day before. I did see that the gauge for the iron seem to show a lot of iron there.I then marked all the signals I got with the T-2 and went back with the XT70 at the 24 sensitivity and seen one of the signals the T-2 got the XT70 couldn't get. I dropped the sensitivity to 15 and seen now I could get the signals better like the T-2 than before when speeding up the sweep speed, so what you are saying makes a lot of sense about the fast reset giving me alot of chirping as it is seeing the targets faster and with the gain too high may cause many to be missed. Bottom line is we have to vary our sweep speed and sensitivity to the area we are at and how much trash.
I was also able to get a signal with the XT70 the T-2 couldn't get and would have loved to dig these 2 signals to see what they were being one got them and the other didn't. The guy don't remember which coin is where and didn't want to dig up his test ground.

Thanks again
Rick

 

[Rick(ND)]

I think as I explained to Jackpine I think I see where the problem is and want to thank those that took the time to comment on this and hope we all can learn from this.

Rick

 

[Jackpine Savage]

The 9" concentric sees a lot of ground/targets at once, I can't wait to get my hands on the smaller coil!

Tom