Trying Minelab Explorer XS, please help!

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I am looking for a new detector and my local dealer rented me a Minelab Explorer XS to try out for a few days. I was out all day today at spots that I know to be good. I have goten a lot of silver out of them in the past with an old Whites PI 2000 and then a 6000 Di Pro (I have been out of the hobby for some time and am getting the bug again). All I got all day was new clad and pennies. I am running this unit with all the factory presets (which I reset by holding the power button down until Factory Presets appeared) and I upped the sensitivity to 19 or 20. All the targets I am hitting are no more than 2 or 3 inches deep. Does anyone have any tips for me? I was planning on using this at the factory preset mode for the time that I have it, but this is crazy. I don't have a manual either. By the way, i am in Massachusetts. I wouldn't mind digging just for pennies, dimes, and quarters, and giving up the nickels if it will help me get some depth. Are the only good targets (silver) going to be high and right on the screen? If anyone out there has a good program for these for getting deep coins, please post back.
Thanks,
Todd

 

[Anonymous]

Todd,
Read the post below in response to Ken Waggoner's questions.
Have you considered planting a coin garden? It is true that the response to coins changes depending on how long they have been buried, but there should be some benefit in planting some coins in the 6" depth range and learning how they sound.
Regarding your statement about silver being high and right on the screen, this is true for air tests, non-mineralized soil and no other targets in close proximity. Very rarely do I have a deep silver coin hit in the upper right corner. They are generally pulled to the left and sometimes closer to the upper left than the upper right. This is where experience becomes the greater teacher.
Hope this helps. HH,
Glenn

 

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Thanks for the advice Kirk. Yes, I did read Ken's thread. As far as the silver readings go, will they be at the far left of the entire screen, in the black area, or just at the upper left of the white part of the display?
Thanks,
Todd

 

[Anonymous]

Todd,
When I first stated using the Explorer II (November 2003) I had some real problems with how the target tone and cursor position is related. What follows is what I have learned from experience, emails to Minelab and from posts on this forum.
After that discussion, then we are in a position to answer you question you asked above
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TARGET TONE AND CURSOR POSITION.
#1 All targets outside the iron Mask produce a tone followed by a short null. One has to listen very carefully to hear that very short null for this type of target.
#2 All targets inside the masked area produce no tone, but go directly to the null condition. In this case the null appears to be somewhat longer than for case #1.
#3 The cursor is repositioned on the screen only after the null goes away.
#3.1 If the target falls withing the masked area, then the cursor does not change from its prior position.
SOME TESTING TO VERIFY THE ABOVE COMMENTS
TEST #T1
Conductive mode
Iron Mask set to -16
Fast off (makes it easier to run the "wiggle test")
Sensitivity to 15 (makes the test easier to conduct)
#T1.1 Run a nail over the coil and note the position of the cursor.
#T1.2 Wiggle a dime quickly over the center of the coil in such a manner that the tones are very close together with no null between tones.
#T1.2.1 You will note that the cursor will remain in the nail position until the wiggle of the dime is stopped.
#T1.2.2 Also note that after the wiggle is stopped, then there will be a null for a very short time.
CONCLUSIONS FROM TEST #1
* The cursor only changes position after the null clears.
* The cursor does not change position when the target falls within the masked area and DOES NOT GENERATE A TONE. Note that some targets may jump in and out of the masked area. These type of targets may or not produce a tone for any given sweep.
TEST #T2
Conductive mode
Iron Mask set to -12
Fast off.
Sensitivity to 15
#T2.1 Run a dime over the coil and note the cursor position.
#T2.2 Run a nail over the coil.
#T2.2.1 The nail should produce a null only with no audible tone generated.
#T2.2.2 The cursor remains in the dime position.
CONCLUSION FROM TEST #2
* The screen only shows the cursor position associated with the last audible tone generated, BUT THERE IS A COMPLICATION HERE. The cursor does not change position until a null is generated following the last audible tone. Suppose that the coil sweeps over a pulltab, gets a pulltab tone and cursor position. Then suppose that the coil goes over and hesitates (or wiggles) over a quarter. One will hear a series of quarter tones, but the cursor remains in the pulltab position. The cursor will only change positions after the wiggle allows a null to be generated and then clear. Here is where I had a painful time trying to figure out why I was getting a quarter tone but a pulltab cursor position.
NOW FOR THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION
<span style="background-color:#ffff00;">As far as the silver readings go, will they be at the far left of the entire screen, in the black area, or just at the upper left of the white part of the display? </span>
#A1 If there is no mineralization or trash in the target area, then the cursor will be placed in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
#A2 If there is no trash in the target area, but there is mineralization in the soil, then as the depth of the target increases, there is a tendency for the cursor to move to the left.
#A3 If there is an iron type (ferrous) object in the target area of the silver, then there may be difficulty in hearing the two targets.
#A3.1 The response may depend upon the sweep speed. That is where one should sweep the coil very slowly and/or consider using Fast on.
#A3.2 The response may depend upon the angle of the sweep. One sweep angle may produce null while another weep angle may produce a good target indication.
#A3.3 If the targets are very close together, then the response may be a combination response. This is where I had a lot to learn.
I have dug silver coins out of a hole that had 5 nails that came out before the silver. The cursor position could be only slightly to the right of the upper left corner. I generally hunt with the Iron Mask at -14 or -15. This gets rid of most of the rusty nails, but not all. As you increase the masking, then you reduce the nails dug, but are losing some silver.
#A4 You will never get a cursor positioned in the masked area of the screen. You may get them right at the boundary, but never in the masked area.
Hope this may have helped some, HH
Glenn

 

[Anonymous]

skip the shallow targets or..... remove the (trash) <img src="/metal/html/wink.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=""> and take it all home <img src="/metal/html/shrug.gif" border=0 width=37 height=15 alt=":shrug">...
thats the trouble with sites always used is many new targets as well... so me I would take all I had to and keep going down in the depth dept. till there were no sounds left <img src="/metal/html/wink.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="">...
But I dont hunt parks ar anything anymore so just get aluminum cans and iron <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol">... some iron is cool buckles tho so depending on how i feel about the site and that day is the factor on what I will or wont dig <img src="/metal/html/biggrin.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="">
If its a place I can hunt non stop I will continue to check every single -burp- chirp- and squeek out <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol">

 

[Anonymous]

Glenn,
Thanks a lot for taking the time to help me out. I'm trying, but this is a very complex machine and tough to try and understand very quickly. I have a limited amount of time with this unit, so I may be trying for too much too quickly. I just really want to see if I can get a good feel for it and, If I can and I like it, pick one up, perhaps used.
Thanks again,
Todd

 

[Anonymous]

Glenn,
Very well done and very accurate. Make sure you save that one so you can post it from time to time. Charles(NY) did a long wonderful write up quite awhile ago which he reposts occasionally.
You were able to explain in understandable terms what becomes second nature to more experienced explorer users. This sometimes makes it hard for the old hands to help out the newer users.
Chris
I finally used my first smiley

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent explanation of what you see and hear. Kirk, nails or other metals of this shape have eddy currents that flow around the axis. This can cause a high conductive tone no matter where it falls on the ferrous axis of the display. Nails and jewelry can produce odd EC current flow which makes these items very difficult to scale on the ferrous axis. The EC = a TC which is how you scale them and also produce a conductivity tone.
I prefer to use ferrous for this reason as conductivity can be maxiumum for any level of ferrous content as you know. Ferrous to silver is a better way to keep from going after the high tones that are ferrous in my opinion.
Anyhow, great post and observations.
Cody

 

[Anonymous]

[No message]

 

[Anonymous]

Todd,
For someone who only hunts once per month or so, perhaps the Minelab Explorer may not be a good choice. There are many detectors that are easier to use than the Explorer, but you do not get that ease of use without a price.
Other detectors do OK for detecting coins down to 5" range. There are a lot of those detectors in use today. For most sites those targets have already been removed. The clad coins are constantly being replaced. If one likes digging clad, then one of these (lower performance) detectors is probably good enough. Most (but not all) of the shallow silver has already been removed. There have not many silver coins lost over the past several years and most of the remaining silver is either too deep, or hidden by trash, for the lower performance detectors to find.
I have been detecting for more than 35 years and have satisfied my desire to dig clad coins. The detectors that I have used are my own designs (1965 through 1975), Garrett (1), White (4), Fisher (1), In 2003, I decided to invest in the best machine I could find. I bought the Explorer II in Nov 2003. I am only beginning to get comfortable with all the power and features of the Explorer. Learning the nuances of the tones has not been easy for me, but it is now paying off.
The bottom line for new Explorer users is patience and experience.
HH,
Glenn