Vaquero sensitivity

[harbaub]

Good morning everyone,
I'm a newbie in MD, last spring, and according to the instruction manual when you start the detector they mention to put the sensitivity knob at 7 or 8. Why is there graduation of 1 to 10 on this knob if they say to put it at 7 or 8? When or in wich situation can I put it at let say 2 or 3, or 9 or 10? What's the real use of that graduation?
Thanks for the information and your experience will be mine one day...

 

[sqwaby]

Its just a starting point, use it to ground bal, after that adjust it as needed. You can max it out and run the threshold up all the way for more depth if the trash isn't bad.

 

[SandCat]

The Manual says:

"The SENSITIVITY knob is used to raise or lower the power to the
operational amplifiers, which changes the gain. Gain is a measurement of
how much a signal is amplified. The higher the gain the more depth and
sensitivity to small objects a detector has. Unfortunately, any small
interference that is amplified can cause the detector to become erratic. The
SENSITIVITY control is used to find the best gain setting in any location
without letting the detector become unstable."

You don't always want to run wide open. I usually run my sensitivity at 9. In my soil, the red zone causes some chattering.

Also, if you adjust the sensitivity much after ground balancing, it wouldn't hurt to recheck your ground balance. I do anyway.


You can't adjust sensitivity in all metal, just discriminate mode. I think it's maxed in all metal.

 

[tvr]

There are a lot of ways to set up and hunt. I've got a Cibola, similar to Vaquero. You can run supper tuned, with the threshold turned up and get some more depth. I started hunting that way when I first got it and dug a lot of deep iron that did not discriminate out real well when super tuned.

I increased the total value of what I dug when I set the threshold for a usable pinpoint / all metal hunting.

If you are interested in looking for jewelry, hunt with the discriminator set to just cut out small iron. If you want the really small gold pieces, go with lowest discrimination setting or all metal and get the smallest of earring backs and chains too. You will dig more trash this way, but will get small jewelry that other people will miss. You can thumb the discriminator up and see where targets cut out to get a good guess of what you are beeping on. (Remember to return it to a low setting before going after the next target or you may be over looking something you want to find). You can use the pin point to size targets and listen to the vco on the pinpoint for depth information.

If you just want to find dimes, quarters and silver, set the discriminator accordingly and go. Just remember that you may loose a little depth with the discriminator up higher. Settings are frequently about trade-offs. Play with various settings, observe, ask more questions and keep learn.

Once ground balanced, with the Cibola and with the Tejon I have, I normally run sensitivity as high as I can without too much chatter. Most of the ground I'm over, the sensitivity can be just into the red.

The exception to that rule is when I am looking just for a newly lost item for someone. Then I take the Cibola, turn down the sensitivity to about 2 and it will only hit on the shallow targets. If a tot lot is recently frozen, I use the Cibola with low sensitivity to just get recent drops on the surface.

Listen to the beep carefully. With practice you will hear the edges of the beep crackle, be smooth or bounce and echo. Crackling sharp edges indicate something on the verge of being discriminated out. Bottle caps beep too well but the edge of the beep is sharp. A coin will have a smoother edge of the beep. A bounce and echo can be a big target close to the surface, or a large round piece of iron (round, such as washers, like to hit well even when you would normally expect them to be discriminated out). And echo can sometimes be a give away.

Take your time, listen to the Vaquero and dig a lot of targets to see what they are and get a feel for what the detector is telling you.

Hope you find a lot of good targets.
Cheers,
tvr

 

[Monte]

Some manufacturers use a "preset" marker to suggest a general-use setting for some controls, especially the Sensitivity.

Ask most avid detectorists and they will tell you to set it as high as possible w/o chatter /instability, but so many (most) metal detector users are simply hobbyists who just occasionally go detecting. If set too high, the detector gets noisy and chattery and, since most hobbyists don't understand how a metal detector works and the sources of outside RF interference, etc., they can be quick to gripe about poor performance from a detector that's "too noisy." By using a suggested "Preset" setting, or publishing a lower setting such as "7 or 8," it will let the average hobbyist enjoy a quieter, more comfortable operation and cause them to make unpleasant comments (word-of-mouth negative advertising) or contact the manufacturer with a boat-load of questions and complaints, or send a detector in for service when none is necessary.

So, a lower-than ideal suggestion alleviates a lot of "bad press" and disgruntled beginners and occasional hobbyists.

Monte

 

[petersv]

I really liked the Vaq. Recently someone posted somewhere about what a maximum setting on the gain should be. Reference was made to radio signals and how radio improves after the sun goes down..... anywhoooo, in the same article they discussed setting the gain for optimum "useable" gain. I've started using their advice and have found the hunting to be quieter and the machine much more re;liable in its junk rejection and tonal values more differentiated. ALso try power balancing your vaq, I felt that it made a big difference on our Canadian coinage. As pointed out in a post here running high gain will just make the iron sing out uncontrollably.

As for adjusting the gain try this: I don't know where I read it...but thanks to whoever wrote it.

Make sure your coil is at 90 degrees to the shaft and hold it straight out from your hip, as if you were shooting from the hip with your detector. Have your gain turned right up. slowly scan the horizon in a full 360 degrees around your center. Find the point where you get the most noise or unstable operation. Turn your machine gain down until operation is stable, now turn it down an additional 1/4 turn.

Make sure that your GB is still where it should be and off you go. I have not noticed any loss in detecting deep ones, in fact the deep whispers seem to stand out a bit better as there is less back ground noise. Good luck.