Spectra V3 / V3i / VX3 Forum

I used my V3i for 7.5 hours yesterday. I only ground balanced it one time, when I first started detecting-auto ground tracking speed 29, no offset. I hunted around in a 17 acre field. I noticed the tracking arrows appearing every now and then. I made frequent changes to either my filter, rx gain, or recovery delay on the fly several times and would stop walking and continue to sweep. I would see the tracking arrows appear for 2-4 short sweeps and go away. I even checked my ground balance every so often. Over clean ground, raised coil, pulled pinpoint button and lowered coil slowly and raised coil slowly and no static or noise. It seemed my ground balance was spot on. Something else too. I took four short breaks. I would turn the V3i off. Walk back to the truck come back and turn V3i on and start sweeping and no tracking arrows. Seemed machine retained its ground balance during power down and power up. I think the auto tracking system is dynamite. And I've seen some say the ground balance drifts in auto and they prefer lock trac. How would one ever know this? And isn't basically the same circuitry employed when using autotrack vs locktrac aside from lock trac not being updated with ground sensing changes? And this field had plenty of iron and nails too.

Of all the setting you mentioned the only one you mention, RX, should have required a G/B update. If changing any of the 3 sensitivity settings a G/B redo should be done. RD and Filter do not affect G/B. The drift doesn't occur in mild ground just in some high mineralized ground.

You know when the G/B drifts because the threshold gets noisy. To test if the V3 drifts just pull the pin point trigger and test it every so often and after digging. In much of the ground like yours the tracking works perfect.

When you read something on the forum the wise person checks to see if the information applies to their hunting conditions. At home in Illinois I run locktrac often, here in Texas the tracking works super.

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"Everyone has an opinion, but mine is free"
"You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment..."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/29/2012 08:36PM by Rob (IL).

Robert, first off, maybe I'm not a wise man. Second, I never did say in my post what kind of ground I have. So, a wise man such as yourself gave information without even asking or knowing "my ground". Can we stop the personal slurs? It would seem to me the more user information witnessed and posted using the V3i would only benefit the forum members/V3i users.

Actually I don't know what you are talking about so I will ignore it.

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"Everyone has an opinion, but mine is free"
"You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment..."

In my sweet ground here Autotrack works perfectly and carefree. The only time I have problems with it is in heavy trash. Then I use Locktrac which will not drift.

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Whites VX3 w 950 and 10DD coils. Garret AT-Pro w 8.5X11 and 4in sniper coil. Garret Propointer. Lake Jackson TX.

Quote
squirrel1
Robert, first off, maybe I'm not a wise man. Second, I never did say in my post what kind of ground I have. So, a wise man such as yourself gave information without even asking or knowing "my ground". Can we stop the personal slurs? It would seem to me the more user information witnessed and posted using the V3i would only benefit the forum members/V3i users.

Actually, I think Rob was stating that a wise man double checks the information he has gained from the forum discussions as they apply differently to everyone due to varying soil conditions all across the nation. It was not meant as a poke towards you personally. I thought it was good advice. One reason one might use Loc-trac is if you would find soil conditions with a lot of deteriorating iron (ie rust) in the soil. The unit may track towards the iron end and cause you to lose/miss targets. Correct me if I am wrong, Rob.

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Happy hunting - Schultzie

Nothing to correct Schultzie and thanks. We have people that swear by the autotrac and those that don't. Use what works. For my ground, the V3 autotrac worked better. For some people especially the beach hunters the V3i auto tracking is better. Some people just prefer locktrac even though their ground will allow autotrac.

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"Everyone has an opinion, but mine is free"
"You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment..."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/01/2012 09:03PM by Rob (IL).

In my area Autotrac works well at lower gains. When I get near 25% Signal readings it starts to drift. You do not mention your sensitivity settings.

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