3 tone suggestion for the NEW E-Trac :minelab:

[McNickle]

I just e-mailed info@minelab a suggestion,and here is my letter below.......I don't know about any of you,but I would buy a new E-Trac if this was the ONLY upgrade........

Hello,

I just have a simple suggestion for your next new Etrac.......Presently you offer 1,2,4,or multi tones.It would be a GREAT Help if you offered 3 tones for your American customers...Most coins we look for come in at Cond...5, and11-15.....for nickles,,,32-43

for old and newer cents and some silver,,,,,and 44-49 for silver...If you divided the conduct scale for 3 tones at (LOW)1-15 or 16....(MID)..16 or 17-32.....and (HIGH) 33-50.It would be a great help,and I would buy that next model just for that one option alone...

I could just mentally tune out the Mid tone,while investigating the Low(Where lots of Gold Comes in)tones,,,,and the High tone (Where most other coin goodies come in at)....



Thank You,

 

[NiagracountyNY]

Sounds like it wouldntt be hard for them to do.The one thing i want them to do is make a detector that can tell the diffrence from a pulltab and a gold ring .I think we would all like that HH

 

[McNickle]

I would love it if Etrac could tell the difference between pultab (Aluminum),and Gold......All I can do now is investigate some signals in the pultab range that give a 12 FE #......................
I really do think the simplest solution to help us Yanks find more US coins......Is to offer 3 tones..so we could tune out the mid tones (where most of our trash--but SOME Goodies come in at)......It would improve my Indian head cent,and Older silver count I honestly believe.

 

[Ray-Mo.]

I have found well over 200 Indian Heads with no problems and do not see where the 3 tones would be all that much better.4 tones just divides the scale a little more and it only takes a second to check the TID numbers.I don't see how less info will help find more.This may just be me but I find multi-tone to work even better than 4 tones because of once again,more target info.
One major problem I am having lately with the E-Trac is no time to use it because of work and we have had some good rains here in MO and record low temps for July.

 

[Daniel A.]

Have never seen gold give confident numbers crap shot every time. The conductive range is just to close to call. Dan

 

[Erik in NJ]

Minelab doesn't seem to be too responsive to customer input....when is the last time you saw them post on a forum? We can take this discussion over to the Audio forum, but the best solution would be to allow the user to define what pitch/timbe is played depending on the cursor locations - where you could set up your own custom zones on the screen. Three tone would be a breeze, five, eight, heck what ever you want.

Regarding the difference between aluminum and gold, I understand this is a very difficult if not impossible problem with the current technology, though I'm not sure why as I don't know the physics behind it.....maybe someone here who knows more about this will fill us in.

 

[Digger]

I have to disagree that Minelab isn't responsive to customer input. Where to you think some of the ideas for the Etrac came from? They came from customers asking for a faster responding FBS detector with better balance and enhanced features. They responded to X-Terra requests for manual GB on the X-30 with a new 305 that not only ground balances. But offers an adjustible threshold as well. They responded to others asking that the 3 kHz coil be used on the mid-priced X-50 series and have now allowed the X-505 to use all three frequencies. And again, added a threshold and multiple tone modes. Just recently they changed their service policies on some older units. Due to customers questioning those changes, they revamped their policy to allow for repair as long as they can find parts. I can't explain why they don't participate in the forums. But not posting to them doesn't mean they don't read them. And it certainly does not indicate they ignore customer's ideas for improving their detectors. But frankly, contacting them directly with rational, well thought-out suggestions would likely prove more productive than posting suggestions to a forum. JMHO HH Randy

 

[McNickle]

I got a reply from the American office that....."Your E-mail has been to our Head Office In Australia.

Attention to the Manufacturing Dept."

The reason that I suggested 3 tone,is I rarely dig any signals below conduct 32......Every time that I have dug 16-30/31......I have dug up trash..I know if I dig another 1-2,000
conduct 16-31...I am bound to dig a Gold Item or something interesting,but I don't want to dig another 1-2,000 holes for a maybe........I am happy diggin up Indians,wheat's,and the silver that falls between conduct 32-48,and listen for the low tones & watch cond 12-15,for the occasional buffalo or V nickle,and I still dig 4-5 trash items for every nickle................THAT is why I made the suggestion.......
If you divided the conduct scale for 3 tones at (LOW)1-15 ....(MID)..16 -31.....and (HIGH) 32-50.It would be a great help,I could listen for the highest tone /watch for anything over 3"-5",and decide when to dig.....(Site dependant)....Also listening for Nickle lows watching the numbers,,,,and totally ignoring the trash between 16-31....
Lets face it......99% of those numbers are Trash at 99% of the sites (That at least -- I -- Hunt)..
There are more people out there that think the same way I do......Hunting 15-20 hours a week when family and conditions permit....I just want to cover ground,and find some goodies....Don't get me wrong....I still Love Multi tone,and would still hunt quite a bit with it.......But paying $1500 for a machine,,I WOULD like to have that simple 3 tone Option.