A little more controversy

[Jim upstate NY]

The reason I posted below was to show the changes in the etrac as compared to the explorer.. What I am trying to get across is the junk was tighter on the explorer.. much easier to disc out and not affect a lot of other good targets... For instance a simple nail and crown cap reject screen would be fully open with a little on left upper corner notched and a little on lower right notched.. no where close to any coins.. the new reject patterns cover up many coins and half the screen! they tightened up the coin patten for the reasons they stated in that little file to Julian... but what ever they did made junk read all over.. the more I use it I see coins are reading out of the coin pattern also.. so I would much rather have a tight reject pattern and more open coin pattern.. does anyone understand what I mean? they tried to tighten up the good targets, but that in affect seemed to open up the junk and nails more, and any coins that read close to that junk may be getting masked... if the coin pattern was more wide open you would get much more variability on where they read, without hearing all the god awful nails, even in conductive mode... so you can tell indians from aluminum, dimes from quarters and large cents etc like you can on the explorer..... and I would think it would be even better on the etrac with the more extended numbers.. I understand their theory in the iron masking setting, but I believe it backfired on them... be fine if the coins stayed put where they say they are supposed to I guess, but even then you get bleed over from nails and crown caps.. I notch out them on the explorer and I dont hear them, but all coins read loud and clear..... so I am saying just put the faster processor and expanded screen in the explorer and send me me one! hahah

I feel like McCain preaching to an Obama crowd over here

 

[JCJEXPLORER]

I hear what you are saying Jim, but I have way to little time on the machine to AGREE just yet. I will say that I believe the tones are different from my Explorer XS and have not settled on which option to use. Currently using Multi tone.

 

[ZincolnDigr]

My experience is EXTREMELY limited with the Explorer and the ETRAC, but I do notice a positive to the new layout. For me, it was very difficult to try and weed out the most obvious junk and try to id targets in the jewelry range with the Explorer SE. With my DFX I use 15khz normalized off. I then dig every strong signal wihin 3-49, knowing that the vdi's of 50-65 are MOSTLY pull tabs. I could miss a large gold ring, but thats the price I will pay for alot less digging. Now with the ETRAC, most of the rings I have tested come in between 12-3 and 12-13. Tabs are 12-14 to 12-23. I do not have the opportunity to look for 200 year old coins that often, so I am happy that the ETRAC is easier to hunt jewelry with. Does this make any sense?

 

[Erik in NJ]

I understand what you're trying to say - it all goes back to poor software design across both units. If Minelab would give me a job you'd be very happy! The hardware is excellent!

 

[Jason in TN]

I have about 40hrs on my E-track now and I find it better in every way than my old explorers.
Dug a several 3 ring Civil War bullets at a 12 inches or more in a area I have hunted with many
detectors in the past. I still own a DFX and a F75 that are getting no use since I got the E-Track.

 

[JohnTN]

Jim I understand what you are saying. I think what minelab has tried to do is expand the lower end range of the ET to try and solve some of the masking/nulling issues they had with the Explorers/Sovs.This makes sense in my mind now let me see if I can explain my thinking or insanity. LOL
I have owned alot of different detectors and some are better in iron than others. Let's say were working on a 180 scale ( example Tesoro's 180 disc. ) you only have so much room for your targets ferrous/conductive to fit into. Some of the older machines like the Compass's early Tesoro's and the Whites IDX Pro had something alot of VLF Detectors didn't, they had a wider low end range. For instance working with a discriminate knob that had adjustment from lets say 1-10 representing the 180 scale. Some detectors would knock normal sized nails out at 0 or 1 these machines were horrible to mask conductive targets if iron was nearby. The detectors I made mention of above would start to take out nails at 3 or 4, larger or more corroded iron would still bleed through and be heard but would have characteristic sounds or signatures that made them very obvious to the experienced user. These detectors had an extended lower end ( iron disc.) but really tight when you went up into the higher conductor range. With these machines you could lay a coin next to a nail and still get it when you passed the coil over the two. This is what in my mind would distinguish a great relic detector from a great coin detector. I think possibly that is what minelab tried to do in creating the ET was Build a machine that was more versatile -- sort of a do it all detector if you will. I see the Explorers and Sovs as more specialized machines. In my experience these machines would go into deep nulls over Iron infested sights and not come out of it. To me ( some will argue ) the Exp/Sov were KING park hunters but not the greatest relic machines if the relic hunting involved extreme amounts of iron and coke. I have had the ET in sights that one could not lower the sensitivity or open up the disc. enough on the Exp/Sov to confidently hunt. The ET kicked tail at these sights and has already pulled out many conductive targets that I've walked over maybe 20-30 times or more. This is where I think the ET shines. Now the Explorer in the right hands and from what I understand your a master. Would in all fairness do immensely better in your hands than it would in mine. I have 4 years of hard hunting with the Explorer under my belt and I'm proficient but don't feel like I've ever mastered the machine.
The more I think about it this is probably Hogwash and me just thinking out loud... LOL
What do you think?

 

[Ron (CA)]

I just can't get the hang of the ET for park hunting. The numbers bounce too much for me to really understand what the target it. It may be so fast that it jumps off as soon as you pass over the good target. Then I find myself looking at the screen too much. So now I only hunt by tone and depth and pretty much ignore the digital.

I hunted with a couple ET users today (MT and Mike SF) and they taught me something regarding the tones that I overlooked and I don't think it is mentioned in the manual.

If you up the Threshold Pitch to 19 -- the coin tones sound almost identical to the Explorer. I never knew this about the SE either as I never changed the default setting!! DUH!! Anyway, that will help me when cherry picking for silver with the ET. Memorials/clad dimes and silver are all lumped into this "silver" tone but at least it jumps out at you like the Explorers did on silver.

Many of you probably already knew this, but it is not mentioned in the manual and although I have no idea why the threshold pitch affects all the tones, it is a benefit to me. Problem is once you learn the machine at that threshold pitch, you better not change it as all your tones will be different on the next hunt!! I have heard people talk about VARIABILITY but do not recall a post about THRESHOLD PITCH affecting the tones. But again I probably just missed it.

I need to play around with this a little more to see what pitch level is best, but right now 18 sounded dead on to my ears for a silver tone on the E-Trac. UNFORTUNATELY, It has no real effect in FERROUS mode.

Personally, I will probably stick with the SE for park hunting. It just seems to hit on deeper targets better. I will switch to the ET for the junk areas where targets may not be as deep but more likely hidden by junk.

I agree with you Jim, if they would have put a faster processor in the Explorer, I would have bought two more!! I do like the stability of the ET but I think it also causes the deepies to drop off a bit. I will still run wide open with the SE to the point where it is a little chatty, but I know it well enough that a little chatter does not hide the good deep signals.

Now I will have a Minelab for everything I may encounter.

Just my two zincs worth.

Ron

 

[jbow]

n/t

 

[Beachcomber]

n/t

 

[Ron (CA)]

n/t

 

[Bill/Wa]

The higher the price of a machine, the more important it is to me to know what I am buying.
I enjoy your discussions - thankyou. Hope to learn more too.

 

[EZrider]

Ron you said "Memorials/clad dimes and silver are all lumped into this "silver" tone " Memorials and Wheats are a tone under the silver high tone for me.