Well me and my son went over to the school again yesterday found more clad but noticed something strange going on with my all metal mode on my Landstar.I use this mode like anyone else to pinpoint my target.So here's what i noticed yesterday going into that mode,seemed that sometimes i would have to hit the button a couple of times before it would kick in and other times i'd push the button and i'd get a tone even before i swept the coil over the ground.I mainly use the Auto/Notch setting and have been getting great results using it but this All Metal mode is driving me nuts with the way it's acting.Now i got this machine on a trade and was not the original purchaser so i'm thinking any warranty is void to me,should i call Bounty Hunter and explain what is going on or just try and deal with the problem and continue using it?I really love this machine and i am really connecting with it and understanding it quite well.So what do you think?
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All metal mode on Landstar?
- Thread starter richbat
- Start date
Ed in SoDak
Member
Hi Rich,
I haven't used the Landstar very long, but I like it too and so does my wife. We also own two older "V2" Time Rangers and the Landstar is pretty close to it in performance, with a slight nod going to the Time Ranger.
The Landstar has a manual ground balance which should be set somewhat close even if you only use it for pinpointing. On my machine and soil, that's around 3 or 4 o'clock on the GB knob. All-Metal mode sounds continuously when nearby any metal. If you're over the object when you switch to AM, a constant tone would be normal until you move the coil away. A press or two of the Ground Trac button might help reset it.
In many spots in my yard and elsewhere in the vicinity, I can run a magnet through the dirt and pick up "native" iron from BB-sized to fine grits. This soil makes my Time Ranger in All-Metal sound off in small spots most anywhere I scan. The Landstar can be adjusted with the manual GB and Ground Trac to handle it, but I can still expect to detect some of it unless I hunt in Disc Mode with some iron discrimination dialed in. Bring a magnet with you next time to see if it finds anything like that in your soil.
We went to the "big city" once and hunted a schoolyard or two with our Time Rangers. The gravel they used had some sort of Hot Rock in it. We found it almost impossible to hunt there.
Just going by all the old Landstar threads here on Findmall, it seems to me that some units are "hotter" than others. Some people need to reduce the sensitivity on their machine quite a bit more than others. This model has been upgraded by First Texas several times over the years, this may partly explain some variations in relative performance and perhaps stability at high gain levels. If trying the GB knob and Ground Trac doesn't help, try dialing back Sensitivity.
It's also possible the front panel buttons were overworked by the previous owner and have become less responsive. A trip to the factory is the only cure for that. First Texas usually treats people right, even if the customer is not the original owner.
-Ed
I haven't used the Landstar very long, but I like it too and so does my wife. We also own two older "V2" Time Rangers and the Landstar is pretty close to it in performance, with a slight nod going to the Time Ranger.
The Landstar has a manual ground balance which should be set somewhat close even if you only use it for pinpointing. On my machine and soil, that's around 3 or 4 o'clock on the GB knob. All-Metal mode sounds continuously when nearby any metal. If you're over the object when you switch to AM, a constant tone would be normal until you move the coil away. A press or two of the Ground Trac button might help reset it.
In many spots in my yard and elsewhere in the vicinity, I can run a magnet through the dirt and pick up "native" iron from BB-sized to fine grits. This soil makes my Time Ranger in All-Metal sound off in small spots most anywhere I scan. The Landstar can be adjusted with the manual GB and Ground Trac to handle it, but I can still expect to detect some of it unless I hunt in Disc Mode with some iron discrimination dialed in. Bring a magnet with you next time to see if it finds anything like that in your soil.
We went to the "big city" once and hunted a schoolyard or two with our Time Rangers. The gravel they used had some sort of Hot Rock in it. We found it almost impossible to hunt there.
Just going by all the old Landstar threads here on Findmall, it seems to me that some units are "hotter" than others. Some people need to reduce the sensitivity on their machine quite a bit more than others. This model has been upgraded by First Texas several times over the years, this may partly explain some variations in relative performance and perhaps stability at high gain levels. If trying the GB knob and Ground Trac doesn't help, try dialing back Sensitivity.
It's also possible the front panel buttons were overworked by the previous owner and have become less responsive. A trip to the factory is the only cure for that. First Texas usually treats people right, even if the customer is not the original owner.
-Ed
The symptom you describe can be caused by crosstalk with another metal detector running at the same frequency. Try it with your son's detector turned off and see if that makes the problem go away. Also in a few cases, power line interference can cause the same thing, so try a different location and see if that makes the problem go away.
Extremely high humidity can result in sample-and-hold circuit drift which can manifest as you describe.
The suggestions offered by Ed in SoDak are also good.
Bottom line is that you want (if possible) to determine before sending the machine in for repair if the phenomenon you're observing is a characteristic of the product, or a defect which can be repaired.
--Dave J.
--
Extremely high humidity can result in sample-and-hold circuit drift which can manifest as you describe.
The suggestions offered by Ed in SoDak are also good.
Bottom line is that you want (if possible) to determine before sending the machine in for repair if the phenomenon you're observing is a characteristic of the product, or a defect which can be repaired.
--Dave J.
--
Ed.Since owning the Landstar i haven't used the GB setting at all over around the school,the soil is pretty good there and never really figured i needed it.Like i said i have only used the Auto/Notch and have been doing very well with this only,now as for my sensitivity which you know is the on/off switch after turning it on i set it to about 9 or 10 o'clock and Disc. about the same maybe 11 o'clock. Dave, me and my boy hunt pretty far enough away from each other so i'm thinking the crosstalk isn't the problem,it has been pretty humid here in Pa. when we were out so maybe this could be the problem as you described above.Now there are some high powerlines running throught the area but they are a pretty good distance away so i'm kinda ruling that out also.Dave,what do you mean by circuit drift? And Ed,what do you mean by some of the Landstars being hotter then others?
Ed in SoDak
Member
Hi Rich,
The GB knob has a pretty broad range, so it needs to be set to a position where the detector is quiet as the coil is "pumped" at the ground. It's described in the manual, but you want to find the knob setting where the coil sounds when pulling it up and also where it sounds when lowering the coil. You set the control between these points, where the sound is quiet or neutral as you raise/lower the coil. If you have the GB control set fully "off" counterclockwise, you're actually setting the GB way negative and it probably would sound off constantly in that position.
I've found that pressing the Ground Trac button will "center" or balance the GB circuit even when the knob is off-center. This probably isn't the best way, however. For a "default" position, just try putting it at 2:00 or thereabouts. If you only use it to pinpoint, it needn't be exact and the Ground Trac will help take up the slack of a less-than-perfect GB. Some experts intentionally offset the GB for a desired result, say for tracking black sands or meteorite hunting.
As to the Hot vs. Not observation, I'm just going by some folks who reported a lot of falsing until they reduced the sensitivity way back. On mine, I can usually run it full-on, but it will sound off and false when I lift the coil up and aim it at overhead powerlines. In that spot at our local schoolyard, I only needed to dial it back to around 3:00. The manual says the Sensitivity adjustment is mainly to control EMI issues, but it also admits depth of detection is reduced at lower settings. So you normally want to run this as high as the hunting location allows to help find smaller or deeper targets.
If you like, you can find the "best" spot for your hunting sites and personal preferences and mark the position on the control panel with a little triangle of electrical tape. The tape is nice because you can change it later if your opinion on the best place for it changes.
I just seriously played with the autonotch and notch today for about the first time to see how they work. I like them, even though I almost always hunt with zero discrimination and make the call myself to dig or not. I like to hear everything, yet dig selectively, based on the junk I find at a particular location. But sometimes it's nice to just get rid of a nuisance target in a place that's really infested with a junk target of one type of another. For me, that's usually rusty nails that litter old mines. The notch button just cleanly knocked out rusty nails but kept a test nickel I laid nearby. I find a lot of spent slugs from bullets. That tells me if it would have been a nugget, I would've dug that signal.
-Ed
The GB knob has a pretty broad range, so it needs to be set to a position where the detector is quiet as the coil is "pumped" at the ground. It's described in the manual, but you want to find the knob setting where the coil sounds when pulling it up and also where it sounds when lowering the coil. You set the control between these points, where the sound is quiet or neutral as you raise/lower the coil. If you have the GB control set fully "off" counterclockwise, you're actually setting the GB way negative and it probably would sound off constantly in that position.
I've found that pressing the Ground Trac button will "center" or balance the GB circuit even when the knob is off-center. This probably isn't the best way, however. For a "default" position, just try putting it at 2:00 or thereabouts. If you only use it to pinpoint, it needn't be exact and the Ground Trac will help take up the slack of a less-than-perfect GB. Some experts intentionally offset the GB for a desired result, say for tracking black sands or meteorite hunting.
As to the Hot vs. Not observation, I'm just going by some folks who reported a lot of falsing until they reduced the sensitivity way back. On mine, I can usually run it full-on, but it will sound off and false when I lift the coil up and aim it at overhead powerlines. In that spot at our local schoolyard, I only needed to dial it back to around 3:00. The manual says the Sensitivity adjustment is mainly to control EMI issues, but it also admits depth of detection is reduced at lower settings. So you normally want to run this as high as the hunting location allows to help find smaller or deeper targets.
If you like, you can find the "best" spot for your hunting sites and personal preferences and mark the position on the control panel with a little triangle of electrical tape. The tape is nice because you can change it later if your opinion on the best place for it changes.
I just seriously played with the autonotch and notch today for about the first time to see how they work. I like them, even though I almost always hunt with zero discrimination and make the call myself to dig or not. I like to hear everything, yet dig selectively, based on the junk I find at a particular location. But sometimes it's nice to just get rid of a nuisance target in a place that's really infested with a junk target of one type of another. For me, that's usually rusty nails that litter old mines. The notch button just cleanly knocked out rusty nails but kept a test nickel I laid nearby. I find a lot of spent slugs from bullets. That tells me if it would have been a nugget, I would've dug that signal.
-Ed
Dign-nbama
Member
New Member here, just wanted to agree with Ed on the landstar issue. I own one and the ground trak is a little getting use to, what I've found is going back to the manual and reeducating myself with it, but over the years I've gotten alot better at getting the thing balanced. I generally use it for locating, and I've found it to be real reliable, the more I use it the better I get. I like my Landstar...
Ed in SoDak
Member
Thanks for the chime-in and welcome to the group! I've pretty much decided the Landstar is a keeper, even though I have "better" detectors at my disposal. I like the mix of the well-known BH tones, with sensitivity to nearly match my Time Ranger and it has adjustable "analog" GB and Discrimination controls to boot. It's really a capable machine that still performs well. That it has been offered for so long is a testament to the fact, it's a real classic design.
-Ed
-Ed
Ed in SoDak
Member
n/t