Am I having a Pro Coil Problem or am I an idiot?

[BHMACK]

I just received my new Minelab SE PRO from NED and I am pumped! I have used the old SE off and on for some time and this is my first experience with the new Pro Coil. Being out of the cutting edge of the hobby for a bit my first experience with the DD coils was with an ACE 350 that I tried some time ago (loved the DD tech) and quickly traded away (not a bad backup relic machine just not for me). So, my question is as follows: When air testing this machine last night I noticed that at appx 5" of depth and less the coil was picking up the coin at the the far right/left edge of the coil and continually detecting until it reached the extreme opposite end of the coil with the loudest detection happening at the center where one would expect. I may be wrong but it seemed the ACE DD only detected the coin along the narrow beam in the center of the coil. Is this normal for that wide a detection area on the DD? Seems problematic.

Thanks guys!

 

[cdsmith46]

Just a thought, because this may be debated mightily. Long ago (1994) when I got my very first Minelab Sovereign, Minelab's general rule was don't even think about airtesting- it doesn't count in the minelab world. It had to do with the matrix in which you were actually hunting, and if there was no matrix, there was no reason to do it.
That may have changed, as I notice that many seem to want to airtest. But I still don't airtest except for the most general of issues- is the coil picking this object up, for instance. Don't worry about it...

 

[BHMACK]

Thanks for the reply. Yea, I only airtest to get a general idea of sounds of a new detector not depth. I have a nail, pulltab, clad, etc. that I wave at the coil and then I'm out digging. The detection area seemed strange to me..... Maybe not. I quess "the coil seems to pick up shallow targets on outside edge" is what I'm trying to say. It seems like that would make a confusing pic with mutiple shallows in a small area.

Anyways, here's a pic of the detection area i'm getting.

Thanks again.

 

[sgoss66]

YES, the Pro Coil is hot on the edges, but only on shallow targets. It can be tough to pinpoint a shallow target for someone not familiar with the coil. Sometimes, you'll hit a shallow target, but with the edge of the coil -- and it will thus sound quieter/deeper than it is. It's especially bad with really shallow zinc pennies, which will also give a higher tone than normal when you hit them with the edge of the coil.

It might take a bit of getting used to, but you'll learn to deal with the "hot at the edges on shallow targets" thing. Don't worry, you don't have this problem on coins deeper than about an inch or so.

Steve

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Just lift your coil a few inches in the air to pinpoint the 5" shallow ones.

 

[JAN1]

Great cartoon, I think it may have been me a couple of weeks ago, I gave up in the end or I would have drowned.

 

[BHMACK]

Thanks for the info everyone! Raising the coil a bit seems to be the ticket in those situations. Cheers!