Another Question About - Auto. & Manual Sensitivity

[E-Trac-Ohio]

I know this subject has been talked about many times but ...

I've been using the settings below at junky sites for about a year now - mainly with a 6" Excellerator - but somes a SEF 10 X 12 - making some good finds - but I think need to start using Manual Sensitivity more often ?

Question - Should I run the Manual Sens as high as possible - till it becomes unstable - then back off a little ?

Tones --- 2TF
Sens. --- Auto + 3
Fast ----- On
Deep ---- Off
Trash ---- High
Ground -- Difficult

Thanks for your replies in advance ! --- Mark

 

[McDean]

Mark, this is just me but... I usually hunt in auto @ 1st to get a "feel" for the site/ground conditions/EMI, etc... I use every trick I can think of to get the auto to bump higher. After I've covered a little ground, I will switch to manual a notch or 2 higher than auto +3 & either increase or decrease from there. I like to run nice and stable so I get a thresh in between targets. Manual is preferred but if auto is in upper 20's then I leave it there. In my area targets are not deep (surface to 6") so I don't feel the need to run "hot" all the time. Smooth and stable for me. Now if I'm @ a beach where things can be deeeep, then I go hot as possible and will tolerate some noise for the extra depth.

Hope that helps, if you are comfy in auto and getting plenty of depth with stable operation then that's great, but if you want to push the limits, listen to extra noise, throw I.d. #'s, and possibly get frustrated, then try manual... maybe try it for one full hunt or just an hour to check it out...

Find a nice, deep repeatable signal, try to guess what it could be, then try different settings one at a time to see how each one affects the signal... does it get clearer, more warbly, #'s change? I'm still learning too, so let us know how it goes!

GH & have fun!

 

[EladSwerdna]

I hunt manual on 30 sens. It's the only way to fly.

The ONLY time I will use auto is when it gets really trashy.

 

[Jack Flynn]

Manual 28 to 30 all the time. The extra noise is actually what is in the dirt I've found out. I feel ilke I don't have my machine on when in auto it's so quiet! LOL

 

[RandyNorthridgeca]

I bought the e-trac when it first came out. I used auto all the time until last year. I now use auto (+3) just to check what sensitivity it's running at then I switch to manual and bump up the sensitivity two or three numbers above the auto setting. It's been working out pretty well so far. In my opinion depth isn't a problem when my sensitivity runs above 21.

 

[utahshovelhead]

Keeping in mind that it is the DIRT you are in that makes most the adjustments necessary and that comparing notes on how we set up a machine is dependant on the dirt we search. That being said: my experience with sensitivity is this- Yes crank the sensitivity up as far as you can stand it but it will become more unstable and more and more fallsing, ghost, iffys, and just plain noise will go with the instability above some point.

In one particular spot I will crank up the sens like that but it takes allot out of my concentration and everything you got to make good digging decisions without going nuts from all the sound and thinking and digging holes. I say one particular spot because I can dig easily and nobody will get mad if I dig tons of holes...most of them not having anything in them. So yes some deeper targets may appear but the ability to say " that is most likely an iffy target I'm just barely getting a read on" will also disappear. Instead bringing the sens down by increments will get you more stability and with it you ll be able to say with a higher likely hood that the target is a good iffy or not.

After trial and error with this you will find the right amount that works for you. Once you find the right sens for that spot then I strongly suggest you stick to it as much as possible because when hunting like that its the CONSISTENCY that makes your brain recognize the differences in what is happening. That is why Bryce sticks to his basic format because he can recognize how his machine responds. If you change allot or raise your sens above what stability your used to then now you have to re learn what is consistent and its hard to distinguish what is good and what is false.

A stable sensitivity allows you to keep a consistent information read and then a target gives the machine the inconsistency in terms of position, number and sound.
So crank it up little by little to a point you can learn and work with but the truth will disappear as well as you climb up with it and the fun disapears with it as it becomes more disapointing. Only on the really good sites that you are really trying to clean out some great stuff is that worth it as its much more fun when you can consistently find good targets without so much false targeting.
On a nice clean beach with no black sand, no minerals, you can go maxed sens and have great stability...but were not on a beach are we.

Ahh...I really need to get in the Sun so I can spend less time on this forsaken pu ewter , Dont I.

good luck,
utahshovelhead

 

[Digger]

Conditions under the coil constantly change. Step by step in some sites. Unstable feedback when boosting your E-TRAC Sensitivity above what is the "optimum" working Sensitivity is, in some regard, similar to cranking your ground balance way too far to the positive on other models of detectors. Some detectors have Ground Tracking where the electronics compensate for that ever changing mineralization "obstacle". We don't have to worry about running a proper GB on the E-TRAC because Minelab engineers took care of that (equation) for us automatically. And when you think about it, they also "took care" of optimizing the Sensitivity settings by providing Auto Sensitivity. I realize that the electronic functionality behind a properly set ground balance is totally different than the electronic functionality of a properly set Sensitivity. But just as the engineers took care of maintaining a proper GB on your E-TRAC, Auto Sensitivity was put in the E-TRAC for a reason. Like I said at the start of this post, conditions under the coil constantly change. Auto Sensitivity allows you operate your E-TRAC with what the software determines to be the optimized Sensitivity setting at any given instance. And to top that off, it also allows the user to tweak it either way (+ or -) and still maintain great performance by implementing multiple channels. They're not all three set to the same channel, as when using the manual mode.

With all that said, I agree that some folks can learn to decipher the subtle changes made by the constantly changing conditions under the coil. For those folks, boosting the Sensitivity via the Manual mode can increase the depth of detection at that exact point in time. But if your conditions under the coil change as rapidly as most sites I hunt, that manual setting you just locked in may not be the "optimum" when you take another few steps. JMHO HH Randy

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Some good info. here Randy - a clear explaination of Auto. & Manual Sens. work - I'll also have to start watching my Sensitivity numbers more often - something I've neglected in the past.
I also need to do some testing on deeper targets - see how the same target comes in using Auto vs. Manual, etc.

Thanks again for the post ! -- Mark

-

Conditions under the coil constantly change. Step by step in some sites. Unstable feedback when boosting your E-TRAC Sensitivity above what is the "optimum" working Sensitivity is, in some regard, similar to cranking your ground balance way too far to the positive on other models of detectors. Some detectors have Ground Tracking where the electronics compensate for that ever changing mineralization "obstacle". We don't have to worry about running a proper GB on the E-TRAC because Minelab engineers took care of that (equation) for us automatically. And when you think about it, they also "took care" of optimizing the Sensitivity settings by providing Auto Sensitivity. I realize that the electronic functionality behind a properly set ground balance is totally different than the electronic functionality of a properly set Sensitivity. But just as the engineers took care of maintaining a proper GB on your E-TRAC, Auto Sensitivity was put in the E-TRAC for a reason. Like I said at the start of this post, conditions under the coil constantly change. Auto Sensitivity allows you operate your E-TRAC with what the software determines to be the optimized Sensitivity setting at any given instance. And to top that off, it also allows the user to tweak it either way (+ or -) and still maintain great performance by implementing multiple channels. They're not all three set to the same channel, as when using the manual mode.

With all that said, I agree that some folks can learn to decipher the subtle changes made by the constantly changing conditions under the coil. For those folks, boosting the Sensitivity via the Manual mode can increase the depth of detection at that exact point in time. But if your conditions under the coil change as rapidly as most sites I hunt, that manual setting you just locked in may not be the "optimum" when you take another few steps. JMHO HH Randy

 

[sugar]

Some good info. here Randy - a clear explaination of Auto. & Manual Sens. work - I'll also have to start watching my Sensitivity numbers more often - something I've neglected in the past.
I also need to do some testing on deeper targets - see how the same target comes in using Auto vs. Manual, etc.

Thanks again for the post ! -- Mark

-

Conditions under the coil constantly change. Step by step in some sites. Unstable feedback when boosting your E-TRAC Sensitivity above what is the "optimum" working Sensitivity is, in some regard, similar to cranking your ground balance way too far to the positive on other models of detectors. Some detectors have Ground Tracking where the electronics compensate for that ever changing mineralization "obstacle". We don't have to worry about running a proper GB on the E-TRAC because Minelab engineers took care of that (equation) for us automatically. And when you think about it, they also "took care" of optimizing the Sensitivity settings by providing Auto Sensitivity. I realize that the electronic functionality behind a properly set ground balance is totally different than the electronic functionality of a properly set Sensitivity. But just as the engineers took care of maintaining a proper GB on your E-TRAC, Auto Sensitivity was put in the E-TRAC for a reason. Like I said at the start of this post, conditions under the coil constantly change. Auto Sensitivity allows you operate your E-TRAC with what the software determines to be the optimized Sensitivity setting at any given instance. And to top that off, it also allows the user to tweak it either way (+ or -) and still maintain great performance by implementing multiple channels. They're not all three set to the same channel, as when using the manual mode.

With all that said, I agree that some folks can learn to decipher the subtle changes made by the constantly changing conditions under the coil. For those folks, boosting the Sensitivity via the Manual mode can increase the depth of detection at that exact point in time. But if your conditions under the coil change as rapidly as most sites I hunt, that manual setting you just locked in may not be the "optimum" when you take another few steps. JMHO HH Randy

 

[sugar]

Some good info. here Randy - a clear explaination of Auto. & Manual Sens. work - I'll also have to start watching my Sensitivity numbers more often - something I've neglected in the past.
I also need to do some testing on deeper targets - see how the same target comes in using Auto vs. Manual, etc.

Thanks again for the post ! -- Mark

-

Conditions under the coil constantly change. Step by step in some sites. Unstable feedback when boosting your E-TRAC Sensitivity above what is the "optimum" working Sensitivity is, in some regard, similar to cranking your ground balance way too far to the positive on other models of detectors. Some detectors have Ground Tracking where the electronics compensate for that ever changing mineralization "obstacle". We don't have to worry about running a proper GB on the E-TRAC because Minelab engineers took care of that (equation) for us automatically. And when you think about it, they also "took care" of optimizing the Sensitivity settings by providing Auto Sensitivity. I realize that the electronic functionality behind a properly set ground balance is totally different than the electronic functionality of a properly set Sensitivity. But just as the engineers took care of maintaining a proper GB on your E-TRAC, Auto Sensitivity was put in the E-TRAC for a reason. Like I said at the start of this post, conditions under the coil constantly change. Auto Sensitivity allows you operate your E-TRAC with what the software determines to be the optimized Sensitivity setting at any given instance. And to top that off, it also allows the user to tweak it either way (+ or -) and still maintain great performance by implementing multiple channels. They're not all three set to the same channel, as when using the manual mode.


thanks for that digger as even i understand it WOW

With all that said, I agree that some folks can learn to decipher the subtle changes made by the constantly changing conditions under the coil. For those folks, boosting the Sensitivity via the Manual mode can increase the depth of detection at that exact point in time. But if your conditions under the coil change as rapidly as most sites I hunt, that manual setting you just locked in may not be the "optimum" when you take another few steps. JMHO HH Randy

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Thanks for the imput guy's !