steve herschbach
New member
I was an early Infinium fan and have done well with it. But as my article at http://www.detectorprospector.com/steves-mining-journal/garrett-infinium-kaui-hawaii-gold-jewely.htm notes the unit made me a bit crazy with salt water instability. It seemed like I was always fighting the Infinium and if I could have my wish all I wanted was one that behaved in Hawaii. Tried three different Infiniums there, all with the same result.
Then I got a chance to run a TDI in Hawaii, and figured I had my dream unit. When wading the TDI seemed to be all the Infinium was not, very stable and quiet both with EMI and salt water with mixed hot rocks. All I thought I had to do was wait for White's to produce a waterproof TDI and I would be good to go.
I waited. And waited. And waited. And lobbied. And waited. And lobbied. And waited some more.
I waited so long Garrett finally did something I did not expect and surprised me with the ATX. Given Garrett's past history I just figured they would sit pat with the Infinium for 20 years.
I am headed to Hawaii again in January. I have been pondering for a year what to take. I always go with two detectors at least after a failure years ago cost me a vacations worth if detecting. The CTX 3030 is going for sure. But I prefer PI detectors and for some time considered building a waterproof TDI. Then decided may as well get another Infinium or Surf PI. And all the sudden out of left field the ATX appears. Yay, dilemma solved! Now if it will just run smoother than the Infinium, and I think it will. The ground balance range has been expanded to include salt water, the nemesis of the Infinium. From the ATX owners manual:
Saltwater Operation
When mixed with water, salt and other electrolytes become conductive and may therefore cause any detector to respond as if the saltwater were a metal target. In fact, to a detector, saltwater has an electrical conductivity very similar to foil, fine gold and other poor conductors.
Traditionally with pulse detectors, to address the saltwater response the Delay/Discrimination setting was increased until the saltwater response was sufficiently eliminated.This method, although effective, can significantly reduce the detection of fine gold, jewelry, and other poor conductors due to the increased Discrimination setting.
Therefore, to help reduce this undesirable loss of detection, the ATX has an alternative method to address saltwater. Specifically, the ATX can automatically ground balance out the saltwater response without the need to increase Discrimination; thereby maintaining a better response to fine gold, jewelry, and other poor conductors.
The two methods to address saltwater are:
1) Ground Balance Method: Leave Discrimination set to minimum and Ground Balance to the saltwater as would be done for any other ground. This method will provide the best detection of fine gold, etc. but will produce a low-tone response for all targets.It is important to Ground Balance the detector when it moves to a new region of the beach (i.e. from wet sand to dry sand at the water's edge).
2) Traditional Discrimination Method: Incrementally increase the Discrimination setting until the saltwater response is sufficiently eliminated, typically around 3
Then I got a chance to run a TDI in Hawaii, and figured I had my dream unit. When wading the TDI seemed to be all the Infinium was not, very stable and quiet both with EMI and salt water with mixed hot rocks. All I thought I had to do was wait for White's to produce a waterproof TDI and I would be good to go.
I waited. And waited. And waited. And lobbied. And waited. And lobbied. And waited some more.
I waited so long Garrett finally did something I did not expect and surprised me with the ATX. Given Garrett's past history I just figured they would sit pat with the Infinium for 20 years.
I am headed to Hawaii again in January. I have been pondering for a year what to take. I always go with two detectors at least after a failure years ago cost me a vacations worth if detecting. The CTX 3030 is going for sure. But I prefer PI detectors and for some time considered building a waterproof TDI. Then decided may as well get another Infinium or Surf PI. And all the sudden out of left field the ATX appears. Yay, dilemma solved! Now if it will just run smoother than the Infinium, and I think it will. The ground balance range has been expanded to include salt water, the nemesis of the Infinium. From the ATX owners manual:
Saltwater Operation
When mixed with water, salt and other electrolytes become conductive and may therefore cause any detector to respond as if the saltwater were a metal target. In fact, to a detector, saltwater has an electrical conductivity very similar to foil, fine gold and other poor conductors.
Traditionally with pulse detectors, to address the saltwater response the Delay/Discrimination setting was increased until the saltwater response was sufficiently eliminated.This method, although effective, can significantly reduce the detection of fine gold, jewelry, and other poor conductors due to the increased Discrimination setting.
Therefore, to help reduce this undesirable loss of detection, the ATX has an alternative method to address saltwater. Specifically, the ATX can automatically ground balance out the saltwater response without the need to increase Discrimination; thereby maintaining a better response to fine gold, jewelry, and other poor conductors.
The two methods to address saltwater are:
1) Ground Balance Method: Leave Discrimination set to minimum and Ground Balance to the saltwater as would be done for any other ground. This method will provide the best detection of fine gold, etc. but will produce a low-tone response for all targets.It is important to Ground Balance the detector when it moves to a new region of the beach (i.e. from wet sand to dry sand at the water's edge).
2) Traditional Discrimination Method: Incrementally increase the Discrimination setting until the saltwater response is sufficiently eliminated, typically around 3