AT Max tips

[Daniel Tn]

I have read a lot about the AT Max having a scratchy/buzz sound on the tones. The AT Pro has a much cleaner sounding audio to it. I noticed the same thing on the Max. I figured out it is coming from the wireless headphones. I don't have a headphone adapter to try other phones but I do have the blue waterproof phones...which are not high quality...but even on them, the buzz is gone and the tones much clearer. I like the fit of the wireless phones but I do believe the scratchy/buzz sound is because of them. Just something you can keep in mind to try.

Also, beware of bad ground. I have noticed on my Max that if the GB is higher than say 87, you need to be investigating iron hits. My machine will ID coins, minie balls, etc as iron in this kind of ground if they are deeper than 6 to 7 inches. If you run iron disc, you will pass right over them. I dug several minie balls Saturday in ground like this, that read no higher than mid 20s on the ID while in the ground. Once you cut a plug and removed a few inches of soil, the ID perks up and they read like they should. I have seen this several times now. The cut off seems to be around the 87 GB range. I have soil that GBs in the low to mid 80s that I can get good Id's on a dime at 10 inches and nickel at 13. But all soil I have been in that GBs 87 or higher, and the detector seems to struggle once the targets get past 6 inches.

 

[jim tn]

Thanks for this info, Daniel. Your tips may push me to try a Max. HH jim tn

 

[basstrackerman]

My max never ground balances below 91. Anywhere I go. My other machines all tell me the same thing on soil condition except the max says all soil is bad.. it seems to work fine but just surprised me.. not sure what to think.also on mine and my nephew's Max's the only time we hear scratchy tones is if we use coin mode or too much disc and the objects disced out try to bleed into a tone.. as soon as we go 00 the tones all smooth out and sound good..

 

[Daniel Tn]

I've not had mine in coin mode yet. I run Pro Zero. I started out running 0 disc. I am always cautious when using VLF machines in hot ground; it pays to be aware of the iron masking with the ground. On my machine, I found the opposite to be true with the clearing up of the tones. To my ears, what I hear with iron disc on 0, reminds me of a Nautilus machine, in that you can hear the target approaching as it passes through the outer edges of the coil...it will give a buzzy iron sound. Then once the center part of the coil gets over it, you get the sharp report of a non ferrous target. To hear it on Pro Zero and 0 iron disc, it would almost sound like a target surrounded by iron. I figured out on my particular machine, these iron buzzes could be quietened by running the iron disc up between 5 and 10. I kinda settled on 10, as that still allows me to hear the targets without the buzz in good ground, and still be able to get a signal in bad ground, when the targets are reading in the 20s.

If I use the auto GB button to balance, my numbers are always approx 5 digits higher than if I manual GB on the same spot when in hotter ground. For some reason my machine auto balances on the positive side. I have been trying to figure out what the Ground Balance Window setting is telling me. My understanding of this is, that the wider the number is up there, the more severe the ground is. The main GB number in the center of the screen is just the median for the actual ground balance number. It is supposed to give a range, which will show up above iron disc while you are ground balancing. If your main GB number is 91 but the ground balance window number is just say, 22, then the way I understand it, it's not as bad as if your main GB was 91 and your window number is 88. The first digit is supposed to be the lowest part of the spread, and the other digit is the top end of the spread. So if it is 91 with an 88 in the range...it would be a spread of 83-99 in the ground balance range....where as the 22 number would only be a spread of 89-93....a much smaller window, meaning it probably isn't trying to compensate for a wide range of minerals. That's my understanding of it...I may be off on that thinking. I think that is correct though because when I am in ground that gives almost the same median GB number, but has a low Ground Balance range spread....the detector runs smoother and the IDs are closer to where they should be. When the Ground Balance spread numbers are big, my machine has trouble with ground noise, and starts to want to GB automatically on the positive side. In this kind of ground is where I'm running into the iron hits turning out to be non ferrous targets.

There is a lot to the audio in this machine. It is not my favorite detector by any means. The AT Pro was more stable and cleaner on the hits, BUT also not as deep as the Max. The Gold and Max are pretty close in depth, IMO. I think the Gold is a little smoother running than the Max too but that's just my opinion...they are very very close in performance. Going by my old notes on the AT Pro....if I take the AT Max and reduce sensitivity around 4 bars from maxxed out...it comes very close to how the AT Pro air tests while at its maxxed out setting. That comes at a price though. If you are planning on getting a Max, I highly recommend investing in one of those after market chargable batteries. Other wise, you are going to go through the alkaline batteries like crazy. I think having the wireless headphones on most of the time is what is doing it.

 

[an khe]

concerning the ground balance on the Max,in the manual it says it has 175 points. Anything above 75 on the ground balance, you have to go in quarter increments to get a whole number if you want to increase it.So if get 80 on the ground balance and want to increase to 81,then I believe you have to increase it 4 times to get 81.Please correct me if this wrong. With that said, if you get 44 in the (Ground Balance Window), your Ground Balance would have a spread of 79-81. If I'm wrong in my thoughts please forgive me. But this how I'm reading this.

 

[Daniel Tn]

When you manual GB it instead of auto balancing, you can see the 1/4 increments. It is represented by what are normally the ID segments and, and is determined by where they are on the screen. When you go up in numbers, the segments shift to the right for 4 times, then start back at the left. When manual GBing you can either hold the +/- button down to do it rapidly or single stage it to fine tune. I'm finding that manual GBing makes the machine more stable for me in hot dirt. It helps tremendously when wanting to run in all metal mode. Otherwise, the machine wants to balance positive, which makes too much noise in all metal.

 

[Daniel Tn]

I did a little hunt and decided to video a little.

This will show you what I'm referring to with the iron sound in the hot soil, and the 7 inch "cut off" point. Now...take note I am using a 12x13 size DD coil. On the stock 8x11 coil, the iron sounds begin at approx 6 inches and by 7, are totally iron signals. This bullet was 7 inches deep and had already begun to give a mixed signal of iron and non ferrous with the bigger coil. If it would have been a half inch to inch deeper, it would have been a total iron signal until I removed some soil from it.

Was running in Custom mode. The reason for that is just so the machine retains my settings when I turn it off and on again. But basically my settings are Pro Zero mode, one bar down from full sensitivity, and iron disc at 10. I opt to run iron disc at 10 because if I run it at 0, the detector puts an iron buzz sound on the target. Running at 10 eliminates that...but running it any higher and then it poses a real threat to knocking out deeper non ferrous targets.

Here is the video link....I do not allow ads on my videos and hope it is OK to post here.

https://youtu.be/qXzcpNJATNw