Clean Sweep Coil,Air Distances on my Vaquero

[KVM2]

I finally found my Clean sweep coil and decided to see what various targets would do in air.....Vaquero, threshold maxed, sensitivity just at ten (room to go yet) . Silver half dollar over 8 inches, call it under nine.....Quarter , nickel,large cent, copper ring at 8 inches....two small gold rings at 7 inches, same size silver ring came in at 6 inches (?)..Then everything else hit at around and above 7 inches...Indian cent, 3cent nickle,silver dime.,and a silver half dime..That last one was a surprise....It is raining this evening,and I hope I can get to my test yard tomorrow..It will be nice to spend a couple of hours swinging.

 

[BarberBill]

Be interesting to see what you'll get in the ground. Those are pretty good figures for a clean sweep even in the air.
BB

 

[KVM2]

Those numbers are better than the last time I tried..The only difference is the last time I did an air distance, it was off the bottom of the coil, as you would search in the ground..This time from the top..That should have no difference on the distance..However, I noticed the plug in on the cord went in deeper.....better connection? One test, a long time ago, made me wish I hadn't sold my Silver..The Vaquero tested 1.5 inches LESS in distance than the Silver....I had forgotten to tighten everything down.Was just a contact contact..Since I pull and pop coils all the time, wondering if I should have the box connector replaced.. Also, hard wiring the coil wire to the circuit in order to gain maximum performance..This brings up the possibility of having multiple same detectors, each hard wired to a specific coil..Also, the degree of connectivity, coil to electronics, may account for some detectors being "HOT", and others "WIMPS"...I have not had my second cup of coffee yet, and you can see how dangerous that is.

 

[BarberBill]

Actually I think (coffe or not) you may be on to something worth keeping in mind or pursuing further. I don't think most of us would want to buy a separate detector for each coil, but being doubly sure that we keep the connections up to snuff may make more difference than we realize.
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[Monte]

Sorry this is a slow response. I had one started yesterday afternoon, but haven't been feeling well and I took a nap that turned into a needed longer rest. I had my reply almost finished, but lost it when my computer rebooted after doing some automatic updates. Computers.

I finally found my Clean sweep coil and decided to see what various targets would do in air.....Vaquero, threshold maxed, sensitivity just at ten (room to go yet) . Silver half dollar over 8 inches, call it under nine.....Quarter, nickel, large cent, copper ring at 8 inches....two small gold rings at 7 inches, same size silver ring came in at 6 inches (?)..Then everything else hit at around and above 7 inches...Indian cent, 3cent nickle,silver dime.,and a silver half dime..That last one was a surprise....It is raining this evening,and I hope I can get to my test yard tomorrow..It will be nice to spend a couple of hours swinging.

Good results from the Clean Sweep coil, but I attribute some of that to it being an "air test," and there was no mention of the Discriminate setting or the Ground Balance setting. The real 'test' will come when you use it for that couple of hours working over ground mineralization.

Maxing out the Threshold setting might also cut in on overall performance. For twenty-nine years now I have occasionally used a 'Hyper-Tune' setting (I believe Tesoro calls it 'Super-Tune' but I called it Hyper-Tune long before that). It is NOT a setting I use a lot because I also like to use the traditional All Metal search mode or Pinpoint function, and cranking the Threshold a lot from a proper slight audio hum eliminates the use of All Metal and Pinpoint.

Also, I found that the detector should first be tuned for the best Discrimination (lowest possible), Ground Balanced, and the highest Sensitivity level usable, then perhaps goose up the Threshold just a little. If the Threshold is maxed out it can augment the 'noise' level and cause us to reduce the Sensitivity level and that's not a trade-off I want to make.

Those numbers are better than the last time I tried..The only difference is the last time I did an air distance, it was off the bottom of the coil, as you would search in the ground..This time from the top..That should have no difference on the distance.

Correct, there should have been little-to-do difference in performance from the center-line of the search coil with over the top or under the bottom. The only differences were the settings used this time Vs the last time you tested it. Now, there could have been a difference if this was the same search coil but a different Vaquero, too, because through the years I have seen more variances from Tesoro among the same models. That was mostly in the 1980s and '90s, but it still occurs today.

However, I noticed the plug in on the cord went in deeper.....better connection?

You lost me on that comment. Are you referring to the plug on the coil housing or that you attach to the detector? The one on the coil housing shouldn't be changes, and the one on to attach to the control housing ought to be the same connector with the same

One test, a long time ago, made me wish I hadn't sold my Silver..The Vaquero tested 1.5 inches LESS in distance than the Silver....I had forgotten to tighten everything down. Was just a contact contact.

I've had that occur with other Tesoro models, with the lower-priced model matching or falling short of the higher-cost unit. Usually, if the same coil is compared, the difference is caused by the settings used, especially the Ground Balance adjustment.

Since I pull and pop coils all the time, wondering if I should have the box connector replaced.. Also, hard wiring the coil wire to the circuit in order to gain maximum performance..This brings up the possibility of having multiple same detectors, each hard wired to a specific coil..Also, the degree of connectivity, coil to electronics, may account for some detectors being "HOT", and others "WIMPS"...I have not had my second cup of coffee yet, and you can see how dangerous that is.

I don't believe you'd note much difference at all between a hard-wired model and the same unit with a quality connector. If the contacts are clean and make good connection, all should be just fine.

As for some models being 'HOT' and other being 'WIMPS,' that can happen with any make or model on the market. I will state, however, that I have noticed more variance between several of the same models from Tesoro. As I stated, it was more obvious in the '80s and '90s, but I still note it on occasion today.Sometimes I attribute that to the components used in production and, and also I see many differences on models that have an internally preset Ground Balance where they are not all adjusted consistently.

Back to your Vaquero and CleanSweep 'air-testing.' I mentioned that you didn't state the Ground Balance setting you used and that, lone, can make a difference in performance, even with an 'air-test.' To compare how some adjustments can affect our detector's performance, gather up all the test sample coins you used and add one more to the mix. Add a big ol' Silver Dollar as the highest-conductive coin. Then, position your Vaquero (or other model) and the coil you want to test, on a metal-free surface such as a wooden table. Then, adjust the detector as follows.:

1.. Set the Discriminate level at MINIMUM.

2.. Set the Threshold at a 'proper' slight audio hum in the All Metal mode, then shift back to Discrimination.

3.. Set the Sensitivity at the highest allowable setting w/o chatter ... or ... set it at '10'. Either way, leave it at that setting for all of the testing.

4.. Turn the Ground Balance control fully counter-clockwise (to the left), or what we consider the negative direction. Turn it completely counter-clockwise.

5.. Align the test sample coins in order from the lowest-conductive on up to the highest-conductive, with the Silver 25

 

[BarberBill]

Monte - some years ago I had a discussion about changing coils on the preset machines with one of the folks from Tesoro. He said in order to get OPTIMUM performance having the coil matched to the detector is right on. However, in my mild soil I've been able to get acceptable performance with coils from the 4" up to the 10.5 donut on my SSumax without sending them in. I can't say that they might not do better if balanced to the detector, but they run quiet and the depth is within the ranges one would expect so I've been satisfied. However, if I only planned to use one particular coil I'd definitely have that one tuned to the detector.
Thanks for all your experienced input.
BB