William1221
Member
How do you judge how fast to swing the coil to make the detector the most efficient?
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coil speed
- Thread starter William1221
- Start date
Hi William,
The following will get you a good ballpark sweep speed.
1. On a piece of ground clear of targets, set the coil you are going to be using on the ground and place a dime on each side of the coil at the widest point of the coil.
2. Turn the detector on and do a normal setup including doing a Ground Balance.
3. Do very slow sweeps over the dimes and get two clear separate signals.
4. Begin increasing your sweep speed slightly with each pass while still getting two clear separate signals.
5. When you reach a speed where you get only one target signal, you are swinging slightly too fast.
6. Slow your sweep speed slightly till you again get clear signals on both dimes and you are at near optimum sweep speed for your settings with that search coil.
7. If you change to a different width search coil, you will need to do this process over again.
There are LOTS of variables involved with answering your question. However, there are some basic rules of thumb. One is, as the trash level goes up, the sweep speed should slow down. Another is, narrow search coils need to be swept slower than wider search coils. These rules of thumb are based on the premise that a detector can gather information about a target only while it is under the search coil.
Good luck
Bob
The following will get you a good ballpark sweep speed.
1. On a piece of ground clear of targets, set the coil you are going to be using on the ground and place a dime on each side of the coil at the widest point of the coil.
2. Turn the detector on and do a normal setup including doing a Ground Balance.
3. Do very slow sweeps over the dimes and get two clear separate signals.
4. Begin increasing your sweep speed slightly with each pass while still getting two clear separate signals.
5. When you reach a speed where you get only one target signal, you are swinging slightly too fast.
6. Slow your sweep speed slightly till you again get clear signals on both dimes and you are at near optimum sweep speed for your settings with that search coil.
7. If you change to a different width search coil, you will need to do this process over again.
There are LOTS of variables involved with answering your question. However, there are some basic rules of thumb. One is, as the trash level goes up, the sweep speed should slow down. Another is, narrow search coils need to be swept slower than wider search coils. These rules of thumb are based on the premise that a detector can gather information about a target only while it is under the search coil.
Good luck
Bob
Hunt4fun, I think your advice is very good. With that said, I have some personal experience that I'd like to mention. It seems to compliment your recommendation so I am not challenging it, you mentioned narrower coils and I'm just adding to that category.
I use the D2 coil which is a 10" DD. Compared to a concentric of similar size I would have to say it benefits from a MUCH slower sweep speed than you advise(advize). I don't think that means you are wrong, I think it is just a direct result of being a narrower coil SIGNAL. So the same procedure that you stated still applies with the exception to DD coils which you should place the two targets at about HALF the coils width. I have mentioned this in another post awhile back.
Lets assume your determined sweep speed allows you to cover the coil width every half second(that is not an accurate speed, just a baseline). That means a 10" concentric can cover 10" in 0.5 second. BUT a 10DD coil only has about 4" to 5" signal width so it can only cover 5" per half second. That is half the speed of a concentric coil.
Another basis for this theory is when separating targets within a couple inches of each other, It would be great if all targets were 10" apart. Since I have a D2 I have the luxury of searching right up against a piece of iron or trash and being able to separate good targets. In order to avoid nulling from multiple targets, I have to nearly stop the coil entirely and creep it very slowly to achieve this. This latter scenario is not dependent on the detectors SAT speed but rather on the coils ability to send two separate signals instead of one mustered signal at once.
As you said, there are MANY variables and it's nice to have a standard procedure to start with as you explained.
I use the D2 coil which is a 10" DD. Compared to a concentric of similar size I would have to say it benefits from a MUCH slower sweep speed than you advise(advize). I don't think that means you are wrong, I think it is just a direct result of being a narrower coil SIGNAL. So the same procedure that you stated still applies with the exception to DD coils which you should place the two targets at about HALF the coils width. I have mentioned this in another post awhile back.
Lets assume your determined sweep speed allows you to cover the coil width every half second(that is not an accurate speed, just a baseline). That means a 10" concentric can cover 10" in 0.5 second. BUT a 10DD coil only has about 4" to 5" signal width so it can only cover 5" per half second. That is half the speed of a concentric coil.
Another basis for this theory is when separating targets within a couple inches of each other, It would be great if all targets were 10" apart. Since I have a D2 I have the luxury of searching right up against a piece of iron or trash and being able to separate good targets. In order to avoid nulling from multiple targets, I have to nearly stop the coil entirely and creep it very slowly to achieve this. This latter scenario is not dependent on the detectors SAT speed but rather on the coils ability to send two separate signals instead of one mustered signal at once.
As you said, there are MANY variables and it's nice to have a standard procedure to start with as you explained.
Hi Aaron,
While writing my answer, I got bogged down with details about variables. The post began to look like I was trying to write a book. I changed my post to a general answer that would work reasonably well with any search coil and settings for a ballpark sweep speed.
I completely agree with your post. You did a fine job of covering the DD coil variable. Thank you for adding that information.
HH
Bob
While writing my answer, I got bogged down with details about variables. The post began to look like I was trying to write a book. I changed my post to a general answer that would work reasonably well with any search coil and settings for a ballpark sweep speed.
I completely agree with your post. You did a fine job of covering the DD coil variable. Thank you for adding that information.
HH
Bob
I have always had what i would call a slow swing speed especially when you compaire it with what you can see on club digs and rallies over here in the UK some people look like as if they are painting the field and want too cover as much ground as possible and then complain about not finding anything then decide to go home early.
Myself personally i prefer to use DD coils,but about 2 years ago i decided to not only slow my swing speed down even further but also reduce my forward motion at the same time,this i am still doing and the reason is my finds have certainly doubled and possible even more.I dont miss much and i am certain it gives the detector more time to work out what the target is,some detector have a very fast reaction but i still go slow.
On some of our really junky roman and saxon sites we can have alot of small iron nails,but not only would i use a small coil i still use a ultra slow swing speed so that it can pick out the iron and good targets,of course this does change a little if i am on my own permission or a club dig or rally,if i am on my own dig i can take as much time as i like so i can go as slow as a snail but of course on a club dig i could increase my swing speed a little as we only have a limited amount of time on the site.
Me personally it makes no odds what detector i use i am one of the ultra slow brigade,it is what works best for me,even wwhen using my Pulse is still use a slow swing speed.
So by reducing my all ready slow swing speed down even further my finds rate has doubled,that i feel about sums it up really.
Myself personally i prefer to use DD coils,but about 2 years ago i decided to not only slow my swing speed down even further but also reduce my forward motion at the same time,this i am still doing and the reason is my finds have certainly doubled and possible even more.I dont miss much and i am certain it gives the detector more time to work out what the target is,some detector have a very fast reaction but i still go slow.
On some of our really junky roman and saxon sites we can have alot of small iron nails,but not only would i use a small coil i still use a ultra slow swing speed so that it can pick out the iron and good targets,of course this does change a little if i am on my own permission or a club dig or rally,if i am on my own dig i can take as much time as i like so i can go as slow as a snail but of course on a club dig i could increase my swing speed a little as we only have a limited amount of time on the site.
Me personally it makes no odds what detector i use i am one of the ultra slow brigade,it is what works best for me,even wwhen using my Pulse is still use a slow swing speed.
So by reducing my all ready slow swing speed down even further my finds rate has doubled,that i feel about sums it up really.
I recently had a eye opener for me. Ive been hitting a ghost town that is right on the edge of the city. Its a major iron pit.
Ive hunted it 4 other times both with the 5" and 5x10 coils on my g2.
I always pulled a few non ferrous items out but nothing good. every one I know has given up on the site.
After watching a relic hunter video I noticed how fast he was sweeping. I was hitting it kinda slow trying to separate targets.
I hit a spot with allot a visible square nails and on top of the ground was a copper rivet. I swept it and nothing so I played with sweep speed and at a medium brisk speed It came through the iron.
A very fast high among the iron grunts almost like a false but it was consistent.
I started hunting this way and pulling more targets than normal Finding the lead left after the tin has rotted away.
I ended up pulling a 1856 seated quarter and I was using the 11 inch coil to boot.
For some reason that fast speed helped to unmask in the thick iron. Exactly the opposite of what I would expect.
It seems that sweep speed is site specific and depending on what targets you are looking for. Different speeds may help bring them to light. .
HH
Ive hunted it 4 other times both with the 5" and 5x10 coils on my g2.
I always pulled a few non ferrous items out but nothing good. every one I know has given up on the site.
After watching a relic hunter video I noticed how fast he was sweeping. I was hitting it kinda slow trying to separate targets.
I hit a spot with allot a visible square nails and on top of the ground was a copper rivet. I swept it and nothing so I played with sweep speed and at a medium brisk speed It came through the iron.
A very fast high among the iron grunts almost like a false but it was consistent.
I started hunting this way and pulling more targets than normal Finding the lead left after the tin has rotted away.
I ended up pulling a 1856 seated quarter and I was using the 11 inch coil to boot.
For some reason that fast speed helped to unmask in the thick iron. Exactly the opposite of what I would expect.
It seems that sweep speed is site specific and depending on what targets you are looking for. Different speeds may help bring them to light. .
HH
godigit1, It is odd but sometimes what is on paper doesn't always apply in reality. I think almost all the time slower is better but perhaps switching it up will allow other targets to be seen. If you are cross detecting the site you could decide on a different swing speed for each direction that you detect and get the best out of all swing speeds that the detector can handle. That 1856 quarter was there because it was in such a difficult place to detect and everyone else gave up before finding it. You can't find it if you're not trying, Great find!
My view is sweep speed for deep target depends on the particular machine . I have had machines that hunted better at a slow sweep(cz5) & others that go deeper at a fast sweep (6000 di pro). me thinks it's on the machine u r using which means one should become 1 with what u use. the test above is a good start to that. I've an early MXT and love it, when time constrained can hunt fast & cover ground. When i've more time slow the sweep and hunt deeper--- the best of both worlds.
Flintstone
Well-known member
Ralph, the MXT is very forgiving in speed. It dose good fast or slow, one of the best detectors made in the last 15 years, and i have tryed alot. Flintstone