CoRe ground balance settings

[Herb Jones]

So I was out swinging the CoRe this weekend, and got into the habit of ground balancing every 10
Minutes or so... I had the auto ground tracking on and was running in Di3... I had a typical GB setting anywhere from 55-65... once I got a GB of 44 and started pulling more pennies. Towards the end of the day (I left it set low) I stopped digging and just jacked around with the GB settings to see the effect... is anyone else manually ground balancing and has anyone intentionally ran their machine intentionally hit or negative? What kinda results have you gotten

 

[dfmike]

From what I understand of the manual and the postings I have seen here, auto tracking should only be used in very rare circumstances. I've never tried it myself and have had great success with that switch set to off all the time.

Monte could tell you more about the GB settings and how it impacts this particular machine.

 

[Herb Jones]

Yeah I read the manual several times, saved a copy to my phone, I understand that slightly positive is better than negative and I also Understand about the auto ground tracking... which is why I was surprised by the increase in penny targets... I think I just happened across an old strip of grass that is just littered with coins... that's why I was asking because my results varied from what I expected. And I was actually not in Auto Tracking all the time... it began by my finding a target and then going through the different modes just so I could glean some info about the various adjustments, (when I had the unit set low I was in auto tracking however, and I ran the remainder of the hunt like that because it was producing)... it seemed odd to have found so many more coins when I accidentally set the GB low.... I went out this morning with the same low GB setting and found virtually nothing in a different area.... pretty sure my results were just happenstance... just walked into the right little stretch of ground.... later today I will play around with know targets at known depths and monkey around with the setting more. Last night I got a touch more depth when running a touch positive. It seemed as though the iffy signals at depth rang a little truer when bumped a few notches positive.

 

[KindManTall]

I seem to rely on the auto tracking .. Soil around here can change every 10 feet ,, sandy dirt .. dry hard pack .. muddy .. Just never know until you hit it with the trowel

 

[Monte]

Not that it means much here, but it shows I did have a talent for 'patching things up' and that might be what I am helpful with on this subject.

So I was out swinging the CoRe this weekend, and got into the habit of ground balancing every 10 Minutes or so ...

Why? The ONLY reason to adjust the GB every 10 minutes or so is if you are searching a site with an extreme mineral slope or a mix of rapidly-changing ground mineral make-up. Can it happen? Sure, but not with regularity and it's easy to deal with.

... I had the auto ground tracking on and was running in Di3....

Wrong, as I am sure you might have read in the User manual by now. The manufacturer suggests your ONLY use the auto-tracking function when searching in the threshold-based All Metal mode, and do NOT use it in the silent-search motion Discriminate modes.

.. I had a typical GB setting anywhere from 55-65... once I got a GB of 44 and started pulling more pennies.

Are you saying you found a spot and manually adjusted the GB to the '55' to '65' range, or that you just noticed the GB by looking at the displayed read-out?

You said that: "once I got a GB of 44 " and was that a G B that you noticed on the display, or did you manually Ground Balance to a setting of '44'?

Remember that regardless of what GB setting you MANUALLY adjusted the detector for, when using the 'Tracking' function it would only take a couple to a very few sweeps over the ground to re-adjust that GB setting since Tracking will not hold/maintain your manually set adjustment.

Towards the end of the day (I left it set low) I stopped digging and just jacked around with the GB settings to see the effect...

The 'effect' would be that regardless of what manual adjustments you made, the Tracking would automatically re-adjust the GB once you started sweeping over the ground..

.. is anyone else manually ground balancing and has anyone intentionally ran their machine intentionally hit or negative?

Sometimes I do opt for the All Metal mode, but still rely in Manual GB to handle my needs. I would say there might be 3 or 4 times in a year that I might make use of Tracking, because Manual GB works just fine for me.

I take 'hit' to mean 'hot', and that 'hot' might mean slightly positive, so Yes, that is exactly what I do with all of my Nokta and Makro metal detectors. When I start to work a site, or if I notice an area of a hunt site shows a variable mix of mineralization, I simply pick the worst area [size=small](bad ground)[/size] and use the automated [size=small](NOT Tracking but pumping the coil with the GB pushbutton depressed)[/size] to get a functional GB. Most f the time it is close to spot-on or just a bit positive, and I usually make sure it is just a slightly positive GB even if I need to Manually bump it up anywhere from a .20 increase to a one or two full number increase to Positive.

What kinda results have you gotten

Excellent. That's why the Nokta CoRe, Relic and Impact are in my personal arsenal ... they all work excellent, and when anyone asks me, ... No, the Relic and impact, or my Makro Racer 2 or White's MX-7, are ALL great detectors for me, BUT ... NONE of them bump my CoRe out of the group and I actually use more CoRe as much as the others if not just a bit more often.

They work just fine and I get very reliable performance with the GB set just slightly positive on all my Makro and Nokta devices, and I do NOT use Tracking ever in a Disc. mode and very, very seldom in All Metal. I think you were correct on a follow-up post that the increase in coin finds that trip was simply because you wandered into an area that had them. It happens all the time to people, and I don't think it had anything at all to do with the GB topic.

Monte

 

[TellYaWhut]

From what i understand slightly negative GB is actually deeper, but may alter other settings. GB to be done first.

 

[Herb Jones]

Yeah I usually type This Out on a phone keypad, so I Am Sure that in trying to be concise, I haven't explained myself well or have left details out... the soil was terrible, looked like it was perhaps backfill once... lots of charcoal in spots and a mix from red gravel to dirt that grows no grass... I began in general Search Mode with auto tracking... just to get some swing time in that mode... I eventually went through all the modes and settled back into Di3. The 44 was achieved via a normal ground balance not auto tracking... it was then that it began raining pennies.... (went back yesterday) with the B2uM /LST and cleared out the pennies... had nothing to do with that negative ground balance.... while switching back and forth between modes I inadvertently left the auto tracking on while making adjustments... still learning,,, trying to find a use for the other modes instead of Di3 continuously... I very much appreciate the input.

 

[Monte]

From what i understand slightly negative GB is actually deeper, but may alter other settings. GB to be done first.

With SOME brands and/or models, there is a design off-set between the All Metal mode Ground Balance setting and the Discriminate mode's reference to that GB setting. With that circuitry design, and I am referring here to most Tesoro brand models, you need to have a somewhat Negative GB in the All Metal/Pinpoint function in order to have a close to spot-on or just slightly Positive GB in the silent-search Discriminate modes.

Some other slightly older competitive models from White's, the Classic series, were designed a little differently where in the Discriminate mode GB reference was just a little negative to the All Metal mode's GB setting. Therefore you have to have a slightly Positive GB in All Metal mode or the Disc. mode will false from having a too Negative GB function. A lot depends upon how a manufacturer designs their detectors, and if the GB adjustment is fully functional in any particular search mode.

The Ground Balance function of all my Makro and Nokta brand models, to include my CoRe which I guess you might call my favorite single unit, is designed so that:

1.. You should NOT use the Tracking feature when in a Discriminate mode, to include Di2, Di3 or COG [size=small](saltwater beach/wetted alkaline environment)[/size].

2.. Generally, the automated GB established by pumping the coil at start-up at a site is fully adequate fort Disc, mode searches.

3.. Manual Ground Balance can also provide a very workable setting, but takes some average Hobbyists a little longer to accomplish that task. It does, however, allow a savvy Detectorist to 'fine tune' the GB adjustment to their preference. I have found a slightly Positive GB offset to work very well for me. I have evaluated the GB setting in many different ground mineral environment over the past three years with the CoRe and found that a slightly Positive GB is advantageous over a Negative GB, providing better responses to smaller-size targets as well as deeper located target detection.

Monte

 

[TellYaWhut]

From what i understand slightly negative GB is actually deeper, but may alter other settings. GB to be done first.With SOME brands and/or models, there is a design off-set between the All Metal mode Ground Balance setting and the Discriminate mode's reference to that GB setting. With that circuitry design, and I am referring here to most Tesoro brand models, you need to have a somewhat Negative GB in the All Metal/Pinpoint function in order to have a close to spot-on or just slightly Positive GB in the silent-search Discriminate modes.

Some other slightly older competitive models from White's, the Classic series, were designed a little differently where in the Discriminate mode GB reference was just a little negative to the All Metal mode's GB setting. Therefore you have to have a slightly Positive GB in All Metal mode or the Disc. mode will false from having a too Negative GB function. A lot depends upon how a manufacturer designs their detectors, and if the GB adjustment is fully functional in any particular search mode.

The Ground Balance function of all my Makro and Nokta brand models, to include my CoRe which I guess you might call my favorite single unit, is designed so that:

1.. You should NOT use the Tracking feature when in a Discriminate mode, to include Di2, Di3 or COG (saltwater beach/wetted alkaline environment).

2.. Generally, the automated GB established by pumping the coil at start-up at a site is fully adequate fort Disc, mode searches.

3.. Manual Ground Balance can also provide a very workable setting, but takes some average Hobbyists a little longer to accomplish that task. It does, however, allow a savvy Detectorist to 'fine tune' the GB adjustment to their preference. I have found a slightly Positive GB offset to work very well for me. I have evaluated the GB setting in many different ground mineral environment over the past three years with the CoRe and found that a slightly Positive GB is advantageous over a Negative GB, providing better responses to smaller-size targets as well as deeper located target detection.

Monte

The model I was referring to was a Tek Omega 8000.... deeper with neg GB. Keith showed this in a video. I'd recommend testing whatever model you own and compare slightly Negative vs Positive....every individual model is diffrent. In fact every individual coil is diffrent, some hotter than others. Threshold setting will also affect depth. I personally dont like any type of auto (gb) Tracking. I guess Tracking is for gold sites where ground minerals change quickly. The Nokta manual is very clear about Not using Tracking in Disc mode. The Whites classic series including the screened IDX had the GB preset....unless modified to allow adjustability.

 

[dfmike]

3.. Manual Ground Balance can also provide a very workable setting, but takes some average Hobbyists a little longer to accomplish that task. It does, however, allow a savvy Detectorist to 'fine tune' the GB adjustment to their preference. I have found a slightly Positive GB offset to work very well for me. I have evaluated the GB setting in many different ground mineral environment over the past three years with the CoRe and found that a slightly Positive GB is advantageous over a Negative GB, providing better responses to smaller-size targets as well as deeper located target detection.

Monte

Thanks for your input Monte. What would slightly positive offset mean in specific terms ? If the GB on my CoRe reads 80 at a specific site, should I set it at 82, 85 or even higher ? I'll have to try this out.

 

[Monte]

3.. Manual Ground Balance can also provide a very workable setting, but takes some average Hobbyists a little longer to accomplish that task. It does, however, allow a savvy Detectorist to 'fine tune' the GB adjustment to their preference. I have found a slightly Positive GB offset to work very well for me. I have evaluated the GB setting in many different ground mineral environment over the past three years with the CoRe and found that a slightly Positive GB is advantageous over a Negative GB, providing better responses to smaller-size targets as well as deeper located target detection.

Monte

Thanks for your input Monte. What would slightly positive offset mean in specific terms ? If the GB on my CoRe reads 80 at a specific site, should I set it at 82, 85 or even higher ? I'll have to try this out.

Again, I apologize for a delay in responding to your question. I've been busy with family matters, spammers on my website, trying to get any detecting time in that I can for January, all while trying to finish my evaluations of two detectors and five search coils. I've been busy.

With most of the detectors I use, including the wonderful CoRe, I like to run a 'slightly positive' Ground Balance. The term 'slightly' is dependent upon the severity and fluctuation of the ground mineral at the location I am searching. For example, I have hunted some lake and rive beaches that vary only a little, as well as some big grassy parks that remain fairly consistent. Let's say the GB setting at one of those sites stays at 81.[size=small]20[/size] to 82.[size=small]80[/size] if I GB at three or four spots. Then I might just manually tweak the GB to 83.[size=small]00[/size] and hunt away.

A different example would be one of the gold mining era ghost towns I enjoy hunting where there might be a 'mellow' area that registers ± 78.[size=small]40[/size] to 81.[size=small]00[/size], but most of the locations calls for a GB from 82.[size=small]60[/size] to 85.[size=small]40[/size]. Quite an extreme spread and I don't want to have a negative GB, so I tweak is for a Positive setting that might be 86.[size=small]00[/size] or possibly even 87.[size=small]00[/size] and get on with searching.

My 'slightly' means usually one or two fractional steps ([size=small].20[/size] or [size=small].40[/size] above the highest GB setting), or 1 whole number to possibly 2 whole numbers above the worst ground at the place I am hunting.

Monte

 

[dfmike]

NT