midnightcaller
New member
I just bought me a new E-TRAC I have had it for 2 days now, what is the average learning time on it?
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E-TRAC
- Thread starter midnightcaller
- Start date
midnightcaller
New member
[sup][size=medium]I have it on order I should get it sometime on Friday[/size][/sup]
tippyhound
New member
I was given a copy of of The Minelab Explorer & E-Trac hand book when I purchased my Minelab E-Track. Before I even assembled my E-Trac I read this book twice and some parts of the book several times trying to get a good understanding of the controls and settings. I then read the owners manual that came with the machine, then I assembled my machine and tried some of the settings and started learning how to set my machine up.
I have now owned my machine about a month and have set up two different discrimination programs for different areas I hunt. To say the least I am still learning as I go and have learned how to tweak those programs in the field to get better performance.
About a year from now check back with me and I will still be learning. This is one hell of a machine and I have already found two silver dimes a 1914 Barber Dime and A 1947 Rosie (laying right up against a big piece of junk, and a small pull tab right on top of it) both out of my own yard a area that has been hunted by me so many time I'd have bet a months pay there was nothing left to be found. Good thing I'm not a gambling man.
Be patent you won't be sorry you bought this machine.
I have now owned my machine about a month and have set up two different discrimination programs for different areas I hunt. To say the least I am still learning as I go and have learned how to tweak those programs in the field to get better performance.
About a year from now check back with me and I will still be learning. This is one hell of a machine and I have already found two silver dimes a 1914 Barber Dime and A 1947 Rosie (laying right up against a big piece of junk, and a small pull tab right on top of it) both out of my own yard a area that has been hunted by me so many time I'd have bet a months pay there was nothing left to be found. Good thing I'm not a gambling man.
Be patent you won't be sorry you bought this machine.
Myownwings
New member
I have found the E-Trac to be a very easy detector to learn and understand. The ability of it to pick out items among trash is truly remarkable. Also, it loves to go slow, which suits me just fine. I read a little every day in Andy's book, even though I've read it multiple times...it is kind of my bathroom book..lol. I am totally confident about the ability of the E-Trac and I no longer spends hours and hours trying to determine optimal swing speeds, ground filters, AC and DC, recovery speed, pre amp gain, etc, all of which change from day to day and location to location. Now, I just just noise cancel, change a couple settings and I'm hunting and finding things right away. Be glad you have the E-Trac and take your time learning it. It is just fine out of the box, so it's not like you are missing tons of stuff because you haven't perfected a ton of interactive settings.. Minelab has it all figured out already for you.
Myownwings said:I have found the E-Trac to be a very easy detector to learn and understand. The ability of it to pick out items among trash is truly remarkable. Also, it loves to go slow, which suits me just fine. I read a little every day in Andy's book, even though I've read it multiple times...it is kind of my bathroom book..lol. I am totally confident about the ability of the E-Trac and I no longer spends hours and hours trying to determine optimal swing speeds, ground filters, AC and DC, recovery speed, pre amp gain, etc, all of which change from day to day and location to location. Now, I just just noise cancel, change a couple settings and I'm hunting and finding things right away. Be glad you have the E-Trac and take your time learning it. It is just fine out of the box, so it's not like you are missing tons of stuff because you haven't perfected a ton of interactive settings.. Minelab has it all figured out already for you.
++1 on this. Very well said. The ET is as simple or difficult as you want it to be. It's an amazing machine.
I've had a SovereignGT for 10+ years and am still learning things about it... Idon't think you'll ever really stop learning but with the ET you can begin to make good finds right out of the box.
If you are clad hunting use the "coins" mode and just go at it.
If you are hunting older coins and/or jewelry i'd use the relic pattern and null out the 01-02 line then disc back in 41-43 on those top two lines.
If you are hunting an old park or yard you may want to try Ferrous sounds and two tones. Then you will get a low tine on iron and a higher tone on everything else. The CO number is very reliable once you learn what they are likely to be, you'll learn from digging where the FE range is at most of your sites. Set the pattern to "relic" when you hunt this way. Two tones, in FE will stop most falsing but if you're still getting some null the 01 or 01-02 and remember to put 41-43 back in so you don't miss silver dollars. There thing I like about Ferrous/2-tones is that it will find targets that are masked. They are under or close to iron and most machines will not hear them. They will not usually be a good signal with the ET either, usually a one way hit but it will be consistantly a good CO number and a reasonably good FE number from that direction of swing... those targets are where the ET really outperforms the others.
Always switch to two tones when the multitones overwhel you, that can happen at first. Especially on shallow coins. Two tones in either FE or CO sounds will help you to not be frustrated. Trust the CO number especially if the FE number is between 8 and 16... but sometines it can be lower and a good bit higher but the CO number will be right, though sometimes iron will also give a good CO number, a high FE number will give it away as iron.
I also like fast=on and deep=on. I use pitch hold, especially if I am using CO/multitones because if you hit a deep or small target the threshold will change to that pitch and stay there until you hit another target. This is a carry over from the Sovereign line of detectors and can be a real help. Be careful to not use too much modulation until you get more used to it... in fact you might want to use none at first.
HH,
Julien
If you are clad hunting use the "coins" mode and just go at it.
If you are hunting older coins and/or jewelry i'd use the relic pattern and null out the 01-02 line then disc back in 41-43 on those top two lines.
If you are hunting an old park or yard you may want to try Ferrous sounds and two tones. Then you will get a low tine on iron and a higher tone on everything else. The CO number is very reliable once you learn what they are likely to be, you'll learn from digging where the FE range is at most of your sites. Set the pattern to "relic" when you hunt this way. Two tones, in FE will stop most falsing but if you're still getting some null the 01 or 01-02 and remember to put 41-43 back in so you don't miss silver dollars. There thing I like about Ferrous/2-tones is that it will find targets that are masked. They are under or close to iron and most machines will not hear them. They will not usually be a good signal with the ET either, usually a one way hit but it will be consistantly a good CO number and a reasonably good FE number from that direction of swing... those targets are where the ET really outperforms the others.
Always switch to two tones when the multitones overwhel you, that can happen at first. Especially on shallow coins. Two tones in either FE or CO sounds will help you to not be frustrated. Trust the CO number especially if the FE number is between 8 and 16... but sometines it can be lower and a good bit higher but the CO number will be right, though sometimes iron will also give a good CO number, a high FE number will give it away as iron.
I also like fast=on and deep=on. I use pitch hold, especially if I am using CO/multitones because if you hit a deep or small target the threshold will change to that pitch and stay there until you hit another target. This is a carry over from the Sovereign line of detectors and can be a real help. Be careful to not use too much modulation until you get more used to it... in fact you might want to use none at first.
HH,
Julien
Midnightcaller,
Your learning should continue during your entire life. That is what makes some of the old wise guys so wise. Lots of experiences.
The E-trac in general, is pretty easy to get up and going with, especially if you have previous detecting experience. If you're a noob to detecting, try to get with some veteran hunters or join a local club to help learn the basics.
Minelab has done some pretty amazing things with the E-trac that make it a very capable detector. Some of those capabilities are enhanced by settings, some of the settings are merely to adjust the detector to your preferences. It all comes thru experience though.
Andy Sabish's book is certainly an excellent primer for using the Explorer's and E-trac and will give you solid footing going out into the field. It also gives you some advanced tips on taking advantage of all that the E-trac will do once you get confortable with the basics.
As you read through the E-trac and Explorer forums, you will see that there are lots of ways (settings preferences) to accomplish the same thing - most of the time. Your job is to find what works best for you, in the places you hunt, with the time that you have to hunt.
Good luck.
Rich
Your learning should continue during your entire life. That is what makes some of the old wise guys so wise. Lots of experiences.
The E-trac in general, is pretty easy to get up and going with, especially if you have previous detecting experience. If you're a noob to detecting, try to get with some veteran hunters or join a local club to help learn the basics.
Minelab has done some pretty amazing things with the E-trac that make it a very capable detector. Some of those capabilities are enhanced by settings, some of the settings are merely to adjust the detector to your preferences. It all comes thru experience though.
Andy Sabish's book is certainly an excellent primer for using the Explorer's and E-trac and will give you solid footing going out into the field. It also gives you some advanced tips on taking advantage of all that the E-trac will do once you get confortable with the basics.
As you read through the E-trac and Explorer forums, you will see that there are lots of ways (settings preferences) to accomplish the same thing - most of the time. Your job is to find what works best for you, in the places you hunt, with the time that you have to hunt.
Good luck.
Rich