Emi issues with the G2

[dirt lizard]

Me and a friend went off to a great spot that have 6 colonial cellar holes on an old carrage road deep in the woods we were at. One problem I had all day was chattering from bein 200 yds from the power lines at each site. i tried to turn down the sens. but it still chattered I had it set disc. 50 sens at 60. It drove me nuts I lost alot of good target signals because of this. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[rockpup1]

Yeah I have the same problem.Thought my mxt was bad but the goldbug is worse i find.Thought it was just me.
The smaller coil may help reduce the chatter.I know my infinium is extremly bad with the big coil.The small 3x7 is Way better.

I was wondering if there is a way a guy could better shield the coil wire,if that would help or is it the coil itself that picks up the EMI?

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

Thats weird, I haven't had any EMI issues with mine yet. Cell phone???

 

[Ken in Georgia]

It's Iron !!!! not EMI I've listen to Bill Ladd and he ran into the same problem. You have to lower the sensitivity to work into it. Now are hunting in all metal ?

 

[sgoss66]

Yeah, I've never had any EMI issues with mine either, as Bart said. Maybe it is iron, or hot ground. The way to check is, hold your coil about a foot or so off the ground, and hold it horizontal (flat to the ground), and hold it still. If the machine "steadies out," and gets quiet, then it's NOT EMI, it's something in the ground.

Steve

 

[TabWhisperer]

About the only time I had any real problem with EMI I also happen to notice my coil connection wasn't seated tight and screwed down firmly. I somehow managed to get sloppy when I attached the cord.

 

[godigit1]

EMI is defiantly location specific as far as my gold bug goes. In the town where I live I cant turn up sensitivity past 50 to 60%. Right now I'm in a big city in the middle of silicon valley and you would think Emi would be worse but its not I can crank it up to 90% before getting chatter. In the gold fields in the desert 100% and stable. Iron in the ground causes no erratic behavior on my machine it just fires like a machine gun on every target. I don't disc out anything just set the tone break at 40. Recently I did a little test in the back yard of a 90 year old house and pulled 105 iron targets out of the top two inches of soil in a 4x4 foot area. Also found three good targets that were not masked. No erratic behavior due to iron just Emi Because I was 20 feet under a power line. I'm actually glad to hear someone else is having Emi problems and its not just another I can crank it to !00% and its super quite post. I really think some of us have hotter machines or are in low Emi areas. We all know this happens in the production process, I'm not putting down any ones machine, just a byproduct of quality control. Ill deal with it to have the extra power when I need it.
HH

 

[Japandealer]

I was down on the trashiest beach in Japan on Sunday. I got a lot of chatter, but not EMI. When I got close to the salt water there was chatter even after ground balancing. But it still detected.

 

[Dave J.]

Best online resource I know of about EMI and metal detectors, but I might be a little biased..........

http://www.fisherlab.com/hobby/davejohnson/Electrical%20Interference.htm

This written before the GB/G2 platform machine became a known quantity. It has gained a reputation for being surprisingly resistant to electromagnetic interference, with many customers reporting that they can run it wide open most of the time even in urban environments.

This however does not mean that if you're experiencing electrical interference, your machine is defective or inferior to someone else's. Each EMI environment is different. Some places may have sources of EMI which are miles away and you don't even know of their existence, but they just happen to be of a kind that your favorite metal detector doesn't like. Back when I was developing the Fisher Impulse about 20 years ago, we were having problems with a source of electrical interference which I had to locate remotely by RDF techniques: it was more than 100 miles away somewhere north and west of the San Francisco Bay area, I guessed a U.S. Navy VLF communications installation in the Fairfield area. It didn't bother anything else we manufactured. Several years earlier there had been problems with the original Gold Bug experiencing electrical interference in western Australia due to another U.S. Navy VLF communications site. .......With the recent proliferation in UHF and microwave wireless communication, machines of the same design but minor variations in dimensions of wires and metal components can cause differences in machine response to specific sources of interference. And remember that cell phones are all different and just because one person reports no problem with his or her cell phone interfering with the metal detector, that's no assurance that your cell phone wouldn't cause problems.

For anyone experiencing problems with electrical interference, I recommend that they read the essay in the above link.

--Dave J.

 

[pasttom]

Dave that's kind a scary info. I live 10 miles form a huge AFB and less than 50 miles from a nuclear power plant (also less than 200 miles due S of Los Banos). Is there a way to determine how that (or if that) effects my detectors?
Thanks,
Tom

 

[Dave J.]

If you've got EMI that gets worse the closer you get, that's a clue. And, if the AFB turns out to be a problem, just give the base commander a call to ask him to shut down the radar on Saturdays so you can do your beeping in peace.

On second thought, don't bother to make that call.

Ya never know for sure in advance what might or might not be the baddie. That nuke you were worried about might be electrically quiet except for a metal halide lamp out in the parking lot with a ballast about to go.
For several years in Los Banos one of the noisiest sources of electrical interference in town turned out to be a fellow who had an unused room in his house where he kept the light dimmer turned down real dim as a "night light". We finally RDF'd it and asked the power company to deal with it. Turned out the guy was an electrician, he understood the problem once it was pointed out, and replaced the old dimmer with a more recent design low-interference type.

--Dave J.

 

[pasttom]

Thanks, I could be detecting any day of the week, so I would feel bad pulling the plug on our space center just so I can get less EMI. But shoot, I got 4 dimmers in my house, so I guess I may be a bigger problem than Diablo Canyon or Vandenberg AFB. Who'd a thunk it??? Okay, I'll adjust the frequency on my O8 and try to ignore any false or non-repeating signals. Thank you FT for Omega tech!
Tom

 

[pasttom]

BTW I just checked and the base commander is a she! I am sure that will be in my favor if I need to ask them to reduce power or go off line so I can hunt zinc and other artifacts!
Tom

 

[dirt lizard]

I think I'll just stay clear of powerlines to be safe from it. My friend by the way was useing a fisher f 4 and he was having just as many Issues as i was.

 

[Swagman]

Went to a new park two days ago and had EMI issues. Weird, until I remembered there was a radio station across the road.

I could still detect, but a little noisy.

 

[Ken in Georgia]

To all:

We really need to read the owners manual it states " to set the gain at the 12:00 o'clock position before you ground balance." That way you can reset the gain after the ground balance for depth and sensitivity. I bet "including myself" set the gain at the highest point then ground balance the detector. Man I should have read the book better. Thanks Dave for your help here. I for one have not been doing that.

 

[sekypaleo]

I have a G2 and an Omega...The Omega is unusable in about half the places here in town due to EMI (meaning sens has to be at about 40-45!)...so far only one spot where EMI affected the G2 in a park where I saw no power lines ANYWHERE or cell towers or anything...moved about 25 feet away and bam..silence. I am thinking underground power. I dunno , maybe there is one of the those secret alien bases there

 

[Ken in Georgia]

I do know this an omega at half sensitivity is better than no hunting at ask all right?

 

[dirt lizard]

To all:

We really need to read the owners manual it states " to set the gain at the 12:00 o'clock position before you ground balance." That way you can reset the gain after the ground balance for depth and sensitivity. I bet "including myself" set the gain at the highest point then ground balance the detector. Man I should have read the book better. Thanks Dave for your help here. I for one have not been doing that.

I was workin my machine in disc mode not all metal. and those new england cellar holes will put a whoopin as far as iron on your machine as far as whats in the ground as well as power lines overhead.

 

[cowtownkid]

Back in early March...I broke out my Troy Shadow X2 for the first time in several years...I had moved into a new "rural area" but still a fairly new neighborhood. I turned the machine on and it went Bezerk! I had put in a Fresh battery as I never leave a battery in my machines. I could not get it to calm down. I even turned the sensitivity down to "1" !!! I had never had to do this before and adjustments did not help one bit. I thought my machine was broke and thought about my Lifetime Warranty. Then I experimented again after a bit. When it finally calmed down; somewhat; I found out ..My new "Smart Meter" installed by my local Electric Provider was the culprit! It completely sent my Troy into Convulsions! Went directly out to a Local Lake with my Troy and she hummed like a bumblebee!...This incident for whatever reason, has not happened since???