Ground Balance Indoors

[Kennie]

Is it safe to say that you cannot get ground balance indoors because of all the metal in a building even with the ground switch in lock mode. When attempting to ground balance indoors my display goes berserk. I assume this would be normal because of the nails, screws, bolts, etc. used in construction. Did I read this in the manual somewhere or am I imagining. I'm sure there isn't a problem with my MXT.

Any help, explanation would be helpful. Thank you.

Ken

 

[Larry (IL)]

All of the things you mentioned were factors Kenny, but I think you need the ground to ground balance. (properly) You can go outside and GB, lock it, and come back in for air testing.

 

[Kennie]

Thank you for your reply Larry, I read on page seven of the MXT manual about using lock mode. What I didn't do was to actually ground balance by going outdoors. Once I did the readings on coins about 4 or 5 inches under the 300 12 inch coil was better. It's tough going out doors when you have a ten below chill factor which we do near Hayward, WI.

By the way I notice you are in Peoria, IL. My mother was born in East Peoria in 1902 then came to Wisconsin in 1914. Still have family in Pekin and over in the Paxton area. Quite a coincidence.

Anyway thanks again, I think I'm on the right track now.

 

[GpSnoopy]

When air testing. Just switch the Trac to LOCK. I believe it defaults to a ground balance setting of 50 when no ground is detected. I'll see if I can find where I got that tidbit from.

Ralph

 

[GpSnoopy]

Ahh, I found it. It was from a technical discussion in a forum, and Jeff Foster gave this answer to one of the questions.

Q:I know from being active on a number of forums for years that I was the first to report about the MXT's designed parameters for "turn-on" Ground Phase. Even questions asked of the factory by some forum readers and directly by me resulted in none of them acknowledging a neat aspect of the MXT"
A:There is nothing magical about the GND value of 50 to which the MXT ground-balance defaults, when the Trac switch is set to Salt or Ground. It does this because Jimmy "Sierra" Normandi asked Dave Johnson to default the ground-balance away from ferrite (GND 84) on power on, so that the fast ground tracking of the MXT can be demonstrated in a sales environment. That's all there is to it.

So, when you turn on the MXT, it defaults to a GND value of 50 to start off with. You need to Lock it when air testing because if you hold a target within the coil field for any time, the Fast Trac will attempt to GND balance it out. This is why you also need to ensure you have a clean target free area to GND balance on, otherwise it will balance out target metal and skew your VDI and Discrim settings. Eg, in the house, if you balance near copper wiring, most likely you will not get a good response from copper pennies either.

Ralph

 

[Monte]

The MXT, but design, can be turned on with a low Ground Phase setting or a high Ground Phase setting. Note that I said this is accomplished at 'turn-on."

If you toggle the Auto-Trac into either Salt/Beach or into Ground/Trac before you turn the MXT/M6 on, you will be at a lower-end of the GB adjustment range, so to speak, and you can proceed from there.

Air Testing as if in lower mineralization:

 

[GpSnoopy]

Thanks, Monte. I knew there had to be more to it then the little tidbit I found.

A wealth of information here, just need to ask the right questions.

 

[Kennie]

My sincere thanks to each of you who replied to my question. I used the incorrect terminology, ie, ground balance as opposed to air testing. My ignorance. You have answered my question and I've learned a lot. I greatly appreciate your time and research as well as your patience with a newbie.

I'll be getting a book or two on the MXT and do some reading. Thanks again.

Ken