GROUND BALANCING /DEUS

[metaldetectorist]

It may be a silly question to ask but is it essential that I GB every time I change programs on the Deus?

 

[Terry(Mi)]

Not a silly question. "Essential" could be debatable depending on where you hunt, but i say do the ground balance when switching, it will give you optimal performance and only takes a few seconds.
You should also re ground balance switching frequencies within a program.

 

[metaldetectorist]

Hi Terry can you explain further the bit about frequencies please.

 

[Terry(Mi)]

The deus can run in 4 different main frequencies. If you turn on your deus and start off in deus fast (program 3) which runs 17 kHz, and decide to switch to say 12 kHz while remaining in the deus fast program, then you should re ground balance your deus after switching to 12 kHz.
I reground balance after any changes made to the settings.

 

[Jeff in Pa]

What I want to know is how many use "Tracking" to ground balance? This is one area that I could really is help on. I have mainly been a long time Minelab user and as you know its never needed with the FBS machines.

The only thing those machines do is a noise cancel and that just looks for the best frequency to run in due to EMI.

I really don't understand ground balancing on the Deus. I know that its there to find the sweet spot to see "Thru" the ground but what's the best for me? Or should I say how do I determine what's best?

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

Anytime you change anything or every 20-30 minutes it's a good rule of thumb to reground balance it. I personally use tracking and am very happy letting the XP handle it. It does a great job!

 

[metaldetectorist]

HI Bart ; would you be so kind as to tell me when and how you configure that.

 

[Jeff in Pa]

All you do is select tracking and the Deus does the rest.

 

[foreign object]

Just push your GB button and use arrow keys to select the GB function you want.

I always used tracking and after a couple minutes would switch to manual which locks the Deus GB.
For some reason when ever I used the pumping function it would usually GB to low and be very noise.By running in tracking and then switching to manual it always ran a lot quiter.
After switching to manual just check the numbers ever so often and adjust as needed.

 

[DukeOBass]

I've had experience with the CTX and the more I read about the Deus ground balancing the more I think the CTX disregards some good targets. I had instances where I would get a good signal in both directions at 90 degrees to each other and then it would disappear. I really think the CTX decided it was ground mineralization even if it wasn't thereby causing a missed "good" target. I guess I'll find out when I go back with the Deus.

 

[foreign object]

I've had experience with the CTX and the more I read about the Deus ground balancing the more I think the CTX disregards some good targets. I had instances where I would get a good signal in both directions at 90 degrees to each other and then it would disappear. I really think the CTX decided it was ground mineralization even if it wasn't thereby causing a missed "good" target. I guess I'll find out when I go back with the Deus.

If you were running any disk the target may have disk out. The Ctx will false at times on disk targets but usually the 2nd pass and they disapear. Just maybe.

 

[DukeOBass]

This would happen sweeping in one direction and then 90 degree to it and getting a good signal in both direction then disappearing when you go back to the original swing direction before completely disappearing.

 

[CZconnoisseur]

This would happen sweeping in one direction and then 90 degree to it and getting a good signal in both direction then disappearing when you go back to the original swing direction before completely disappearing.

I dug a few targets last night that fit this description - one turned out to be a toasted buffalo nickel next to a rusted steel washer. Usually whenever I encounter this, I first check GB and if that's OK, then I will change reactivity settings higher or lower depending on signal strength. A weak repeatable high tone will get less reactivity to try and strengthen the signal while a stronger high tone in one direction only will get a higher reactivity setting. Depending on the outcome of the experiement lets me know to dig - but sometimes I'll dig it anyway provided the VDI is stable in that one direction.

Most of the time for me where I hunt these types of signals are a good target next to a large piece of (not necessarily ferrous) junk. After digging that buffalo and washer last night I rescanned the area and found a small bronze bushing half, and STILL got a decent signal near that - turned out to be a piece of copper wiring. Aluminum chainlink fence ties do this to a lesser extent, but these are more easily identified by jumpy and erratic VDI readings.

If you are searching a relatively trash-free area and have the machine running quietly, but sensitive at the same time; WHEN the GB goes too low you will start to hear a lot of falsing and "peeps" "pips" and otherwise junk noise from the detector. If you do this in an extremely trashy area, and your GB goes too low you will yank off the phones in disgust in a very short time! A quick way to remedy this is to press either the + or - buttons (to change programs) and you will then revert back to factory GB setting of "90", which will instantly quiet the machine down.

I tried all different types of GB at the notoriously trashy fairgrounds site and there are some areas where you need to run at "90" and lock that value in. True, you may lose a tad of depth by doing this, but the flipside is you won't be digging large iron at 12" or more through a gravel bed!

However, at a cleaner site with less iron contamination one will have better depth and clarity with either pumping or manual GB settings. Most people will tell you that the "tracking" option is best, but when in doubt simply revert back to "90" for more stability

 

[DukeOBass]

I was responding a comment made in response to what I noticed on the CTX.

Thank you those helpful hints. When I start swinging the Deus, I'll take all the help I can get.

 

[samandnoah]

Hey Duke --

I think we're all on the same page. The Deus can behave the same was as you described your CTX experience when you are using "Tracking" as your GB setting, particularly when there is iron around. Some people swear by tracking, but where I typically hunt I have found it better to set the GB to somewhere near the middle of the range I observe, or per CZ's good advice, you can go high and trade off some depth for a quieter hunt. I also acknowledge that my mediocre experience with Tracking may be due to my style of swinging, and repeatedly swinging over a potential target to try to identify it (or isolate it). It's that repetitive swinging over a single area that tends to GB out the target. But I'm hunting super trashy parks, and I sometimes need real slow, repetitive swings with higher reactivity to try to isolate one of the targets I'm hearing. I like CZ's method of testing a target by adjusting reactivity; I find myself doing the exact same thing.
Rich

 

[foreign object]

This would happen sweeping in one direction and then 90 degree to it and getting a good signal in both direction then disappearing when you go back to the original swing direction before completely disappearing.

Did you dig any of those targets to see what they were. If I thought that any machine was tracking out a target I would dig it to see.
Just a thought

 

[DukeOBass]

I never dug any. I was thinking about that possibility until I was recently reading about that phenomenon.

 

[foreign object]

I never dug any. I was thinking about that possibility until I was recently reading about that phenomenon.

Sorry but you lost me.

 

[samandnoah]

I think it was a typo and he meant that he wasn't thinking of that possibility, so he didn't dig.

 

[DukeOBass]

Meant to say wasn't thinking about it until I learning about this recently