Ground Balancing Question

[ColonelDan]

Issue: No bars on the mineralization scale and G.B. Fail 99.9% of the time when pumping.

It seems that regardless of the ground…sod, dry sand, wet sand…I never get any bars on the mineralization strength scale. Additionally, regardless of the factory program selected, when I select the pumping mode, I always get a G.B. Fail sign even though there are no targets indicated in the area I am doing the pumping. Only one time out of all the attempts did I get a G.B. OK.

The Ground Mineralization Index seems to be working OK as the numbers change.

I live in central Florida and we really don’t have any “hot rocks” to speak of around my area and I’m using software version 3.2.

I’m wondering if anyone can shed some light on possible explanations.

Thanks

 

[beepsilver]

Any help here?: http://www.findmall.com/read.php?83,2071439

 

[ColonelDan]

Beepsilver, Thank you. I'll try those suggestions and let you know.

 

[ColonelDan]

Beepsilver, By reducing the sensitivity from 90 to 60, I was able to get a G.B. OK about 30% of the time....much better than before. Several times when I got an OK, I tried it again at the same location, same settings and got a Fail, tried it again and sometimes would get an OK. Only ever had 1 bar on the mineralization strength scale at best. The soil mineralization here in my area of FL must be very low.

Thank you for the link....that helped a lot.

 

[mtsheron]

CD I usually get it to work on mine and I live in a area of heavy iron content. Do you think a reboot of the firmware would correct it?

 

[beepsilver]

I'm glad you got some relief, but I would imagine it's still frustrating to have GB fail so often. I went through the manual and Andy's book again, and the only suggestion for the GB fail is to move to another spot and try again. But when you consistently get a fail, the book doesn't give any other suggestions.

When I first started using the Deus, I used the GB pumping method all the time and would occasionally get a fail. As time went on, I discovered that in my area I was mostly seeing an average of 80 for GB, so I saved all my programs at this setting. Now, when I go to a site, my first step after calibration is to check the GB. More often than not I end up staying put at 80, but occasionally correct up or down a couple of whole numbers. Like the books say, I keep an eye on GB and if ground conditions change, I correct accordingly. At first glance the tracking method would seem ideal, but the literature points out a few cautions about using it, so I've steered clear of tracking for the most part.

If I were in your situation with unusual ground conditions, I'd stick to manual or tracking GB. Having to reduce Sens every time you want to ground balance would clearly be a pain. I've read in both the literature and the forums that if your mineralization is next to nil, just manually balance at 90. This is directly from the manual, which I'm sure you've already read:

If the ground is not mineralised (see below the bargraph : Mineralisation
strength) there is no need to adjust your ground balance to a level
other than 90: since the ground does not send back any significant
spurious echo, the performance will be optimal even at level 90 and you
will reduce interference resulting from knocks to the coil.

Good luck Colonel! <saluting>

 

[ColonelDan]

Beepsilver, I'm sure you're right as my numbers remain close to 90. I'll just manually set it if need be. I'll also talk with XP America and see what they think.

Thank you once again for the advice and time.

 

[beepsilver]

No problem Colonel. I was just rereading some notes I took a while back that may be of help. I don't remember where I got this, but one of my notes on mineralization says that frequency can be lowered with lower mineralization. I don't know how accurate the note is, but it'd be worth experimenting to determine if you can get more consistent success using the pumping method while using 4K. I might be taking my note completely out of context, but it's worth a shot.

 

[ColonelDan]

I spoke with Andy Sabisch this afternoon and he answered my question. It seems if the ground has very low or no mineralization as indicated by the strength bar, the pumping option will not work and will always fail. The lack of mineralization negates the need for GB. After he explained it to me, it made perfect sense.

 

[ColonelDan]

Andy also said that in low or no mineralization areas one should use tracking or manual GB. If manual, go about 2 numbers below what the top number reads to achieve best sensitivity and performance.