Ground Error and Fe3 o4 readouts ( Omega 8000)

[all iron]

Its understandable, the "Ground Error" readout would react to a metal target in the ground, giving the detector a momentary unbalanced state.

But what i"m really curious about is the Fe readout in the upper right hand corner and how it responds to targets.
Any feedback would be great

PS: dug some more 3 ringers today / searching in all metal 99 sensitivity / listening to the ground phase change/ was able to dig a few at 8-9 inches easy
Dug a small hammer head at 13 inches.

 

[capt.]

Seeking new information like that is how to turn a good detectorist into a great detectorist. I have also noticed that my Gamma will change its FE readout on different targets and have been trying to see if that will help me to identify certain targets with a higher degree of accuracy. Anything to give me that slight edge over the aluminum...Good luck in your quest!

capt.

 

[southernexplorer]

I do not know if the F75 is similar but I can tell you on my F75 if I am sweeping over a rusty bottle cap it will spike real high. That is my first sign of trash.

 

[all iron]

I see that also with rusty iron / Ground Balance and Fe meter spike.
I haven'"t found any silver yet to see how it responds.

 

[Monte]

very important tasks ... for their intended purpose. In both cases, the Ground Error and Fe304 read-outs are best reported to us when we bob the search coil over a metal-free spot of ground. In short, that tells me/us that they have a dedicated task to assist with info gathering of one specific bit of information, each, and without any introduction of a metal target or other source for confusion.

I'm no different from others in that, for a brief bit of time, I wondered if there might be some hidden usefulness other than that for which it was intended. My conclusion is that there isn't. Nothing that I found could be considered truly significant. I learn to do that with all functions of any detector, so I can understand your interest. In the long run, however, when I question a few things I activate my inquisitive 'mode' and, if there is some sort of useful 'masked' or hidden benefit, I take advantage of it. If I quickly find it has a specific purpose and that's it, I just 'reject' other questionable behavior of that feature.

So, with the Omega and Gamma and T2 and G2 I know that the ferrous ground reading will sometimes give an indication when it is in service, and can easily ignore it if it is caused by a target.

PS: dug some more 3 ringers today / searching in all metal 99 sensitivity / listening to the ground phase change/ was able to dig a few at 8-9 inches easy.

Congrats on finding the 3-ringers and gaining the depth you achieved. I am surprised you're hunting in All Metal at a setting of '99' with an Omega, however. A 'proper' Threshold setting (with the Sensitivity control) is usually somewhere from about '67' to maybe '74' and any higher would cause it to be way too noisy. Were you hunting in the Auto-Tune All Metal mode set at '99', or were you hunting at minimum Discrimination set at '1' with the Sensitivity set at '99'?

I trust the rest of this year will bring you more encouraging rewards of good finds.

Monte

 

[Ken in Georgia]

Nice finds and I will have to work with the gamma and see, now the Alpha 2000 is deadly with the 5 inch dd !!!

 

[all iron]

I am surprised you're hunting in All Metal at a setting of '99' with an Omega, however. A 'proper' Threshold setting (with the Sensitivity control) is usually somewhere from about '67' to maybe '74' and any higher would cause it to be way too noisy. Were you hunting in the Auto-Tune All Metal mode set at '99', or were you hunting at minimum Discrimination set at '1' with the Sensitivity set at '99'?

All metal mode Monte and the Omega can get noisy / that constant pulsating hum. But out in a field away from all power lines, it didn't seem to be to bad. I switched from all metal to discrim several times just to take a break from the noise though

I still think there is something there in the fe meter
went to a spot littered with 1 inch deep bottle caps tonight to watch the meter and as expected it jumped pretty hi but my gold wedding band on the ground did not. I plan on testing a variety of targets to see if there is any discernible difference.

Either way... a good or bad target is not defined by ferrous or non ferrous / aluminum cans are non ferrous

 

[Monte]

All metal mode Monte and the Omega can get noisy / that constant pulsating hum. But out in a field away from all power lines, it didn't seem to be to bad. I switched from all metal to discrim several times just to take a break from the noise though.

I was never able to set the Sensitivity/Threshold control that high on my Omega. At least not without a loss in performance, and irritation to me. I headed well out of town into the dense wood of the Oregon coast range to an old logging town last year. Not the slightest bit of EMI. Totally quiet in the Disc. mode set at '99' Sensitivity w/o a tick of a sound.

There's a lot of tall grass growing about this old town site (no structures around since about the last 1930's burn) so after a while I wanted to re-hunt a piece in All Metal for comparison. The 'threshold' adjustment was almost perfect with a setting of '71'-'72'. To experiment on a few deeper-responding targets I tried a slightly higher setting, but after about '77' it started getting noisy to the point where I wouldn't have really discerned the smaller, deeper target.

I still think there is something there in the fe meter.
went to a spot littered with 1 inch deep bottle caps tonight to watch the meter and as expected it jumped pretty hi but my gold wedding band on the ground did not. I plan on testing a variety of targets to see if there is any discernible difference.

Yes, I would expect the Fe3O4 read-out to hint for some potential iron or ferrous target, but it also responds to changes in the ground mineral make-up. If I get an audio 'hit,' and the target is shallower (like most bottle caps in that surface to 3" range), then all I need in the TID or VDI read-out to report a lower VDI number or simply 'Iron' with a couple of quick sweeps to check it out.

Either way... a good or bad target is not defined by ferrous or non ferrous / aluminum cans are non ferrous.

True, not all good targets are non-ferrous. I'm sure most average hobbyists are looking for the non-ferrous targets, however, such as US coins. I do feel sorry for those in Canada and all the other countries who have to deal with their 100% 'nickel' metal coins and others that are of a mixed-variety and have too much magnetic property to them. It sure makes me glad that, at least for now, we only had the 1943 steel cents to annoy us.

Some detector models on the market, like the Minelab Explorer SE or E-Trac that will give us a mixed ferrous/conductive read-out, or the White's Spectra V3i with some amazing, colorful display graphs, can convey some subtle or interesting responses. But, at least for me, I just like 'functional' performance. Like you say, some good targets and some bad targets could be either ferrous or non-ferrous and basic controls, such as Discrimination, can make a simple defining point about what we want to recover.

If you find a use for the fe display that works for you, then just enjoy it. I prefer simple and basic raw performance w/o a lot of fluff.

Monte

 

[rick (nova scotia)]

There may be a misconception that cranking up threshold gives more power or something.

In the simplest terms, threshold creates a "baseline" from which to note changes. It should be set to a point where you can just hear it so that you can note small changes to it. indicating the smallest targets as in prospecting small gold nuggets, and / or the deepest targets. thusly as Monte says giving you the best possible performance.