Hey Mine lab, Read This::starwars:

[digitrich]

Add a lock on button or trigger that when you display both an undesirable target such as iron or trash and also another wanted signal such as a silver coin or a gold ring close together in smart find that when you hit this lock on button/trigger while the cross hairs are over the more desired target of the two then the machine would lock on to the preferred signal, even if its weaker, so that you can pinpoint the preferred signal and ignore the cruddy one. Right now the pinpoint locking onto the strongest signal is kind of opposite what you are trying to accomplish, iron always wins that fight. It could even work automatically based on what you have rejected. Also, why not show the cross hairs even when an area is rejected???????? another words, it still nulls, however, you still can see the cross hairs, just in case it's nulling on rejected bottle caps and also hitting in a nickel area, that obviously would be a nickel, but the nulling might talk you out of it. And lastly, why not color the cross hair so it is way easier to see and also you could give it different colors based on the target size or shape. Would bury garrets size a ma jiggy thingy. Or you could make the cross hair's size correlate to the strength of the signal, size of the target, and change color based on it's estimated depth, then you could hunt in full screen with gain up, and still tell which were the deep signals and not even need a depth gauge. The real targets we are looking for are the weaker signals close to trash, that's most of what's left in pounded areas. A machine with the same purpose as the sniper 5 inch coils, platypuses, 8" coils etc. If you really can't get any more depth, then your market is now effective superior separation of targets. call it Mine Lab's Cherry Picker. It also wouldn't hurt to have a usb plug in you could use with your home computer to download software updates and bug fixes right into the explorer like a camera or a GPS unit has; cheaper and quicker than physically mailing back and forth. Oh, and send me an Excalibur 800 to go with my SE I have and we'll call it even.

 

[digitrich]

n/t

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Maybe a good idea but probably about as likely of being implemented as trying to get them to add a built-in digging arm that pops out and recovers the target for you, photographs it, and posts it on the Findmall forum.

 

[pb-to-au]

Why not just use all metal and see if two targets are there? Cut your sens. in half and see if one disappears.Switch to prospecting and check reaction. Or you could just dig up both like the rest of us would! Why not ask for a little T.V. screen and proton accelerator detection so you could see your targets in 3-d?

 

[Krusty]

Hey Mike, maybe it's YOU who is on to something! And also for the other post, read every bit and will again try a few different techniques later. I will admit here in North Florida - we have sandy soil with very little mineralization and trying now to experiment with the Sensitivity - even full blown in some areas and it had no false signals and worked as if it was set at my standard 22 (except on the beach areas). Only questions is - is there a drawback running it that high? Seems the higher - the better for depth.....?


digitrich - good thoughts though and like to here them all, some of it could be done and I do bet they do listen, read and learn from us and are concerned with the serious issues, but I've always wondered about the schematics and the computer programs that run the EX II, wonder if its possible to tweak it. But in my case, if I tried tinkering with it, I would just then have a nice wall mount if you can catch my drift! So I'll leave it alone and just keep experimenting with what you all write.

Thanks again to both.

Wide Eyed and Wide Open.

Krusty

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

I think that if the soil and conditions warrant it, then the higher you can run it, the better. The question is "When is enough enough and too much too much? I think that sometimes the machine can SEEM stable but may get more depth with less sensitivity.

So what I tried to do with my coin garden was to simulate some really bad conditions. I have several deep targets...some as deep as 10" to 12"+...in hard-packed dirt with an underground power line nearby that makes the machine a tad "tweaky". This was actually an incidental, because when I made the test range like 6 years ago I didn't realize the power line was there. Until they subsequently marked it for something. And I have tested the CZ-70, Excal, Quattro, Explorer II, and Explorer SE there. All the machines hit very few of the targets in Auto sens. There's a CW bullet, a zinc penny, a nickel, and a dime that are at 6 inches and all the rest are at 8 to 12". Most machines hit the 6" targets in Auto. Many of the targets were completely undetectable for all machines in Auto, but when set to about 1/2 of their max Sens they would hit all targets. When jacked up to 75% or better, they lost all the deep targets and became unstable. That told me a lot, since many of the sites I hunt are equally unfavorable, many times due to iron or trash or being bulldozed house sites, etc.

So these days I start out with less and try to do some "onsite testing" with the first several semi-deep targets I find, altering settings to see what works best for that site. I think that's the way to be the most effective.

 

[Dick from NC]

Thats and interesting idea. At North Myrtle Beach, S.C. I hunt with sens.as high as I can get it. When I go from dry to wet sand I pick up noise, but I listen through it and when I get a signal it really sounds off. I've been using the 12" Sunray coil for about as long as I've had my Explorer XS, and wouldn't use anything else. I'll dig deep target all day with the higher sens. I'm going down this weekend and I'll try the higher sens. and when I get a good deep signal I'll reduce the sens. and see what the difference is. This time of the year is usually slim pickens but I still like to hunt. "Its not what you find, but what you might find." Happy hunting.

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

I would think at the beach you COULD tend to run it much higher. I think where the benefit of running it lower would be is when there's a lot of iron masking targets or in the case of heavily mineralized ground or EMF. But it would be interesting to hear how that works for you and at what point you see a drop in depth and at what point you see no value in increasing it.

 

[digitrich]

Believe it or not, less than an hour after I posted that, Mine Lab pm'd me and said they forwarded my post to the research and development team in Australia. So when the Cherry Picker comes out are you gonna buy one? lol

 

[digitrich]

and if you could lock on to the preferred target in pinpoint, say a coin instead of iron even though the iron was a stronger signal, you would not like this why? If you could set rejection and still see the cross hairs when it nulls? You want to dig both? Why does just about every hunter own a 5 inch coil or some kind of heavy trash separating coil???? I'm sorry, but I didn't understand either yours or Mike's point. These changes are mostly in the programming so they'd be fairly simple to do. Adding the usb port would be the only mechanical change. The usb would be the most difficult, however the lock on function could be easily added by using any of the current buttons on the machine and just programming it as a dual use button, which is the same thing they've done with several other buttons already. In fact, they could use the existing pinpoint button, you press it whenever the crosshairs are on your desired target area on your screen and they just program the machine to pinpoint to the target signal that most closely represents your selection example 00- 26 instead of 07-09. It's a simple x-y axis and is absolutely programmable. Say your desired target is 00-26 and you press the pinpoint button at the moment when the cross hairs or digital reads and shows that signal, the programming would go like this : if x=05 and y=21 then volume=2,pitch=2 if x=04 and y=22 then volume=4,pitch=22 and lastly at x=oo and y=26 (00-26) then volume=10,pitch=10 that's pretty much how the current VCO pinpoint feature works on the SE right now only with the new lock on feature you would now control the x and y axis that the machine would now use as a reference point. So it would no longer pinpoint to what ever the strongest signal was but directly to your choice of which signal. Wallah!!

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

That IS an interesting proposition. I'm just wondering if what Minelab and the folks that use them really want is to add yet additional levels of complexity to a machine that has so many "features" now. Could be intersting though.

 

[savage]

Greetings, digitritch, Large corporation's such as Minelab will take a look at new technology and marketing possibilities that are made public, such as yours. If any of your wish list items are practical, Minelab would want to implement them before their competition does. Thats why yours are at the lab being looked at. Hey Minelab, How about work on a easier to see led display while you're at it. Happy Hunting Grounds,

Savage.

 

[raptro5618]

I like the idea of locking on to a specific reading when pinpointing. Sort of like nulling everything but what you are wanting to find.

I think the best idea is the USB port. I think that the ability to update the software or custome search programs etc would add greatly to the detector and also insure that it could improve over time as they update and refine the software. I think this would add to sales because lots of people seem to be waiting till the SE has its bugs worked out.

If they get a USB port they may as well ad one of those mini hard drives so that you could record what the screen readout looked like and what sounds you heard for review later on your computer just like you can do with some equipment related to training that lets you download and analyze your workouts.

 

[digitrich]

mean that you have to retool a factory or an assembly line where as software improvements are implemented a great deal easier and almost negligible in expense

 

[Mike Bearden]

but rest assured a motorized hard drive feature will probably never happen although I do have a 4 gig miniature Hitachi hard drive for my digital camera and it's very energy efficient.
Most programmable electronics BIOS uses Flash memory, a type of ROM to run whatever program needs to be ran in it's entirety.
The way a ROM chip works necessitates the programming of perfect and complete data when the chip is created. You cannot reprogram or rewrite a standard ROM chip. Most everything programmable, depending on the task will eventually be RAM when concerning memory.
A USB port connected to a internal ram pack might be deliverable, something has to hold it in cache. Or just a simple compact flash slot to download/upload to would be nice. Users choice in how much memory he wanted to use, just like a digital camera.
We could download the days activities, capture a screen for a particular find, etc. etc. etc.
Yep, just plug it into your pc's card reader at home and do your thing. That would be cool.
I could be wrong but I believe Minelab has done a update port configuration at one time on a high end machine ... but don't remember which one, maybe a gold unit ? It was several years ago.

Yeah ... we can always dream, and that's a good thing, some actually become a reality and make it into production.

 

[beachguy777]

Mike, this is an incredibly important post, in my opinion! If I'm reading your right here, "Most" of the machines read the 6" targets in "auto", but when it got to the deep targets, they lost out while they were in "auto sens". When you cut the manual sens in half, the detectors strarted reading the deep targets again. Wow, if I'm correct in what your saying, that almost goes against everyting we've always thought about cranking up the sens as far as you can in order to get more depth. I don't have any place right now to build a test garden but I'm gonna try what you say and start out low on the sens and start trying to crank it up at the site. The only problem I'm having with all this is, (ok, the lower sens worked better for deep targets in your test garden), but how do we know if it's accurate on the "job site", so to speak? In other words, what I'm trying to get at here is: It sounds like your getting better depth at a lower manual sens setting in your test garden, so if we start out with a low setting on the job site, how do we know if we raise it, wouldn'that possibly give us less depth, if I'm reading you right? Mike, you know I wouldn't screw with you on anything unless I really was wondering about what your saying. Please take this as a sincere question. Hope to here your response. Marc Trainor.

 

[Cody]

The detector can be set to have just two tones. One for iron and one for anything other than iron. It can be set for three tones also. I have explained how on the Classroom forum several times.

 

[John(Tx)]

It sucks waiting for something that may never materialize...

 

[SNOWY]

Mike,the sensitivity level issue is an interesting one alright...

I read a post regarding setting the sensitivity on an Explorer II, in the post you can see where he sets the sensitivity lower until the threshold re-appears.
I have copied and pasted it in my Explorer folder (and re-post it here.)

"If you ever experience an unsteady threshold tone,
it might be due to your sensitivity being set too high in "Semi Auto"
on what you think is normal soil ....
Here's what should be done.
Disengage "Semi Auto" and work in "Manual Sensitivity".
Lower the coil to the ground and gently sweep from side to side while gradually reducing sensitivity. When a steady threshold returns you are balanced to that site.
This is a benefit of Explorer II's technology allowing you to "ground sample" and analyse your search site conditions!!!

Sounds like a good way to establish a maximum sensitvity level for a particular site...

Snowy

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Marc, there really isn't any way to know. The best way to test for each site is to start out someplace in the middle and when you do get a deep one, adjust it up or down to see how it affects the quality of the signal. I do that all the time. Today I was checking a target my buddy had with his CZ. I told him I had it, but not all that great of a signal. He swept it back and forth a few times and said "I have it nice and strong, all day long." I dropped my sens on the SE from 24 to 20 and the signal came in much better...stronger and better ID. So I left it there.

There was a lot of iron in the ground at that site. We got a few Civil War bullets and I got a 1908 Indian penny.