There seems to be some confusion about the iron mask feature. Back when I owned the Original Sovereign years ago and Minelab was willing to help their customers this what Minelab related to me. They didn't go into enough detail to give away any secrets about how the iron mask feature worked but said that even without the iron mask feature the BBS technology still separated coins from iron reliably and that the iron mask feature under "some conditions" depending on mineralization and settings would improve the signal. They also said that with it off the BBS technology would still separate a coin and iron but under "some conditions" depending on mineralization and settings a coin next to iron could be lost. Turning the iron mask switch off switch does not stop the detector from separating ferrous from non-ferrous but turning it on can enhance the signal under "some conditions".
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Iron Mask.
- Thread starter crazyman
- Start date
If this is the case , then I guess I will have to try to get use to Iron Mask ON rather than OFF, but you can bet that every target that I hear that sounds interesting , I'll be also checking it in Iron Mask OFF !!........ There are worse things in life !!.......Thanks for the info ....Jim
Crazyman,coil size may determine how well iron mask works.The Sovereign Original I had a couple of months ago liked hot rocks more than any Sovereign I used.Any deep sounded 180 target almost was always a hot rock.I didn't know my area had so many hot rocks.
I agree Ron. There are different situations where iron mask off will work better and some where iron mask on might work better. I know that with iron mask off in my nasty ground my GT runs much smoother without any noticeable depth loss and less hot rock noise. As a matter of fact, with it off I can run my sensitivity a bit higher and it still runs smoother with less hot rock and iron falsing than with it on. My Original Sovereign did the same thing as yours which is why I called Minelab back then. I thought there was something wrong with my detector because it sounded off on every piece of iron, mineralization change and hot rock it went over. The best solution back then is the one I use today with the GT. In heavy mineralization with iron, turn iron mask off reduce sensitivity or even auto if needed, use a smaller coil and go slow.
Crazyman
After reading the Sovereign manual , they showed a setup for discrimination , and said to put the switch in the OFF position .... pretty much left it there after finding some good targets ......Then started reading about more depth in the ON position ....I turned it on , and was really surprised by how much noisier it was ....I was more comforatable wtth it off , so I left it off ....I had a similar situation with a setup on a Safari where MInelab said that a certain setting would give me more depth ....I was finding more targets WITHOUT the position they recommended , so I left it the way I wanted to , and had better results ..... I'll try it both ways eepending on soil conditions .... or how i feel at the time .... If the ground sound is not what I wnat to hear , I will turn it OFF as I have been use to .....If the ground is pretty clean , I'll turn it ON .....Jim
After reading the Sovereign manual , they showed a setup for discrimination , and said to put the switch in the OFF position .... pretty much left it there after finding some good targets ......Then started reading about more depth in the ON position ....I turned it on , and was really surprised by how much noisier it was ....I was more comforatable wtth it off , so I left it off ....I had a similar situation with a setup on a Safari where MInelab said that a certain setting would give me more depth ....I was finding more targets WITHOUT the position they recommended , so I left it the way I wanted to , and had better results ..... I'll try it both ways eepending on soil conditions .... or how i feel at the time .... If the ground sound is not what I wnat to hear , I will turn it OFF as I have been use to .....If the ground is pretty clean , I'll turn it ON .....Jim
Crazyman,the XS-2 I have very seldom finds any hot rocks.The Jolly Rogers headphones I use may not be the best for the Sovereign which the spec ratings are low compared to most other units.Rained here all day looking forward to a search tomorrow.
Jim, I'm with you. I pretty much have to turn it off and/or use auto sens. with the 10 inch coil in my ground but with the S-8 I can run higher sensitivity so usually leave it on unless the ground gets really bad or I'm hunting in thick iron. It's there if needed but I use it more as a setting for ground conditions as opposed to just iron masking.
Ron, my Elite didn't have any problems with hot rocks either and ran smooth. To get my GT to act the same I need to turn iron mask off. I still think that when Minelab hardwired the iron mask after the Original they watered it down some as there is a night and day difference between the Original/GT with iron mask turned on compared to the other models where it's hardwired on.