Just purchased SE Pro and need help

[michaelnc]

I know this is a great detector because of the loyal following and finds to back it up. I need some real tips to help set this thing up for hunting. I've read the manuals and Andy's book but I must be missing something. I have a Garrett 1350, Whites XLT, and Fisher Excel and find silver on a regular basis but these machines are much quieter and easier to use. Typically my coin finds are down to the 8 inch level or less. I've owned CZ's and know they are deeper than the above units but I want to really learn to use this Minelab. The sounds drive me nuts. How can I get past the sound issue and still find the good stuff. That being said the new Fisher units make a lot of noise as well but I can handle the noise of those machines and still find what I'm after. I bought this detector for the simple fact that it seems to find silver slightly better than all other units when mastered. Sorry for the rambling but I need some help.

Thanks,

Shane

 

[Jason illinois]

You have to be more specific about what you mean by "sounds driving you nuts".

Electronic Interference causes annoying noise and there is little you can do about it besides find a different area or hunt in the wee hours on a holiday.

Hunting in all metal is really annoying if that is what your problem is then try the factory preset disc. in smart find, it will still find all coins other than steel ones but will be quieter.

Some heavily used areas or heavily compacted ground just makes lots of noise there is nothing you can do about it other than to manually adjust your sensitivity until the noise is bearable. Unfortunately the areas that are no fun to hunt are the ones that still are producing goodies.

 

[michaelnc]

I have the SE set up with Bryce's settings but all I the high pitched noise is driving me nuts. Over the same ground my other detectors don't make a peep until they find something. Iron Mask 22, Semi-Auto sensitivity 26, Variability 10, Gain, 10, Max limits 10, Fast off, Deep off. Is there a way to set up the SE Pro more like one of the above mentioned units until I get the hang of it.

 

[Jason illinois]

When you set the iron mask to 22 you are still hearing a lot of iron. Some peoples ears are too sensitive to listen to it all. On the other hand you get used to the high pitched iron and can distinguish when you hear a high pitched silver, just because you had learned to ignore the iron.

Personally I can't do it my ears are too sensitive so I hunt in the preset discrimination that you can use if you turn the iron mask mode off. It is quieter.

Also read the part in the Andy Sabisch book about Conductive/Ferrous sounds, you can see in the diagram why you hear high pitched iron when you set the detector to Conductive sounds. The guys that hunt noisy use iron mask to block out just the iron that would sound the same as silver instead of all the iron which gives the detector less work to put through the processor and overall better performance. The other side of it is that some of the guys who do that might not have great hearing in the first place and it really bothers sensitive ears. Maybe that is why they buy expensive headphones i dunno I just use the stock ones.

You will not lose much noticable performance by turning off iron mask and using the discrimination. In fact it will only help you if you are not already familiar with the machine. Hunting in iron mask is an advanced skill that will not work well until you learn what good finds sound like. Slowing down to a snails pace from how you used the other detectors will also help.

 

[Bayrat76]

Go Slow , Doc's swingy Thing a must. Plus a good shovel.

 

[DirtFlipper]

I have the SE set up with Bryce's settings but all I the high pitched noise is driving me nuts. Over the same ground my other detectors don't make a peep until they find something. Iron Mask 22, Semi-Auto sensitivity 26, Variability 10, Gain, 10, Max limits 10, Fast off, Deep off. Is there a way to set up the SE Pro more like one of the above mentioned units until I get the hang of it.

Are you getting the high-pitched noise when swinging the coil, or does it exist when stationary too? If it exists when stationary, that's more likely electrical interference. Trying the Noise Cancel button might help with that.

If it's happening only while moving the coil over the ground, then it may be due to having the sensitivity too high (although semi-auto should compensate for that). Might want to make sure that semi-auto is the setting, but if not, could try lowering it to 16-18 and then see what happens.

If you are using Ferrous sounds, then in the settings you mention, yeah, it's going to be very, very noisy with high-pitched sounds in an area with low-ferrous trash (tabs, foil, bottle caps). The Conductive sounds setting should help with that (although there will still be lower tones for the non-rejected low conductive trash). Might consider lowering the gain from 10 back to 8 too, so any shallow stuff doesn't come blasting through.

When first starting out, it's possible to use the settings you mention, but it helps to start in an area that you know to be pretty free of trash and then work your way closer to trashier settings. It helps to start by hearing fewer signals at a time, and then work up to the full cacophony.

But there's also the possibility that if you are already using Conductive, and hearing lots of high-pitched sounds, that they are good signals. Or hot rocks. What type of environment are you searching?

Also, just using the factory default settings are fairly powerful the way they come on an SE Pro. They boosted the default sensitivity and gain, and the regular coin program does a pretty good job of knocking out the noise. If you still get lots of audio in that setting, then EMI seems likely. Or just lots of targets.

Just some ideas.

HH,
DirtFlipper

 

[michaelnc]

n/t

 

[Elton]

When I did that on advice from another forum member..it allowed me to work through the other sound variances much easier.

Noise cancel every time you turn the machine on.

 

[kered]

If you have the gain on 10 thats max, i would turn it down to 6-7, the Gain not only amplifies weak targets but all the tiny bits of mineralization too, if there is lots of iron flake etc it will go crazy with such a high gain, its always better to reduce the gain slightly rather than the Sensitivity as no depth is lost, the gain is only amplification of weak signals present that are already being detected. My opinion is that to run on bruces settings you need to be very experienced as he is, but you also need to learn to walk before you run, Start on the factory settup, modify the disc pattern to suit then as you get more used to the machines quirks you can start to increase settings

If your first ever car was a ferrari and you used it to its max you would probably crash it within a week so you take it easy, do the same with the explorer

 

[dewcon4414]

I hunt in manual at 24, make sure my coil cover is CLEAN, gain 9, threshold tone 8, IM 28, Cond... but if you are in an iron ridden area try ferr might be less noise for you. Every one hunts this machine differently. Also, try disconnecting the upper coil cable and reconnecting it... i had that problem and it settled right down.

Dew

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

I have the SE set up with Bryce's settings but all I the high pitched noise is driving me nuts. Over the same ground my other detectors don't make a peep until they find something. Iron Mask 22, Semi-Auto sensitivity 26, Variability 10, Gain, 10, Max limits 10, Fast off, Deep off. Is there a way to set up the SE Pro more like one of the above mentioned units until I get the hang of it.

You want to make learning the machine easy, you want to dig good stuff right away? Then turn your gain down to 7, deep ON, and switch to Ferrous tones. This will eliminate false highs due to your gain being too high and most of what you are having difficulty with.

There is the camp that advocates a gain of 9 or 10, however you can't run the gain this high in all soils. There are soils that will drive you nuts with high pitch falses with the gain that high. This camp also often advocates reducing the sensitivity to compensate for the high gain, this is also backwards as confirmed by Minelab. Gain simply boosts faint signals, but if those faint signals have already been eliminated by lowering the sensitivity they cannot be boosted e.g. they have been filtered out already via the lower sensitivity setting. Therefore its ideal to tune for best sensitivity, then adjust gain to whatever the soil will allow.

Nails can false with a high tone even in Ferrous mode, most often when you sweep the nail with just the front or side edge of your coil. It is therefore really important to center the coil over the target, when you do this many nails will then sound off with a low tone (the beauty of Ferrous tones). If the target is still giving a high tone, turn 90 degrees and sweep the target again from that angle. Does it still sound high? Does the cursor stay put or mostly bounce around the coin area? If so dig it.

If on the other hand you now get a low tone you have yourself a nail that was falsing high, move on to the next target. Another clue is if the target seemed to change locations on you e.g. you thought you had it pinpointed but when you turned 90 degrees it shifted positions, this is classic for nails throwing a signal out along their length. Another VERY reliable clue that you are over a nail is the bounce pattern of the cursor on deeper targets when the screen ID is less stable (cursor bouncing around). If you are unsure if you are on a nail falsing high or a coin and the cursor is bouncing around back your iron mask off to zero. Now watch the cursor, does it bounce from the top/left corner of the screen over to the right edge of the screen with the cursor half off the right edge, and the cursor down about 3/8 inch from the top? If so thats a nail, classic rusty nail falsing bounce pattern.

Here's another tip for new users. Edit your smartfind screen to resemble Iron Mask say with the left half of the screen (black) discriminated out. Next adjust your Iron Mask mode for zero discrimination (wide open screen, all metal). How hunt in Smartfind and when you think you have a good target switch to Iron Mask mode, with nothing discriminated pinpointing is a lot easier. You will be able to see/hear where everything is in relation to the target of interest. You will get the best possible signal with zero descrimination also. Try this in the field, you will learn to like it.

 

[Hotcz70]

put it in the factory presets...and leave it alone for some time. I wouldn't recommend trying my settings...or anyone's settings until you have many hours familiarizing yourself with all the sounds the SE is making.

You can change gain...sensitivity...threshold tone...and any number of things...but I would just leave it in the factory preset until you feel more comfortable.

When I first started I tried many things just like you are wanting to do and all it did was really screw me up.

I had people suggesting that I go to ferrous sounds and all metal so I tried that...and got even more confused. Not only did I hear the same sounds that were driving me nuts...but now I heard even more,...including the constant thumping of iron hits. NOT for me...but that's just my preference.

When you get some more time on the machine...things will come together on their own.

Some don't think there is an advantage to high gain...or that it doesn't make a difference...but I assure you it does for me in my soil.

I can run the same sensitivity settings but change gain over targets in the field...and with it at 7 it's sometimes just a chirp that sounds like falsing. With it at 6...there is no sound at all to stop and investigate on many of the targets I've experimented over.

I realize that Minelab and some others may not agree with my assessment...but I'm just tellin' you what works for me. If I remember correctly...I was also told by many that I couldn't find a coin when I my detector was nulling (no threshold). Well if that's the case I need to go throw 8 of the 10 seated dimes I found this year.....back to the ground...cause I found them in a completely solid dead null...no threshold whatsoever.

Those same signals I was investigating in a null were barely one way peeps with gain at 7...and completely disappeared with the gain at 6.

I don't have any scientific explanations to back up what I'm saying...and am probably not smart enough to come up with something like that anyway.

I can only tell you to take your time and find out what works for you. As you can see there are a lot of experienced hunters giving you their suggestions...and they are all GOOD suggestions. It's up to you to find out what works best for you.

I do know I would never want someone to try my settings until they have spent many many hours on the SE....and even then the key is to be able to discern deep iron falsing from good coin hits. It's definitely not for everyone...but I guarantee you it works for me.

It will have no problems hitting a coin at 8" deep in the factory preset conductive sound setup.

 

[michaelnc]

I appreciate all the information and hope to put it to good use. It may be a couple more days before I hunt again with temps in the teens but I'm already figuring out the sounds so thats a step in the right direction. So far I'm using the digital screen with sensitivity at semi-auto 26 and noise canceling every 30 minutes or so. Found a few wheaties and a silver ring last time out with the SE but my hunting buddies found several silver coins but the area was fairly large and I didn't barge into their area to see if I could root out a silver coin or two. I did however memorize where they were hunting when I get to hunt the site again.LOL

Thanks for taking time to answer questions and maybe next trip I'll try ferrous sounds to see if I prefer that setup.

Later,

Shane