Hi, I thought I would post my settings as maybe it would help some of the folks who want to try something different. I don't really vary much from these settings. I use them for most all sites with adjustments only to sensitivity and noise.
Below are my settings. I will explain why I chose these settings and give you some ideas as to what you may wish to try.
I use Advanced settings
Iron Mask is on at -15
Threshold is set only high enough to hear an audible noise
Volume is set to 4
Gain is set at 6
Deep is on
Fast is off
Sounds is set to Ferrous
I use manual sensitivity, not auto. I set sensitivity at a level that provides a constant threshold without breaking up or becoming unstable.
Audio set to Audio1
My reason for advanced settings is to fine tune some of the other settings listed below.
My reason for Iron Mask:
I hunt relics as well as coins. I like to find iron objects. With iron mask I can tune in as much iron or as little iron as I want. Iron mask will accept or eliminate iron through out the entire verticle axis (the range of conductivity).
Iron mask has settings that go from 0 to -16. 0 means that we will eliminate all iron. The entire display will be dark. As you move iron mask up toward -16 you will see that the lcd will become open from right to left (dark area on the left meaning that we will not accept any object that falls into that dark area). It seems backwards but that's how they set it up...
I set my iron mask at -14 or -15. This setting allows me to catch most all iron. It also keeps me from hearing a constant iron signal if I should be in a real trashy area. If you choose iron mask, try it out around -9. Then move up to -10,11... and see the differnce in how much iron you will hear. I feel (only my opinion) that iron mask and Ferrous sounds work together. Before you set iron mask "on" you may want to choose Ferrous sounds and here is why, again only from my own experience and what works for me:
The majority of my hunting is in the woods around cellar holes. There can be lots of iron in the woods. When I first started hunting with my EXII over three years ago I used Conduct sounds. It worked great but not around iron. I found that conduct would give a high pitch around iron as iron is conductive. Well so didn't coins and silver. So it made hunting in the woods almost impossible for me to tell if I was digging iron or silver. So I set my sounds to Ferrous. With Ferrous sounds, iron will give off a very low tone while silver, copper and the good stuff will give off a higher tone very similar to how it sound in Conduct mode. (ferrous sounds are based on the horizontal axis, the more ferrous the target, the lower the tone and the target will be closer to the left of the display) Ferrous gives that great seperation between iron and any good non-ferrous target. So I stayed with Ferrous and got very used to it.
My reason for low thereshold is to allow me to hear very faint signals whereas if the threshold was too high or too low I could miss some. Not a huge big deal just a personal preference.
My reason for Volume 4 is just a preference, I have good hearing and don't like the constant loud hum all the time. I like to just bearly hear it humming and then when I hit a target I can hear it really well.
My reason for gain 6 is my own personal preference. This settings seems to allow me to hear fairly small targets at greater depth and still allow me to tell the difference between some shallow and some deep targets. Gain is supposed to amplify smaller deep targets but it can also make all targets sound the same depth. I chose a good mid-range gain and am happy with that.
My reason for deep on is that I want as much depth as possible. Why would anyone turn it off? Just my preference...
My reason for fast off is this: fast on will allow the detector circuits to recover quicker between targets. It will also throw off the accuracy of the target id, not a lot but it will. I will use fast ON when I am in a very trashy area and I need to hunt very slowly. Other than that it's fast off for me.
This last setting, Audio1 is rather tricky. I would highly recommend that you leave Audio at the default setting which is "normal" (I think). After running default Audio settings for over a year I experimented with Audio1 and love it. You will find that it stretches out the sounds. I find it very nice in trashy areas as well as on small or deep targets. It is very tough to get used to though. It took me several months to learn it. After becoming good at it my small target finds in the woods really increased as did my finds in trashy areas.
Good luck and HH....
Ed-
Below are my settings. I will explain why I chose these settings and give you some ideas as to what you may wish to try.
I use Advanced settings
Iron Mask is on at -15
Threshold is set only high enough to hear an audible noise
Volume is set to 4
Gain is set at 6
Deep is on
Fast is off
Sounds is set to Ferrous
I use manual sensitivity, not auto. I set sensitivity at a level that provides a constant threshold without breaking up or becoming unstable.
Audio set to Audio1
My reason for advanced settings is to fine tune some of the other settings listed below.
My reason for Iron Mask:
I hunt relics as well as coins. I like to find iron objects. With iron mask I can tune in as much iron or as little iron as I want. Iron mask will accept or eliminate iron through out the entire verticle axis (the range of conductivity).
Iron mask has settings that go from 0 to -16. 0 means that we will eliminate all iron. The entire display will be dark. As you move iron mask up toward -16 you will see that the lcd will become open from right to left (dark area on the left meaning that we will not accept any object that falls into that dark area). It seems backwards but that's how they set it up...
I set my iron mask at -14 or -15. This setting allows me to catch most all iron. It also keeps me from hearing a constant iron signal if I should be in a real trashy area. If you choose iron mask, try it out around -9. Then move up to -10,11... and see the differnce in how much iron you will hear. I feel (only my opinion) that iron mask and Ferrous sounds work together. Before you set iron mask "on" you may want to choose Ferrous sounds and here is why, again only from my own experience and what works for me:
The majority of my hunting is in the woods around cellar holes. There can be lots of iron in the woods. When I first started hunting with my EXII over three years ago I used Conduct sounds. It worked great but not around iron. I found that conduct would give a high pitch around iron as iron is conductive. Well so didn't coins and silver. So it made hunting in the woods almost impossible for me to tell if I was digging iron or silver. So I set my sounds to Ferrous. With Ferrous sounds, iron will give off a very low tone while silver, copper and the good stuff will give off a higher tone very similar to how it sound in Conduct mode. (ferrous sounds are based on the horizontal axis, the more ferrous the target, the lower the tone and the target will be closer to the left of the display) Ferrous gives that great seperation between iron and any good non-ferrous target. So I stayed with Ferrous and got very used to it.
My reason for low thereshold is to allow me to hear very faint signals whereas if the threshold was too high or too low I could miss some. Not a huge big deal just a personal preference.
My reason for Volume 4 is just a preference, I have good hearing and don't like the constant loud hum all the time. I like to just bearly hear it humming and then when I hit a target I can hear it really well.
My reason for gain 6 is my own personal preference. This settings seems to allow me to hear fairly small targets at greater depth and still allow me to tell the difference between some shallow and some deep targets. Gain is supposed to amplify smaller deep targets but it can also make all targets sound the same depth. I chose a good mid-range gain and am happy with that.
My reason for deep on is that I want as much depth as possible. Why would anyone turn it off? Just my preference...
My reason for fast off is this: fast on will allow the detector circuits to recover quicker between targets. It will also throw off the accuracy of the target id, not a lot but it will. I will use fast ON when I am in a very trashy area and I need to hunt very slowly. Other than that it's fast off for me.
This last setting, Audio1 is rather tricky. I would highly recommend that you leave Audio at the default setting which is "normal" (I think). After running default Audio settings for over a year I experimented with Audio1 and love it. You will find that it stretches out the sounds. I find it very nice in trashy areas as well as on small or deep targets. It is very tough to get used to though. It took me several months to learn it. After becoming good at it my small target finds in the woods really increased as did my finds in trashy areas.
Good luck and HH....
Ed-