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My Two Blankedy BLANK-BLANK-BLANK SEs!!!

G

GoldenRoyBoy

New member
Today I stopped at a really old house here, in Trinidad; knocking on the door, humbly begging permission to search their yard with my trusty SE. Already receiving no less than 3 "NO!s" this morning, I was expecting yet another. The kind lady and her child answered; affirming "Yes!" Quickly, I got out my backup SE; the one I just received this week from Captain Jack; I had her dressed with an 8 inch coil. Immediately, my machine began blanking, losing threshold. I've had this happen before and believe me, it's not a good sign. There's really nothing you can do or is there? I know the problem has to do with ground balance. The SEs are factory set. Does anyone have an answer? It was so aggrevating, I went to my truck and got out my trusty #1 SE; same thing. Adjusting GAIN and SENSITIVITY had absolutely no effect on the situation. I did opt to run SENSITIVITY maxed to 32 but in AUTO SENSITIVITY mode. The hunt was not a total lost as I did succeed in finding a GOOD FOR FIVE token, 5 wheats, a piece of inexpensive costume jewelry, and numerous clads. I know I left a lot behind and that always bothers me. Oh yeah, I changed coils thinking maybe it was somehow a coil problem. Not. Mr. Cortes Tesoro is having surgery; I'll sure be glad to get him back from the Tesoro Doctors in Arizona! Well, I know the inexpensive little Boy can certainly teach those two SE twins how to do the detector dance! I promised the lady, "I will be back!" She smiled; saying, "We will be here!"

Has anyone else had this problem, the SE blanking I mean? :)
GRB
 
The threshold disappears then you must not be running in all metal or a cleared smart screen.....If I run Iron mask anything or discrim. anything in my yard it will null till the gull gets home...too much iron and roofing nails...the only way to hear it all is to open it up and hear everything....and go slow with a small coil...bob and weave the coil around to get seperation...it takes patients and will drive you nuts but that is the only way to find the coins in the millions of trash and iron.....OPTION 2.....try a cleaner place if you can not endure the tougher yards.....:surrender:
 
Hello!
I should have mentioned, hunting I was in ALL METAL MODE-SENSITIVITY@ 32MAX with AUTO SENS@ON---GAIN@10---IRON MASK-ON@20.

Initially, I was useing an 8 inch Minelab coil but later switched to my Platypus 8.5x11. I also tried my 4.5x7 Excelerator. I did try manually lowering SENSITIVITY and GAIN; doing so made no difference. The only way I could get THRESHOLD was to raise the coil 12 inches or more off the ground. Lowering the coils to the ground resulted in blanking (no sound). I was able to hunt but didn't find any targets pass 5 inches or so. What's sort of funny, the area was relatively free of junk. Or, at least what I was able to find.

Thanks!
GRB
 
Hi GRB,

I'm envious of you out there in Trinidad...must be mighty nice there in the Caribbean!
I'll get there one day hopefully..."if I git hitched" she might like to go there for the honeymoon???

I've been reading your posts, starting at the top and then read this one and I should like to
offer up my opinion of what's happening?

Not being familiar with the type of soil you were on I can't really say for sure but, what I can say is,
after reading your settings it becomes more obvious as to why you had blanking going on?
Full Power Semi Auto 32 can be way too much power to output into what may be "hot soil",
or "mineralised soil" that you may have been on in that woman's yard?

What I would do is the following: I'd find a clear spot - Noise Cancel with my coil on the soil - or at waist height.
This is a personal preference - I do mine on the ground usually - hit NC and walk away a few feet,
put on headphones, zip up a jacket etc for the 18 seconds cycle.
Engage Semi-Auto @ 32 and begin to sweep in a normal sweep and LISTEN carefully.

You will probably hear nothing at all - zero - as you will be outputting too much sens and the ground
just cannot allow it through. So you must find a way to beat this.

DIS-engage Semi-Auto and select manual Sensitivity - then repeat the above - sweep back and forth
over the same pre-checked soil area.

With your left hand on the Sens shift button reduce reduce reduce the Sens until you can hear a Threshold tone
beginning to "be manufactured" or appear in a wavery sound. Wait until it is SOLID and not "wavery"
You may find that the soil is so bad the threshold tone comes back at a very low number - that could be anywhere
from 1 - 32 as that is the range of the machine. But, what you WILL FIND is that, the SE WILL TELL YOU
that it is "happy" at a certain Sensitivity setting whatever it may be? I did this only last Sunday in a very
iron contaminated area and my threshold stabilised @ Sens 11.

What I did then was the following:having establihsed that 11 was [ the usable power ] the SE would allow me to hunt
I then re-engaged Semi-Auto so that if Ground Conditions "improved" the SE would [ range up ] by itself.
Being able [ to hear my threshold the entire time ] I got NO BLANKING whatsoever.
That's the key - if no Threshold is heard there's a problem - the above mentioned procedure can assist.

One other thing, your settings described you being in ALL METAL and IRON MASK at the same time?
This is not possible - it's either one or the other - you can ENGAGE Iron Mask "to check" signals and
switch back but it's not possible to be in those 2 settings at the same time.

Let me know if this helps and / or works when you get back to that woman's house.

Good Hunting

Des Dunne
Minelab International
Ireland
 
First, if you are setting sens. at 11 and in semi auto. How can the machine go higher than your highest setting?
Second, Iron mask wide open IS All Metal. Please explain how it isn't.
 
Good "TRINIDAD, COLORADO" morning gentlemen!
Words; sometimes too many, too few! :)

I've hunted with the SE for over a year now and, like most am still learning while having some success so, in my mind at least I am doing something right.

ALL METAL MODE
All DISC patterns CLEARED is one way of hunting in ALL METAL MODE.
Certainly, according to my SE manual one can clear IRON MASK also but why unless you are a relic hunter?
There's just too much iron in the ground around this area to deal with.

My statement regarding GROUND BALANCE is technically correct I do believe.
GB is factory set as I have no way of controlling it. Minelab's manual doesn't have much to say about GROUND BALANCE simply reading,
"The Explorer SE uses a sophisticated approach to the elimination of ground mineralisation. It uses advanced digital filtering to eliminate the influence of ground signals."
Obvious to me, the filtering system is not working as well as it should be. :)

The statement regarding my setting of SENSITIVITY-MAXED@32 is, in my opinion both true and not. Had I not opted to use SEMI-AUTO SENSITIVITY yes, certainly I would more than likely receive a lot of noise. According to my SE manual when useing SEMI-AUTO SENSITIVITY, the machine will monitor enviromental conditions, adjusting SENSITIVITY "AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE TO YOUR SPECIFIED LEVEL OF SENSITIVITY." I understand this to mean if I had my setting at lets say 17 the machine would not exceed my setting. Is this the wrong assumption?

I really need help on this blanking issue and seriously doubt I am the only one experiencing the problem.
Forum discussions are good for the most part; I await more of your experience and wisdom! :)

I thank you!
GRB
 
It is possible to be in AM in both screens. You set IM to AM and create an all metal pattern in the select screen by clearing the screen. Now the question would be why? But i beleave he was using a clear screen AM and checking the targets with IM 20. My bet is hes using WAY too much sensitivity for his soil and EMI.
 
I never had that happen until yesterday. I was check this yard and I was getting signals all over and couldn't find a clear spot. I did the noise cancel and still the same, then I backed off the sensitivity and everything was okay. I found what was causing the feedback, it was granite rocks the guy had in the yard, a lot of them.
 
i'm a relative newbie, but my suggestion would be to start with low sensitivity and a lot of discrimination and work backwards, gradually opening up your settings until you find a comfortable range. i'm sure there's an awful lot of iron in your soil.

that's coal country, right? and a major rail hub? i earned both my degrees in Denver, and i studied a LOT of Colorado history.
 
I say no......If one is running sens. tooooo high and in all metal,I would say you would get more noise than you want......it will not blank but just the opposite......go wacky and unstable cursor and or digital #'s......so where does the blanking come from?.....either his detector needs repair.....or he is running some sort of discrimination to get the nulls, Blank blank blank......Solved!!!!!!!!!! That will be $100 please..Thank you.....:cheers:
 
Hello Guys & Gals!
I left early this morning, headed back to the old two story house! I changed my settings to ALL METAL MODE---IRON MASK-OFF---SENSITIVITY 32 MAXED-with SEMI-AUTO ON---GAIN@10---FERROUS.
I chose to use Minelab's 8 inch coil initially. My very first find was a wheat followed by a 1915 Barber dime! I thought dam; may be on to something. More wheats followed by a 1898 V Nickel. I also found a writing merit pin and an old button with an anchor on it about the size of a dime and a handful of clad. ALL METAL certainly takes some getting use to as you hear every signal. Hunting in FERROUS, all the iron made low blat sounds. However, threshold was steady! There was quite a large amount of old ammo brass and twenty two bullets. During the day, I swapped detectors already having my backup SE equiped with Excelerator's 4 inch DD coil. It's a nice coil but I found I had to concentrate working really small areas. Being able to work the flower beds close to the house resulted in a lot of clad but no really old coins.

One more thing I found useing both the 8 inch and 4 inch, I had to go really, really slow in order not to miss any high pitch targets.
Depth was amazing on the 8 inch. The barber dime had to have been down at least 8 inches as was the V nickel.

Thanks everyone for your positive imput!
I am beholding! :)
GRB
 
One reason is the machine does not have to process so much soil. This in itself will help also.
 
Here's a pic of some of today's finds!
The scratches on the dime were done by the hands of the lady of the house!
I could only watch as she scraped the dirt off to see the date more clearly. :(

Thank you for your interest!
GRB
 
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