New Explorer II

[Ray Hogan]

Thank you Chuck at Treasure Hut for the unbelievable deal on my new Explorer II. Finally had the time to put it together this morning. play with it a little and now I'm on my way out the door for my first outing with it. Wish me luck. And also, thanks for the great insight you guys give on this and other forums. Ray Hogan in Waco, TX. Hopefully I'll have a post this evening of my humble and meager finds...ha.

 

[Ray Hogan]

wish I could say I found all kinds of great stuff today. I was in a really trashy area...nulling constantly. I did find a few coins...two of them wheaties, but i dug alot of junk. A couples of things that baffled me...I'd get different tones from targets with the same digital readings and sometimes I could not get a digital readout for quite some time. Was this because of multiple targets under the coil at the same time? Thanks for any insight. The hardest thing for me to do is put down a detector I've grown to have confidence in and pick up a new and stick with it. Thanks, Ray.

 

[Farmercal]

Ray, it will get better. The more you use this detector the easier it is to use. I highly recommend Andy's book "Mastering the Minelab Explorer S and XS. It was written for the earlier machines but all the information applies to the EXII as well. I am re-reading the book now and things are starting to make some sense now. Most folks just use the sound for hunting more than the screen. The 2nd time out with my EXII I stuck my 5" excellerator coil on and found a mercury dime at 5-6 inches that I missed for 10 years in the same spot with other machines. Good Luck and HH
Cal

 

[Ray Hogan]

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[James N.D.]

If you get multiple targets under the stock coil, it will sound off all muffled and make it hard to tell what targets are what. This is a bit hard for a newcomer to understand with the Explorer but you will get the hang of it. I also think the reason for no display readout is because of all the Iron in the ground as you already mentioned. If the machine is constantly nulling and has no background threshhold, you are in an area that has a huge amount of Iron items in it and you will not get a readout unless you go into IronMask -16. There is too many Iron targets that the Explorer is seeing and this makes the machine try to focus in on Conductive targets. If I were you, I would purchase a smaller coil for extremely trashy sites so you can get better separation. Also the reason for different display readouts and same tones is because of all the targets under the coil at that time. The detector is giving the sound of one target and the display is reading the next target since the detector is resetting itself so fast. Go with a smaller coil and you will have less problems with this.

 

[Neilo]

Hi Ray well done you have a good machine thats for sure. I have been using them since the first model was produced over 5yrs ago.Take your time to learn the machine dont fall into the trap of running the machine at high sensitivity until you are familiar with it otherwise you will be drowned by signals some false and can finish up confused.
Leave the machine on the factory preset of 16 and get to learn the tones of good targets.The digital read out is handy thats for sure but dont rely on it too much, it is limited and reasonably accurate on shallow targets but on deep targets you generally find the numbers jump all over the place as it cant identify the target as it is on the edge of the digital identification limits.This is where learning to identify good targets by tone is beneficial.If it sounds good dig it.If you are in an area where there is a lot of rubbish signals which are being discriminated out try going to the Recovery mode and select, fast. this will shorten the length of signals and allow you to hear a good target which would have been discriminated out. Set yourself up a test patch somewhere and bury a number of varying targets good eg coins and bad eg nails at different depths and learn the tones and look where they appear on the different screens.See if you can get Andy Sabisch book it is well worth it Take your time Good luck hope you find plenty seeya Neilo

 

[Ray Hogan]

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[Ray Hogan]

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[Captain Kirk]

Ray,

You stated:
I'd get different tones from targets with the same digital readings and sometimes I could not get a digital readout for quite some time.

The tones are essentially continuous as you move from target to target when they targets are very close together.

The Explorer will go into a very short null after each isolated target (targets that are not very close together). This null is very short an almost unnoticeable. It is my belief that there may not be a null generated between targets if the targets are very close together.

The screen only updates after going into and recovering from a null.
Therefore, if you have several targets in close proximity, then the screen will not track them. The screen only updates after you pass over the last of those targets and allow the detector to go into and recover from the null. When I first started using the Explorer I noticed that I could "wiggle" the coil over a target and get a repeating tone that was not even close to what the screen was indication. Only after I stopped the "wiggle" did the screen change to indicate what the tone was indicating.

Hope this helps,
Glenn

 

[Ray Hogan]

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[Chuck@TreasureHut]

Hello Ray.....and you are very welcome. The advice these guys have given you is right on. Go slow, listen to the tones first, and only use the meter to help verify what your brain has discriminated!!! The advice about the smaller coil is well taken. I have found that the Platypus by Coiltek has helped me tremendously in trashy areas. What you say about putting down your old favorite, and sticking with the new machine isn't lost on most of the guys who have bought Explorers. Those who have stuck with the "learning curve" that I mentioned to you, would fight before giving up their Explorer! Stay with it Ray.....once you understand what it's saying, thye sun will come out, and the sky will turn blue! Your good finds count will soar as well!