New guy with question

[bjones8103]

I've had my XP for a day and a half and have spent about 10 hours getting to know it. I haven't dug a thing yet but that's going to change shortly. I have a question regarding the mineralization strength bar. My backyard has a ground mineralization index of 65, and with a ground of effect correction of 90 in both basics 1 & 2 the mineralization strength bar shows nothing. If I manually ground balance the XP (set the ground effect correction to 65) it does significantly improve its signal strength. I got up this morning and went to the beach. In the dry sand mode after 30 minutes my ground mineralization index was 90 therefore I left the ground effect correction at 90. The mineralization strength bar remained blank which seems right. The XP seemed to work properly giving off good solid signals (lots of junk at these sites). Next I went down to the wet sand and selected the wet sand program. The ground mineralization index read 00 and after ground balancing (beach) my ground effect correction was 26. At no time did the mineralization strength bar register anything. Is this thing broke or is this normal? At any rate the, winds are blowing hard out of the west, it's 44 degrees F and at low tide this morning I walked a hundred yards out onto sand that's normally covered by water. I didn't want to dip the new XP's coil in the surf until I'm sure it's a keeper. I'm heading back out there now with my dog "Digger", a full arsenal of digging tools and my beat up old CZ-20. Any education anyone can give me will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. bjones in Texas City, TX (where the sewer meets the sea).

 

[Welgund]

It is only a ground reading of the amount of mineralization of soil under the coil at that given time. There has been times where I will have no reading on it and walk 10 ft and have 4 bars. It's good to keep an eye on it especially when in manuel and pumping ground balances. Iron rich fertilizers will cause a spike it it in pastures, nitrogen etc.

 

[bjones8103]

Thanks for the reply Welgund. The problem is my mineralization strength bar never registers any ground mineralization. It's always blank even when I'm over a wet beach that displays 00 on the machines ground mineralization index. I've contacted the dealer who is trying to contact XP regarding the problem but I'll take any help I can get from the real experts here on this board.

 

[bjones8103]

I talked to Moe at Detector Electronics Corp and he agreed there was a problem with my Deus and sent a replacement. The replacement is doing exactly the same thing. I have yet to see any black in the vertical mineralization bar. I've called a dealer in North Houston who said he's hunted with a Deus for about a year now and has never noticed if he has a reading on the bar. He suggested a few things to try and if the detector appeared to be working, to go ahead and keep it. My concern is that the circuit that feeds this bar is defective and what other information does it supply to other circuits. I'm sure it's nothing I'm doing because this thing is pretty much plug and play. I've hunted in parks that have gave me a 82 ground index, wet beaches that gives me a 00 ground index, dry beaches that have given a 97 ground index and my backyard ranges from 62 to a 82 ground index but I've never seen an indication of ground mineralization on the ground mineralization bar. This is my second Deus and I have to wander if XP has a batch of faulty chips. Any help. Thanks. bjones

 

[sprchng]

The "62 to 82" GB reading you get in your backyard is an indication of the TYPE of mineralization in the soil while the mineralization bar or graph on the side of the display is an indication of the amount of that mineral that is ionized and dispersed in the soil.
Sounds like you have mild soil with a little iron in it and the machine is working just as its supposed to.

 

[Lodge Scent]

Since you are at an impasse let me throw a couple of WAGs out there. Salt mineralization and iron mineralization are two very different things. Is it possible the Deus is looking at the relative strengths of each individually and not comparing them against each other? Deus may be compensating for the difference between the two. That might that explain why you don't see the change in the bar when going from land to beach. Just a guess.

 

[bjones8103]

I guess I'm a little jealous because when I watch the you tube videos the bar keeps jumping up and down and for almost 3 weeks now my 2 machines have had no display in the bar what so ever. Is there anyway I can trick it to see if it's working. If not, in a couple of weeks I'll be taking it out to the Big Bend NP area about 700 miles west of here and I'll see what she does out there. Outside of the mineralization bar the Deus does seem to be working. Thanks for the replies. bjones

 

[Lodge Scent]

You have it backwards. They should be jealous of you! If you have weak mineralization that is a good thing ! I have very mild soil in my area and my bar hardly ever registers either. Sometimes when I am over a big patch of iron I will see it move.

 

[unearth]

I very rarely get a reading on my mineralization bar. The only time I've seen it is at the beach, and then only once in a while. I've never thought of this as a possible problem.