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NW Oregon HIGHLY minerized soil.

No offense taken, and very good point. Not only did I remove the coil cover and verify it isn't loaded with stuff, I removed it entirely and carefully ran it for a day with out the cover.
Still no dice. I appreciate all the ideas and tips, and if any of these help someone along the way they are most definitely worth the conversation.

\"Dr.Tones\" said:
Just wanted to check something... Please don't be offended, I've seen this happen before, but did you ever try pulling the coil cover off and cleaning it out? I know after a few hours of use mine can get a good build up of crap in there. If its at all mineralized you can forget about getting anything. To prevent this build up I use a single peice of coil cover tape. It's basically just electrical tape. Or try some calk. I'm interested to here about your new machine.
Click to expand...
 
Hmmm. Well I hope it gets worked out. I'm here in the Boise area and I run auto +3 and sometimes I get into the 15's and 16's but I can still pull an Indian from about 7-8 no prob.
 
Just got a phone confirmation from Minelab that my CTX has been delivered safely to them, and that a technician will be getting to it promptly.

So far I am pleased with Minelab and their customer service with their communication.
 
I'm having somewhat of the same issue here in Utah with really mineralized soil. Find it hard to get a good solid signal beyond 5-6".
I'm still tweaking the settings and trying to figure out how to maximize the depth.
Please let us know what the outcome of yours is.
 
I have been having great success here where I live with just going SLOW if the sensitivity is low in auto +3, and when I hear that light blip of a good signal I will crank the sensitivity even if it makes it erratic and I can pick up the signal better to see what it could be
 
My wife answered the phone when I wasn't home Monday. Minelab called and said they are shipping out a NEW CTX to me shortly.

Now I didn't get to talk to them, and the wife has no idea what to ask them, but I am going to assume that there must have been a definite issue with it for them to me a new one.

That works for me! :clapping:
 
Look forward to reading your thoughts when you can report back after giving the new machine a test drive.
 
Not sure why Minelab waited to ship it out a week after saying it will be shipped shortly.
So, I got a tracking number this past Wednesday morning when they shipped it, and UPS update says it's "Out for delivery" as of 0630 this morning.

Unfortunately, I live on the far edge of town and tend to be on the tail end of UPS deliveries, meaning I won't see it until later tonight.
I have a work related dinner to attend across town this evening, so the wife gets to answer the door. :-(
 
Good. I feel like we all get to read the final chapter on this situation, and I look forward to reading a great ending.
 
I was on the phone with MineLab last Monday, because i pretty much have the exact same issue. can't get any solid signal past 6". Air test (i know.. not the proper way to do things) with a dime won't produce a signal past 6", either at home or out in the field. Buried coins (i know.. kind of like air tests) will give me a shaky signal at about 5", no signal at 6", or they ring up as iron. Coin was flat, ground balanced, factory reset, noise canceled, ground/ferrous coin, the whole menu..
Out in the field, at an old park, i can not get a signal past 6", just a few chirps here and there, and it's been like this since last November when i got it. Soil is somewhat mineralized, if i put in on auto +3 it's usually around 20-22
MineLab told me last Monday to send me out a new coil, but it hasn't arrived yet :-(. I wonder though, if that will fix the problem - or maybe there is no problem??
Did they end up telling you what was wrong with your machine?

I'm sorry, i don't mean to high jack your thread, but does this sound like the problem that you encountered?
Thanks for the input.

DB
 
If I may add something. I too was having an innitial problem with not getting any coins deeper in my soil, which was not mineralized. So I started fiddling with the settings a bit. What made the biggest difference was turning the volume gain all the way up to 30. When I did that, the coins started jumping out of the ground. Then I thought about testing some more. So what I did next was just focusing on targets deeper than 8 inches. Well one day I ended up getting a very faint signal between 11 and 12 inches. It was a 4 way hit thou. I then turned the gain down to 15........nothing. Turned the gain up to 20.......nothing. Turned it up to 25........nothing. Only when the gain was turned up to 28 did I start to get a chirp. Since then I have tested this over and over again with the same outcome. I will also add that I was running Auto +3 which gives me an average sensitivity around here of 22. You guys might want to try to increase the gain. The worse thing that can happen is that it doesnt help in your soil.
 
I will give the gain a try tomorrow, but I think the factory setting is at 30, isn't it? I know that I had it at 25 today, we'll see how It goes.
Thanks for your input
 
I believe the volume is set at 30, and maybe the thresh hold is at 30. But I think the gain is somewhere around 20 something.
 
Derbrain said:
I was on the phone with MineLab last Monday, because i pretty much have the exact same issue. can't get any solid signal past 6". Air test (i know.. not the proper way to do things) with a dime won't produce a signal past 6", either at home or out in the field. Buried coins (i know.. kind of like air tests) will give me a shaky signal at about 5", no signal at 6", or they ring up as iron. Coin was flat, ground balanced, factory reset, noise canceled, ground/ferrous coin, the whole menu..
Out in the field, at an old park, i can not get a signal past 6", just a few chirps here and there, and it's been like this since last November when i got it. Soil is somewhat mineralized, if i put in on auto +3 it's usually around 20-22
MineLab told me last Monday to send me out a new coil, but it hasn't arrived yet :-(. I wonder though, if that will fix the problem - or maybe there is no problem??
Did they end up telling you what was wrong with your machine?

I'm sorry, i don't mean to high jack your thread, but does this sound like the problem that you encountered?
Thanks for the input.

DB
Click to expand...

Yes, my symptoms were similar to yours.
Minelab never did say what they found wrong with it. When I called with the initial issue, the tech keyed in on my depth was reading 2-3" for a surface coin as well as 2-3" more than measured air tests. Wit that they requested my whole unit to be sent in, and they replaced it with a brand new unit. It got here about 6:30pm, and I got home around 8:30pm. I tossed in some AA batteries and fired it up to upgrade the firmware and swap over my saved programs from the XChange 2.

Preliminary tests on my buried clad dimes is showing promise. I could finally get a signal at 5" and 6", marginal at the 7" and 8". I am sure I need to play with some settings to get any chance of seeing those two with any certainty. Charging up the WM10 and battery and plan to hit a school tomorrow morning for testing.

Gatekeeper said:
I will also add that I was running Auto +3 which gives me an average sensitivity around here of 22. You guys might want to try to increase the gain. The worse thing that can happen is that it doesnt help in your soil.
Click to expand...

Gatekeeper, I had my volume gain cranked up to 30 right out of the box, and that drove me nutz. I didn't realize that this setting was similar to the White's Modulation (on/off) for deep or faint signals. I tested it up and down with my first CTX and could not get a signal past 5". I will fiddle with it again tomorrow. Thanks for reminding me.
 
Okay here is an update on performance.

Mucho mo betta!!!!

Went to a school that has been pretty well stripped of clad, and silver is pretty rare.
In the recent past my first CTX would not allow me to run manual sensitivity above 18, and volume gain above 20 without massive amounts of instability along the street side of the school.
I would just beep, squeak, honk and the screen looked like a party going on inside. And that was pretty much standing still, after noise cancel, and ground balance. Oh, and Auto +3 showed 16/10.

Same place, same prep setup, Auto +3 showing 21/16 on the new CTX, I could run manual all the way up to 26-27 before it got jumpy on the screen, and volume gain at 30 but nver got noisy.
It was actually nice to be able to swing slowly through that area finally without the freak show going on.

Out in back of the school, the previous CTX would run Auto +3 around 20/14, but manual would be unstable at 20-21, volume gain still below 21.
New CTX ran Auto +3 at 26/19 with volume gain maxed at 30. There is one corner of the lot that must have some crazy amount of iron in it, as it would start to get unstable and Auto +3 was 12/9.
I could run manual at 18, and volume gain still at 30 without issue.

The big ticket was digging several 9" deep small rusty nails, 4 copper memorials with roofing nails at 4"-5" clearly seeing both on the screen.
Then a severely corroded wheat at a solid 6" that screamed "DIG ME !!!".

This morning I hit another old school lot that has A LOT of iron in around the bigger trees, not much for clad or any other targets for that matter.
First target at a measured 6", was a surprising 1895 IH with a solid green patina. Had two small nearly rusted away nails within a few inches of it. Sweet!
Next target again at 6" was a 1910 "s" Wheat with the nicest green patina I have ever seen on a Wheat come from our soil.

I cruised the lot all morning with manual pegged at 30, while Auto suggested something like 14-17. And volume gain pegged at 30 as well.

The best target of the day was of course heading back to the truck (with CTX turned off).
Some retired gent out for a walk casually asked me if I had found any treasures, so I replied with my two green pennies.

His mind must have triggered, as he was excited as a three year old on Christmas morning to line me up with a friend of his that lives in a 1910 mansion at the end of the road maybe a 1/8th mile away.
We drove over to meet the owner, but they were not up yet, or left already. He's going to get me the guys number soon and give him a heads up that I'm looking for properties to hunt.

Then, I figured I'd at least drive him back home (just a few blocks away), and he explodes with all these neighbors he's friends with that have 1900-1915 houses that he will chat with for me.
He finished by giving me a handshake permission to hunt his rental properties in that same township. These are early 1910's as well, and one has a HUGE garden that he suggests I hit.

We swapped names and numbers/email addresses and I told him I would bring a second detector that he could play with while I dirt fish.

So, in closing......

I am extremely happy with the service from Minelab, reasonable turn around, and completely happy with the new CTX's performance.
Just need to swing the coil over some silver!!!!

-INSAYN
 
:clapping:
 
thanks for the thread and happy you got what we all got,,,,,, a great MD !!!!
 
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