Problem with Stability on Wet Sand Beach!!

[c4teeter]

[size=medium]Hello to all,
Just recently sold a XLT and a Explorer XS to finance my E-trac. We live here near the Florida Panhandle beaches where the water is clear and the beach sand is white. Having moved from the Gulfport Mississppi area, my XS amazed me how well it handled the wet salt sand over there (not to mention, the thing was a silver magnet on homesites). Didn't have any problems with stability. So I bought a used Etrac. It handles the dry sand well even with the sensitivity jacked up. When I get down to about a couple of feet down from the high tide line, I start getting the falsing. The suggested sensitivity level says I should be at 17. I can drop the sensitivty down to 10-11 and eliminate almost all the falsing all the way to the water, but of course I feel like I'll be losing ALOT of depth with it that low. Here is a list of my current settings:

1.Preset- Minelab Beach Setting
2.Sensitivity- Manual
3.Threshold Level-22
4.Volume Limit-30
5.Volume Gain-26
6.Response-Normal
7.Tone ID-multi/conduct/Varibility-25/Limits-30
8.Threshold Pitch-15
9.Recovery Deep-On
10.Recovery Fast-Off
11.Trash Density-Low
12.Ground-Neutral
13.Noise Cancel-10

Tried switching the ground to difficult and i think it made the stability worse. Also tried with automatic ground balance, didn't work. Any suggestions would be a Life Saver. Should I try a new coil? Should I send it to Minelab for a check up? I did buy it used! The guy I bought it from had expoxied the coil cover on the coil. Said it was to prvent falsing from sand getting between the coil and the cover. Just guess I never had that problem with the old XS.[/size]

 

[Joe of South Jersey]

What is the Sens?
I see it is manual........but what in manual?

Most of the other setting are not as important.
Manual use's different filters.

 

[c4teeter]

Hello and thanks,
Sensitivity at 17. Its fine in the dry sand. When I start to get to the wet sand, thats when it becomes unstable. If I drop it down to 10, it eliminates the falsing and its more stable.

 

[Joe of South Jersey]

In some case's it is best to run auto at +3.

 

[c4teeter]

Thanks Joe, I'll give it a try tomorrow.

 

[detectorfreak74]

with all the minerals in the sand I would have fast recovery on cause it turns on more filters

 

[EZrider]

I always run mine in auto +3, no problems here.

 

[utahshovelhead]

Be sure to check for black sand between the coil cover and the coil. Also the wire houseing entrace to the coil give it a wiggle with the machine runnig and listen for scratch n sound. Auto +3 takes will get you more stable if its just your ground but if its the machine try everything you can including different coils before you send it off.

good luck,
utahshovelhead

 

[bcoop]

Auto + 3 is what I always use myself and don't have any problem. I have used manual sensitivity as high as I could and some areas of the beach I hunted it ran smooth, some areas constant small chatter so I usually keep it at Auto + 3. Got Andy's book? Use Joe's beach settings. High sensitivity does not mean deep, sensitivity always depends on ground conditions.

BCOOP

 

[UtahRich]

change your Trash Density to HIGH and your ground to DIFFICULT.


RICH -

 

[jackkell1963]

In the wet sand I run mine in auto sens +3 and really have no problems, on occasion I will get a small bit of falsing and all I do is turn my unit off and then back on to let it do its auto ground balance. The Etrac seems to be slow in re-balancing, After a quick cycle of power no problems. And I live in the Fort Walton, Destin Florida area so I'm guessing that we are hunting in the exact same sand conditions.

 

[terrywl]

I too get a lot of falsing in wet sand, but only with my 15" WOT. I run in AUTO -3 and that clears it up for the most part. San Diego beaches have a lot of black sand.

 

[c4teeter]

HELLO AGAIN,
Well the AUTO+3 WORKED. Guess the other day, I was trying to just change from Manual to Auto, instead of restarting in auto mode. Anyway, I feel alot better knowing its working now. Thanks to everybody for their advice, just haven't got the hang of it yet. Thanks again and happy hunting.