Find's Treasure Forums
Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!
You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.
Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.
Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.
Click here to register!
Need Support Help?
Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you
processing speed
- Thread starter Agseeker
- Start date
CT Todd
Well-known member
First I'm not an expert but I can speak to what I think about this and what I was told by a Minelab service tech at one point. I think that a straight manual setting may be better for hunting in some settings IF you keep monitoring your CTX for how its doing with the ground and other factors. This monitoring and adjusting is what the Auto setting is doing for you all the time. That being said I hunt in auto +3 all the time and dig deep and varied targets all the time. Right after getting my CTX I had a chat with one of the service bench guys at Minelab and he told me that He personally would never leave Auto +3. He said there is so much going on in that unit for constant adjustment for the ground and other conditions your over at any second that unless you were at a perfect site for conditions he would never change out. I went with that right from the start and have done very well. Of course I have no idea what I may have missed? But there's no way to say that I have missed anything at all. You just don't know. If you run your unit way up in manual and its pretty stable but here and there a little chatty what have you missed? No one can say. Its a crap shoot and everyone finds their own way at some point and then swears to it as the best way. My way is the best for me.
Southwind
Well-known member
I would think Auto +3 would take more processor time. That being said, that really amounts to a slower swing speed which isn't always a bad thing. I have found targets that sounded better in Auto + 3 than manual, and vice versa. The reason I run mine on Auto +3 is because in manual you're blasting the ground with 3 frequencies all at the same level, which can and does cause saturation/noise, while in auto +3 you're using the best responding frequencie. In my opinion more efficient and reliable.
martygene
Member
I have just started using manual sensitivity lately. the soil around here I not very mineralized so I can run as high as I want to most of the time. I max it out and only back it down if it gets real chatty or I am in a very trashy area. I think that I find things a bit deeper but have not really checked between manual and auto +3 to see the difference but I have found dimes at 11 inches in manual.
Hey guys, thanks for the input. I've been working an old park that's been hunted pretty heavy that has loads of pull tabs and aluminum twist off caps, some of which are so large that they read 12-47, and some nails. The deepest coins I've found so far are 6-6.5" deep and several tokens at 7". The 3030 has no problems getting a good strong signal at that depth, so I have no doubt that my setup could go at least a couple of inches deeper. And maybe that's as deep as the coins are buried in this park, but I doubt it. So far this park has yielded dozens of wheats (1913 being the oldest), one buffalo nickel (1920), two silver Roosevelt dimes, a 1915 barber quarter, one standing liberty quarter (1924, I think), and several old tokens form the teens - thirties. I'm hoping to find some Indian head pennies and "V" nickels, but no luck so far. Like CT Todd said, you never know what you've missed.
My current setup is:
Mode: Coins
Profile: 50 CO
Response: Normal
Recovery Fast: On
Recovery Deep: Off
High Trash
Auto+3.
Anyway I was thinking that Manual might give better target separation and lead to some deeper, older finds. I think I may experiment with this by starting the detector in auto+3 to see what number I get and then switch over to manual and set it at that number. Any thoughts on a better setup than what I'm using? Thanks again.
My current setup is:
Mode: Coins
Profile: 50 CO
Response: Normal
Recovery Fast: On
Recovery Deep: Off
High Trash
Auto+3.
Anyway I was thinking that Manual might give better target separation and lead to some deeper, older finds. I think I may experiment with this by starting the detector in auto+3 to see what number I get and then switch over to manual and set it at that number. Any thoughts on a better setup than what I'm using? Thanks again.
I personally run in manual all the time, as my CTX doesnt see past 20 in auto ever! Not sure why, also I remember the previous Explores would hit that sweat spot aftrr 24 sens. I feel the CTX is the same. If it gets chatty, i just drop it a little. No harm being done in manual. Also, note that higher power and chatty doesnt make good targets go unseen, still hear them. Just my opinion, no bashing please!
I feel the manual sensitivity (and GB) as well as fast=on, deep=off give me the cleanest signals, BUT...
I also notice that the big coil (17") doesn't like being forced too high. Unusably chatty.
So I run the 17 at A+3 and the others at Manual 24-28 ish...depending on conditions. I've even had to drop the 17 to A+2 .
(I also notice with GB on, I need to check and re-balance quite frequently. Note that my ground is moderately mineralized (Colorado). You may not see improvements worth the extra effort. )
And please note that in all fairness, if you're spending too much time tweaking, you're not hunting.
Like the old man said, "The best way to find a silver coin it to pass your coil over one."
mike
I also notice that the big coil (17") doesn't like being forced too high. Unusably chatty.
So I run the 17 at A+3 and the others at Manual 24-28 ish...depending on conditions. I've even had to drop the 17 to A+2 .
(I also notice with GB on, I need to check and re-balance quite frequently. Note that my ground is moderately mineralized (Colorado). You may not see improvements worth the extra effort. )
And please note that in all fairness, if you're spending too much time tweaking, you're not hunting.
Like the old man said, "The best way to find a silver coin it to pass your coil over one."
mike
Larry (IL)
Well-known member
My guess is the processing time is the same because the CPU is processing data billions of times faster than the CTX is taking ground readings. Even if the CTX is reading the ground a hundred times a second, the CPU is operating in the Gigahertz range, that is 1,000,000,000 per second. 
Thanks again for all suggestions. Can't say that I've used All Metal with the 3030. Seems like there would be a lot to listen to in a trashy area to the point of being overwhelming, but it can't hurt to give it a try. I have used Manual but seems like I always go back to Auto+3. Don't think I've used Combined either - I'll check it out. Thanks again and good hunting to all.
Johnnyanglo
Active member
Assuming that the CTX operates similarly to the E-Trac, then if setting to Manual-22 the two op freqs (low 3.125 KHz and high 25 KHz, plus ground) are all set to the same timing. There won't be any adjustment based on the ground return. In other words, decreased stability will introduce noise from ground minerals that will mimic the tones of good targets. If you can stand the increased falsing, chatter, and ghost signals ... then run in manual. However, there wouldn't be much advantage of running Man-22 against an Auto+3 where sensitivity is boosted to an identical 22, in fact, you would probably find most functions of the CTX more erratic and bothersome without any proportional increase in sensitivity.
The real advantage is when you boost the Manual sensitivity setting above the Auto+3 averaged value (overdrive sensitivity). You know it's going to be chatty, but you are wanting increased sensitivity to smaller and less conductive targets.
I'll play with sensitivity on the beach, but for the sake of smoothing the signal, I'll usually return to Auto+3 and let the detector make the proper adjustments in the background for me.
As for processor speed, I doubt Auto is slower than Manual - we are talking millisecond calculations. Long then short pulses sent out about every .72 milliseconds (thousandths of a second). Most computer chips (like the comparative calculations done in the CTX) can handle nanosecond calculations (billionth of a second).
The purpose of going slow with the coil is to allow the audio/display an opportunity to report information to us when multiple targets are under the coil. It isn't for the processor's benefit, it is for our slower reaction to a faint beep. A fast reaction time for a human to a visual change is about 300 milliseconds (0.3 secs) but recognition with decision making time is slower. Going slow is for the human not the machine's benefit.
Johnnyanglo
The real advantage is when you boost the Manual sensitivity setting above the Auto+3 averaged value (overdrive sensitivity). You know it's going to be chatty, but you are wanting increased sensitivity to smaller and less conductive targets.
I'll play with sensitivity on the beach, but for the sake of smoothing the signal, I'll usually return to Auto+3 and let the detector make the proper adjustments in the background for me.
As for processor speed, I doubt Auto is slower than Manual - we are talking millisecond calculations. Long then short pulses sent out about every .72 milliseconds (thousandths of a second). Most computer chips (like the comparative calculations done in the CTX) can handle nanosecond calculations (billionth of a second).
The purpose of going slow with the coil is to allow the audio/display an opportunity to report information to us when multiple targets are under the coil. It isn't for the processor's benefit, it is for our slower reaction to a faint beep. A fast reaction time for a human to a visual change is about 300 milliseconds (0.3 secs) but recognition with decision making time is slower. Going slow is for the human not the machine's benefit.
Johnnyanglo
Johnnyanglo said:
Assuming that the CTX operates similarly to the E-Trac
It does. And you describe exactly what I was experiencing first hand during a hunt yesterday evening.
I usually don't get a 'lot' of extra noise by going to manual, so sometimes it's worth the chatter. It was an old/pounded park and I was getting faint signals, so switched from A+3 (which was already picking a fairly high sens of 23-25) and manual couldn't go above 24 because of the falsing. Horrible falsing.
I couldn't run as high with manual as A+3 was choosing.
So switched back to A+3 and left it. (Did find one 1948 dime during about an hour hunt at sunset...about 7.5" below dirt line, tall grass added another 3-4")
HH
mike
Southwind
Well-known member
In my area in auto +3 my E-Trac runs around 19 -24 but if I switch to manual 28 it is so noisy and I spend all my time recovering iron because it falses so badly. Many many times I have found a good solid deep coin signal and switch to manual and it sounds like crap. Every now and then I might get an iffy in auto +3 and switch to manual and it sound better and actually be a coin.