Question on SE senitivity

[kickback]

Has anyone tried putting the sen. on 32 and in auto???

 

[jeff & Maria]

Running sensitivity too high has an adverse effect since it will read the ground as well. Think of it as high beams on in the fog. Sometimes less is more. The Explorers will still find the deep stuff without having the sensitivity maxed out. Ground conditions determine your max sens setting more than any other factor so what works for ground in CA may be impossible to use in VA.

 

[king-ghidorah]

Has anyone tried putting the sen. on 32 and in auto???

I use 32 auto all the time and it's in low-medium trashy ground too. I also use AM mode with FE tones to boot. I hear what you are saying in that it is like having high beams on in the fog but from what I am experiencing it's like having yellow headlights in the fog. In the majority of what I can remember too all these coins I have picked up lately have been near trash where if the person was not paying attention or they were relying strictly on the advice of their machine and it's disc they would not have picked it up which is probably why I snagged it because I have my SE wide open and I snagged the sound out out of the multitude of trash sounds that were being blown in my ears.

There is more processing of info but I just slow the sweep down and everything is seen. My auditory pickup is becoming better too. The brain is the discriminator as people keep telling me and I find this true in my case as I am operating the SE this way. Is this the ultimate solution in all cases,No. It is just in this stream of time and where I am at with learning the SE I like this option a lot and it has been treating me good as of late. It has also suited me well in the environment that I have been hunting lately.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

but bear in mind that in Auto the detector will tune it to where it thinks it should be. It might be as low as the equivilant of 16 in manual. It's kind of like painting a number over your digital spedometer; you might be seeing the number 32 but you really have no idea what your speed is.

Do this: Put it in manual and set at 1. See what distance you get for detection depth. Now leave it at 1 and switch to Auto. You will get much more depth. The detector saw it could INCREASE the sensitivity so it did. Now go to Manual and start kicking up the sensitivity until it becomes unstable. Check you detection depth. Now leave the setting the same but switch to Auto. 99% of the time you will get less depth. The explorer Auto sensitivty algorithm sacrifices depth for stability. There are some times out in the boonies away from power lines and lots of trash that it will keep the sensitivity up high in Auto. But generally it will DECREASE the sensitivity if it thinks it is seeing noise from power lines or there is alot of targets in the ground.

We've been debating Auto/manual for years. This year they put an addditional display on the Etrac model so you can acutally tell where the detector has the sensitivity set at.

Chris

 

[king-ghidorah]

but bear in mind that in Auto the detector will tune it to where it thinks it should be. It might be as low as the equivilant of 16 in manual. It's kind of like painting a number over your digital spedometer; you might be seeing the number 32 but you really have no idea what your speed is.

Do this: Put it in manual and set at 1. See what distance you get for detection depth. Now leave it at 1 and switch to Auto. You will get much more depth. The detector saw it could INCREASE the sensitivity so it did. Now go to Manual and start kicking up the sensitivity until it becomes unstable. Check you detection depth. Now leave the setting the same but switch to Auto. 99% of the time you will get less depth. The explorer Auto sensitivty algorithm sacrifices depth for stability. There are some times out in the boonies away from power lines and lots of trash that it will keep the sensitivity up high in Auto. But generally it will DECREASE the sensitivity if it thinks it is seeing noise from power lines or there is alot of targets in the ground.

We've been debating Auto/manual for years. This year they put an addditional display on the Etrac model so you can acutally tell where the detector has the sensitivity set at.

Chris

I realize this and you explained it quite well. The only true way is go manual and jack it way up and train your ears that way. I call that "Seals" basic training for the ears. That has it's minuses as well but it does have some merits if you're willing to put up with the instability depending on your MD environment.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

The sensitivity does not change the power of the signal being transmitted, it is the same whether you are at 1 or 32. What does change is the size of the signal that it will pass on to be processed on the receive side- high sens proccessses every little signal, often including noise; low sens- just tell me about the big stuff. If you are hunting 32 Auto in reality you will often be at a level much lower than that. And in Auto the explorer is changing the sensitivity depending on conditions so a target may sound different on different sweeps. This can add to confusion if you are hunting wide open or close.

Lots of people hunt in Auto with great results. Just suggesting try running it up in Manual for awhile. Two years ago I did an experiment at a very trashy site. I've hunted manual for years and decided to give Auto another try. What I did was punch the Auto/manual key many times so I didn't know what mode I was in, then detected away. I got some deepies that I thought for sure that I would see that I was in manual, but no, it was in Auto. Then I had a long stretch where the machine was just wonderfully quiet and stable. Finally dawned on me that it seemed unusually trash free for this site. Looked down and it was in Auto. Switched to manual and went back over the same area. All the signals came back and did pick up an IH. Bottom line is I and many others don't trust it to always do the right thing in Auto, we feel it overcompensates in some(most?) cases. H

Chris

 

[king-ghidorah]

You took the words right out of my mouth. You must have a camera on me as I am typing these posts in this thread,heehee. Actually a couple a weeks ago like a knucklehead I thought I had it in auto=32 but it actually was in manual 32,heehee. I had it running like that for like a day or so. I have to admit that it was too much and it was unstable for the ground I was in and it was like driving a car 120MPH on a winding road and then when I went to auto it was like going 30MPH on a calm country road.

 

[Rick(ND)]

I was told to run it in auto at 32 and try it, so I went to a construction site where the sidewalk was taken out and it run so smooth, but no signals, so I threw down a dime and was shock I got no signal on it with the coil 4 inches above the dime. I check my probe as I though I left it on, but it was off so that wasnt the problem. I then took it out of auto and it chattered bad, but got some what of a signal, so I went back to auto and got a signal only when the coil touched the dime. I lowered the sensitivity to 22 in manual and got a good signal on the dime, so I went to auto and now i could get the dime 4 inches above it. Now I did some experimenting and found at 16 semi auto or manual it was about the same, but over 20 at this site the manual worked better and the higher I set the sensitivity in auto the worst the depth got. This area had a lot of trash in it and possibly mineralized soil too so I felt in these areas the higher you set the sensitivity in auto the more it will over compensate for the trash so you can lose depth is it is set too high in semi auto. Now if I run auto it was no higher than 22-24 and check with a dime every once in a while in semi auto and manual.Semi auto does work good in some areas i am sure, but I don't feel in trash or highly mineralized soil it should be set higher than 22 if you want the depth.
I mostly use my Explorers in manual, but now on the E Trac I been using auto at 24 with the +3 and checking some of my signals in manual and seeing where auto is working great, but will find a trashy site or mineralized and see if auto will work as good.

 

[dewcon4414]

Some times in manual sensitivity you just cant tell what falsing is, especially if you are new to the Explorer. I beleave Bryce hunts in auto 26 because he felt anything about that he was getting falsing off of deep iron. Others say why not turn it up and allow the machine full use of its capabilities. What i found is just what Bryce found especially in Cond sounds. He's in Ill, and im in Ind. so that may be the reason, we may be dealing with the same type of conditions. Also like rick said the detector will adjust based on the conditions... some of those may be because of the deep iron targets it tracks. Ive found here, i just cant get much higher that say 24 manual before i know im getting more falsing than necessary. However, in auto 26 or manual 24 im still getting some deep targets... and Bryce, heck hes getting them 10 and 12"... i think that speaks for itsself.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Even if you have it set at Auto 26 it is probably running at about 16 or so. It really doesn't matter if you set it at auto 20 or 26 or 32; the explorer will set itself where it deems appropriate.

Chris

 

[dewcon4414]

I agree Chris... but ive still found if you set it at 32 it ATTEMPTS a higher setting and sometimes that affects the signal i get. That for me especially at 32. If i turn it down the falsing off of iron just isnt the same and its more apparent to me. That could just be what works for me. I beleave you are correct... but higher settings may allow for higher sensitivity when the conditions allow as you move around. Just curious Chris have you found the explorer to TRACK iron which would further reduce its depth in auto sensitivity?

 

[dewcon4414]

Rick... i was surprised the other day when making a pattern using the probe. I turned down the sensitivity to 8 and was amazed how far out the detector still saw the target i was using. I didnt see a lot of change once i turned it up to 26 except the smear it created.