Questions ctx3030

[ikaruz]

Hello everyone.

i have got a xp deus, and recently i bought a ctx3030.

i saw a lot of videos, used the detector a few times, did some tests, and read a lot of stuff. but i have a few questions.

Question 1: at my xp deus i can play with the reactivity, for a slow detecting for deep targets(low reactivity), and a fast detecting if i'm exploring new ground, or if there are a lot of nails (hight reactivity, but lose depth), my question is, at the ctx for simulate fast or slow detecting, i need to check the "recovery fast", or the "recovery deep" right? how much depth i can lose between this two? and if i check the two, what can happen?

Question 2: at my xp deus, i normaly use three tones(the first at 202, the second at 202, and the third at 644, the first and second to ferrous tones, and the third to the good stuff), discrimination at 0, i like to hear everything, and what the ground is telling me, so i'm trying to simulate something like that at ctx. what is the best? 4 conductive tones, or 4 ferrous tones? i want to ear the ferrous tones for the ferrous, and the good tones for the good stuff, but i'm trying to understand at wich point of the FE i will get the good tones

i created the program at 4 ferrous tones
i put:
the first at 28FE 120HZ
the second at 18FE 300HZ
the third at 8FE 880HZ

is this ok? or what are the best settings?

question 3, at xp deus i use sometimes Full tones, so... at ctx my "full tones" are the 50 tones right?

question 4: at the response i saw "normal", "long", "smooth", "pitch hold", i read what each can do at the instructions manual, but i'm asking, this is something i need to change, or this not affect my metal detecting, and the "normal" is the best?

question 5: "seawater", i saw somewhere, to have this everytime checked, this gived me more depth, is that right?

question 6: Target separation, i saw "Low Trash", "high trash", "ferrous-coin", "ground-coin", this is something like the last question, how can this settings can affect my metal detecting? or they are something similar to each other? i have some places with sand, some places with hight mineralized, some places with a lot of iron.

question 7: beach, i tried to use the xp deus at the beach, at the dry sand, its a nice detector, at the wet sand, its very unstable, and i need to put the beach program, and for me lose a lot of depth. so, i'm thinking to use the ctx at the beach a few times, will the program i have work very well at the beach? or there are proper settings for the beach?

question 8:
audio:
volume gain 30
threshold level 26
volume limit 30
threshold pitch 26
are this a good settings?

question 9:
Sensitivity, i can use manual and automatic, i read somewhere that for more depth i need to use the manual. at my xp deus i use a hight sensivity, between 1 and 99, i use at 90. at the ctx, the green suggestion tell's me the correct sensivity number, how much can the detector can be affected, if the sugestion tell's me 14, and if i put for example at 25? i will get false tones? i will get more depth? i will catch smaller items?

question 10:
ground balance, its better to use the manual, or auto?

thanks, and sorry for all my questions!

 

[IDXMonster]

Wow! That’s a lot of questions! You might have a visit with the operators manual for a good long time and read it several times so you understand it COMPLETELY. Then ask questions you still don’t understand after that...because what you’re asking is basically ALL covered in the manual. No sense in us typing out the entire thing!

 

[tcornel]

Get a copy of Andy Sabisch's book and save yourself a lot of time and agony. Some things in the manual are misleading or wrong.

 

[Ben Town]

I second Andy’s book, and check and see if one of his boot camps is in your neck of the woods.
At a boot camp you can learn and ask about both your machines.
I went to the CTX camp and it was great, no real big game changers after reading his CTX book but well worth the effort.
BT

 

[sgoss66]

Hello everyone.

i have got a xp deus, and recently i bought a ctx3030.

i saw a lot of videos, used the detector a few times, did some tests, and read a lot of stuff. but i have a few questions.

Question 1: at my xp deus i can play with the reactivity, for a slow detecting for deep targets(low reactivity), and a fast detecting if i'm exploring new ground, or if there are a lot of nails (hight reactivity, but lose depth), my question is, at the ctx for simulate fast or slow detecting, i need to check the "recovery fast", or the "recovery deep" right? how much depth i can lose between this two? and if i check the two, what can happen?

Question 2: at my xp deus, i normaly use three tones(the first at 202, the second at 202, and the third at 644, the first and second to ferrous tones, and the third to the good stuff), discrimination at 0, i like to hear everything, and what the ground is telling me, so i'm trying to simulate something like that at ctx. what is the best? 4 conductive tones, or 4 ferrous tones? i want to ear the ferrous tones for the ferrous, and the good tones for the good stuff, but i'm trying to understand at wich point of the FE i will get the good tones

i created the program at 4 ferrous tones
i put:
the first at 28FE 120HZ
the second at 18FE 300HZ
the third at 8FE 880HZ

is this ok? or what are the best settings?

question 3, at xp deus i use sometimes Full tones, so... at ctx my "full tones" are the 50 tones right?

question 4: at the response i saw "normal", "long", "smooth", "pitch hold", i read what each can do at the instructions manual, but i'm asking, this is something i need to change, or this not affect my metal detecting, and the "normal" is the best?

question 5: "seawater", i saw somewhere, to have this everytime checked, this gived me more depth, is that right?

question 6: Target separation, i saw "Low Trash", "high trash", "ferrous-coin", "ground-coin", this is something like the last question, how can this settings can affect my metal detecting? or they are something similar to each other? i have some places with sand, some places with hight mineralized, some places with a lot of iron.

question 7: beach, i tried to use the xp deus at the beach, at the dry sand, its a nice detector, at the wet sand, its very unstable, and i need to put the beach program, and for me lose a lot of depth. so, i'm thinking to use the ctx at the beach a few times, will the program i have work very well at the beach? or there are proper settings for the beach?

question 8:
audio:
volume gain 30
threshold level 26
volume limit 30
threshold pitch 26
are this a good settings?

question 9:
Sensitivity, i can use manual and automatic, i read somewhere that for more depth i need to use the manual. at my xp deus i use a hight sensivity, between 1 and 99, i use at 90. at the ctx, the green suggestion tell's me the correct sensivity number, how much can the detector can be affected, if the sugestion tell's me 14, and if i put for example at 25? i will get false tones? i will get more depth? i will catch smaller items?

question 10:
ground balance, its better to use the manual, or auto?

thanks, and sorry for all my questions!

I will try a few answers for you...

question 1

I'm not sure how much depth you will lose with recovery fast "on", and how much you will gain with recovery deep "on." I usually run mine with both "fast" and "deep" off.

question 2

I would suggest you NOT using ferrous tones, but conductive tones. The CTX 3030 is NOTHING like the Deus in terms of ferrous identification. The CTX 3030 uses two numbers, the first being a "ferrous" number, and the second being a "conductive" number. All targets, iron targets OR good targets, will display both a ferrous number and a conductive number.

I would suggest "combined" audio for you. I would set the bottom of the screen -- say, below the "20" line, as your "202" tone, and then set your four "bins" above your bottom bin with different tones, depending upon which targets you want to dig (based on conductive number). And to figure THAT out, you need to know how a variety of targets that you are hoping to find will "read" on your machine. Once you know this, you can set your "tone bins" accordingly.

question 3

Yes, "full tones" on the CTX is 50-tone

question 4

leave tones set at "normal" for now; I have always used "normal" for as long as I've used FBS machines.

question 5

no reason to have seawater checked "on" unless you are beach hunting in the surf, and the machine is chatty/unstable, as I understand it (though I have not beach hunted with the CTX yet).

question 6

In general, low trash is -- as the name implies, for areas where there is little trash. High trash is to be used where you have dense trash in the ground, and is best used with a "tighter" discrimination pattern. Ground Coin is generally used in mineralized ground, and Ferrous Coin is generally used where the trash you are encountering in the ground is predominantly iron.

question 7

The CTX will work extremely well in the wet salty sand, as compared to the Deus. Both will do well in the dry sand, but as you noticed, the Deus is not the best choice for wet salt sand. The CTX is a great choice for wet salt sand.

question 8

Your settings look fine. One question for you -- if you know what "modulated audio" is, versus "saturated audio," this is what the volume gain setting does for you. Set at 30 like you have it (maximum), this means that all signals -- shallow, deep, small, large -- will sound the same, volume-wise. In other words, "saturated audio." IF you lower the setting from 30 to say, 25 or 20, you will begin to introduce "modulated audio," such that large/shallow targets sound louder than smaller/deeper targets. Some like "saturated" audio, as they feel that this "amplification" of deep/small targets helps them. Others like "modulated audio," as they feel that being able to judge how "deep" a target is by listening to the volume of the audio, is an advantage.

question 9

YES, higher sensitivity can give "more depth." YES, higher sensitivity can give more "false tones." My suggestion is to run either Auto +3 (good depth, and a stable machine), OR, run manual, start at 30, and then drop the sensitivity down one notch at a time until the machine stops chattering, and becomes "stable." Too much chattering, due to high sensitivity, can cause you to "miss" targets within all the noise...so while higher sensitivity may allow you to hear/dig deeper targets, it can ALSO, if the machine is too chattery, result in missed targets. You have to find that "sweet spot" that works for you, your ears, and your experience level.

question 10

DO NOT USE ground balance, for a vast majority of your hunting scenarios. FBS is different from most machines. Ground balance is necessary on the CTX ONLY in the most EXTREME of mineralized conditions. Otherwise, leave ground balance off.

Steve

 

[sprchng]

Yes , you are a perfect candidate for a bootcamp