Setting sensitivity and threshold

[dwebb64]

I have had my Mine Lab SE for about a month. Prior to the Mine Lab, I've been using the Garrett 1350 for the past 3 years. My question refers to sensitivity and threshold. I'm using both a 15" WOT and the standard coils. When detecting with the 15" WOT, I get constant nulling of the threshold sound cutting in and out. My sensitivity has been at 20, and using a IRON Mask somewhere around 20 to 22 I think. I've had very little luck finding much of anything other pennies and most of them are within a few inches of the surface. Should I be setting my sensitivity so that I get a semi constant threshold tone when not over a specific target? If I decrease the sensitivity until I get a somewhat stable threshold it will be somewhere between 7 and 10. Does this seem correct. I've also noticed that I tend to get better depth with the standard coil. Closer to 5" or 6". I am fairly new to the Mine Lab and know it has fantastic reviews and potential. I have had a lot more luck with the Garrett so I've must be setting the Mine Lab up wrong. Thank you for your help.

 

[James N.D.]

1st off. It sounds like you are in a lot of Iron and Trash and here is the reason for lack of finds and depth. I will start off with an example here. When you are traveling through a snow storm, if you put your high beams on you will see not as far away as using your low beams due to the amount of snow falling and giving you that bright white look. When you use the low beams, you can see farther ahead. What I am trying to tell you is that if you run too much Discrimination or Sensitivity, you will lose the depth that you are seeking. Here is a few things you are doing wrong. 1. You are using too big of a Coil when using the 15" WOT Coil in Trash or Iron because the Footprint cannot separate all the targets clearly due to too many targets under the Coil at one time and give the appropriate data you seek. 2. Your not using enough Iron Mask to have good results which is making you find less Good Finds. 3. When running in Iron Mask -20 or -22, you get a lot of Nulling from Iron which will hide good targets that you are trying to find. There may be other issues here also like you Sweep Speed, Semi-Auto or Manual Sens., Gain Settings, and etc. Here is a way of getting onto a good road to success with your Explorer SE. Get yourself an 8" Coil and use that in Iron and Trashy areas and if you like what you see from the performance of this coil, then you may want to even purchase a 5" Coil, that is if you can handle not covering a lot of ground but get superior separation. You can use the 10.5" Stock Coil in these areas but you must go slow and make sure you have Fast On only for your Recovery Setting. Next would be your Iron Mask Settings. If you are searching through a lot of Iron and Trash, then you may want to try opening up Iron Mask to -31 or -32 ( not sure what Iron Mask goes up to on the New Explorer SE) which will be All-Metal and go Ferrous Tones. Most Iron will be Low Tone and Coins and other Conductive Items will be High Tone. This helps out in those bad Iron Infested Areas that has a lot of Nails and Bottle Caps. There is also a way to mimic Iron Mask All-Metal as a Pattern. If you keep finding Bottle Caps in All-Metal that sound off High, you can blacken that area and leave the rest of the screen Wide Open. This will be just like All Metal and you must still use Ferrous Tones. Next thing to do is make sure that you have your Gain set at 7, make sure you are using Fast On Deep Off, start with Sens. at 20 and see if you have any interference and if you don't, keep increasing it until you do and back off 2 notches, and make sure you Noise Cancel at every site you visit. Also try running Manual Sens. and see if this improves the depth. One other important thing for most Explorer User's is the Threshold. Most here on the Findmall Forum have the Threshold to where you can just here it in the background. This helps us when we pass over items that are on the fringes of detection depth to better hear these slight signals and background changes to where when a person gets seasoned with their detector, they will be able to tell when there is something Very Deep and should dig these signals for those items most others pass by. I hope some of this helps out and if I missed something here which I most likely did, I am sure the others here will either Correct Me or fill in the spots I missed. Good Luck and HH.

 

[scott (wi)]

I agree with James, the WOT is too much to handle for a beginner in trash, especially iron + trash. It takes a while to become proficient enough with the stock coil to wiggle good deep signals out from trash. Once you get good with the stock or 8 inch, and are able to distinguish good signals next to trash, then start working the WOT. The WOT can be hunted at low sensitivity and still get good depth. The WOT can be hunted in more trash than you'd think, but many sites are beyond the capability of the WOT. At some sites though the WOT works like magic. I always lower sensitivity so I am less than 50% null - even though I am tempted to crank it up - the WOT and other coils never seems to work well when I am always nulling. I did a short WOT hunt with sensitivity at about 13 today and got a indianhead at 6".

Hopefully, your sites have not been attacked by an experienced Minelab owner before you. If so, your learning curve will be longer.

 

[digitrich]

I agree whole heartedly with James ND post, very nice of him to give the time and patience to it. The only thing I would add is for you to go ahead and stay in auto sensitivity until you get used to your machine. Allot of people will say you loose allot of depth in auto but the machine is probably going to do a better job of adjusting the sensitivity itself then you will at first, and that may actually turn into an advantage when it comes to depth. Your manual explains how to put the sensitivity in manual and auto. A gain of 7 is a little high, I use 5 or 6 because on my machine at a gain of 7, you can't really hear the difference in depth as well. The gain amplifies the volume of the sound of your deep signals, at 5 you can clearly here deep signals sounding softer and shallower signals sounding louder, at 7 there is not a whole lot of difference and it's hard to tell. You need to use a smaller coil or you will infinitely add to the time it's going to take to learn how to use your machine. A 5 inch coil is like simple addition, a 8 inch is like Algebra, a 10 inch is like is like trigonometry, a 15 inch wot is astro physics, you've skipped a few classes and are wondering why you can't be the dean of mathematics at Harvard just yet. Slow down, you'll get there. Get a Sun Ray probe, you will never regret it, I promise.

 

[dwebb64]

James N.D., Scott (wi), and digitritch: Thanks for the great suggestions. I was reading the manual even before the detector arrived but it takes some hands on to make sense. I'll set the WOT aside and plan on digesting the information you've provided. I could really relate to the snow analogy. When I purchased the Minelab I also got Kellyco's 5" Excelerator EQ2 Pro so I can give it a try. I expected it to take a little while to get used to the change in detectors but it's sounding like the jump to the WOT was ended up stretching that curve out longer and confusing issues. There's still a significant learning curve ahead but hopefully I'll be digging good stuff soon.

Thanks Again,
dwebb64