Should I get over it and try a manual ground balance machine

[BenG76]

I have had trouble with the ground balancing thing. I once had a Tesoro Eldorado and was told it was easy to ground balance but never felt I did it right. I guess I am more of a visual learner and I have watched videos of it being done now and the light bulb finally went off in my head.

I have really been debating getting another Tesoro and everyone is always talking about several models that use manual GB. There where always a couple Fishers I wanted to try as well but never did. Just looking to add something different to my arsenal.

 

[Walknstik]

Ben years ago when I bought my first metal detector (original Eldorado) I kept wondering if I was setting my ground adjustments correctly. Like you I'm more of a visual learner and didn't have anyone to show me how back then. I read my manual numerous times plus I would take it in the field with me for reference. Ground balancing is not hard to do once you get a little practice...I wish I had the internet for reference back in those days. Ha! I much prefer a manual ground adjust machine cause you can fine tune it to any coil...regardless of size or configuration (concentric or DD) easily on the spot in the field!

 

[vito]

Hello.

A big question to me is, why do you prefer manual ground balance over auto ground balance?
In automatic ground balancing / tracking the groundd is scanned always and the machine will
do the best all the time. This can be stopped ion some models so a machine will run quieter in
iron infested areas. On some more sophisticated models you can also cange the tracking to the
+ or the -, what you like more,

 

[Walknstik]

Vito I would say my main reason for preferring manual ground balance units...I simply like to GB and also have full control over where to set my GB. There are many great detectors made today with automatic GB if that is your preference I have VERY LIMITED experience with automatics and this was some years back (1990's) so I don't really have knowledge on them today...that's all! Maybe some other folks here will chime in that do have updated experience with automatics!

 

[slingshot]

I love my autotrac White s MX5. I understand about having control over your settings. I simply alter sweep speeds-through trial and error-to allow the feature to adjust according to ground conditions. Usually the giveaway I need to slow down comes from "tics" and "blips" in the audio.. I love my fixed g/b detectors for my usual parks, schools, etc., where depth s not an issue.

 

[Druid]

Hi Ben,
With the Tesoro line of detectors the GB feature allows you to use different sizes and types of coils and fine tune your detector for each so they work to their best advantage. The ones with a preset or fixed AKA auto GB are set for what the factory considers best performance in most conditions.
What it all boils down to is what types of hunting are you doing or want to be able to do? If you just want a grab and go beep/dig detector for coin shooting the Mojave has a selectable high and low ground feature, if you want a unit that will allow for a number of different coils having the manual GB is needed for best performance. Tracking GB has its place but most just track to get a GB and then lock the GB to avoid issues with small, faint and deep targets tracking out as the unit tries to maintain the established GB and threshold.
If you need that feature, say for gold nugget hunting it is useful but in typical trashy parks it is not really necessary. Some of the newer units have what is called "ground grab" and they establish your ground balance almost instantly and take a couple of seconds to update.
really all depends what you want to do and the soil you are hunting in.
Cheers,
Drew.

 

[Kraemer]

On my Vaquero having the ability to adjust the GB a quarter turn to the negative results in a couple of inches of depth. This alone has sold me on being able to manually adjust the ground balance. Only wish I could say I discovered this myself!

 

[dan b]

Watch ScannerGuy on YouTube. He shows the neg GB trick on the Vaquero. He can easily hit a quarter at 12" in his soil with this "trick".

 

[Walknstik]

Negative ground balancing is something that I want to experiment more with! In the past I've always GB balanced my Tesoro's a little positive cause that was the way the operating manual stated. I didn't really know about negative GBing until I started surfing the internet and I don't recall any treasure magazines back in the day talking on the subject? I will say that I once set my Troy Shadow X2 a small bit negative on the GB and I was thinking it made it signal a bit more on iron but maybe I just didn't experiment enough with it? I do recall Monte talking about on some Tesoro models once you switch over to discriminate mode the GB setting can be TOO positive due to a design glitch sorta of speak? Like I said I want to experiment more with negative ground balancing cause in the past I've been guilty of always setting my GB a little positive or neutral on occasions.

 

[Monte]

If I am searching in the Threshold-based All Metal mode, then depending upon the intensity of the ground mineralization I will adjust the GB to be 'spot-on' or just very slightly 'positive' ... for searching in the All Metal mode. I do not GB negative in that mode, only 'spot-on' to 'slightly positive.'

But if you intend to hunt in the silent-search, motion Discriminate mode, then remember that most Tesoro's have the Disc. mode tied in with the GB control for the All Metal mode and for logical reasons it was design with a somewhat positive-offset from the All Metal mode. GB. Because of this, in some ground environments and how the GB is adjusted, you want to adjust the GB setting to be slightly negative ... in the All Metal mode ... but not too negative because you do not want to induce falsing in the motion-based Discriminate mode.

If the GB is adjusted too low, aka too negative, you will usually get a false 'beep' when bobbing the search coil when it is lifted away from the ground. If so, gently increase the GB just to the point where you eliminate false signals when bobbing the coil from about 6" down to about ½"-1 and back up again.". That will represent the best performing GB setting.

Monte

 

[Walknstik]

As always "Thank You" Monte for refreshing my memory on this GB subject! I guess my thinking was once you properly set your GB in all metal mode and then switched over to discriminate mode that same level of GB would carry over...not slightly increase. Some of the places I hunt around here have lower levels of ground minerals and like I said earlier I want to experiment more with negative balancing in these environments...out west where the ground is much hotter probably not.

 

[dirthunter]

Thanks for the information Monte!!