Super Dry Ground Causing Chatter & Chirping.

[tippyhound]

Never before have I experienced such warm & dry conditions for late October to Mid November. Normally we have damp cool weather this time of the year. We have not had a measurable rain here in central Illinois in better then six weeks. We got a little shower last Thursday night, it was even enough to leave a little puddle in the street out in front of the house, but that was dried up and gone by 10:00 A.M. in the morning.

This past week I have been experiencing some chatter and chirping when I pinpoint. I always Ground Cancel when I start my detector up and have been doing it again when I experience the chatter, but it doesn't help. This chatter is bother sum to listen to and at times makes it tough to pinpoint the target.

I have experienced this before on other machines over the years in very dry conditions, but I was under the impression the ground cancel would eliminate this problem, I run my sensitivity at Auto +3 and have been noticing the sensitivity #'s running very low when I experience the chatter, but it doesn't seem to be helping. I guess there's just to much electrical static in this super dry ground. Ive also noticed some problems with getting stable target ID #'s and I don't seem to be finding anything much deeper then 6 to 8 "s. Doesn't matter though, we are having to chip our targets out of the ground as it is.

Sure hope the rains comes soon (before the weather goes bad on us) I've got a few area's Id just love to get this machine into as I know there are some good deep targets to be found. Rick

 

[Jason in Enid]

Dry ground wont cause that.

First, the ground cancel is automatic. Are you talking about EMI cancel?

If you are getting chatter, then you are either picking up EMI that the machine can't handle or something is loose.

 

[NebTrac]

I think the only time I've ever experienced that is a couple of time when I pass over large underground electrical wires. It was so bad one time, I had to get clear out to the area and shut my machine off, then turn back on. Everything would be fine and you could detect then...but get to close again and have to do it all over.

Another thing that comes to mind, if you "accidently" pushed one of the arrow keys and all of sudden you're in Manual 28-30 or so and then it'll get chattery.

NebTrac

 

[gregliss]

Does sound strange, I've never had chirping in pinpoint, while detecting yes (sens too high & EMI), but poinpoint no, even when near a strong EMI source. Just make sure you away from EMI and try again, if it persists you may have a hardware issue.

Check your connections are clean or try a different coil and see if it goes away.

Good luck,
Greg

 

[Ray-Mo.]

Dry ground should have the oposite effect if any at all I would think.The only time I get chatter in pinpoint is if sensitivity is maxed and I am at a site with lots of EMI.I will get some chatter a little more often with the sunray probe while pinpointing in pinpoint mode.

 

[onemore]

In my opinion, these are actually better detecting conditions, especially for targets at the edge of detection depth. Ground acts like a sponge; it swells when wet, but dryness shrinks/compresses the soil, and actually brings your coil a bit closer to the target. It also reduces the effect of heavily rusted iron bits in the soil.

As the folks said, something else is wrong or interfering.

Soil loaded with cinders can cause that as well.

 

[tippyhound]

Owners manual describes noisy conditions showing up as FE/CO numbers jumping around, inconsistent short beeps, and erratic movement of the Target Cross Hairs in the Smart Find Window. What I experienced on two different hunts was none of the above. It was a constant Chatter and Chirping sound in the Pin Point Mode.

As suggested I have checked for loose connections and also checked to make sure my sensitivity was not out of whack. I always run in Auto +3 mode. I did notice when the condition was there my sensitivity #'s were running really low. I was near some power lines in both instances, but have been on several hunts and not experienced that problem. In fact I have a school here locally that I have never been able to operate on one corner of the school because of sever EMI and this machine runs as smooth as a Babies behind there.

I have mentioned before about the presence of coal cinders and I know for a fact there was a heavy concentration at one of these locations, not sure about the other. On all my other machines it was a simple matter of ground balancing your machine to get rid of this pesky problem, but the E-trac doesn't offer you that option so I don't know how it handles that situation. I did locate two Mercury dimes, two Wheaties, four nickles and numerous clad and copper pennies at the first location so noise didn't keep it from doing it's job.

There is one other possibility. As I've mentioned before I am deaf in my right ear and only have 45% with the hearing aid in the left ear. I can not operate with the Koss UR-30 head phones that came with the machine because of feed back in my hearing aid. I also own a pair of Grey Ghost head phones and have to be careful with them to not cause the same problem.

This past week I had to send my hearing aid in for repairs and was given a loaner. Now I can barely hear the Threshold level because of the hearing aid but have no problem hearing the pin point mode. I received my old hearing aid back today, and plan on going out tomorrow to see if the problem comes back. If it does I will contact Minelab to hear what they have to say about the problem.

Sorry guys but as usual Im a bit long and windy, but don't know how else to cover all the topic.

Thanks to all for your suggestions and help. Rick

 

[tippyhound]

E-Trac Instruction manual lists the control as noise cancel, and noise is what I was getting.

I took the E-Trac out to a park in a small town near here yesterday. Working with the threshold control I managed to get it loud enough that I could hear a constant back ground hum. I noise cancelled the machine as soon as I got there and for a while it was noise free, as I worked my way across the park I started noticing the chatter in the threshold hum. I stopped and noise cancelled the machine again and the threshold became steady again, and I didn't hear the chatter the rest of the time I was there. (By the way do you guys look for a clean area to noise cancel your machine, they're tough to find in a park like that).

I looked around and was not near any high voltage wires so I have no Idea what was causing the chatter. It was a very small town so I don't know of any industry,hospital or any thing else that would cause the EMI noise.

At the hospital in our closest big town I have experienced that back ground EMI noise with every machine I have ever owned. I will take the E-Trac over there and see how the noise cancel will work there, may open up a whole new area for me.

Thanks to all who responded for your help. Rick

 

[Jason in Enid]

Sounds like there are underground power lines.

 

[tippyhound]

Hunted today for a couple hours right next to my sons CZ-6 and after I noise Canceled the machine I never once heard any back ground noise in the threshold hum. Also the super dry ground conditions haven't improved yet and I found a 1/4 inch by 1/4 inch heart shaped Frat pin at 5" inches and the machine worked beautifully.