Test Garden

[DigDog]

I had a passing thought... Like passing wind that blows on by... While trying to find a solution... I stumbled onto several videos of above ground test gardens.... My favorite was the one made with a 5 gallon bucket (link below)... Which seems the easiest and most simplistic to make.... BUT... None of these will mimic actual soil conditions.... You might as well be air testing... Then I though ( you can see the smoke from Florida )... why not 4 inch drainage PVC with an end cap... you'd have to drill holes in the end caps for drainage... Drop your target in the bottom... fill the tube with dirt sand whatever... and bury the tubes with a post hole digger.... If your max depth is one foot with some of your targets... Your talking a few post holes 1 ft down... closer to the top targets... shorter tube.... essentially... You're making various length sieves to put the targets in... A 12 ft piece of 3 or 4 inch of perforated drain pipe would do the whole garden... The end caps and glue would probably cost more than the pipe... the ground water would sill flow in and out.... Giving you the natural conditions you're looking for.... As long as the very top edge of the pipe was at ground level... you could see if your Draining tube was sinking away... If it did... the thing was designed to be buried... And should be simple enough to dig up and re-seat... The targets wont budge in this home made sieve.... It would be a bit of work to put in place... But if you were going to take on the task of digging anyway... In for a penny... In for a pound....

As I mentioned especially perforated drain piping has ridges which retain water and moisture. Big things won’t sink away we use that drain piping in our septic system. Its very small thin things like coins that get lost not like we have quick sand or anything lol.
I suppose you can put it in a bigger sealed container but that has been the question all along. If it retains water, moisture obviously affects the magnetic field and results and doesn’t duplicate real world conditions if it is sealed in a plastic container wouldn’t that affect the field as well and results.
Bottom line the ground changes too much to have a long term test garden.
You can bury some coins, items and in a years time expect to have them relatively close. If you are looking for a long term several years coin garden that’s much more difficult. Very similar to burying a coin in the dry sand at the beach, even if mostly undisturbed how confident it will remain in the exact location several years later. Largely depends on above ground traffic and rainfall.
Do one and get what you can in a year worth. The area is better for fresh drops than old relics anyway.
I would love to hear from someone who actually found a 1800’a or pre 1965 coin in a local beach area lately

 

[thepest]

This is the type of drain pipe and end cap I meant.... It's all called the same thing online... I apologize for not being more descriptive... The top end would remain open at ground level... not sealed... the bottom end with the target is at whatever depth you want

 

[DigDog]

This is the type of drain pipe and end cap I meant.... It's all called the same thing online... I apologize for not being more descriptive... The top end would remain open at ground level... not sealed... the bottom end with the target is at whatever depth you want
View attachment 42505 View attachment 42506 View attachment 42507

Ok I misunderstood what you meant by drain pipe but using the pipe shown if there is a closed bottom and only small drain holes would it not still collect a small amount of water and moisture especially after a rain. Essentially a target encapsulated in tube of wet ground if you will.
Wet ground effects the magnetic field as it is when a coil energizes the target i would think it would really throw things off if the target was in a sliver of wet soil surrounded by dry soil. Making it even more far off from real world conditions and results.
Usually the ground around a target is equally wet or dry
I could be wrong about everything but it’s understood the coil sends a transmit frequency/signal to basically “energize” the target and then a receiver picks up that field of energy in the coil and sends it back to the controller which analyzes the received signals and gives you a result.
The abnormal conditions you now made would give you different results you would normally have. Different sounds, id numbers etc. water and moisture really don’t mix well with transferring signals. Its why the Deus wireless coil will not work sending signals back to the controller if the coil is underwater. If you want to use the Deus coil underwater at all you have to attach a cable from the coil to the remote.
Will you get a signal with a target in a tube with wet soil sure, will it be accurate,
One of the key things about test gardens is to duplicate real world conditions as much as possible. If all targets were in drain tubes then no problem. Otherwise then just put a target in a 5 gallon bucket of dirt on top of the ground.
Perhaps someone well versed in electrical engineering especially with metal detectors can shed some light on the issue