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Why is the processor so slow?
- Thread starter Smooth23
- Start date
robertj298 said:
It could be you are hunting spots with very little conductive targets.Let me ask you this, why did you buy an Etrac with 1700 pixels,which is suppose to be the big selling point of getting an Etrac or CTX over a Safari if you are not using them,do not get me wrong a lot of people are hunting the way you are. I too use a Safari with 50 some pixels and hunt open screen conductive to snipe coins out of heavy trash.I have owned several Etracs but seen no use to keep them because after awhile everyone goes open screen to over come the Null issue I do not care what minelab product you have.Minelab made a true statement your old area"s will be your new hunting area.If all of us hunted the preset programs that was set with the detector when we bought them we would have not had to hunt the same spots over again. Discrimination higher than preset programs that came with any minelab turned them into Nulling monsters.The ferrous and co readings are almost next to useless in heavy trash,but the tones and their quick response with an after market coil really save these machines and you can find a coin with a rusty piece of Iron touching it.So what I am trying to say is what is your machine really processing when you are running open screen you have taken out most of what the processor is looking at making it a faster responding machine sniping coins next to or in junk.So a lot of people are hunting with a machine that does not need a screen,pinpointing with wiggle method in heavy junk no need for pinpoint mode.Cannot trust FE and CO numbers in trash and depth gauge is useless because to many targets to get good reading.But it is nice to use all the nice things that come with an Etrac if you are in open area ,field and all things come together but for most of us what is left is in the junk.The open areas have been hunted hard.
If you think you can make your processor faster, then by all means take it apart and do it! Let Minelab know if you are successful, they would probably pay handsomely
as for me, I am perfectly happy with my slow processing Etrac. However, in trashy areas TTF suits me just fine.......nge
as for me, I am perfectly happy with my slow processing Etrac. However, in trashy areas TTF suits me just fine.......ngeI just got my etrac back from, of all places, Kellyco ( where Minelab told me to send it) for being real slow. My problem was the lcd display was lagging the audio by a lot...I could swing the coil over
a solid target 10 to 15 times and not get an lcd reading different for the last reading that was on the display until I stopped swing and held the coil still. The techs at Kellyco did some sodering of the lands
and also did a power on reset...they told me that the indication on the lcd display should be almost instant with the sound and it does work better since they did what they did. I am not a super tech but
have some knowledge of the working of computers and the etrac is just a small computer...the older a computer gets the slower it is until we reformat or clean the disk in some way. My etrac is 6 months
old and after the reset it works just like it did when I got it, so I guess that to keep it working correctly I will have to do a power on reset (not the menu reset) from time to time. I do not know if the etrac
has a memory chip, but that may be something that can be corrected. Smarter people than me will have to figure that out...Don't know if I helped or confussed.....good luck and HH.
eek (Elton in Mobile)
a solid target 10 to 15 times and not get an lcd reading different for the last reading that was on the display until I stopped swing and held the coil still. The techs at Kellyco did some sodering of the lands
and also did a power on reset...they told me that the indication on the lcd display should be almost instant with the sound and it does work better since they did what they did. I am not a super tech but
have some knowledge of the working of computers and the etrac is just a small computer...the older a computer gets the slower it is until we reformat or clean the disk in some way. My etrac is 6 months
old and after the reset it works just like it did when I got it, so I guess that to keep it working correctly I will have to do a power on reset (not the menu reset) from time to time. I do not know if the etrac
has a memory chip, but that may be something that can be corrected. Smarter people than me will have to figure that out...Don't know if I helped or confussed.....good luck and HH.
eek (Elton in Mobile)
JamesBondaka
Active member
You can get a faster machine.....but theres always a trade off.....chatter/noise/emi seems to be the most prevalent . I have or had most of the top machines....its hard to beat an etrac.....maybe a ctx as it is faster & cleaner. Which do you truly want.....faster or one with more noise etc?
Most of the time your machine is going to be pretty fast on good strong targets.....on weaker ones.....sometimes it doesnt know what to do....just the nature of the beast....that it iis! The etrac is only weak in one detection area that I know of.....otherwise hard to be outdone.
Most of the time your machine is going to be pretty fast on good strong targets.....on weaker ones.....sometimes it doesnt know what to do....just the nature of the beast....that it iis! The etrac is only weak in one detection area that I know of.....otherwise hard to be outdone.
robertj298
Member
Prep1957 said:
I don't think doing either of those will speed up your detector. If you delete your custom programs, what do you do, just run the factory ones?
Just going by sound,but mostly running one program conductive wide open.If I really get into bad Iron will hunt with another brand of detector that out performs Minelabs in heavy Iron.It it is hard to go golfing with one club but it can be done,same with metal detecting.The same rule applies metal detecting as it did in the early 70's if you want to find everything you have to dig everything.I really believe quite soon that everything we are using now will be obsolete.The detectors we are using now are still only using one antenna to receive, they use motion to simulate a duel antenna.There is a lot of room for improvement but will we be willing to pay.
Reading through all these responses has been very interesting. I have had my Etrac about 4 years or so, I too find it some what slow. I have found that my swing speed is much slower than the guys I hunt with, guess that's because of the slower processor? My finds are usually better and there are more of them than the guys I hunt with. Maybe we have all gotten so use to it that it has made the Etrac users better hunters. Just saying....................
you know whats weird is that i have have only used two detectors in my life (besides my radio shack starter) my etrac and...a whites 6000 diPro, and that thing had to be WHIPPED....the faster you swung it, the deeper it would detect. because it had to be whipped around like a scythe does that mean its faster? I dont know Im just thinking out loud. Maybe it is in some ways. if you went too slow you would miss targets. also, you had to watch the meter, and etrac sure was a different animal for me to switch to. Maybe the etrac just takes longer to analyze everything. maybe you want that. i guess i dont have any experience in comparing the etrac to other modern detectors. if i hit the lottery someday maybe then ill have a stable full.
Southwind
Well-known member
moonshine, I think in the case of your 6000 DI Pro it is a matter of finding the right speed for the setup. This is true with most detectors.
The detector circuitry looks at the ground mineral level/Ground balance and watches for any sudden, key word being sudden, changes in the level. A quick/sharp change from the normal ground balanced level cause it to react either sending this signal to the next part for analyzing, in the case of the more complex detectors, or on to the beep circuit. Swinging too fast with a slow processor can cause it to miss the sharp/sudden change. Some machines do better with a fast/whip swing to make the sudden change more pronounced. My old White's Eagle Spectrum seemed to go deeper if I whipped it like a weed eater.
Of course the above is a simplified version but the point is the detector need to see a quick/sharp/sudden change in the balanced signal to signal a target.
The detector circuitry looks at the ground mineral level/Ground balance and watches for any sudden, key word being sudden, changes in the level. A quick/sharp change from the normal ground balanced level cause it to react either sending this signal to the next part for analyzing, in the case of the more complex detectors, or on to the beep circuit. Swinging too fast with a slow processor can cause it to miss the sharp/sudden change. Some machines do better with a fast/whip swing to make the sudden change more pronounced. My old White's Eagle Spectrum seemed to go deeper if I whipped it like a weed eater.
Of course the above is a simplified version but the point is the detector need to see a quick/sharp/sudden change in the balanced signal to signal a target.