AT PRO in freshwater lake

[carpel]

I have had my AT Pro for over two weeks now, I am having a lot of false signals in the water. I get a good tone, rescan and the tone and signal is gone. These false signals I get every couple of steps, makes my search time in the water very long and frustrating. It works great on land just problems with the water. I have tried all different combinations of modes and settings, ground balance at different water levels and still have problems. I have found coins and jewelry in the water, but I am constantly checking every signal, my settings for water use are

standard mode-zero
discrimination 35
sensitivity two segments short of maximum

I will mention that when I go through the up and down motion to ground balance on land it makes the usual noise and then quiets down, but when I go through the up and down motion to ground balance in the water the noise never goes quiet like land ground balance. Just the process of ground balancing in water is noisy, after I have it set is quiet and no chirping or noise just lots of false signals.
I am curious if other users for freshwater hunting have this problem or is it just my unit??

 

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[Zodiacdiverdave]

Maybe try manual ground balancing a few numbers lower then what the Auto GB sets in at.
ZDD

 

[carpel]

I did try manually ground balancing with high and low settings, still getting a lot of false signals. I am curious with other users if when they ground balance using the up and down motion if the noise gets quieter ? When I ground balance on the land I get the noise and then it quiets down, but in the water attempting to ground balance the noise stays the same just doesn't go quiet like on land. After I ground balance in the water, I do not have any chatter or background noises it's just a lot of annoying false signals that I have to keep rechecking. Thanks again for your help

 

[signal_line]

I haven't done much water hunting but if the coil wire is moving from the water force, the detector will pick it up. So you might try to fix it to the shaft with velcro strap or whatever. Also I heard somewhere (don't even recall if it was for a Garrett machine or not) about keeping the coil a few inches off the bottom, so you might try that, too. Other obvious things are to lower the sensitivity (especially with big coil), detect in discriminate mode, etc.

 

[carpel]

I have Velcro on the coil wire securing it to the shaft and also have the first loop of the wire from the coil going over the top of the shaft first. Played around with the sensitivity it had no affect on the false signals, I can lift the coil up in the water and move it back and forth with no false signals.Wondering if anybody else is experiencing this problem, thanks again for the helpful suggestions.

 

[signal_line]

Well, try to detect with it a few inches off the bottom. It could be some mineralization. As I said, you might have to run in discrimination mode if it is too hot of ground. Almost sounds like hot rocks.

 

[signal_line]

Be sure to ground balance over clean ground. Then check it again. If it is hot rocks, you should be able to pick one up and get a signal off it. Discrimination mode will help eliminate them if you can't recognize their sound and ignore them. Probably best to contact someone that knows your area. There is a video on prospecting with the AT Gold at the Garrett website. You can listen to the sounds they make and see if this is what you are experiencing.

 

[Sandman]

I know exactly what you are experiencing with the AT Pro in the water. You could just GB on land and leave it at that and then hunt with sens turned down two more bars. What did I do with mine?

A friend bought me a brand new AT PRO and it hangs on a wall in my detector room because of to many false signals in the water. I have other better detectors for the water and life is to short to be swing a detector that isn't up to the task.

See my signature line below.

 

[lookindown]

When I first got my AT I almost gave up on it because it falsed in the water. I taped my coil wire to the shaft about 3 inches above the coil. It was like I had a new machine. I had the coil wire wrapped tight and I didnt think tapping it would make a difference but it did. I can run 7 bars sens and it might false once an hour. One piece of tape turned it into a super stable machine. People that have trouble with their ATs either have them set up wrong or there is something wrong with the machine. A properly set up AT is a killer. Dont give up on it yet. I had several problems with my AT when I started and they were all my fault.

 

[signal_line]

In the latest printing of the book "The New Successful Coin Hunting" by Charles L. Garrett he says in mineralized ground to run the coil two inches or more above the ground. It will actually detect deeper because the minerals will have less effect.

Learning a new machine is likely to be frustrating. You gotta stick with it. When they say the 10% find 90% of the treasure, it's their positive attitude. Patience, persistence, and practice. And above all, avoid the naysayers. It's up to you to learn how. And if you give up--you never learn. Some people will like that.

 

[signal_line]

And here's another one from the book "You Can Find Gold With a Metal Detector" by Charles Garrett + Roy Lagal.

They say to run the coil "four inches or higher" and that depends on how much mineralization.

I don't know where I saw this, but you definitely want to ground balance in the water as the water temperature is a factor. Maybe not with all machines, I don't know. It wouldn't do you harm to read some articles on nugget hunting.

If you machine just won't balance, I would suggest burying a target then try to manually ground balance to where you get the best response, and this is most likely with the coil up off the surface.

You can also read the instruction manual for the At Gold on hot rocks. Like I said, you might need to go into discriminate mode.

 

[carpel]

thanks for all the suggestions, lookindown could you post a picture of how you taped the wire from your coil?
I just sent in my detector today to have Garrett take a look at it, I sure hope they find something that they can fix so I can have a more productive water hunt.
This weekend the arm cuff broke, glue would not work so I had to use duct tape, another thing to be fixed!

 

[signal_line]

I can understand the need for reassurance that the detector is working properly. Especially when the arm cuff is broken, like it might have been dropped or something. Maybe the kids damaged it unknown to the owner. Not that I follow it, but this thread makes a good case to buy from a local dealer. I still say there is some mineralization that needs to be dealt with.

 

[Jason in Enid]

I hunted a lake recently and there was a guy hunting with an AT Pro. He stated that the clay layer under the sand made his detector crazy. It sounds like your problem isn't isolated and you may have a hotter lake bed than previously thought.

My detector didn't give any problems so it was something that affects everything.

 

[carpel]

I have been having problems with false signals or ghost signals, you get a good tone and good numbers but when you stop to rescan the signal is gone not repeatable anymore. I have been searching these lakes for the past five years with another detector and have not encountered this problem. I do not believe it is hot rocks because the signal does not repeat itself. As for the broken arm cuff I am the only one that uses it, not rough with the machine at all and I have had it just over two weeks.I talked a couple times with Garrett's service department, they made some suggestions which I followed but the problem with the false signals remains. They suggested I send it in for them to take a look at, from the majority of forum responses this machine should work in freshwater I'm hoping they can fix mine and I can have trouble free searching in the water. Not too much to ask for new machine I would think!

 

[dustytrails123]

I think its just the way the garretts are i dont use the at pro i have the ace 350 and i cant hunt went sand or water unless the sensitivity is turned way way down ...i might be getting 4 inches depth turned down so much so i dont waste my time anymore in the wet sand untill i have a machine that can handle it

 

[lookindown]

I think its just the way the garretts are i dont use the at pro i have the ace 350 and i cant hunt went sand or water unless the sensitivity is turned way way down ...i might be getting 4 inches depth turned down so much so i dont waste my time anymore in the wet sand untill i have a machine that can handle it

Are you talking about saltwater? He was talking about freshwater.

 

[dustytrails123]

I live in the midwest no salt here and the ace really sucks in the wet sand or river bottom's ...ive heard nothing but bad news with salt water i wouldnt even try

 

[yellerstang]

I have had my AT Pro in salt water, fresh water, in coal dirt, farm land, grass, farmers fields, you name it... hot rocks can drive you nuts. You can notch them out. That is something worth trying. I suggest that you check out some of the videos that Garrett has posted, then take some time and re-read your manual. You will learn a little something new each time you do that. It takes a while to figure it out sometimes. If all else fails, send it back and have it checked out.

 

[Blskypilot]

I've not been to saltwater with mine yet but in freshwater or on dry Georgia land it works pretty good imo. When ground balancing and pumping the coil the noise telling you the detector is off always disappears for me unless I'm trying to balance on top of some piece of trash.

Why would you use standard mode is my question. Not that it should be the reason for the flashing but I'd think you could have gotten away with an ace if you wanted to run in std mode. Seems like too much trash sounds like good stuff in standard to me. In pro coins or zero this thing sniffs out the change and goodies pretty efficiently.