Explorer 2 Questions/Problem

[Mag99004]

Hey guys, I posted this on another forum but frequent this site more often so I'll post it here too.

I'll try to make this as concise as possible guys. I upgraded to an X2 and have read the manual, watched most of the dvd, and have put about 100 hrs into it however I'm still a bit troubled with some things. First, I notice no obvious increase in depth over my XL Pro. I’ve done air test comparisons between the two(I always take the XL Pro with me), in-ground tests, and tests on targets that I’ve hit with one or the other(then I’ll bring the other over and compare signal strength, noise, repeatability, etc.) When tested on buried pennies the x2 is hitting solid till about 4", very shaky till 6"(sometimes repeatable but VERY warblely, and sometimes only hits from one direction). Past 6" it will not hit ANYTHING but a quarter occasionally. The other questions I have are:

1. Everyone says to go slow however I’ve noticed I can sometimes pull more depth the quicker my swing. When I swing slow the threshold will blank but there will be no tone. And the odd thing is the surrounding ground will be completely clean, it is for sure blanking ON the coin. If it can blank out the coin shouldn't it also sound off?

2. I have rarely but more than once gotten high tones on old rusty square nails.

3. Pinpoint sometimes will constantly sound except when I go over the target(then it blanks out). This is rare but has happened more than once. It’s like the pinpoint is working opposite, it produces sound everywhere but the target.

Has anyone else ever ran into this? I so concerned because I have not been able to compare my X2 with anyone else's. So I have no way of knowing if this is normal or if the machine has a problem. Everyone in my area(Portland, OR) says it should scream at a 6" coin.

When I first started hunting years ago the machine I bought was broken but I used it for months without knowing it since I had no one to compare it to and everyone said “learn your machine”. After finding out it really was broken I think I’m paranoid. For you info I am running Fast ON, Deep ON, Advanced Digital, Thresh 1 notch above silent, Tone 4, Variability 8, Gain 10, Conduct, and swing speed is about 3 seconds each direction. I noise cancel every 30 min.Even when I turn the sensitivity down to 16-18 it is noisy unless I run it in semi-auto.

My main concern is the fact that I can't pull depth even close to what anyone else claims and it is so chattery and the sounds warbely that its often harder to hear a target on the X2 than it is on the XL Pro. THANK YOU AHEAD OF TIME.

 

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[grizzly bare]

Highly mineralized soil?

grizzly bare

 

[neilo]

Are you running in iron mask, if you are set it on -6 if you are running on -16 nails etc will give you signals.The pin point making noise is normal, turn it off when you have found your target.Turn your gain down to a lower setting 7-8, running in deep can exaggerate ground noise in highly mineralised ground.I agree with grizzly you might be having problems with ground mineralisation.You dont say what coil you are using, have you tried a different coil? Did you buy your detector new,if so have it checked out under warranty.I have been using Explorers 1 and 2 for over 4yrs and have retreived coins at over 12inches at times, it is surprising at only detecting around 6inch max.
Contact minelab forum site and ask some questions on that. good luck seeya Neilo

 

[Gabbit]

First, I notice no obvious increase in depth over my XL Pro. I’ve done air test comparisons between the two(I always take the XL Pro with me), in-ground tests, and tests on targets that I’ve hit with one or the other(then I’ll bring the other over and compare signal strength, noise, repeatability, etc.) When tested on buried pennies the x2 is hitting solid till about 4", very shaky till 6"(sometimes repeatable but VERY warblely, and sometimes only hits from one direction).

Very odd – are you using the stock coil? You should get a pretty solid repeatable text book coin signal up to 6 inches. Once it goes past that it tends to jump around a little more and not give text book signals, which is why I dig by sound. Could be your soil – what IM are you hunting in -10 or more?


1. Everyone says to go slow however I’ve noticed I can sometimes pull more depth the quicker my swing. When I swing slow the threshold will blank but there will be no tone. And the odd thing is the surrounding ground will be completely clean, it is for sure blanking ON the coin. If it can blank out the coin shouldn't it also sound off?

I go slow so I can investigate every sound that my detector is making. If I swing quick I might pick up a blip that I wouldn’t have heard going fast, but I have always had better luck going slow and methodically. When you swing and the threshold goes blank that is called nulling – the detector will null over what it thinks as iron. If you had an iron pot over a silver coin the detector will probably null. If the detector is going over the iron first it will null – if it goes over the coin first you should get a sound.

2. I have rarely but more than once gotten high tones on old rusty square nails.

I would say we all get high tones on rusty square nails. A rusty square nail will not give off a “round” high tone it should sound more broken up – you can change to ferrous which should give a low tone on iron signals. I like having the high tone on those iron signals. When signals are deep they will sometimes ring up in the iron range but sound really good.


3. Pinpoint sometimes will constantly sound except when I go over the target(then it blanks out). This is rare but has happened more than once. It’s like the pinpoint is working opposite, it produces sound everywhere but the target.

Your starting your pinpoint ON the target. This is why when you move away it makes noise but when you get close it is silent. When you start your pinpoint – start a little ways away from where you are getting a signal.

Everyone in my area(Portland, OR) says it should scream at a 6" coin. – Yep it should scream at a coin at 6” even with a 8” coil.

For you info I am running Fast ON, Deep ON, Advanced Digital, Thresh 1 notch above silent, Tone 4, Variability 8, Gain 10, Conduct, and swing speed is about 3 seconds each direction. I noise cancel every 30 min.Even when I turn the sensitivity down to 16-18 it is noisy unless I run it in semi-auto.

Sounds just about right – each person runs different settings – I would hunt in at least -10 IM rather than trying to discriminate everything out. 3 second sweep speed is good – I am usually able to get sensitivity up to 24-27 in my area. Try noise canceling with the detector 6-12 inches above ground and see if you can get your sensitivity higher.

My main concern is the fact that I can't pull depth even close to what anyone else claims and it is so chattery and the sounds warbely that its often harder to hear a target on the X2 than it is on the XL Pro. THANK YOU AHEAD OF TIME.

Sounds like you do have a problem if you can’t get a good sound past 6 inches. Do you have a dealer in your area you could go to? Ever run across any other guys swinging an EX2?

 

[ScottNewMexico]

Hey Neilo:

Noticed that you said something about picking up exaggerated ground noise in highly mineralized soil using the DEEP seeting. I live in the desert here too with highly mineralized soil (basically ground up rocks bigger than sand is and lots of pyrite everywhere) so what do you run on? You seem to be quite sucessful finding those nuggets. Any input on this?

Scott

Are you running in iron mask, if you are set it on -6 if you are running on -16 nails etc will give you signals.The pin point making noise is normal, turn it off when you have found your target.Turn your gain down to a lower setting 7-8, running in deep can exaggerate ground noise in highly mineralised ground.I agree with grizzly you might be having problems with ground mineralisation.You dont say what coil you are using, have you tried a different coil? Did you buy your detector new,if so have it checked out under warranty.I have been using Explorers 1 and 2 for over 4yrs and have retreived coins at over 12inches at times, it is surprising at only detecting around 6inch max.
Contact minelab forum site and ask some questions on that. good luck seeya Neilo

 

[JW]

It sounds like you may have some electrical interference too. Your gain is way too high, start at 6-7, with fast on the signal is shortened and that effects depth but at 6" that zinc should 'scream', run fast off and deep off till you get the hang of the thing. Then if it is really trashy turn fast on, if you hunting in semi clean turf and are looking for 8-10"ers turn fast off and deep on.

With the sens at 16 the cursor should be stable unless your around electricity...

You could have a bad coil, I bought a WOT that was not working right and I was running into the same problems you list above, my XS had a bad stock 10.5" I sent it in and Minelab said it was wired backwards! Both parties made good on the deals and everything works fine again.

I too went from an XLPro to an Ex2, my XL was chatty and hard to get stable when deep coinshooting, it had its moments in certain conditions though.

 

[neilo]

Scott in noisy ground,dont run in deep,run in manual, try slowly pumping your coil if you are experiencing lot of noise doing this lower you sensitivity until the noise stops.Then increase it slightly,and keep your coil sweeps at even distance from the ground as you sweep.As for settings there are too many variables in the amount of mineralisation in the ground so you will have to experiment.Have you got a small nugget if not, a small piece of lead, bury it a couple of inches and try different settings,eg Iron mask, threshold,gain and sensitivity. seeya Neilo

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Everyone in my area(Portland, OR) says it should scream at a 6" coin.

When I first started hunting years ago the machine I bought was broken but I used it for months without knowing it since I had no one to compare it to and everyone said “learn your machine”. After finding out it really was broken I think I’m paranoid. For you info I am running Fast ON, Deep ON, Advanced Digital, Thresh 1 notch above silent, Tone 4, Variability 8, Gain 10, Conduct, and swing speed is about 3 seconds each direction. I noise cancel every 30 min.Even when I turn the sensitivity down to 16-18 it is noisy unless I run it in semi-auto.

I have hunted in Portland, Oregon many times with an Explorer so here are my thoughts. First check out my Explorer tips here, that will save me some typing. http://www.detectorgear.com/

Now settings for Portland...

1. Switch to the smartfind screen versus digital. Why? Unless you have some private virgin spots to hunt many of the coins you will find around Portland in public parks and such are going to be the more difficult targets. Why? Because you have a LOT of Explorers in your area and a sizeable club that travels from park to school to park detecting them to death e.g. many of the easy targets are long gone. You will find more deep iffy targets and targets hiding up next to trash and nails in these areas. In digital the numbers for these targets will bounce all over the place. Its a lot easier to watch the cursor bounce around the general coin area than to try to figure out bouncing digital numbers. Thats just my opinion. IMPORTANT: Gather some sample coins that you expect to find. Locate a clean spot of ground far from electrical interference where the machine is stable and spend half an hour sweeping over them and note where they tend to hit. Sweep about 4 inches from the coin, the cursor won't move much e.g. digital numbers will be fairly stead. Now sweep the coins from 6, 8, 10, until the detector can't pick them up anymore. Make note of how the sound changes, how much the cursor will bounce around. When hunting for deep coins or coins next to iron you have to accept that the cursor will bounce around and may not hit in the textbook location.

2. Variability 10, silver will stand out like a sore thumb at 10.

3. Crank that gain way down mister! At least to 7 and you might try 6. Your ground sucks bad, its some of the nastiest ground I have detected so back down the gain. Push the sensitivity up and the gain down. You might also try turning deep off as it makes bad ground all the more challenging.

4. I hunt slow I don't swing slow. My swing speed is about 1 to 1.3 seconds. 3 is too slow, test it when you sample your coins you WILL lose depth sweeping that slow. What I mean by hunting slow is I investigate the ground between the trash and iron from different angles and using the front of my coil. Iron and trash can pollute a large area of ground so it takes a little time. If you think you heard a piece of a coin but there is a near surface trash target polluting the area don't be afraid to dig the trash out of the way. I find a LOT of deep coins that way. If I think I am centered over a coin I might give it the .5 second 3 inch sweep back and forth. Faster is better once you are centered over the target. Don't sweep it to death, the coin signal can degrade if you sweep it too much. If that happens move off the target for 5 seconds or so and come back. If I sweep and hear nothing but threshold, I take a step forward.

5. Forget semi-auto mode especially in your area. Learn to adjust the detector to the ground conditions manually then you will be assured of the best performance. Often semi-auto will overcompensate in bad ground.

6. Nails in your ground suck even worse than nails in our NY soil. They false quite a lot with high tones using ferrous tones. Read my tips regarding iron. Nails are challenging in your soil but it is manageable.

7. I easily lose 2 inches of depth in your soil compared to ours in NY which is no picnic. You will have the most difficult time with iron and your ground when the ground is sopping wet. Its a lot easier when the ground is not quite dry, just moist. If you have some sites to hunt where there is not too much trash try a 15 inch WOT coil. I was hitting coins in the 8-9 that another Explorer ID'd as iron with the stock coil.

Send me your email address and I will put you in touch with Joel, he's got quite a good grasp of the Explorer and lives in your area. You can reach me via [email protected]