metaldigger -- I am guessing you already understand most or all of what I'm going to say. IF anything here helps you, I'm glad. But, this is more geared to anyone newer to detecting, and new to the Manticore. With that said...
For anyone who may be getting excessive chatter on their Manticore, it is highly likely due to one of two issues...
1. IF THE CHATTER OCCURS WITH THE MACHINE/COIL HELD PERFECTLY STILL, then you have EMI issues going on; if the EMI can't be mitigated by a proper noise cancel procedure, then you are running your sensitivity too high for your EMI environment.
2. IF THE CHATTER OCCURS WHEN YOU SWEEP THE COIL OVER THE GROUND, you either have a ton of small bits of metal in the ground, including iron/rust that can "false," causing chatter, OR -- it is ground mineralization, and your ground balance setting is incorrect.
IF it is EMI, as mentioned in my first point, The way to fix that, is this...
Run sensitivity all the way down, and then bump it up one notch at a time until you barely start to hear chatter. THEN, do a LONG PRESS noise cancel, holding the coil completely still, 12 to 18" above the ground. DO NOT let go of the button, until your machine settles on a single noise-cancel channel (it usually will do so). NOW, the machine SHOULD be "quieter" than it was prior to the noice cancel procedure. At that point, bump up your sensitivity slowly, a notch at a time, until you just start to hear a bit of chatter, and then back it off one notch. At that point, you should be dealing with a machine that is right on the edge of "stability." If you like it a bit more stable, back it off ANOTHER notch or two.
As far as the "falsing" issues, most of us are aware from experience that ALL modern high-gain machines will "false" on iron, when run "hot," ESPECIALLY those with frequencies geared towards maximizing their detectability of high conductors (of which the Manticore is one, especially in "All-Terrain High Conductors" mode).
With that said, there are MANY ways to deal with/reduce falsing (adjust to a higher-frequency mode, increase recovery speed, ground balance properly, lower sensitivityetc.), but on the Manticore, the MOST CRITICAL adjustments to understand, in terms of iron/falsing, are your limits settings. Along these lines, what I am about to say is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE to understand, and anyone who does not understand what I am about to say, needs to seek to come to understand this, or they will NEVER fully master the Manticore and wring all of the performance out of it that it is capble of...
Any piece of iron, of any kind whatsoever, can be made to report 100% non-ferrous audio, 100% of the time, simply by setting your limits in a certain way (that being, running both of them to zero).
Now, this is NOT something anyone would WANT to do (run the limits at zero). BUT -- it MUST be understood that you CAN do this, and WHY that is possible. Again, anyone who does not fully understand that sentence, and not only understand it, but understand WHY that is true, cannot fully "master" the Manticore.
Conversely, when one DOES understand -- i.e. entirely wrap one's brain around -- why that above, bolded sentence is true, THEN one can begin to understand how the Manticore deals with iron, and thus how to properly set one's limits, for a given site, on a given day, to minimize the amount of iron "falsing" that occurs. Can ALL falsing be eliminated? NO -- no high-end machine is capable of that, and frankly, I wouldn't WANT a machine that "does not false," (at least, using today's available technology) as it would be a TERRIBLE machine with respect to locating "good" targets that are intermingled/co-located with iron targets. BUT -- one can CERTAINLY minimize falsing, if that is one's desire. Again, LIMITS SETTINGS are a big part of this, but other settings (as mentioned -- frequency/mode, ground balance, target recovery speed, sensitivity) can also help to minimize falsing.
IF anyone may not entirely understand my bolded sentence, above, but WANTS to, I'm happy to do my best to help. Just ask a specific question as to what you don't understand, and I'll try my best to explain...
In closing, I just want to reiterate that no offense is intended to you, metaldigger, since this was likely not very helpful to you, given that you are likely quite experienced and thus already know this. But, hopefully it helps a few folks who are newer to the hobby, or newer to the machine (or to Minelab machines in general).
Steve
