Stability

[CowboyKolo]

I was looking up various ways to possibly increase the depth of my Eagle Spectrum, and one sentence that keeps popping up in various forms is;

"...to stabilize your detector."

What does it mean in plain, beginner detectors, english when talking about it's "stability"? What improves or hinders it?

 

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[rotaxtwin]

Typically "stability" refers to the how you hear the audio tone that you hear in the headphones (this is not the technical definition of stability but real world symptoms). If your detector is "unstable" you will get various tones and an erratic sound even though there is nothing under the coil (like a coin) this can happen when just swinging the coil. This is also called falsing. I am unfamiliar with your particular detector but if you adjust the sensitivity to high the detector will begin to false. Every area can be different so one setting may work great in one place and not another. Sensitivity therefore should be set as high as possible but low enough to prevent the falsing. If your detector has a manual ground balance you should set that first then adjust the sensitivity. The higher the sensitivity typically the greater "depth" because the detector electronics are more sensitive to objects below the coil. Don't expect to increase your "depth" on like items to increase by leaps and bounds. If you can detect a quarter at 5" don't expect to get 10" by turning the sensitivity up to max. Try making a small coin plot in your yard by burying a few coins at various depths and play with the settings and your detector. Try placing one at increasing depth until you can no longer detect it then adjust the sensitivity and see if you can increase your depth. Try to critically listen to the differences in the information that your detector is giving you. Be patient and the subtle differences will become apparent. Sorry for being so long but I hope this helps.

 

[Sky Pilot]

CowboyKolo, Rotaxtwin hit the mark for sure! Really can't add much to it, except maybe a little to do with your machine. The biggest effect on stability with an XLT is VDI sensitivity, in other words the amount of information the machine must have in order to produce a conductivity number(I.E., 65 = zinc penny, Indian head, ect..), DC Phase, in other words, how much power you have the pinpoint mode turned up to, Transmit Boost, which basically determines how much signal you are putting into the ground, and PreAmp Gain, basically adjusts the intensity of the signal. Now, anyone of those settings in particular, will strangle depth and destroy the smooth, silent operation of your detector if improperly set. You probably are aware of all this, but it never hurts to be certain! Here is something you may find useful if you haven't already: http://66.51.97.78/jb/programm.html J.B.'s XLT site has looooots of tips and info on your machine, and I found it really handy. What is really cool, I thought anyway, is that there are tips from lots of different areas of the country, even the world! So maybe there is something in there to help! Good luck and great hunting! Regards, skypilot02 (Richard).