E Trac tech question

[John W.H.]

I've been wanting to get my E Trac out to a park or something to start learning it but I've only got to take it to the beach one time so far and didnt do too bad, but finally the snow melted off my yard so I took it for a spin on the grass. Running on the preloaded coin mode I cant even hardly move the coil and it just keeps nulling out and the auto sensitivity wont run any higher than 16. When I switch to the quick mask mode the thing goes ballistic like I scattered a couple boxes of nails all over my yard. Mostly high ferrous and co numbers. I'm guessing that my yard is just simply FULL of junk. Also I made a test garden with coins ranging from a large cent to a silver dollar all at about 6 inches. When I try and locate them with the detector it either nulls or just does not pick them up. Any input? Be gentle, I've only had my E Trac a couple weeks!

[NebTrac]

This doesn't sound right at all John. I don't like whats going on. First I would make sure your coil wire to control housing coupler is tight.

I would go manual sensitivity and lower it down until you get a constant threshhold and see what sensitivity you actually can run at.

Also you might try pressing your quickmask wide open and try Ferrous sounds and see if you can actually pick out different nail or iron hits.

Get on different ground, neighbors or park area and see if your seeing the same things.

You're test garden should've went in on absolutely "cleaned of signals" ground, so that is what's confusing. How can you not hit a coin in your test garden unless something was screwed up on the machine.

If you had a SunRay probe, I'd said you left it the probe switch on. It doesn't look like you do, so eliminating any other of the above, I'm not liking the way the machine's acting.

Let us know what you find out.

NebTrac

[Jack Flynn]

Really does sound like you have a yard full of iron. It actually would be the worst place in the world for you to learn your E Trac. Now if you see the sensitivity that low and decreasing it is telling you whoa there's a lot of stuff here. The high fe and co numbers are tellin ya junk. High fe the key. You can however see through so to speak all the stuff you have there. You will have to go VERY slow with the coil, really slow. When you move over an accepted target even in a null it will detect it. Find yourself someplace a lot less trashy and learn the machine then come back to the house about six months down the road Alas you could have some electrical interferance of a high magnitude that could be causing that also. I personally think junk though.

[NebTrac]

I got to thinking about the EMI also. I've hit some areas that had big, underground feeder lines and those will drive you to a point that you just get clear away and I also HAD to shut the machine down. After re-starting it worked normally. But that is rare.

NebTrac

[John W.H.]

It doesnt seem like the machine is acting erratic, just seems to be hitting ALOT of targets. When I go real slow, you can tell there are separate targets just many of them. I was just concerned that when it was nulling out I was missing targets. I know that the house had shingles that were removed and nails and aluminum siding chunks are everywhere!

[Jack Flynn]

Originally Posted by NebTrac

I got to thinking about the EMI also. I've hit some areas that had big, underground feeder lines and those will drive you to a point that you just get clear away and I also HAD to shut the machine down. After re-starting it worked normally. But that is rare.

NebTrac

I've got one place I have hunted a couple of times. The first time you would swear there was silver flying around in the air. The machine was going wild and I just left per holding the coil straight up above my head or on the ground it would be just going crazy. A couple of weeks ago went back and at 16 sensitivity in manual it would run on the ground but lift it a foot off the dirt and it would go bonkers again. Crazy place, umm, next to a new large ball field. The ball field I was hunting in it's shadow was a turn of the century place.

[NebTrac]

John,

If you can, a place like that is perfect for Two Tone Ferrous. Those aluminum siding pieces can drive you nuts too. At least you're able to tell exactly what's what. I'm glad it sounds like your machine may not be to blame.

I was totally perplexed by your test garden scenerio though. I really hope you got all the signals out of that spot before you planted it.

NebTrac

[Coyote65]

I have EMI issues in and around my house "I live in a subdivision" with underground power, phone and cable lines and the EMI effects my F5 and my AT Pro, not as bad as the F5 but none the less does. However my E-Trac is unaffected by it. Strange to say the least.

Sounds to me like you may a coil or detector issue, if you know of or have anyone who uses an E-Trac nearby it would be interesting to swap coils around just to see or at least see how both machines act in the same area to either prove or disprove the EMI possibility. Give Minelab a call and see what they have to say about it.

[Beefcake]

Hit the noise cancel... it will change the frequency and often times cures any nulling. Hold the detector off the ground about a foot when it does this... This also helps when you are hunting with another ET in your vicinity. Do you have an invisible fence for your dog??? I was hunting my buddy's yard and He came out and said...going crazy isn't it??? Yup, he just laughed and then told me about the fence. You can also try popping the battery out when it is on..this will restart the machine kinda giving it a clean. The ET isn't affected by EMI very much like many other machines I've had. If it persists, call them and see what they tell you to do.