How Do I Quieten The 15 x 12" Mono Commander Coil

[stevewilko]

I have spent my first 3 outings with the 11" DD Commander at Albion, Blackwood.

I was using the 11"DD at 4800 factory preset except for audio in quiet mode due to high mineralised ground signals.
I had instruction about running in this mode from a YouTube video about discerning signals in mineralised ground and I found it worked very well.
I wasn't thinking I had to dig every 10cm along....ha ha!
I continued to find lead, hot rocks and iron.

I moved to a nearby hard top hill on Saturday and used the larger 15 x 12" mono coil (at 4800 factory presets) for the first time.
I detected and dug small shot, pig shot, smaller lead (a fingernail trimming sized piece - I was impressed), along with ironstone and nails.

Alas, the detector was running with so much background in threshold and signals responses in comparison to the DD.
I have been reading about various settings from various people, commenting on stabiliser up, gain down, etc., - and vice versa for the 15 x 12 so Im not sure which or what to adjust.

I am sure these people were in different regions and on different ground types, hence the disparities in the advice about settings.

Is there someone here that has experience of the Albion mine to assist me with a setting adjustment(s) that I can monitor for improvements in working with this coil in this area?

Thnx in advance,
Steve.

 

[GaryO]

I was told last week while on a training day to run gain as high as possible .. then set stabiliser 1 point below gain and knock a point of each starting with stabiliser if you are still hitting noise.
Ex. G 12 S11
Next G12 S10
Then G11 S10
G11 S9
And so on , i haven't used my machine enough to determine what deepth is getting lost but i did definitely hear it smooth out as i backed these settings down . Im sure the more experienced guys may be able to say if they use a similar technique

 

[Davent]

When I get lots of background noise, i was told to gain down, and move the stab up.
So if you are running gain at 9, and stab 11, try gain down to 7 and leave the stab on 11. If its still noisey, drop the stab to 10. The lower the number on the stab, the more influence it has, the higher the gain, the deeper it will punch and it will be more sensitive.
Then tweak both gain and stab untill you can get a quiet threshold. Threshold should be as quiet as you can get, with steady noise constant.
Hope this helps, you can try different combo,s.
Hope you set youre machine on DD for the 11" dd and and if the 15x12 is a mono, make sure you flick it to mono.
Try Enhance if you are in normal, that will quieten things down abit, if its still really noisy, go to special and try sensitive smooth, or leave in enhance and try audio quiet.
Lots of members helped me out here, and Ive got the hang of the basic settings now, took me a bit to get a quiet steady threshold, but as soon as I got that, I found gold every trip.

 

[BigWave]

What davent said re changing timing from Normal to Enhance. Most of the highly mineralised areas I work in the Golden Triangle require Enhanced when using mono coils. I get back to Normal when I can, but that's pretty rare.

 

[Moneybox]

I'm new to the 4500 so I made the decision to minimise my options. The easiest way to do that was to fit one coil, the 14" Mono Elite, and it will stay there until I understand what makes the machine tick. I usually start with factory settings, Scan and Ground Balance, Enhanced, Gain 12 or higher, Stabilizer as high as it goes with the threshold steady. I try not to fiddle with it as long as I can identify a genuine signal.

I found it difficult going from the Garrett ATX that ran as quiet as a mouse to a Minelab GPX4500 that never shuts up.

 

[stevewilko]

Thanks Gentlemen.

I will copy paste and print to paper your main points so I can read refresh these insights in the field.

GaryO, I am in your camp with your insights from recent training and instruction.
I will commence with using the gain upper most / sensitivity below settings, due to the coil size being the largest of my two, utilising its type, size and depth.

Towards - "the higher the gain the deeper it will punch and (BUT) it will be more sensitive". Thank you Davent.
I am not getting so much background noise but detecting signal noise. I would be digging every 10 cm along if I were to believe it.

I do check my settings on start up, including switching DD to Mono and back. I look over them all so as not to have an incorrect selection.
But as of yet I am not far away from factory presets due to inexperience.

Always in enhanced it seems, as I have been - thanks Big Wave.

Travelling well moneybox with 4wd motorhome, thanks for your input also. I read it avidly.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[user 4485]

This might be worth a read Steve:
http://www.minelab.com/anz/knowledge-base/frequently-asked-questions#254838

 

[Moneybox]

This might be worth a read Steve:
http://www.minelab.com/anz/knowledge-base/frequently-asked-questions#254838

Thanks mbasko. I'll get a lot of use out of this page.

 

[GaryO]

Also maybe print this table out that Nemad (Phase Tech) put out on the minelab site many years back.
Im going to

https://www.minelab.com/anz/treasure-talk/gpx-4500-why-so-many-timings

 

[stevewilko]

Thanks Gentlemen.

I will add these references so I can read refresh these insights in the field as well.

Well done. Immense knowledge gained and shared from your detecting journeys to date.

Cheers.

Going to Blackwood, Albion today, back Sunday....

Steve.