Minelab CTX3030 tips, settings, questions

Prospecting Australia

Help Support Prospecting Australia:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Great machine , but I think I need to do a course in its operation but miners den Brisbane aren't running them at the moment. Can't seem to get the coin mode right, instead of picking up coins in the park I'm picking up everything else. Gone over the same ground with the sov gt later and picked up coins. Don't know if I have my discrimination is right. Read manual many times and YouTube etc . Any tips from more experienced members , not just for me but also for ctx newbies.

Danny
 
Hi Danny13,
I have only had my CTX3030 for a couple of weeks and still coming to grips will all of the menus, a bit daunting at first.
There are a couple of members here that are well and truly up to speed on all aspects of the 3030; with a bit of luck they should be able to be of some assistance to you and the rest of us that still have our L plates on with the 3030.
Cheers, SinHof.
 
Hey Danny, the standard coins mode is a great program to run. My advice would be to get a few of the coins you're likely to find and do some testing with them on the park you intend to detect to get a feel for the target ID's, might just be that you didn't actually get the coil over any coins???

In the coins mode edit screen my settings I mostly use are:

Fast: on
Deep: off
Target Separation: High Trash in high junk clutter or low trash if there is not much junk.
Tones: Combined

Sensitivity set to Auto.

Nothing special as it's almost the standard settings.

If you don't get any joy with it maybe do a factory reset and start again.
 
When you switch the CTX3030 on in factory presets it will ignore iron, but will ping off on all coins, jewellery, foil, brass, aluminium etc.
If there is too much foil in the ground, you can just ignore those lower numbers.

One thing I'd recommend is to turn your Target Trace on. This is basically a real time visual of what the detector is seeing. I feel this helps new users to understand what is going on.
 
Right after they shave 1kg off it, slash the price by 50% & unleash the magic fairies that will hand out free 19" coils to everyone that paid over $10k for their GPZ's. :lol:
Apparently discrimination for the Zed is on the drawing board (or maybe the test bench :D - who knows? ). Don't know if target trace is in amongst it or even if ZVT tech could support it but it'd nice..... even if just bells & whistles
 
1465577137_image.jpg


Went out today with the ctx3030 and what a machine found these in the wet sand and behind the first breakers , not bad for an hour. Hit multiple targets behind the first line of breakers on a few occasions . I stopped as because got exhausted digging out of the water . Anyways will be there tomorrow as I was hitting a target almost everytime .
1465577651_image.jpg
 
Hi guys im new to this site and just ordered myself a new ctx3030 from miners den and was wondering what settings people use for hunting modern and old coins in parks .Was also wondering i tried to buy my metal detector from reeds prospecting and asked if they would match the price of miners den and they wouldnt budge .I thought if a business was trying to make money wouldnt they try to beat thier competators or is it really easy to sell metal detectors in australia ?.Because i saved about $250 on my ctx buying from miners den .

I used to have a xterra 705 so im guessing this machine is gonna be a little bit harder to grasp .
 
Settings = 1001 options

Silver mode and then it is up to you as to Sensitivity / sound profile and many other settings. All depends on teh ground conditions and which coil.

Clay / Sand/ Salty wet sand / other soil conditions all require slightly different settings.

Practice and use some good test pieces and get to know the CTX.
 
First thing to remember is every preset program is just that, a preset, any preset program can be made exactly the same as any other if the settings and discrim patterns are matched, the presets are basically switch on and go settings. The "Coins" mode is a really good one and should work fine, I use it 90% of the time, I rarely use any of the other presets as for other situations I have made my own custom programs, such as a Pre Dec coin, $1 $2 coin and silver and gold jewellery program. Also a goldies only program and a Pre Decimal only program for extremely trashy sites so I can isolate good targets among high trash conditions.

The settings I use for parks in "Coins" mode are.

Fast: on
Deep: off
Target Separation: High trash if there is heaps of junk or low trash if there is minimal junk.
Tones: Combined
Sensitivity: Auto

As AngerManagement recommended, get some modern coins, silver coins, silver rings to use as test pieces so you know the target ID's that they give, such as $2 coins will be say 12:36-12:38, $1 coins will be 12:39-12:40.

Read the manual, then read it again and again and so on until you understand the menu and related settings. If you think you have changed settings too much and the detector is not performing do a factory reset.

Hope this helps and best of luck with your detector.
 
Thankyou so much guys for the feed back.Much appreciated so excited to get this machine .May i ask heatho whats your $1-$2 program settings are .I think thats the first thing im gonna do is go goldie hunting :).Yeh the one thing that worrys me about this machine that i think will be difficult to master is Beach detecting as i didnt do alot of it with my 705 and heard it can be difficult if you dont know what your doing .
 
Check out my post in Sandta's thread, these are the custom discrimination patterns that I've made, it's only the discrim patterns that are any different, the other settings I use for parks in my earlier post would'nt really change for hunting goldies. These custom discrimination patterns I use are only when there is so much junk that you cant pick out the good targets due to so many signals and if you suspect a good target is among the trash. Using such a tight discrim pattern for general detecting would be robbing you of any potentially better finds like gold or silver jewellery.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=255155#p255155

The settings I gave earlier are perfect for parks, just look for the target ID numbers I quoted for goldies and if there is not too much junk you'll be able to identify the goldies nearly every time, some aluminium screw caps give the same numbers but that's just part of detecting getting junk as well, though with practice you'll be able to cherry pick out mostly goldies going by the numbers and still detect other desirable targets too.

Beach detecting is pretty easy, luck apart from most other things plays a big part, learning to read a beach is more important when detecting right on the shore or in the water and tidal zone.
 
Your 5 cent 1207 , 10 cent at 1215 , 20cent at 1222/3 your 1 cent will jump into piece or copper coins will get near or past the silver range , gold ring at 1228 depending on purity , pull tabs for me area round 1218 and your good quality bottle tops will sneak in . Your stainless steel rings - don't know - guys any idea on that?
 

Similar threads

firefly
  • Locked
CTX 3030 And Accessories
Replies
0
Views
433
firefly
firefly
N
  • Locked
Minelab GPX6000, Excellent Condition, $7300
Replies
1
Views
409
grubstake
grubstake
Northeast
  • Locked
GPX 6000 for sale
Replies
3
Views
1K
Northeast
Northeast
P
  • Locked
Minelab SD2200d $1050
Replies
2
Views
643
PeterInSa
P
Hippyty79
Minelab GPZ 7000 coil issue
Replies
0
Views
1K
Hippyty79
Hippyty79

Latest posts

Top