sdc2300 settings

[hAyyoUinAU]

I will answer my own question. lol

Prob not.

"mainly effect users of radio signals that reflect off of or pass through the ionosphere"

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

Found this in the SDC2300 manual. I forgot it said this. Which is basically what we all said. Run as high as you can whilst keeping that threshold stable.

Anyone who says they run flat out all the time no matter what, is missing gold. Simple.

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

Some people with hearing problems might find changing the pitch (tone) might be better suited to their ears.

 

[Moneybox]

We have two SDC's. Mrs M runs the high tone usually set to 4 with the threshold set to three. If I pick up the SDC, and that's not too often, I have the tone set low, sensitivity as high as possible, usually 5 and threshold usually on 3 but I will sometimes drop the threshold to 1 because the constant noise annoys me. I'll drop the sensitivity if I get false signals and constant ground noise but usually only down to 3 and then back up as soon as I can.

The main problem with this machine is that it automatically reduces or enhances it's sensitivity to suit the soil conditions so you never know how deep it's likely to be detecting a target on any day. Usually about 90mm pulls it up but on benign soil it can reach quite deep. On heavily mineralised soil it might not see a 0.5g nugget at 10mm but you don't know until you get to see the nugget but the SDC can't.

I don't believe that green button is anything more than decoration. I call it the feel-good-button. You feel better to think that you've actually performed a ground ballance. I doubt there are any wires connected to the other side

A nice set of headphones will definitely improve your chances of success in most conditions.

 

[Dron]

I call it the feel-good-button.

That's hilarious!

I never use my green button too.

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

The green button is not for decoration. A lot of people, they just pickup the machine and use it their way, not the way it was intended to be used.
I think everyone should be familiar with their equipment, and owners manuals. They should know what every button/setting does, and why.

Green button works. Anyone who says otherwise is just FAKE NEWS!!! lol

Maybe they don't use it properly, no point using it if it is balanced already, it won't do anything. It is for moments where targets get tracked out or the machine gets too noisy because the AT didn't do its thing properly.

 

[isolation]

Just goes to show that everyone has their own preference

I also like to keep it as stable as possible and mostly run in 3 Sens, but have been to 4 on occasion. I often run the threshold a little high 5-6, but it doesn't seem to mask any faint signals. I find it gives me a more constant hum and makes the faint ones more obvious.

I'm not saying it doesn't work, but I don't find much of a change in performance from the green button

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

SDC was also designed to be run with headphones. When people run boosters etc, they can never have the threshold as low as when you run headphones.
It is just science, headphones help remove ambient noise, which allows you to hear better. And to run a lower threshold, which will be easier to hear minor changes.

So another recommendation I make is to always use the SDC with Headphones and no booster. I know it sux being connected, but it pays off.
I found using a cover on the SDC allowed me to route the headphone cable through so as to not pull on the crimped connection and damage anything.

 

[isolation]

SDC was also designed to be run with headphones. When people run boosters etc, they can never have the threshold as low as when you run headphones.
It is just science, headphones help remove ambient noise, which allows you to hear better. And to run a lower threshold, which will be easier to hear minor changes.

So another recommendation I make is to always use the SDC with Headphones and no booster. I know it sux being connected, but it pays off.
I found using a cover on the SDC allowed me to route the headphone cable through so as to not pull on the crimped connection and damage anything.

Agree... and I find for me, the bud type of headphones more effective. Seems to get the sound right in my head lol

 

[Nuggz]

The main problem with this machine is that it automatically reduces or enhances it's sensitivity to suit the soil conditions so you never know how deep it's likely to be detecting a target on any day. Usually about 90mm pulls it up but on benign soil it can reach quite deep. On heavily mineralised soil it might not see a 0.5g nugget at 10mm but you don't know until you get to see the nugget but the SDC can't.

I don't believe that green button is anything more than decoration. I call it the feel-good-button. You feel better to think that you've actually performed a ground ballance. I doubt there are any wires connected to the other side

A nice set of headphones will definitely improve your chances of success in most conditions.

Wow, this is a long way away from my experience with this machine working in moderate to extremely difficult conditions in WA

Firstly an SDC does not automatically reduce or enhance sensitivity. It Does have auto tracking which assists the electronics to filter out ground noise (an audio adjustment, not a sensitivity reduction)but it also defers strongly to sending an audio signal to your headphones if there is a target signal.

Second in highly mineralized and hot conditions i have detected clear signals with my deepest to date measuring 260mm on a 0.6g nugget. I have personally collected a 0.01 piece with this machine

The startup procedure i detailed above goes a long way to stabilizing this machine, including the green button which clearly reduces ground noise as i pump the coil

If folks dont want to use the equipment properly thats okay, i dont mind you walking over gold and leaving it for me ]

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

Well said Nuggz, obviously a man who knows his machine.

One thing we should also mention. The SDC is for SHALLOW ground, and for remote or hard to reach places. It is not for deep ground. Yes it punches deep when used correctly and has amazed me in the past. But it will not replace a 4500 on deep ground or even compete with it.

Great machine, but like most, it has its limits.

 

[isolation]

If folks dont want to use the equipment properly thats okay, i dont mind you walking over gold and leaving it for me ]

I think most of us have or do follow the start up procedure, but settle for what seems to work for them. My best so far that I have weighed, without using the green ground balance button is 0.04.

The manual doesn't say to pump the coil for 30secs, and I've never heard of that being done with any of of the Minelab detectors either. The manual describes it as a momentary fast ground balance so I wouldn't think to hold it for that long. Perhaps the AGT takes into consideration my laziness lol
Ill have to give it a try... thanks for the tip :Y:

 

[Moneybox]

The main problem with this machine is that it automatically reduces or enhances it's sensitivity to suit the soil conditions so you never know how deep it's likely to be detecting a target on any day. Usually about 90mm pulls it up but on benign soil it can reach quite deep. On heavily mineralised soil it might not see a 0.5g nugget at 10mm but you don't know until you get to see the nugget but the SDC can't.

I don't believe that green button is anything more than decoration. I call it the feel-good-button. You feel better to think that you've actually performed a ground ballance. I doubt there are any wires connected to the other side

A nice set of headphones will definitely improve your chances of success in most conditions.

Wow, this is a long way away from my experience with this machine working in moderate to extremely difficult conditions in WA

Firstly an SDC does not automatically reduce or enhance sensitivity. It Does have auto tracking which assists the electronics to filter out ground noise (an audio adjustment, not a sensitivity reduction)but it also defers strongly to sending an audio signal to your headphones if there is a target signal.

Second in highly mineralized and hot conditions i have detected clear signals with my deepest to date measuring 260mm on a 0.6g nugget. I have personally collected a 0.01 piece with this machine

The startup procedure i detailed above goes a long way to stabilizing this machine, including the green button which clearly reduces ground noise as i pump the coil

If folks dont want to use the equipment properly thats okay, i dont mind you walking over gold and leaving it for me ]

Nuggz, Thanks for your notes, I'm going to try it but that's quite a complicated procedure for a machine that I'll only pull out when I really have to :/ . There's usually not much left after the 4500 has done it's bit and certainly if the targets are a bit below the surface.

Reduced sensitivity - I don't think there's any other explanation for the reason that the SDC will often fail to pick up a target once it's dug from the hole. You'll often drag the nugget out with a small pile of dirt to simply lose it until you drag the coil through the dirt until contact is made with the nugget. Even a 0.3g piece can simply be lost 20 to 30mm down in the loose dirt. Mrs M once lost a 1g nugget when it rolled off her spade into marble sized gravel. It was a very hot day and there was no way the SDC would detect it until the ground cooled in the night.

Ground balance - I think you'll find that the tracking on the SDC is so fast that whether you press the green (feel-good) button or not, a few bounces from 20-100mm near the target will give you the best balance you're going to get.

You might have gathered, I don't like this machine. In my opinion it's a shocking design from a company that is clearly capable of much better. I don't need to list the design faults, it's all been said before but there are times when only the SDC will do the job so we have one each and they have found more than a thousand tiny pieces of gold.

Do we leave gold behind? Sure we do, we've proven it by reworking old ground where we've been before but we too have found plenty of pieces where a couple are needed to get a reading on the scales. We've also run the SDC over ground where a lot of small gold has been extracted with the 4500 and found that the few tiny pieces left made it a bit of a waste of time. Other times the SDC finds gold that the 4500 can't see either because of it's size or formation.

Detector settings can be a personal thing. Some of us hear different tones, some like it very quiet, some have a machine that never shuts up. Personally I like it quiet, that's one thing I loved about the Garrett ATX but even the 4500 can be run nice and quiet if used with the original Commander coil. One of the reasons I dislike the SDC is because it NEVER shuts up :lol:

I must admit, I've not spent more than a few minutes reading the manual....

 

[hAyyoUinAU]

The SDC is very susceptible to EMI, it can be a totally different machine from day one to the next.

It is not meant to be a main GOLD machine, but rather useful for its portability, and being water proof. It is a 100% shallow ground machine.

So if you go looking for gold, and that is the only machine you use, you will definitely be missing gold.

Also, if you don't like something, then it won't work.

Good luck.

 

[Rockhunter62]

The SDC is very susceptible to EMI, it can be a totally different machine from day one to the next.

It is not meant to be a main GOLD machine, but rather useful for its portability, and being water proof. It is a 100% shallow ground machine.

So if you go looking for gold, and that is the only machine you use, you will definitely be missing gold.

Also, if you don't like something, then it won't work.

Good luck.

I agree, but the same goes for all machines. Each detector has it's own strengths and weaknesses. Most off the areas we have detected, the gold is shallow and the SDC will pick it up whatever size it is.

Do your research and find the detector that will suit the area that you want to search.

As regards to the emi, just learn the different tones between targets and interference.

Cheers

Doug

 

[Muk]

Sdc is a brilliant machine finds gold more times than not if you want versatility bye a different detector you no what your getting when you get a sdc I dont know why people keep comparing them to gpx s the perfect set up would be to have both if you could afford it I know I would but at the moment the sdc is fantastic cheers Muk.

 

[Heatho]

The SDC is very susceptible to EMI, it can be a totally different machine from day one to the next.

It is not meant to be a main GOLD machine, but rather useful for its portability, and being water proof. It is a 100% shallow ground machine.

So if you go looking for gold, and that is the only machine you use, you will definitely be missing gold.

Also, if you don't like something, then it won't work.

Good luck.

I've had some days with the SDC where EMI has been difficult to deal with but you just need to do multiple noise cancels until it finds the right channel, it might still get the wobbles a bit but it is workable.

 

[isolation]

I heard that if you wear a sombrero lined with aluminium foil it can help block EMI, and reduce alien mind probes.
I think that's up the back of the manual, but don't quote me on that.

 

[Bacchus]

Same as most things in life the more time spent the better you get at it . The SDC has a unique language and after a few hundred hours you get to understand it . Train your ears to listen through the warble for the faintest threshold pull on the highest setting you can handle and you may be amazed at the depth this machine can reach. Running it flat out allows the maximum information through , the rest is up to your ears to decipher what is what .

Booster , noise cancel often , very very very slow

Imho

Cheers

 

[227dick]

but there is many types of boosters which one works best with the sdc I have a treasure mate v3 and I find it a bit scratchy evan dull sort of sound not crisp both with head phones and threw the speaker?