Very frustrated with AT Pro. Need help

[ross190]

Hi all,

New member here. Long story short, I got my son an inexpensive metal detector at Cabellas, and we found 2 large cents, 2 Indian heads, many silver spoons and tons of clad right in our own yard in a couple of hours. (1800s New England).

We decided we were having so much fun, we picked up an AT Pro so we both could hunt.

The AT pro seems to show endless false signals in the 82-99 VDI range, almost all at an 8" depth. Very strong, repeatable signals. When I dig, there is nothing there. The AT pro continues to read the signal over the empty hole. I have dug up to 2 feet deep.

I have tightened the cam locks, re wrapped the cord, securing it every 4" with tape, ground balanced till the cows come home, all with the same results. I have connected and reconnected the plug, making sure it is seated, tried scrubbing the ground as well as keeping coil up an inch or so. Same result.

If the machine is to be believed, I have thousands of high conductivity targets virtually very where in my woods. (I wish)

I have been using standard mode, disc to 35-40, and get high tones everywhere. I have tried pro mode, coin mode, lowering the sensitivity, etc.

I am hoping that I am doing something wrong, but I cannot figure out what it may be.

Any help would be much, much appreciated.

 

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[Potts]

May I ask how you bought you AT-Pro? ....I bought mine through Metal Detector For Sale Specialized in Minelab, Garrett, XP, Fisher, Teknetics. | BigBoysHobbies and never had any problems.

 

[airscapes]

Your not wearing ear buds and letting the wire dangle down near the detector cable are you? No steel toes or shank boots? Don't have that unit but did find out about the ear bud wire first hand!

 

[Potts]

Your not wearing ear buds and letting the wire dangle down near the detector cable are you? No steel toes or shank boots? Don't have that unit but did find out about the ear bud wire first hand!

Did I miss something or was it just my imagination.

 

[Metal Detecting Stuff]

You might have a defective unit. I'd try these settings and see if it quiets down. Turn unit on and hold power button until you hear two beeps. Set Pro mode zero iron disc 40 sensitivity three bars . Try to find a spot with no signals, then ground balance. Once the unit ground balances , see if it's quieted down. If it's still noisy, drop ground balance number manually by 5.

Initially, only dig signals that are consistent - 1-2 digits difference. Don't dig the signals that jump a lot (something like 60-85). Use the pinpoint feature and use that for the depth of the target. When you get a solid, repeatable signal, turn 90 degrees and see if the numbers are consistent.

I hope this helps. What you may be hearing are multiple targets under the coil. Once you get some confidence in your targets, you can turn up the sensitivity and dig the bouncing signals.

Wayne

www.metaldetectingstuff.com

 

[Rawhide]

Sounds like its working to me. You are finding it all. lol

 

[Potts]

I'm more interested on who you bought you unit from...Your more than welcomed to PM me the information rather than post it.

 

[cooper1841]

Your normal helpful self, on every ATP thread, Sandman....................oh wait its the other one!!

Sounds like its working to me. You are finding it all. lol

 

[ross190]

Thanks guys.

No earbuds or steel toed boots. I will try your setting Wayne and report back.

The detector was a company retirement gift to a friend who chose it out of a catalog of items and found he had no interest after one use. I bought it from him in as new condition.

I would think if the issue was multiple targets, the other detector would pick them up also. I figured that maybe the AT pro was deeper as all potentials are at 8" depth.

 

[Metal Detecting Stuff]

Thanks guys. No earbuds or steel toed boots. I will try your setting Wayne and report back. The detector was a company retirement gift to a friend who chose it out of a catalog of items and found he had no interest after one use. I bought it from him in as new condition. I would think if the issue was multiple targets, the other detector would pick them up also. I figured that maybe the AT pro was deeper as all potentials are at 8" depth.

Ross,

Regarding multiple targets, it depends on the coil on your Bounty Hunter. A round concentric coil has a cone shaped pattern - wide coverage shallow, smaller area of coverage at depth. The AT Pro has a DD coil, with full depth coverage from front to back. If the settings don't improve the situation, a call to Garrett is in order.

Wayne

www.metaldetectingstuff.com

 

[christo000]

On my Atpro when using it was a,little jumpy at times & I had heard of running my coil cable straight up the shaft then start to wind it around the shaft, leave just a little amount for coil play so when its on the ground cable isnt tight, anyways since I have done that my signals were stronger & I got a little less falsing. I also do this on my v3i Seems to help me atleast. Maynot help you or it may doesnt cost anything to try it out good luck

 

[sask hunter]

I as well used to et a few false signals with my pro, would get a nice strong signal at 7" deep , would dig my plug and check with pro pointer and found nothing , rescan hole with my atp and nothing , checked the dirt and sand with both pointer and atp and nothing . So cover the hole up and rescan with my atp and bingo nice strong signal again . Did same procedure with same results

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[ross190]

On my Atpro when using it was a,little jumpy at times & I had heard of running my coil cable straight up the shaft then start to wind it around the shaft, leave just a little amount for coil play so when its on the ground cable isnt tight, anyways since I have done that my signals were stronger & I got a little less falsing. I also do this on my v3i Seems to help me atleast. Maynot help you or it may doesnt cost anything to try it out good luck

That's exactly what is happening to me. Very strong, repeatable signals, nothing in hole. It is happening constantly to me though.

 

[christo000]

I got alot less of that by just running my cable up halfway then wrap it try it mayb it'll help u to

 

[ross190]

I got alot less of that by just running my cable up halfway then wrap it try it mayb it'll help u to

I went up straight about 8-10 inches then wound the cord, maybe I will try a bit higher.

 

[christo000]

On mine i did about 2" below the camlock hope it helps somewhat. Make sure all connections are tight,no dirt or sand in coil cover,could try a factory reset

 

[Kodiak43351]

I've had that issue before next to transmission power lines (345kv) in a field I was hunting. I change freq and lowered sens helped a little but not enough. I came back on a diff day to same area and no problems at all. I was there the other day and found a buff nickel and old bad shape store token only thing I can read on token is 5 c in trade. Besides voltage on the power lines there are communication signals going back and forth from substations and I believe they can make detector go nuts. My wifi at my house also give my pro fits till I change freq. good luck the pro is a very good coin and relic machine.

 

[smokeythecat]

I had the same problems with my AT. It had a bad coil. But due that nonsense it did I ditched and bought a Tesoro Cibolo. MUCH easier to use and works really well with little false signaling.

 

[David in Germany]

Took my ATP over to a friends house tonight and couldn't get 10" without a hit. Every where I swung the coil it was going crazy.. I wa a bit disturbed by it. We only dug 2 spots and both had items though (an old ox nose ring and some little piece of something unknown) and when I set down my ATP to dig them it was still sounding off. When we went back inside his wife explained that it was a farm in years past and the old owners buried all of their trash everywhere.. I think I would need a sniper coil to do any decent searching there. I really want to hunt the area as this is about a half mile from where they found this, Golden Hat of Schifferstadt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[sask hunter]

I was at an old farm yard as well this summer , was a dirt basement and they also made bricks at this site and even with my 5x8 coil I could not hunt it at all, there was soooo much rusted tin in the ground around the whole site that after and hour I just left

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