Manual vs. Auto Ground balance, what do u think??

[Larsmed]

Hello

I have been weighing the advantages of Manual vs. Auto. I have heard machines w/Manual you can find things that auto may miss...

Is this true to your experience??

Do you reccommend one over the other??

Your wisdom always appreciated!!

Larry

 

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[ivan salis]

if you know what your doing and don't mind manually adusting your machine -- I say manual is better * because manual can be fine tuned --in some areas with high mineral content (beaches) or other problem areas(near power lines ect) this may mean the differance between hunting and not hunting ---due to the fact "preset" factory type ground balances may not work and not being adjustible the machine well chatter or be "unstable" beeping like crazy all the time -- in those cases -- lowering the sensivity and uping the disc -- will often help smooth out the machines making them usible --- for exsample the ace 250 ---has a preset so if there is problems --I drop the sen and up the dis till it smooths out ----- on my BH QD II since the power and sen are one in the same just "crack" it on barely and used the disc slowing uping it till it smooths out --- you will lose some depth but the machine will be usible. --- Ivan

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I believe you can eek out a bit better depth with manual ground balance, if you stay dialed exactly in to your ground (and/or go a slight bit positive too). But I guess manufacturers sell more machines when they make them "simple", so auto ground balance seems to be on everything nowadays. Maybe too because the average newbie couldn't get the hang of having to re-balance everytime he drifted, so it just became easier to sell auto.

And even when you can opt, like on the XLT, to choose to manually balance, the push pads are a pain in the $^@& to keep scrolling around, verses the old knob system. Some areas where minerals/salts change quickly (like the wet salt beach) would be difficult to use manual balance when in motion disc. Since the motion disc. is automatically re-tuning (different than re-balancing), it is hard to know that you've drifted, if you are not very familiar with the subtle tones (lift and lower the head to see, etc...). In those cases, a manual ground balance would not be favorable, when in motion disc.

 

[Sandman]

I like the manual ground balance like Tom and Ivan and believe you can get more depth. Some of the detectors advertised as Auto are really preset. The Fisher 1280 used to be advertised as having automatic ground balance when in fact it was set.

 

[CWnut]

Don't confuse "preset" with "automatic" ground balance. Most the turn on & go machines come with preset gb and automatic is on some higher end machines (Minelabs come to mind) with manual falling somewhere in between.

 

[EasyMoney]

CW makes a good point.

Minelabs have automatic ground balance and it is one of the very finest, maybe even the best, but it also causes small targets to get overlooked sometimes, due to it's particular slow operative characteristics and behavior.

Tesoros though seems to do better than most others with their ultra-fast auto-return-to-threshold on the cheaper models coupled with their preset (that's not what it really is, it's actually a parameter of a certain time lapse using a capacitive discharge circuit, showing up as a charge/discharge system exibiting height and strength of the sine wave pattern controlling the highs and lows of it's positive and negative voltage to coil).

This is primarily true with the Compadre, Silver uMax, and a couple of others rather than with their high-priced detectors having manual ground balance. Tesoro keeps a very tight reign on things, meaning that with an Explorer for example, the auto GB allows up to a 3 inch positive and a 3 inch negative level , while Tesoro keeps a mere 1/2" level and very quickly too, much tighter, and that gives the Tesoro a better shot at tiny targets. Just imagine yourself tuning your detector to 3" under-ground, to 3" over-ground level and at a slow rate. Then shorten the time lapse and the high and low doing the same thing. That's right, the short, quick one recovers faster and gets a better chance at hard to find small targets. It also is why a Sov or Expl sometimes misses a dime for example, after passing over a pulltab, so you have to hunt real slow. This does not happen with Tesoros or Fishers or Whites, especially Tesoros. Manual ground balance is an essential for nugget hunting though, because of the ability to control the GB even more, however, this needs to be tended to like a new born baby too, otherwise you could REALLY be on the highs and lows of GB and MISS those tiny flakes. Many people complain about the Fisher GB II because it has to be retuned so often, but it does get the real tiny ones, for sure. Garretts are a whole different story though, but the high end ones do a lot better with tiny targets than their low priced ones do.

In other words, Tesoros do BETTER WITHOUT manual ground balance in bad soil on coins than WITH manual ground balance, and for many reasons too, including max output voltage, etc. They do better hunting nuggets though with a manual ground balance, just like any other detector. Lucky for me though, I use a Compass and it has BOTH manual AND auto retune to GB, and it's a quick one too.

With these modern detectors there actually is no really good set of rules to go by because all it takes to make a 3 Khz detector behave like a 30 Khz one is by adding or changing a bit of circuitry, and nothing more. Minelabs have a real good con going on right now, and it's about their different frequencies for different coils. Read Tesoros comments on how much frequencies affect detector capabilities, and you will learn (under general information) that 3-30 KHz will all do the same thing if the engineering is right, regardless of what frequency they use. BTW, Minelabs DO NOT USE ALL THOSE FREQUENCIES AT THE SAME TIME. They simply use whatever freq the detector decides might be optimum at a given nanosecond, nothing more. And they can and do make mistakes too, but their auto ground balance is the best on the market today, albeit a bit flawed..

 

[Larsmed]

EasyMoney

Your Mding wisom is always appreciated! You have really helped me in this hobby!

Thanks to everyone else as well.

Happy Holidays !!

larry

 

[EasyMoney]

Hey Larry! It's what we live for..

Thanks, and HH

Larry

 

[Larsmed]

Now, I will be looking for the most affordable Whites or Tesoros that have manual GB. I know it will make my hunt easier.

 

[Monty]

Some detectors have an automatic mode as well as a manual mode for fine tuning if needed, such as the Garrett GTI series. Monty

 

[EasyMoney]

Yes Monty, but how many happy detectorists have you seen operating a Garrett 1250, 1350, 1500, or 2500 on a salt beach? Or how about in high iron?

Even the factory (Garrett's own invention) add-on aftermarket chips don't quite help enough with that problem. The hew ones have it too, but still have the same problems in a somewhat diminished form.

 

[nuggetshooter323]

I used to own a Tesoro Vaquero, and I currently own a Tejon. I think that the Vaquero is the best all around manual GB, MD for the money. For $420 it's a great machine. It's light, it will go very deep, and it will even do well on gold nuggets. With a DD coil it hunts in absolute silence. The only reason I got rid of it, is that I wanted the Tejon with the second disc. I'm thinking about getting another at some point, I've really missed it.