Garrett Ace 150

[VonnPastTense]

Hey all

I've gotten my Ace 150 about a month ago and have been out as much as I can. I understand that it's an entry level machine and that I shouldnt expect miracles but I need to know something:

1. How much can mineralised ground affect this machine
2. It there any way to counter/ground balance this model

I've gone to two new places today and could not find a single thing do to the machine beeping like crazy. Mostly iron signals. I couldnt pinpont any targets, where I could get a repeatable signal, I could not find it and the signal did not "develop".

By Develop, I mean that the signal grow and become more defined and clear the closer you get to the target. I dug huge holes with the signal staying constantly jumping. I decided that the only way to figure out why the signals are so irradic is by finding the target that causes it but I couldnt find anything. This led me to believe that the soil is highly mineralised.

In my area, there is only a few places I can hunt with reasonable signals. This is incredibly frustrating as I drove a long way and spend a lot of money just to be let down by this machine. I hope this issue is a shortcoming on my side. This machine cost me an arm and a leg and is pretty useless in my region.

Any feedback or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Vonn

 

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[G.A.P.metal]

Turn the sen.down till you understand the detector better...now way to GB..so highly mineralised soil will affect it .
Gary

 

[SoCalBeachScanner]

Hi Vonn,

I'm not familiar with your Ace 150, but if you can't ground balance or discriminate out the noisy ground, you may have purchased the wrong machine for your area. Or! The two areas you were at have a lot of electrical interference. I live in a townhouse and there is no where in my complex that I can use my AT Pro due to underground electrical wires. Even parts of some beaches with high tension wires close by, the machine acts erratic. I can even pickup electrical wires going underground from one lifeguard station to another.
I hope that helps ... Bill

 

[gerryk]

Forget what you did already so you don't get frustrated. Take some coins and find a place you can put them in grass and spread them out. Take the detector and locate them. When you hit a signal remember what it sounds like, if that machine has a display see what it shows. If you hit a target and arent sure, do an x pattern on it. If it changes tone or reading its most likely junk, but it could also be more than one target. Its a fun hobby but you need to learn your machine. If you ask some old timers they have some real nice finds with less machine than you have. The biggest thing is you, so find a spot to spread so,e coins and junk and learn the machine.
Also be careful of anyone around you is using a detector. S,e detectors even higher end ones will cause other and similar machines to chatter or error.
Gerry

 

[Sandman]

Hi Vonn, As Bill stated, EMI varies depending on your location. Electiical Interference
Try turning off your cell phone. Ground Balance does help and there is not much you can do except lower sens as Gary suggested. He knows what he's talking about. The F2 is a good detector, don't give up on it.

Dennis/Sandman

 

[VonnPastTense]

Thanks for the advice guys.

I wasnt too clear on the circumstances of the areas I tried hunting. Allow me to describe it a bit:

The first spot had redish coloured soil, dry but still clumpy when digging. It's not clay. There were no electrical overhead wire and its in a farm area. There was a cellphone tower about half a mile from where I hunted. The second spot was very close to my usual hunting ground. I've made a couple of vids of the area that I've found to be rewarding.

I have tried the following (as you guys suggested):
- getting a visible target and listening to the sound. I used a piece of fence wire I saw on the ground
- x method created even more random signals/beeps
- dailled the sensitivity down but it remained erradic

The signals were all over the place. I could not find one or get the signals to repeat to enable me to pinpoint it. Frustrating but I agree, its a really fun hobby. I really enjoyed it. The machine has helped me find loads of Anglo Boer War (1899 - 1902) bullets so it is working propely...in some locations. I will link a video I've made of the erradic sound and link it here. It's still uploading, so might only link it later.

Once again, thanks so much for your feedback.

Vonn

Edit:

Some vids of my finds, displaying that the machine works quite well: