Minelab Explorer SE - Too Sophisticated?

[Belayoff]

I purchased a Mine Lab Explorer SE a year and a half ago and am having loads of difficulty determining what all the chatter is telling me. There is so much sound feedback that it's just over the top and confusing. The technology seemed to be exactly what I was looking for when hunting old sites that have deep coins. But in practice, the amount of chatter and sound feedback is extremely difficult to figure out. I figured there would be a learning curve but I am now hearing that it could take literally hundreds of field hours to figure out what this machine is telling me. I am not retired and therefore do not have that kind of practice time available.

Does anyone know if Mine Lab dealt with this problem in any of it's latest detectors or am I just out of luck? Other suggestions?

Thanks..Belay Off

 

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[spartacus53]

Welcome to T-net and I'm sorry I can't help you with that detector. I would suggest copying this post in the Metal detector Forum in the Minelab section. You may even find your answers just browsing through the various posts. Good luck!!!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I too saw that Explorer guys were kicking my b*tt on depth. Perfectly "calling" silver coins at deeeep depths in the turf, with no problem. I'd go over the flagged signal with my Whites Eagle, and had to admit, that no matter how I set it up, no matter how perfectly ground balanced I had it, no matter how liberal I was on what I was willing to chase, that their Explorer signals just had more "umpth" So I broke down and went out and bought one.

Immediately my reaction was the same as yours: "This sounds like a flock of sick geese!" These mentors would try and try to coach me on-line, or over the phone, on how to set it, what to listen for, etc... To no avail. Everything sounded the same. But here's how the light finally went on: One of them took me out to a pounded park, where silver STARTS at 7" deep, and flagged a few signals. It wasn't till he flagged a few such signals, and I watched the way he swung, listened in (with a headphone splitter) to what he was hearing, watched the way he isolated certain sounds, the way he swung, criss-crossed, wiggled the coil, etc... THEN the "lights went on" and I was hooked.

You see? There is no way to describe a "sound" in print. It simply can't be done. It has to be shown/heard. So try to hook up with a skilled explorer user (not just a sandbox hunter, but someone who routinely comes in with the oldies), and see if they'll flag signals for you to compare. Not just good ones, but also some bad signals that he'd say "I'd pass", so he can tell you what a bad sound is too. Once you've seen a few such signals side by side, and heard some deeper whispers, then you'll know what you're listening for.

One thing you can do, to help, in the short-run, is this: Black out (edit out) everything on your screen except the upper right 1/4 or 1/5 of your screen (basically zincs and up). Hunt like that for many days, in spots that are prolific with clad and easy targets. By doing that, you are eliminating 7/8 of your "orchestra", making it easier to temporarily learn the sounds (albeit only of the higher conductors) at first. Watch the depth bar, and try to learn the bar depth verses the sounds of the easy clad. Then slowly, after a few days, open up your screen to allow more sounds/TIDs in. Like lower it down to accept square tabs and up. Then a few days later, lower it to accept round tabs and up. Then later, lower it more to accept nickels and up. And so forth, and so on. Eventually you'll have your whole screen opened up on the TID, while your mind has been slowly tuned to learn all the tones, from highs to low, in a less confusing manner.

One final note: In ferrous mode, you can have your screen totally open (including the left hand side iron section). But in conductive mode, you'll need to keep your left hand 1/3 of the screen (iron zone) blacked out. You can do that by using the factory pre-set "smart screen", or just manually edit out ("iron mask"), the left 1/3 or so of the screen.

 

[Eu_citzen]

Here are some hands on simple tips from me:

Slow down (the classic!)

Get a smaller coil, helps to seperate the targets and sounds better.
Use semi-auto for starters

Have patience... I know this one is hard as it sounds like a ochestra.

Use factory preset programs, dig all the sounds and associate a sound with a location on the smart screen. This can help a lot!

Watch the depth bar on iffy ("jumpy") signals, if they are deep look how they are jumping.
Dig them, some deep coins have certain "patterns" as they jump around.

That's what I can think of at the moment.

//Eu

PS. you might find some videos here helpfull:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Eucitzen

I'm using a DFX to, so look for the "Explorer II" tag or watch them all.. Good entertainment when your bored to.

 

[Cuerno]

I agree with all that Tom in Cal has written, Black out (edit out) everything on your screen except (divide your screen into four equal parts, you want only the top right open the rest blacked out). Depending on the site you go to after you make this edit it will dull more or less from site to site, you will have to slow down to a turtle crawl, paint brush strokes, at trashy sites or open it up more. And as Tom said after a while you will be able to start to open it up more and more, but keep the slow swings. I hope you are not using the slimline coil, the Minelab Pro coil that came with the later made SE is the coil to have. If editing the screen is too much trouble, just go to Iron Mask and black out half or more of the screen. Have your back button set up to go to the Sound menu and before you dig you can test the signal in both FERROUS and CONDUT and a good target should sound almost the same in both with short swings (no more than 3 inches) over the target. In my soil my setting’s worked best with Variability, Limit, and Th Tone max out, I didn’t max the Gain because I have a X-1 probe, max makes the probe too sensitive. Do a noise cancel often during the hunt. Happy Trails 2 U…

 

[waseeker]

I too was having problems like you describe. Here are a couple of things that helped me get more comfortable with the SE. PS - All of the other tips here are also excellent.

A couple of the local gurus took me along and showed me that I had the sensitivity setting way to high for the area. In effect all I was getting was feedback from the ground because of the high setting. These guys hunt using manual sensitivity at 18. They very very rarely ever go above that setting. These 2 are the ones that every month at the club meeting have lots of silver to show off that they have found, usually from "hunted out" parks.

I hunted that way for a while and was still a bit frustrated with the sounds so I switched to the semi-auto sensitivity mode which let the machine run a lot quieter. with that I was able to identify tones and hear differences in tones.

I also started using the digital mode rather than smart find. For me seeing the fe/co number registers better with my brain than a point on a grid. I was able to use that information along with the sound to determine which signals to dig.

Once I got comfortable with the sounds I went back to manual sensitivity. In August I found 6 silver coins in a park I have hunted for the past 4 years. Prior to August my silver coin count in this park was 0.

Good luck

 

[scrubber]

This thread is an excellent example of the value of the TNet message board -- people willing to share the "secrets" they put a lot of hard work into learning. Kudos to Tom for a well thought out in-depth answer to a frustrated MDer, and to the others who contributed.

scrubber

 

[cobra_jet]

Hi,

I fumbled with my explorer II for two years...even having the experts set it up proved a disaster for me. What I ended up doing was putting on the smaller 8" head and returning the machine back to the factory pre-set, then just barely running the iron mask up. I really enjoy the machine now, it is easy for me to tell a screw top from a pull tab and a button from a bullet by the sound. Usually now i can home with some decent finds almost every day.

Good luck,

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Here are some hands on simple tips from me:

Slow down (the classic!)

Get a smaller coil, helps to seperate the targets and sounds better.
Use semi-auto for starters

Have patience... I know this one is hard as it sounds like a ochestra.

Use factory preset programs, dig all the sounds and associate a sound with a location on the smart screen. This can help a lot!

Watch the depth bar on iffy ("jumpy") signals, if they are deep look how they are jumping.
Dig them, some deep coins have certain "patterns" as they jump around.

That's what I can think of at the moment.

//Eu

PS. you might find some videos here helpfull:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Eucitzen

I'm using a DFX to, so look for the "Explorer II" tag or watch them all.. Good entertainment when your bored to.

FOLLOW WHAT HE SAIS