Fear Not the Overload Indicator

flgliderpilot

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Location
Saint Augustine, FL
Detector(s) used
CZ-21, Minelab Equinox, Garrett AT Pro
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Tonight I intentionally overloaded my machine to get the overload indicator in beach 2 mode. Then I air tested maximum depth with the indicator on and the indicator off.

I FOUND NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL!

Seems to me this is simply an indicator that an overload occurred... no reduction of depth results from this indicator being displayed.

I didn't actually test this in the wet sand.. anyone else found anything different?
 

What did you do to get the indicator to light off?

What type of targets were you air testing (silver or gold or both)? I suspect the depth loss due to transmit power reduction may be more pronounced on mid-conductors because Beach 2 is already challenged on gold without overload. But I have not tested this.
 

When I get an overload in the saltwater I have noticed that I get a bit more chatter or falseing. The reason I get overloads is the way I align my scoop with the edge of the coil. After every target I look to see if I am in overload then if I am I hit the user profile button and then back to beach 2 that clears the overload pretty fast.
 

You can also make the overload indicator go away by simply lifting the coil out of the water for about 5 seconds.
 

Here's what I did:

I went to my test garden which has 1 quarter, 1 dime, 1 nickel, 1 penny, 1 pulltab, and 1 bottle cap, burried about 8" deep.

I lowered sensitivity in BEACH 2 until I could just barely get a hit with coil right against the ground, and see a valid ID. This is about sensitivity of 5.

I placed coil over a large metal object until I got the overload indicator and then immediately scanned each target.

In all cases there was NO difference, and if I continued swinging the overload indicator would go away WHILE I was swinging, and again no change at all.

This is purely an indicator... if power is reduced it is only WHILE it's being overloaded, but not after.

This is potentially great news for us water hunters.
 

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I have noticed though that the overload never clears itself in the water I have to do it manually or hold the coil out of the water till it clears itself
 

I have noticed though that the overload never clears itself in the water I have to do it manually or hold the coil out of the water till it clears itself

Yes I've noticed that also... I'll need to do this test in the water and see if there is any difference in depth.
 

Water hunted last night and confirmed overload indicator had no effect on depth in salt water.

The indicator is basically just displaying an icon instead of sounding it off like the CZ does ....
 

Can you elaborate on how you verified? Similar to your test garden approach but you buried a known target in the wet sand or based on your finds? Thanks.
 

Can you elaborate on how you verified? Similar to your test garden approach but you buried a known target in the wet sand or based on your finds? Thanks.

I was detecting yesterday in chest deep water and hit a target which was just at the edge of my range. It was a 13, but would get "broken" as I dug... I finally reached a point where it was barely giving me a 13 and I remembered the overload icon. I placed the coil against my scoop, waited for the overload icon, and then swept the target. Same, 13, barely registering. I held the coil above the water until the overload icon went away... then swept the target. Same 13, barely registering. Then I proceeded to dig it up, in which case it was a fake diamond earring.

I noticed absolutely NO difference in overload vs not overload.

IMO the indicator is simply an indicator stating that an overload DID occur. It waits for a period of low activity before it disables the icon.
 

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Thanks. Great info. Being a hot detector, not sure putting half the energy into the ground (which is what happens when the OL indicator triggers) affects depth as significantly as say cutting sensitivity by half so that may be why you are not seeing dramatic changes in detection depth.
 

By modifying my scoop placement after identifying a target in the water I reduced my overloads by at least 50% but still old habits are hard to break lol. I still use the user profile button to clear the overloads as this is the quickest way. But this only applies to the EQ800 not the EQ600.
 

By modifying my scoop placement after identifying a target in the water I reduced my overloads by at least 50% but still old habits are hard to break lol. I still use the user profile button to clear the overloads as this is the quickest way. But this only applies to the EQ800 not the EQ600.

I just ignore the icon now : )
 

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