I would like input

[buggs]

After being out of MD for a few years. The time came to get back into a great hobby. I said being out of the hobby for so long, I wanted a good intro MD after get my feet wet again. Because technology advances so fast. So I ordered the ACE 250 after reading so many good reviews. I received the ACE 250 a few days ago and have put about 10 hours trying to get use it. I have noticed that this MD will signal on almost anything no matter what setting I have set. A very sensitive MD which is good right? I have spent most of my time with the ACE 250 digging up tabs, foil, cans, etc. and have only been able to pull one coin from the ground. So I decided to do a test and pull out my original Garrett TA300 and do a sweep of the same locations. I found that the TA300 would eliminate the majority of trash. And was able to pull 7 coins within the hour.

I felt the ACE 250 had missed these coins. The signal would be there, then using the pinpointing doesnt work as well as I thought. Even reading the manual, doing research and watching videos on de-tuning. I would have to push the pinpointing button several times to get the tone consistant. The TA300 with 2 knob controls, I would sweep, when I got a signal make my sweeps shorter and shorter then boom on target. Dig and there it is. The ACE 250 was a struggle to get on target and there were times I just could not locate. I would dig and expand the area wider and deeper and still nothing. Then I would use the TA300 to recover the object in the same area. Does this sound like the ACE 250 might be defective? Or is the TA300 a better MD? Or maybe,I'm not use to the ACE 250?

Thanks everyone for any input
buggs

 

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[neuseman]

I have the ace 250 and have found about 250 or so coins all clad. Dont give up on your machine. It takes alittle getting use to. Try notching out everything below quarter. I did this yesterday in an area so full of trash you wouldnt believe it and found 26 quarters. You can get the sniper coil too.

 

[Sandman]

Your older detector has a zero motion pinpoint and all metal. Most of these "modern" detectors aren't worth the hype the public gives them. Your ACE will take some time to get used to and the addition of that Sniper coil will greatly help with nailing down the coin to a smaller area. Just depends on how much fun ya wanna have.

 

[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

As was said, give it some time it will click one day. Try the sniper coil also.

 

[buggs]

I really appreciate all the feed back. I'll be out today and will continue to practice. I'm glad it doesnt sound to be defective. Thanks
buggs

 

[Michellets]

That Ace 250 is a good machine. I have two of them that I have used for the past 4 years. I keep a big coil on one, and a small coil on the other. I use the bigger coil in wide open areas, and the smaller one for trashy/foundation/weedy zones. When I hunt I only use two different settings. Either Jewelery/or All metals. Sometimes, however, I will knock down the sensitivity a notch or two in high metal areas. What I have found is that I could be hunting with a friend who has a thousand dollar machine and still walk away with more. I won't dig all the signals, but I do dig quite a bit of "iffy" ones and have found both coins/or buttons/relics that are worth it. Now I have the AT pro. I have just re-checked several sites that I have hunted at with the Ace 250 that produced coins/buttons/and relics. Guess what.... nothing found (okay... I found a wheaty). That's not to say the AT Pro isn't a good machine.... I love it! I think that if you get the Ace 250 pro package you will find more , and learn more than if you buy any other machine for the same price on the market. After a while you will be able to tell the signals and know what they mean... HH M
Keep it clean/ get coil covers, and go to a playground if you want to start somewhere... HH M

 

[buggs]

So I have few more hours on the ACE 250. And I am pulling coins but only from the surface to 2in deep. Here in North Texas the ground is like concrete below 3in. in allot of the areas. Its clay so you will need a backhoe to go any farther. But I have a concern about the pinpointing button. It seems I have to push the button several times to get a tone going. Either the tone is so low I cant hear it. Or the tone is steady no matter which way I'm pointing with no fluctuation. After several times 5 to 6, I do get the tone going. I do de-tune to reduce my area, but is this normal having to push this button several times on a target to zero in? I have done everything possible to clean buttons to remove dirt or debris, reset to factory, to several different settings. If this normal I will live with it and start looking into other coils. But if it's not, I will send in for repairs. By the way, my unit is 6 days old.
Thanks everyone
buggs

 

[buggs]

I dont think I wasted my money. I'm still learning the ACE 250. If this is a normal action with the pinpoint button, then ok. But if not, I'll send in for repair. I'm still finding coins along with other items. And repairs for all makes and models will eventually happen sooner or later.

 

[wildman4910]

I don't use the pin~point button on mine, just back up the coil til it just beeps on the front edge then turn it 90° and do the same.

I found the pin point to be iffy depending on the ground I was swingin over so I PP the same way you would on a detector without a PP button.
I have gotten so used to PPing this way I almost never use the button anymore.

I have also found that some types of really dry ground it's hard to detect over, it just kills the depth.

I do like my beeper, and the Ace 250 does work well within it's designed parameter's.

For really trashy area you do need a small sniper coil as it is hard to distinguish the good targets from bad when they are packed really close together.

Hope this helps.

~~Happy Hunting~~​

 

[batcap]

So I have few more hours on the ACE 250. And I am pulling coins but only from the surface to 2in deep. Here in North Texas the ground is like concrete below 3in. in allot of the areas. Its clay so you will need a backhoe to go any farther. But I have a concern about the pinpointing button. It seems I have to push the button several times to get a tone going. Either the tone is so low I cant hear it. Or the tone is steady no matter which way I'm pointing with no fluctuation. After several times 5 to 6, I do get the tone going. I do de-tune to reduce my area, but is this normal having to push this button several times on a target to zero in? I have done everything possible to clean buttons to remove dirt or debris, reset to factory, to several different settings. If this normal I will live with it and start looking into other coils. But if it's not, I will send in for repairs. By the way, my unit is 6 days old.
Thanks everyone
buggs

I don't think that's normal behavior for the pinpoint button. Sometimes I'd have to push mine twice because I started too close to the target, but 5 or 6 times just to get the tone to fluctuate? That sounds like a problem. If you hold the coil up in the air and press pinpoint, then sweep it on the ground, you have an "All metal" detector. Make sure that there's no metal under your coil including metals that are discriminated out when you press the pinpoint button. Just look at the screen an make sure there are no target bars anywhere before you push it. Also, make sure your coil cable is not moving. the purpose of winding your coil cable around the rod is so it will become invisible to the coil. Don't wrap it so tightly that you're straining the connections. but it shouldn't move when you wave the coil back and forth. After you check all that and if it still behaves the same way, I'd send it back.

 

[slowNsteady]

I think I'm missing something here. Everyone keeps mentioning pushing the button x amount of times. Are you holding the button in like you're suppose to, or just pushing and releasing? That being asked, I have noted a small glitch in mine that sounds similar. Once in a while, usually when the batteries drop a notch or two, I'll push in the pinpoint button over a target and all I'll hear is a low hum and all the bars will light up and stay put until I let off the button. I'll turn the machine off and then back on again and it's fine. It did this on my 1st unit that was bought used and my new one that is new. Now this only happens once in a while. If it's doing it all the time, I'd think about calling Garrett and getting their advice.

 

[batcap]

I think I'm missing something here. Everyone keeps mentioning pushing the button x amount of times. Are you holding the button in like you're suppose to, or just pushing and releasing? That being asked, I have noted a small glitch in mine that sounds similar. Once in a while, usually when the batteries drop a notch or two, I'll push in the pinpoint button over a target and all I'll hear is a low hum and all the bars will light up and stay put until I let off the button. I'll turn the machine off and then back on again and it's fine. It did this on my 1st unit that was bought used and my new one that is new. Now this only happens once in a while. If it's doing it all the time, I'd think about calling Garrett and getting their advice.

That's what I mean when I say I have to push the button a 2nd time. If you try to detune it and you're right on top of the target, it just gives a faint hum. I don't have to turn it off and on, just press (and hold) the pp button a little farther from the target.

 

[neuseman]

You dont have to detune the ace250 on coins because they are small targets. One way to tell that its a coin or a similar size target is to first pinpoint the object and while continuing to hold the pinpoint button, raise the coil straight up in the air slowly. If you lose your signal very quickly then most likely it is a coin or a small target. If you still have a signal when your detector is more than 1 foot or so off the ground then most likely it is not a coin but a larger target. This technique works well where you have a lot of cans and similar things in the ground.

 

[buggs]

Yes, I push and hold than lose tone. A very low hum does happen. So then I push and hold again and lose tone again. It's on the ground near my target and I am trying to de-tune to zero in. But I am starting to work without it since I purchased a pro-pointer.

 

[batcap]

Yes, I push and hold than lose tone. A very low hum does happen. So then I push and hold again and lose tone again. It's on the ground near my target and I am trying to de-tune to zero in. But I am starting to work without it since I purchased a pro-pointer.

Hey Bugs,
The pro-pointer is great, but your Ace250 pin pointer should work. Ace 150 users get away without it, but you paid for it.

If you run the Ace in All-Metal mode and find a nice clean spot with no signals, you should be able to drop a dime on the surface and find it with your eyes closed - first with the "ding ding ding" and then by holding in the pin-pointer button.

Remember that when you press the PP button all discrimination features are off. So, if you were getting a signal of a dime on top of an oil drum lid, soon as you push the pp button you'll only hear the whole drum. A more likely scenario would be catching false signals from a portion of a huge rusty drum lid. As soon as you push the PP button everything goes quiet because you've effectively detuned the detector over the whole area of the lid. It may not squawk until you sweep beyond the border of the lid.

Also, the PP button may be hard to keep pushed in. Then it can spontaneously detune itself as soon as there is a momentary relaxation of the amount of pressure needed to keep it depressed.

Or, it could be broke. It's in your hands; beyond the descriptions of how it "should work" are actually 'feeling it work'. It's not rocket surgery. Can you find the strongest part of a radio signal using an analog FM tuner? Can you "turn into the direction of the skid" driving on a snowy road? Can you ride a bicycle? Pin-pointing isn't as hard as any of those. Watch a few YouTube videos, if your detector doesn't work like that then it's broke. I'm not trying to be a smartass, just encouraging you to "feel" it. The binary beep of the Ace 250 does all of the feeling for you most of the time. You have to wake up your senses a just a little bit to pinpoint.

Go stand on a wooden picnic table and pinpoint the screws holding it together, or at least drop a quarter in a metal-free area. It should take you 5 minutes (a whole lot less time than it took me to write this) to either figure out how it works or figure out that there's something wrong with it. I'm interested in knowing what you find.