Learing the AT Pro.......

[diehlerca]

Have had my AT Pro (International) for a couple of weeks now and am learing to like it! Have been spending most of my time in a large park area which yields a lot of modern coins. Finding quite a few Twoonies, loonies, quarters and pennies.....sigh! and more pennies also a brooch, junk ring and assorted other crapola. Very few nickels or dimes. I think that I am missing the latter because I'm not digging the 50's and 60's signals, am I correct? I have found that every time I dig those, I am rewarded with a pull tab or cap of some description. I know I probably should but...... :thinking:
Another issue I am having is hearing substantial chatter from the machine unless I lessen the sensitivity (I believe I have it backed off 3 bars). Am wondering if I should just put up with the noise or am I OK with the Sens. like that?
I appreciate the knowledge that I glean from reading the posts on the MD sites so hope some of you will offer up your thoughts and suggestions. Wilol post this on some other sites as well to try to get a good cross section of opinions.
Thanks to all who respond!

 

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[signal_line]

What number is your ground balance? Sounds like you are in hot ground or salt. Big coils make more noise and may require lower sensitivity settings. You can check, but even two bars will get you nearly five inches deep. Eventually too much chatter will cause you to miss some small targets. Be sure to ground balance accurately over clean ground. I use the All Metal mode on my AT Gold (zero discrimination). That way I know I am over clean ground.

In trashy areas the target ID number is not always accurate. My suggestion is to learn in areas with less trash. When you hear a target with trash next to it, just dig it and see what you get. This is how you learn. You will find that you get many good targets next to trash that other machines could not seperate, but the numbers might be off a little.

 

[signal_line]

The reason I asked what ground balance numbers you get is because low numbers mean you are over salt. Especially when it is wet it will give some chatter. If so, try to lift the coil an inch or even two and it should help a lot.

 

[diehlerca]

Great advice! Thanks.
GB is around 72. Yes, the chatter is not only annoying but like you say can lead to missed targets. I am in Pro Zero with iron set at 35. Does that sound reasonable?

 

[signal_line]

So how do you ground balance if you have iron discrimination set at 35? When you look for clean ground you are at least going to have to turn on the iron audio so you can hear if there is any iron under the coil.

 

[diehlerca]

Right, I'll GB before I turn the Disc on.

 

[gleaner1]

Right, I'll GB before I turn the Disc on.

Are you running in pro or std mode? The machine will gb any time, any place any setting. You do not turn the Disc on. You have your arse in a sling.

 

[diehlerca]

Pro Zero defaults to no Discrimination when turned on.....??

 

[gleaner1]

Pro Zero defaults to no Discrimination when turned on.....??

Zero pro mode is zero notch scrim, period. Everything comes thru. But Iron Scrim setting I am not sure what that comes in at in Zero mode. You got me on that, I just dont know. I think it might come in at zero. Any pro mode can be adjusted. You can go into pro coins or pro custom, notch in everything, and you will be in Zero mode, believe it or not, same thing. You understand notching scrim, right? The pro runs nice at sensible sense, zero scrim, zero iron scrim, and listen to the three tone. It can handle it nice. Try it. Dig all high pitched, and keep your eyes off the screen and your ears in the headphones.

 

[diehlerca]

Haven't tried notch discrim yet ,but will as I become more familiar....... keep my eyes off the screen?? no can do (unless pull tabs are notched out). What do you notch out?
I like the thought of doing that so appreciate any advice on what you try to eliminate.
So there are no occasions when you will dig the mid tones?

 

[gleaner1]

There are a hundred mid tones and low iron tones for every high tone, and there are dozens of high tone crappers for every decent high tone good find, like maybe a merc or wheat cent. If you want nickels, dig all mid tone. If you want gold, dig all mid tone. If you want foil and can slaw and pull tabs dig mid tone. You are off and running full bore now. Stay out of std mode. The pro likes to snipe good stuff out of crap, it just takes patience.

 

[gleaner1]

I wish to add, or clarify, or both. Any mode settings can be set exactly the same as any other mode settings. In other words, you can set up Pro Custom, Pro Coins, and Pro Zero modes exactly the same as any other mode, with notching. As a simple example, you can notch in everthing in all the modes, and hence you essentially have three pro mode zero modes on your machine, everthing is notched in, no scrim, just like zero mode default setting. The default notch settings are not cut in stone, and can be adjusted at will. When turned off, zero mode and coin modes go back to default settings. The machine memory holds Custom mode settings, you will not lose the settings when you turn off and on again. Hope that helps....

 

[diehlerca]

That's good info gleaner, Thanks. Do I presume that you use the notch feature? What do you try to notch out?

 

[gleaner1]

Notch is the ability to discriminate (scrim) in and out, on or off, small bands (notches) of conductivety. Notch is an on/off switch for its own little chunk of the notches offered in the discrimination range of the machine. You notch out stuff you dont want to hear. The machine will not beep on targets in the conductivety range of the notch that is notched OUT. Notch back in if you want to hear it. I like zero scrim, every notch notched in. I use audio tone and audio loudness to decide digging, based on my mood and type of site. I like to hear pull tabs, because deep pull tabs are often nickels or old indian head cents or some other goody. Once in a blue moon, a deeper pull tab is a gold ring. Read your owners manual, it helps alot.

 

[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

Great post here!

 

[Chips]

Notch is the ability to discriminate (scrim) in and out, on or off, small bands (notches) of conductivety. Notch is an on/off switch for its own little chunk of the notches offered in the discrimination range of the machine. You notch out stuff you dont want to hear. The machine will not beep on targets in the conductivety range of the notch that is notched OUT. Notch back in if you want to hear it. I like zero scrim, every notch notched in. I use audio tone and audio loudness to decide digging, based on my mood and type of site. I like to hear pull tabs, because deep pull tabs are often nickels or old indian head cents or some other goody. Once in a blue moon, a deeper pull tab is a gold ring. Read your owners manual, it helps alot.

I agree, its great to hear whats going on below your feet. Though it may seem a waste of a good scrim system, having everything notched in lets your ears do the discrimination, and after a while you need only refer to the screen as just a secondary point of reference.
Also sometimes iron and junk metal can "mask" out a good target too

 

[diehlerca]

I would love to notch out pulltabs (seem to be about 51-53 on my machine) but a buddy of mine found 2 small hgold rings yesterday that showed 50 on the VDI.

 

[gleaner1]

I would love to notch out pulltabs (seem to be about 51-53 on my machine) but a buddy of mine found 2 small hgold rings yesterday that showed 50 on the VDI.

After you get used to the audio feedback, you will gladly dig the mid tone 50 target that is deep. You wont know it is a fifty, because you do not look at the screen, but you know it is mid tone. You wont know its deep because you looked at the screen, you will know it is deep because the audio is faint, not so loud like all the other shallow crap. You will probably dig it, because it sounded like a deep mid tone target, and has a pretty good chance at being a button, or nickel, or some crazy brass token. It might be a deep pull tab too, but I like digging deep pull tabs, it's a crap shoot, the odds are good it is something decent. I say one in five deep mid tone is some sort of goody. It could be a gold coin or ring, but there is a better chance its just a deep pull tab. It's all in the mood and energy level. I usually go for high tones, but never pass up a good deep midtone.

 

[gleaner1]

In front of every good tectorist there is a number on the display screen that never has anything to do with making good finds. But for the unwitting, the dreaded number seems to be leaving a lot of good finds behind for good tectorists to find. Or something like that.

 

[diehlerca]

detectorist....philosopher!!