Minelab Explorer SE -- What I've learned

[DetectorBase]

Hello

I still think this is early to start talking about what I've learned with this unit, but I think it might be interesting to document the learning process as it evolves for me. Some of you might find it useful.

Initially, I was having trouble pinpointing the unit compared to my White's. The Double D coil took some getting use to. I normall pinpoint left to right then top to bottom. The Double D is hot down the center line so the top to bottom pinpoint took some getting use to. Eventually I was able to pinpoint accurately... especially after changing to 8" SunRay coil.

The next area I was trying to grasp was the the discrimination patterns. I started with factory pattern. This works fine, but I felt it was nulling a little too much. Also, knowing that readings on older coins show up inaccurately. This is something I got to be very familiar with on the Whites. Deep nickels, pennies and dimes don't show up where you expect them. They often come up close to screw cap range. I would base the signal and depth for deciding to dig. I wasn't sure if things would be the same with the SE. It's not as 'drastic', but similar traits do show up on the SE. With that said, the factory discrimination was right on the edge of where those coins would be hitting. I then started to use the Iron Mask instead, freeing up the top right much more. I set this to 25 and the nulling issue was much improved. As soon as I did this, I was able to find the first keepers with the machine.

Additionally, I was recommended to go with Ferrous tones vs Conductive. This seems to cause some debates on other forums. Some people like ferrous.. and some people like conductive. The SE's factory preset is using conductive tones. This basically means that it will send a high tone for high conductive metals, where ferrous will send a high tone for low-ferrous metals. You can have a high ferrous metal and be conductive, etc... and you can have low-ferrous metal be low-conductive... so it's takes a little while. People also say if you go with ferrous tones, to open up the disc to All Metal.

I began to slowly work my iron mask till it was all metal. This is a extremely difficult process to get use to. Trashy areas will cause your detector to beep out of control, but then I saw the light. If you go extremely slow over the heavy beep areas, you'll be able to pick the high tones out of the mess, and these targets might be nulled or masked if you use discrimination! You have to move slowly.. and I'm fine with that if I'm pulling quality keepers out of the ground.

I was recommended by a few to keep the setting a digital. I noticed when I did this, I dug way more junk when I thought it was going to be good. That's fine, but I find that it affects my moral and makes my overal experience unpleasant. I like to think of what I'm going to dig.. and be right, even if it's a pull tab or foil. I switched to SmartFind.. and again, the light went off. I sweep using SmartFind, looking for proper cursor position (top right area) or (middle/right bottom). I would then toggle to digital for additional information... usually with nickels.

I think the big factors for success with the SE
1. Tone ID (Ferrous)
2. All metal (I was hating it initially and I'm a HUGE believer now)
3. Smaller coil (8" SunRay.. will probably purchase 5" SunRay soon)
4. SmartFind

I've probably burnt close to 30 hours of hard detecting time with this machine so far. Everyday, until recently, I would adopt new settings and stick with them for the whole day, and the above seems to work the best for me. My only complaint of the machine is the depth gauge. It doesn't seem to be accurate all the time, which frustrates me, but it could be related to surrounding target, etc. I pretty much verify the depth with the signal strength of the VCO pinpoint.

My total 'keeper' finds for 2007 all with the SE:
???? Standing Liberty Quarter
1924 Mercury Dime
1944 Mercury Dime
2 1906 Indian Head Pennies
???? Buffalo Nickel
12 Wheat cents

Almost all the hunting has been done at a 'hunted out' park. I wanted to stick with one area while I change settings. I was able to pull a couple of good coins from the park, but then I went to a private yard when I was satisfied with my last set of settings... and found the rest. Now, I'm starting to branch out.

Let's get some discussion on this. Love to hear what other have to say about what I've learned. Tell me I'm crazy, or agree with me, etc. Good dialog can go along way to help all of us get better with the SE.

Thanks!
DB

[osros]

Im very glad that you posted this, I was thinking the other day that someone should document the learning process as they go along on there new SE, and here it is! :eek:

Very interesting keep it coming! I hope to add whatever I can when I get my SE. It would also be nice if you can post the complete program settings you like for different situations. Everyone needs to learn there own machine on there own soil types and areas but its nice to know programs that work for others to use as a base and then make your own adjustments to it. Just a thought.

On the depth gauge thats one thing that bothered me about the SE for a $1200 machine it should give you a readout in inches its okay that its not perfect just that it gives you an idea. Just having a clear/solid line makes for alot of guess work I think, but will need to play with it myself, jury still out.

[DetectorBase]

On the depth gauge thats one thing that bothered me about the SE for a $1200 machine it should give you a readout in inches its okay that its not perfect just that it gives you an idea. Just having a clear/solid line makes for alot of guess work I think, but will need to play with it myself, jury still out.

I agree! I really liked the pinpoint/depth of the XLT.. I miss that. I pretty much have to rely on tone on the VCO, but I'm worried that a large non-ferrous signal (ie: half dollar or dollar) might fool me.

DB

[DetectorBase]

It's been over a month since I posted my original post. I feel like I've learned a lot since that time. Finds have been great this year!

My base settings are basically the same as before. I'm still in All Metal (the only way to go in my opinion) and using Ferrous tones (highly advisable to use Ferrous in conjunction with All Metal - IronMask 32).

Things that have changed. I've started to lower my sensitivity. I've been hovering around 16-19 when using the 8" coil and going down to 13-16 with the 5". Also, I switched from auto-sensitivity to manual. I feel like I get better stability, and the target depth is more consistent. I feel like the auto adjusts too drastically, but that's still up for debate.

I've pretty much ditched the digital read out and stick with SmartFind, even on 'iffy' signals.

The SE is incredibly hot and accurate on nickels (especially in IronMask 32 and Ferrous tones). My nickels finds are WAY above average this year, which is great, since I believe that many are left behind. The tone, cursor position and depth reading really can paint a clear picture if it's pull tab or nickel. What often fools me is the foil wads. The tone is duller, but I tend to dig those vs pull tabs.

I was running dry on silver while my penny and nickel counts were increasing. I've found out that the VCO would tend to read hotter on silver (looks like I need to return to my previous spots). When the VCO/pinpoint would read hot or 'shallow', I would think it was a surface coin. Now I know that the pinpoint can read hotter on the silver and to trust the depth readout vs my ears in this case. This especially happens on medium depth coins (4" and shallower). Since understanding this, my silver dime count is on the rise.

Using 5" X-5 Stealth coil by SunRay, I noticed similar behaviour. Almost all targets in the 4" range or so will sound hot during pinpoint.

Hopefully this month will be good as last month.. if not better.

Keeper count since February 2007:
6 Indian Head Pennies
53 Wheat Pennies
1 Shield Nickel
8 V-Nickels
9 Buffalo Nickels
4 War Nickels (silver)
2 Barber Dimes
4 Mercury Dimes
2 Roosevelt Dimes (silver)
1 Standing Liberty Quarter
4 Trade Tokens

Thanks!
DB

[grnpt_dtekr]

this is great you posted your experience with learning the machine.

I started with the EXII, and then upgraded to the SE a couple weeks ago.

Originally, i configured the se to have a similar program that i was using in my EXII. After hunting several times, and doing some research- i felt as though i was using too much discrimination, and was getting ALOT of chatter and lots of nulls, and finding targets in only the 3"-6" area max. I was using both deep and fast for recovery (at the same time) and discriminating everything except for coins and jewelry. this is mostly because i didnt have the patience to dig alot of trash targets :)

I referenced this link for the recovery settings:

http://www.detectorgear.com/pagetip2.htm
Recovery = Fast Off, Deep On, this is very important. This combination gives deep coins a nice wide, robust signal which sticks out like a sore thumb compared with trash signals. But if you turn Fast on it will chop the signal off short and the coins will sound more like the short chopped off trash signals making learning the detector much more difficult. In my opinion it should only be turned on in heavy trash conditions and my advice is avoid those areas until you are confident with the machine in medium to light trash conditions and you have learned what the coins sound like. Don't ignore this feature, it can be useful.

I am now working with this program:
digital mode
discrim: accept coins, everything else-neither accept or reject
sens: as high as possible before it starts to get chattery.
vol:10
gain:7 (was hunting with this on 9 before, 7-8 seems better so far)
var:10
limits:max
sounds:cond- ive tested ferrous, but find that in areas with lots of aluminum trash and crowncaps that conductive works better. i will experiment with this some more and see if my opinion changes.
iron mask- im using -22 and use it as a temporary all metal mode to check out iffy targets that are falling in the middle of the screen on the cusp of the coin discrim pattern in smartfind.

fast on or deep on depending on trash concentration. its important to note that with either of these recovery mode on, the digital mode readout is not accurate as without them enabled.

so far this has been way more stable than what i was using before, and although i did dig alot more junk and getting familar with the sounds of the junk targets vs coins. so far the junk targets have an sharper attack. most of what i have read on other forums is the less discrim you are using the better.

thats it for now, hope this helps someone!

GD