Going to destroy the ATPRO
- Thread starter Mottz
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Please that pinpoint tone should drag/go for days with those large ones.............
+3
Please that pinpoint tone should drag/go for days with those large ones.............
Mottz
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I understand what you are all saying and from most of it, I believe I am doing the things or understanding the certain terms and situations you are all talking about. I realize that I am on an iron bed. 2 old buildings that were torn down years ago and chances are a lot of that debris was buried. With that knowledge, I am using it as trying to learn the pro better in a trashy environment. But it is so confusing when the mid 80's to mid 90's end up being a washer or just a chunk of !!!!. Even pieces of aluminum are reading that high and normally that's in the 50's. I'm going to detect it again and again until I find something of value to me(any old coin) because I know its there. It has to be there. And I will take all of these suggestions and play around with them. I will give another update with the results of my next hunt. Hopefully it will be a better update!!
NectarDetector
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What are your usual set up settings with it?
Mottz
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Normally I run Pro Zero, iron at 35, other than that nothing notched out, iron off until I get a good target, sensitivity at full to 2 bars down. And I usually just auto ground balance because I just don't quite understand manual balancing and that reasoning for it.
gunsil
Elite Member
Welcome to the real world of metal detecting!! If you don't have the patience to dig through tons of trash for one good target you may want to try another hobby. All veteran hunters wade through tons of junk for their good finds. If you discrim out too much you will never find gold rings. Choppa has it right, you gotta clean out the trash first, it is the same even with a much more expensive machine like an Etrac. All these folks who say lift the coil, or use pinpoint to tell the size of the object are not astute hunters. How would they know if a bust dime or a thin 18K wedding ring was or wasn't lying directly below the large piece of iron or scrap brass or piece of lead flashing?? The whole business of MDing is simply put this way--HE WHO DIGS THE MOST HOLES FINDS THE MOST GOOD STUFF. He will also find the most trash, but he WILL find the most goodies.
metaladdict
Elite Member
Yeah but the atp can find gold rings amongst pulltabs,I did. The ring was a solid signal and the pulltabs have double beeps/scratch sound or bouncy vdi (most of the time) I admit I don,t think I could find anything under a chunk of iron.
NectarDetector
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Okay, here's a video of how to manually ground balance it... main thing is, find a spot where you don't hear any metal, then GB it there....then set it up as you normally would.
This video will show you how to manually GB your ATP (2:25)
A proper GB is essential to a steady metal detector
I tried that a few times. Each time I lifted, no sound at all. Drop it back down and there's tone so I figured they would be good targets. Guess that didn't work
That can also mean a tiny price of junk in the first few inches of the ground..
Mottz
Forum Supporter
Going just a little more in depth on the ground balancing. Set me straight if I am wrong about this. This is the way I'm understanding what people say and the videos say. Scenario: I find a clear area to balance. Say it comes up around 77 on the screen. Now since I focus on coins, would I then manually change it up to say 84 or 86 or something like that? Does that increase the machines potential to find those targets? Right now I balance and just go with it. Maybe balance again in the middle of the hunt for the heck of it.
Grumpysrb
Forum Supporter
Some of the things you said above tell me that you either haven't learned the ATP well or there is a problem with it.
There's no way you would get a quick tone on those large pieces. Some are large enough that if it were in less than 4 inches you would get an overload. You check the size in pin point mode. If a target gives a good tone and repeatable number and says 4 inches, and you dig to 4 (maybe 5) inches and you can't find it, it is most likely large and deeper. Or you didn't pin point accurately. Iron is a low tone with low numbers, but steel is a high tone and the right size can trick the machine into thinking it is a good target, for me sometimes a silver ring. Soil will make a difference too. At 90% of the places I hunt I get the same numbers as the other. But at a couple places the numbers are 1 or 2 numbers below normal. Don't know why, but that is how it is. Moisture content in the soil affects the machines ability to work correctly. Very wet you get more depth and accurate numbers and tones. Bone dry soil and the machine has trouble, as it needs the moisture to carry the signal to and from the target. I hunted when the soil turned to dust when I tried to cut a plug, and depth was reduced to nearly half and the numbers were way off, and frustratingly off.
Having found the few coins you have tells me that there are some, but how many is the question. Could the site have been hunted before. Detecting was popular in the seventies and a lot of spots were heavily hunted. Places where you expect there to be a bunch of coins, well others have thought of that too, and beat you to it. But they didn't get them all.
The ATP can be a very frustrating machine. It was for me. Took me a LONG time to learn and become confident with it. But, I stuck to it and have become very good. I teach others in my club to use their ATP and I see in them what I was like when new. Everyone wants to make great finds, and quick, and they begin to question what they know and end up digging what is obviously trash.
Good Luck and don't give up.
There's no way you would get a quick tone on those large pieces. Some are large enough that if it were in less than 4 inches you would get an overload. You check the size in pin point mode. If a target gives a good tone and repeatable number and says 4 inches, and you dig to 4 (maybe 5) inches and you can't find it, it is most likely large and deeper. Or you didn't pin point accurately. Iron is a low tone with low numbers, but steel is a high tone and the right size can trick the machine into thinking it is a good target, for me sometimes a silver ring. Soil will make a difference too. At 90% of the places I hunt I get the same numbers as the other. But at a couple places the numbers are 1 or 2 numbers below normal. Don't know why, but that is how it is. Moisture content in the soil affects the machines ability to work correctly. Very wet you get more depth and accurate numbers and tones. Bone dry soil and the machine has trouble, as it needs the moisture to carry the signal to and from the target. I hunted when the soil turned to dust when I tried to cut a plug, and depth was reduced to nearly half and the numbers were way off, and frustratingly off.
Having found the few coins you have tells me that there are some, but how many is the question. Could the site have been hunted before. Detecting was popular in the seventies and a lot of spots were heavily hunted. Places where you expect there to be a bunch of coins, well others have thought of that too, and beat you to it. But they didn't get them all.
The ATP can be a very frustrating machine. It was for me. Took me a LONG time to learn and become confident with it. But, I stuck to it and have become very good. I teach others in my club to use their ATP and I see in them what I was like when new. Everyone wants to make great finds, and quick, and they begin to question what they know and end up digging what is obviously trash.
Good Luck and don't give up.
Pennypacker
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Just to clarify, water absorbs electromagnetic radiation, it doesn't enhance it.
While the cause and effect appear to be the same, it is important to have the fundamentals correct as to not perpetuate myths.
The ATPro sucks, I don't care about being politically correct, it's a metal detector people.
Don't drink the ATPro Koolaid and you wont have to defend a mediocre device.
I am not picking on the ATPro, just pointing out the ridiculousness as to how far the ATPro cult goes to portray superiority at times.
Excuses, excuses.
Just let it go.... lol.
NectarDetector
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I would have agreed with you when I first got it pennypacker, now that I know what it is telling me, I do awesome with it!
Likewise it's no secret that its easier to find metal if the ground is wet...
How long did you have your AT Pro before getting rid of it because "it sucks?"
Likewise it's no secret that its easier to find metal if the ground is wet...
How long did you have your AT Pro before getting rid of it because "it sucks?"
Mottz,
I saw your question and thought I would try and help out. I've never ran an AT Pro, but I think I can help you.
When you ground balance your machine over clean ground. Say the number 77 comes up. This number is just a reference.
Don't get this number confused with the VDI numbers that your detector provides over coins. They are not related.
Ground balance your machine over clean ground. Then start detecting. After say 20 minutes you can rebalance. One note though, if after you ground balance over clean ground and let's say 10 minutes later while detecting your detector seems noisy or unstable. When this happens you need to again ground balance your machine over clean ground.
With all this said. I will say some of the more experienced folks do sometimes run their ground balance a little less or a little more than the actual ground balance setting. But after reading about your difficulties, I would strongly suggest you stay with the basics and run your ground balance setting for the actual ground.
A proper ground balance setting makes your detector more stable, allows it to detect the deeper targets.
I would comment on some of your other problems, but since I haven't run an AT Pro, I'll leave it for the folks that have or do.
Hope this helps you out. Patience is the key, remember Rome wasn't built in a day.
Cheers
David
Pennypacker
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Well maybe you have the "right stuff".
Look at IceScratcher, he kills it in the water with an ATPro.
"Likewise it's no secret that its easier to find metal if the ground is wet..."
I never stated otherwise.
I did a side by side comparison hunt, a friend got one and I was genuinely excited for him. I thought it was going to be a good machine.
Needless to say I was not impressed in the least.
He got into the hobby with an $80 detector, then a bounty hunter discovery 1100, I was amazed he was still hanging in there and figure he would take off with the ATPro, a week later it was up for sale.
I couldn't figure out how to bull-!!!! him into using it, my mind went blank.
I know my way around a detector half decent, but there is something off about the ATPro, despite being fast, it is overly difficult to "X" a target out with it.
Incoherent comes to mind.
I took him to a field absolutely polluted with coins for practice, this machine only liked the scrap.
He couldn't buy a single coin at a place that yields 50-100 coins in 4 hours for the average detector with an ambitious operator.
There was a new lady there with some sort of Technetics, she was drooling all over this ATPro, (As most newbs do) which was ironic as she had a pouch full of coins and he had none, I literally don't recall him finding a single red cent.
I thought OK I will figure this out for him, it didn't take long to decide this machine wasn't for me.
Why waste the time trying to learn something that is so difficult to use in the first place.
This isn't a high-end machine, it's a mid-line detector in a class full of stable machines.
I even preselected probable coins targets ahead off time, real easy ones, the ATPro was just plain unintelligible on these targets.
I mean there was some trash, but not that bad, I have hunted that site with DD's myself.
Perhaps that is why some prefer the 5x8 on the ATPro.
I'm still perplexed, I just don't get it.
NectarDetector
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So you don't have the minimum 100 hours on the at pro to come to the conclusion that it sucks and all the other negatives you say about it.
Your opinion might hold more weight if you knew what you were talking about, apparenlty you don't because you didn't use it long enough to formulate an educated opinion.
I asked that question because I already knew the answer.
Pennypacker
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Why would somebody need a 100 hours on an ATPro when it took about 2 hours to learn an Xterra?
I figured you were sandbagging, but I honestly don't care lol.
Can you point me to the page were it says 100 hours in the manual?
Or are you saying it cause you heard some douche bag say it?
You guys are like parrots.
So far all we have is two pages of excuses and conjecture, figured with this many ATPro experts with hundreds of hours experience should be able to wrap this up quick, no?
Here is the manual, maybe you can point it out for me and the O.P.
http://www.manualslib.com/manual/638507/Garrett-At-Pro.html?page=3#manual
I figured you were sandbagging, but I honestly don't care lol.
Can you point me to the page were it says 100 hours in the manual?
Or are you saying it cause you heard some douche bag say it?
You guys are like parrots.
So far all we have is two pages of excuses and conjecture, figured with this many ATPro experts with hundreds of hours experience should be able to wrap this up quick, no?
Here is the manual, maybe you can point it out for me and the O.P.
http://www.manualslib.com/manual/638507/Garrett-At-Pro.html?page=3#manual
ohiochris
Elite Member
Once you find the clean patch of ground , do the automatic ground balance. This sets the detector to ignore interference from the ground. Some people then manually adjust it higher or lower but this is experimental and a literal crapshoot , since depending on the makeup of the soil , it may not help anything and can even make things worse in certain conditions. The detector automatically sets itself for optimum performance. Something else Ive noticed is most of the time having the ground balance be exact is less important than many people think , as long as its close. Most of the ground around me sets the detector in the mid to high 80's and I can hunt almost anywhere without even bothering with the ground balance and it does just fine. There are occasional spots that seem to affect the detector , I just notice a difference in the detectors performance and I will ground balance it then but most of the time there is no need to bother with it. It dont hurt anything to ground balance it on a regular basis but just saying if its within 5 or 6 digits from "optimum" there is usually no noticeable performance problems.
MD-Mainiac
Forum Supporter
Just to clarify, water absorbs electromagnetic radiation, it doesn't enhance it.
While the cause and effect appear to be the same, it is important to have the fundamentals correct as to not perpetuate myths.
The ATPro sucks, I don't care about being politically correct, it's a metal detector people.
Don't drink the ATPro Koolaid and you wont have to defend a mediocre device.
I am not picking on the ATPro, just pointing out the ridiculousness as to how far the ATPro cult goes to portray superiority at times.
Excuses, excuses.
Just let it go.... lol.
You joined this site in May of this year. Do you mind telling me what your detecting experience is? what metal detectors do you own?
ohiochris
Elite Member
No offense intended but an "average" of about 100 hours with any detector is required to fully learn it , even more if you are only an occasional hunter. After that there is still usually a lot you learn about it as time goes on. As often as I hunt I probably have thousands of hours on mine and I still find out more things it can do or better ways to use its functions quite often. There are too many variables involved to wrap this up quick. Could be anything from the experience and patience level of the operator to a possible but less likely problem with the detector itself. Everyone learns at a different pace , a pace that is comfortable for them , the only thing we can do is offer suggestions based on our own experiences. The rest is just part of learning the detectors language.
The ATP isnt difficult , but those who dont like them usually just never gave them enough time to learn them. There are a couple people on this forum who got one and then got rid of it because they didnt like it , only to get another one later and now they really like it , now wishing they didnt get rid of the first one. That says a lot. The ATP may be an average detector except for its waterproof feature , but that still puts it in the same league as any other mid range detector out there.
