Help with my new CTX 3030

Boondocks

Junior Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2017
Messages
78
Location
Pensacola, FL
I finally bought a CTX 3030 and I am reading the books and watching the videos trying to learn it as well as my Excal and my ATPro. I have been out 3 times and was hoping some of you experienced 3030 users could help me. 2 of the times I went were on land (one with 11” coil and one with 17” coil) and one was at the beach. The threshold was smooth both times on land but the beach was a completely different story (11” coil). I was in beach mode in and out of pattern 1 and 2 with seawater on, I even tried changing to Coins which was the mode that was smooth on land. No matter what I did, no matter what sensitivity level I tried, the threshold level was constantly nulling as if it were playing a drum beat. I also tried to ground balance and that didn’t help. I was not over iron. Help.

Secondly, - I tried air testing some rings and coins in different modes tonight in my kitchen. A solid gold coin read 01-42, a sterling ring nulled in Beach pattern 1 and read 01-47 in pattern 2, a 18k white gold ring and an 18k yellow gold ring both read 01- 40’s but would only read 1” from the coil. A stainless steel ring read 01-07 and lastly a Morgan dollar read 01-43. I was under the impression that good targets would be reading 12-xx. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance and excuse my newbie ignorance of the CTX.
 
Update- I had my wife come out in the yard away from the house with a peace dollar and a 1 oz RCM solid gold coin. In Beach 1, neither would read past 9”. The silver coin read solid 01-44 and the gold coin bounced between 01-42,43,44. One last strange thing, the gold coin was higher pitched than the silver despite the numbers. Ok, that’s all I’ve got.
 
I'm a newbie on Nox 800, I was having EMI trouble from cell phone. I stopped carrying while detecting and has helped a little.
 
Maybe try adjusting the noise cancel? You can do this manually (change channels from 1 - 11) or let it run manually and the detector finds a favourable channel.

Quoted from the CTX manual on page 19:

"The Noise Cancel function allows you to eliminate electromagnetic interference (EMI) or noise from the detector.
The CTX 3030 may become noisy due to electrical interference from power lines,
electrical equipment or other detectors operating close by. The detector interprets this interference as inconsistent, erratic detections. Noise Cancel can be performed automatically (default) or manually".

The noise cancel button is the central button on the top row of buttons on the CTX. (Two right from power button, and two left of user button).

You can press and hold this button to choose whether to perform noise cancel automatically or manually. Once selected, press the button and if choose manual use the left/right buttons to select channel. If choose automatic the detector will read percentages on the screen to run noise cancel.

Not sure if this fixes the problem but may be worth a shot :)
 
OK Boon...you’re on a SALTWATER beach? My first question is...you said you got all this “nulling”...but then said you were “not over iron”. How did you go about making that assessment? Press and HOLD the lowest button on the control panel for a few seconds to open the screen where you see “Enable Ground Balance”. Make sure the box is UNCHECKED.
A Google search of “CTX3030 TID numbers” will lead you to charts which show what common coins and jewelry come in as numbers-wise,and the numbers(specifically the FE number) will be different depending on which Target Separation option you have applied. A Peace dollar may read 1-47 if you’re in High Trash separation,but in Ferrous Coin Separation that coin may read 12-43. Only in Ferrous Coin Separation are the numbers “normalized” to the 12-line...in the other 3 Target Separation Options the FE number is allowed to reflect far more variance depending on the target found. This can be a good thing to the skilled operator,or confusing to the guy just getting going.
 
Thanks for the info. Yes, this is a saltwater beach. I made the determination on nulling and lack of iron based on several years of hunting this beach with an Excal. It was making the stop in noise like being in iron over and over. However, even when I went to pattern 2 I didn’t see or hear any iron but there was still constant repetitive nulling. Lastly ground balance was unchecked until about an hour in and I chose to check it and gb as a hopeful fix. That makes since with the FE-CO numbers with the different settings. Thank you.
 
Excellent! The manual states to NOT run Auto Tracking on the beach but it is apparently hit and miss....depending on the beach! Again...DOH! Sand,gravel,black sand and conductive salts can be strange,so it’s great that you’re dialing it in to YOUR situation. Keep us posted...
 
https://www.bigboyshobbies.net/minelab-ctx-3030-exclusive-guide

http://www.gonehuntingforhistory.com/daily-entries/01-26-13minelab-ctx-3030-target-numbers

This link has loads of info on all the different pages.http://www.metaldetectingworld.com/ctx3030_tone_id_map.shtml

https://www.findmall.com/read.php?86,2219319

Thread about finding gold with CTX
https://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=249249&highlight=CTX+3030

The gent that started this thread gives their 50 hour take on CTX. This gent imo is definitley one memener here to pay loads of attention to when they comment on a detector model.
https://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=232217&highlight=CTX+3030
 
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We have a winner! I changed the frequency on the wm-10 and the threshold quieted down. I even found my first ring with my ctx. Great day! Thanks for the help!
 
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