E-trac

Max houser

Full Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
185
Location
Upstate SC
I know most of you have moved on by now to the NOX 800... this is something after 10 years I just learned about the E-trac I thought I would share..
sensitivity, the null, and targets...
I have and always have run on manual sensitivity, usually 28-29 and just deal with the noise... SC soil is different from NY soil so recently I did some experimenting... almost open screen 32 and above discriminated.
I keep my threshold at 15 just so I can hear it... a few parks around here will run around 10 in auto +3, I just couldn't get deep for some reason. so a few days ago i ran the E-trac in manual and bumped the sens down to where the threshold could be heard .. at least most of the time... sometimes as low as 14.
but guess what.. i started pulling some coins that I previously had missed. I got a good target at 6" both ways and decided to test my theory... I cranked up the sens to 25 and the target disappeared! lowered back down to 14 and it was there again and I dug a wheat cent. so my take on all this is I'm wasting my time on sens 28 hearing nothing in this tough soil, and once I lower the sens to a point I can hear the threshold most of the time... I also can hear the targets. this is all with the stock coil, I'm sure it is way different with smaller or larger coils. so my take on this is run in manual, only as hot as you can to still hear glimpses of the threshold...
 
Sounds like you get to re hunt everywhere you've been. sounds like a win/win, you learned something and get to go back over where you've been. Hopefully you pull out some good coins.
 
"I keep my threshold at 15 just so I can hear it"

Is there a separate setting for threshold?

yes, 0-30 volume level for the threshold... it only nulls when passing over something discriminated, which in my case is iron most use it in full open screen... which I find too busy for my brain. it will slightly null just before and after target tone(s) which if you listen and get a slight quick null , it may be a target just out of reach to tone...which you can check by going back over with increased sensitivity to try and pick it up. you get used to the constant hum, it's sort of a tone in itself.
 
Guys love to try to “bully” their way through bad ground with high sensitivity, it’s a bad idea. Good to see someone who has seen this for themselves and come to realize that there are limitations to how this affects finds in the real world. Thanks for re-emphasizing this Max...
 
Thanks Max, this is very interesting. Randy Horton wrote something maybe similar in his Understanding the X-terra book. Compared sensitivity to headlights and driving with high beams in foggy conditions not seeing targets and causing good target signals to splatter.
Unrelated to this I do believe some people set their sensitivity too high and some detectors have the threshold combined with the sensitivity (not the Etrac) which can cause other problems.
 
Another thing to consider. I use auto (auto +3) mode for the following reason, and because the type of ground in my area can change fast.

From Etrac user manual,

"E-Trac has three internal signal channels (high,
medium and low) used to identify targets. (In auto mode)
E-Trac continually measures the magnetic
ground interferences that affect these
channels and adjusts the level of Sensitivity
individually for each channel, to provide the
most stable Target ID for each channel.
Most ground types cause some interference
and E-Trac uses this to adjust the detector to
the correct Auto Sensitivity"

Manual mode,
"The important difference between Auto and
Manual is that all of the channels are set to
the same level in Manual and if set too high
may cause unstable Target IDs."
 
yes, 0-30 volume level for the threshold... it only nulls when passing over something discriminated, which in my case is iron most use it in full open screen... which I find too busy for my brain. it will slightly null just before and after target tone(s) which if you listen and get a slight quick null , it may be a target just out of reach to tone...which you can check by going back over with increased sensitivity to try and pick it up. you get used to the constant hum, it's sort of a tone in itself.

Thanks! I blew the dust off of my Etrac and found the threshold limit set at 48. My Etrac has a range to 50. Yours is 30 max? I used to always run my sensitivity in "manual." I never did a manual on the threshold limit so that maybe got set high on an auto sensitivity mode and stuck there.

I went out and played in my coin garden after setting the threshold limit down at 15, sens set at manual 22. It hit my deepest coins very good, IMO better by inches when raising my coil, and sharper tones. The coil I'm using is an SEF 8x6, and it's always been great for it's size yet, it hits better at lower settings.

I may have to keep my Equinox(s) home and revisit my dried-up hunt spots again. I appreciate your insight. martin
 
Thanks! I blew the dust off of my Etrac and found the threshold limit set at 48. My Etrac has a range to 50. Yours is 30 max?

:lol: I assumed it was 30, I never noticed but since you posted yes.. is does go to 50... see I'm still learning after 10 years with it.;) can you imagine running it at 50? I may have to experiment with it now... :lol:

ETA: I loved the 6x8 and will be buying another soon... the last one went with my last E-trac... this is my 3rd...
 
:lol: I assumed it was 30, I never noticed but since you posted yes.. is does go to 50... see I'm still learning after 10 years with it.;) can you imagine running it at 50? I may have to experiment with it now... :lol:

ETA: I loved the 6x8 and will be buying another soon... the last one went with my last E-trac... this is my 3rd...

I bought a used Etrac following using an Explorer SE Pro to learn FBS. I was taught by a mentor to run manual settings. It was kind of a shame for the Etrac joining me. I made the manual changes quickly and surely missed what leftovers from "auto" was left. I would have never left a threshold limit at 48 but what resulted was that the Etrac I bought, never did rock and roll like my Explorer did for me.

About the 8x6 coil. Detech made a great coil in that footprint, depth is great, coverage great also, but a lot of users/tectors have a lame opinion of it. The 8x6 is awesome. I found my first Barber quarter with that coil, while my mentor grumbled about me replacing the stock 11" Pro coil.

Oh well, I suppose we are getting off topic. I plan to have fun working the new threshold settings, in my dead-zone hunt spots.
 
Compared sensitivity to headlights and driving with high beams in foggy conditions not seeing targets

I've heard the metaphor as well, and I think it is valid. I've heard it more in the case of heavy mineralization vs heavy iron trash. At a site with lots of scattered nails, but otherwise clean ground, you can get away with a high sens if you remember to go really slow.

Also remember that a large coil will hurt you in heavy mineralized ground; even if it is a DD, it will see more mineralization than a smaller DD coil.
 
I know most of you have moved on by now to the NOX 800... this is something after 10 years I just learned about the E-trac I thought I would share..
sensitivity, the null, and targets...
I have and always have run on manual sensitivity, usually 28-29 and just deal with the noise... SC soil is different from NY soil so recently I did some experimenting... almost open screen 32 and above discriminated.
I keep my threshold at 15 just so I can hear it... a few parks around here will run around 10 in auto +3, I just couldn't get deep for some reason. so a few days ago i ran the E-trac in manual and bumped the sens down to where the threshold could be heard .. at least most of the time... sometimes as low as 14.
but guess what.. i started pulling some coins that I previously had missed. I got a good target at 6" both ways and decided to test my theory... I cranked up the sens to 25 and the target disappeared! lowered back down to 14 and it was there again and I dug a wheat cent. so my take on all this is I'm wasting my time on sens 28 hearing nothing in this tough soil, and once I lower the sens to a point I can hear the threshold most of the time... I also can hear the targets. this is all with the stock coil, I'm sure it is way different with smaller or larger coils. so my take on this is run in manual, only as hot as you can to still hear glimpses of the threshold...

Running the E-trac or CTX3030 with very high sensitivity will kill depth in medium to high ground mineralization areas.
 
I've always kept my TH at 15 but manual around 23-28 or so. You're right. I'm going to have to regrid a couple places with sens lowered.
 
I can't use high manual sensitivty with my E-Trac. If it's not EMI, it's the mineralized soil.

So what works best for me is putting it in automatic mode, then going to +2 or +3. Often, it gives me the rough equivalent of 18-22 in manual mode.
 
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