Minelab E-trac tips, settings, questions

[Sa_bogan]

im just wondering how good it would be in parks with trash and on the beach ?.

I look forward to your first hand information on how it performs

 

[Sa_bogan]

well the good thing is that the detector is covered under warrenty, would rather it leak sooner rather than later so they can fix all the issues

 

[mike90199]

well the good thing is that the detector is covered under warrenty, would rather it leak sooner rather than later so they can fix all the issues

hey bogan thx for your last comment .yeh well the problem is I don't know how they would fix this permanently unless they recall all of them and change the design of the back of the unit and the unfair thing is I was speaking to a guy in u.s last night and they are charging people $25 in store to buy 3 seals and 2 button seals which would probably cost them no more than 20cents each .I mean if your going to pay a lot of money like that they should at least make the machine guaranteed water proof .but when I seen people throwing garrets in the water just willy nilly I thought they were crazy cause nothing is guaranteed water proof .one thing ive learnt in all my time being a watch technician is water always find a way in even with 20k watches and especially with a big o ring like the one on the ctx if I was you .don't ever submerse it in water .the water proofing would be great in rainy days tho cause there is no pressure on the o ring but under water I wouldn't risk it man that's playing with fire .

apart from that its suppose to be a incredible machine .

ive been looking at miners den and a few places but cant seem to find the etrac any cheaper than $1800 .im after new cause of warrenty and stuff but ye .

 

[stalker]

If Its too trashy use a smaller coil .

 

[Reeks]

If you're hunting parks, why don't you just use your xterra?
Are you chasing coins?

 

[loamer]

buy a second hand Minelab xterra 70. lot cheaper and a good coin hunter and OK on quiet ground on the goldfields if you are interested. speaker at the back is useless-needs headphones. 4 x AA batteries and away you go.very easy to use, i think people try and complicate this machine.

 

[Goldpick]

Congrats on choosing a detector, may I suggest if you are going to put the hard yards in to learn this machine, buy Andy Sabisch's book on the Etrac and Explorer, it will be extemely useful (on ebay.us).

The FBS detectors don't like a fast swing speed, you need to go slow to give the Etrac enough time to process the multiple frequencies, especially in trashy ground - go fast and you will miss the deeper targets, especially ones masked by junk.

You will most likely find that the stock 11" coil may be too large for some really trashy environments, so as mentioned, a smaller coil can be an advantage here. Minelab offer the smaller 8" coil, or you can chose from other offerings from Coiltek (Treasureseeker range) or Sunray 5" and 8" coils. In saying that, I still find the 11" coil my go to all-rounder. The Safari, Explorer and Etrac all support the same coils, so there is plenty to chose from.

I have found these FBS detectors to be excellent in junky areas, so long as you go slow and listen real carefully for the hidden high conductive targets.

How good is the Etrac in junky areas and on the beach - only one way to find out, and that is to get some detecting hours under your belt and learn that detector inside and out. Happy hunting!

 

[Guest]

hey thx retirement .im realizing that its gonna be a long process and I have to try stay patient with this one .a lot of people have told me its a great machine once you learn how to use it .im a bit disappointed by the ctx 3030 but being a watch technician by trade once I seen that battery pack on the back with a oring I knew straight away there would be problems .I work on watched worth 20thousand and up and these watches are guaranteed water proof for 200mtres but once you take the o ring out once you need a special pressure tester to make sure there is no leaks or u need to repeat the process and I laughed when minelab is advocating people clean the o ring cause this is the worst possible thing a ctx 3030 owner could do is take that seal out cause when you place it back in it need to be properly seated and made sure there is no leaks and this is impossible unless you have a big tank that you can pressurize and look thru to check for leaks .this was a major design flaw in the 3030 .so sad .

and the other incredibly stupid this is the o ring is square which makes it even more likely to be reseated wrong and more likely to let in leaks .shame.

Congratulations on choosing a machine. The best way in
finding what The right machine is for you is to research
youtube and google. This is what I do.

A good water machine with a proven platform is the
Fisher cz21 and is multi frequency, costs less Than
$1700 and is used by deep sea treasure Hunters. It is
A multi tone unit and has a decent discriminator and
Combined with the previous model has been around
Since the 90's.

One reason some products are more popular comes
Down to marketing.

Just remember as long as you have a decent machine
you still need To dig trash and you still need to walk
over it.

This is why some find the goodies they spend countless
hours looking for it.

Good luck with it.

 

[Guest]

buy a second hand Minelab xterra 70. lot cheaper and a good coin hunter and OK on quiet ground on the goldfields if you are interested. speaker at the back is useless-needs headphones. 4 x AA batteries and away you go.very easy to use, i think people try and complicate this machine.

Loamer Mike owns a 705 already..

 

[mike90199]

ok guys so I decided to get a etrac over a ctx 3030 and after watching a few videos on youtube it seems the ID numbers on the etrac seem to jump around a aweful lot and coming from a xterra im worried how would I accurately id a target if the numbers are jumping all over the screen .my question is .is this why etrac can be hard to learn cause of the erratic numbers or is there a setting that makes them more stable .im only new to metal detecting so im just asking a lot of questions before I get a etrac .

also if I wanted to hunt $1 and 2$ ,50 cent etc etc can I set the etrac to manual sensitivity and put it on like 12 like I do with the xterra and would it be ok like stabble cause I have heard some people mentioning that the manual sensitivity of the etrac can get unstable at times .I just don't wanna be stuck on auto and digging up massively deep targets .

also with the hum im guessing this is thresh hold can this be turned down to almost silent or ?.

sorry for asking so many questions .im about to purchase it tomorrow im guessing the guy at miners den is still gonna try to convince me into a ctx but the faults with the machine have kinda scared me away .

anyway miners den are selling new etracs for $1800 apparently .

 

[Nugget]

Are you able to hire an etrac for a day? It may be money well spent in the case that you don't like it.

The guys at Miners Den should look after you and one would hope they'd sell you a machine to suit your needs over one of a higher value, I know Garrett Australia did this for me a couple of years back and it makes for a loyal customer.

Hopefully someone experienced in the etrac and CTX will be along to comment on the config questions soon enough.

P.S. Let us know what you end up getting.

 

[mike90199]

hey thx nugget .no probs I let you know .what you think of garret detectors anyway .

 

[Nugget]

hey thx nugget .no probs I let you know .what you think of garret detectors anyway .

I owned an AT Gold for 15-16 months and never had an issue with it, it was actually a great machine. I've also used a couple other Garrett detectors and found them to be high quality products. So no complaints from me

 

[Roscoe]

Mike sometime the numbers will jump around a bit due to a few reasons. One there maybe more than one target under the coil 2- The target maybe made up of two dissimilar metals 3- The machine might be set up for multi tone conductive or ferrous, this has caused this jumping around of id's on me a few times. With multi targets under the coil the ctx really shines here over the etrac. The target trace feature on the ctx is a powerful feature for coin and relic hunting. I have pulled out a lot of good targets under trash with the ctx.

 

[mike90199]

Mike sometime the numbers will jump around a bit due to a few reasons. One there maybe more than one target under the coil 2- The target maybe made up of two dissimilar metals 3- The machine might be set up for multi tone conductive or ferrous, this has caused this jumping around of id's on me a few times. With multi targets under the coil the ctx really shines here over the etrac. The target trace feature on the ctx is a powerful feature for coin and relic hunting. I have pulled out a lot of good targets under trash with the ctx.

yeh the ctx definatly looks really good but im just worried about all the problems people are having with them.how long have you had yours for and what you think of it ?.thx for reply .

 

[Guest]

No matter what you use you still need to dig junk
And then now and then you will be rewarded with
A nice find.

I have used a few different machines. I have just bought
the whites v3i.

If i put the machine in deeeeep mode then the target
Depth id can Be out as well depending on the program
and how its Set.

There are bits of crap on the floor buried in all depths.

As an example tonight after 4 hours hunting i made
A realisation maybe the v3i could find Silver coins
where you don't dig too much trash.

The v3i runs on 3 frequencies. Its like 3 detectors
Running side by side not multifrequency. The higher
Frequency is more sensitive to gold items and thats
how your Alerted though screw caps and pull tabs fall
here As well. Then you have 2 others.

Each one is represented By a colour and each can be
seen on screen as a Bar graph.

Most coins except i think 20c through to 5c are highlighted
by Falling under the 2.5 frequency. Aluminium screw caps
Fall on the higher frequency. So basically you can set The
machine up as you like. The first thing you do is Set high
tones for the range of around 60 to 90. The Coins that fall
in that range are detected as 2.5 khz And include $1 and
$2, shillings and other coins.

Now start swinging and watch the bars. Theres 3 in
Total. You will know When your over a coin by the
constant bang over the Target and the higher the
2.5khz bar is compared to The other 2 then its either
a coin or a solid bolt nut or padlock or piece of solid
Metal the same size of a 5c piece.

Most cases no aluminium screw Caps but need to
do more tests.

This is as good as it gets. You won't dig much if
Any aluminium Screw caps because these fall on
The higher frequency bar but you will dig the
occasional nut or Small padlock as i discovered today.
Use this info As an example only because i have not
finished Testing though i have spent about 15 hours
Testing and detecting with the v3i.

Using this machine i have many settings, tones and
Many other changes i can make to suit my detecting
Style.

If i was buying i would buy ex demo or a good
Used detector and start learning with it.

Etrac sounds like a good machine and people
Do find cool stuff with it.

Just buy your machine and start learning it is
What I say...

 

[Guest]

What you said Wolfau.

Mike until they invent a detector that displays a holographic image of the target, we dig most targets. We get to know our machines by putting in hundreds of hours of use and digging!

Good luck with whatever you decide. I think any machine in your price range, with warranty will serve you well.

Cheers

 

[kemjak57]

G'day Mike, I had an Etrac for about 2 years. It was the first detector I bought and although it took a bit of getting used to, it was a brilliant machine. It would pick up coins down to 300/400 mm. As I said it took a bit of getting used to but really worth it. You can get a small coil for it to use in trashy areas. I am confident that if you go that way you will be pleased. I sold mine to get a gold specific machine but wish I had kept it as I have since bought an old Explorer that works well but nowhere near the Etrac. All the best with what you choose, Cheers Rick

 

[PhaseTech]

ok guys so I decided to get a etrac over a ctx 3030 and after watching a few videos on youtube it seems the ID numbers on the etrac seem to jump around a aweful lot and coming from a xterra im worried how would I accurately id a target if the numbers are jumping all over the screen .my question is .is this why etrac can be hard to learn cause of the erratic numbers or is there a setting that makes them more stable .im only new to metal detecting so im just asking a lot of questions before I get a etrac .

also if I wanted to hunt $1 and 2$ ,50 cent etc etc can I set the etrac to manual sensitivity and put it on like 12 like I do with the xterra and would it be ok like stabble cause I have heard some people mentioning that the manual sensitivity of the etrac can get unstable at times .I just don't wanna be stuck on auto and digging up massively deep targets .

also with the hum im guessing this is thresh hold can this be turned down to almost silent or ?.

sorry for asking so many questions .im about to purchase it tomorrow im guessing the guy at miners den is still gonna try to convince me into a ctx but the faults with the machine have kinda scared me away .

anyway miners den are selling new etracs for $1800 apparently .

The ID to pay attention to is the one at the end of the swing. Actually very consistent compared to other TID units I've tried

Recovery Fast will also affect your ID stability a bit

Auto Sensitivity keeps your unit nice and stable, but you can do the same in Manual, simply by keeping an eye on the Suggested Sensitivity bar and setting your sensitivity 1 or 2 clicks below the suggested level. If you just want to dig shallow targets, you can also reduce your volume gain

Yes, the threshold can be set to just silent if you wish. Personally I like to hear trash nulling out.

Hope this helps

 

[Ben78]

Yes, the threshold can be set to just silent if you wish. Personally I like to hear trash nulling out.

Hope this helps

Haha, When I had the explorer I set it up to hear the trash nulling but the parks I hunted had so much trash it was permanently nulled, and then on the red hot soil here in Tamworth even the soil nulled it, so I just made it silent, was easier to deal with!