Insistance Of A Good Manual GB?

[MartinL]

I have a question. If the V3i is supposed to auto GB on it's own, given time and assuming the Lock Trac isn't engaged, why is an intricate GB so absolutely necessary? I read on another board way back when I got my V3i, that the V3i will self balance on it's own with time. Now do NOT think I am ignoring ground with big changes over it's sq footage. This question is precisely meant for the initial GB when you hit the field. If the V3i can handle a GB given a little swing time, on it's own, then why is it stressed that a perfect GB is done at the first? Won't a 80% GB fix itself to 100% in several minutes of time? What's the real deal? Yea, I get as good a GB as I can, but I also figure that the V3i can also manage the recovery to a good GB on it's own. martin

[Vito]

Hello Martin. Sometimes it can be very helpful (in iron infested areas i.e.) to find a clean sopt, doing the ground balance over this spot and then lock in this balance.
This helps the detector to become stable, as the iron is disturbing the balance. A detector in auto GB will change the GB setting and this will affect the disc. This is all fine as long as it is only one or two pieces of iron. But if there is a lot of that stuff in the ground the disc will not filter the metals completely and the detector becomes erratic.
Hope this explains how helpful a manual GB with a subsequent lock can be.

Good Luck hunting dude.

[MartinL]

Hello Martin. Sometimes it can be very helpful (in iron infested areas i.e.) to find a clean sopt, doing the ground balance over this spot and then lock in this balance.
This helps the detector to become stable, as the iron is disturbing the balance. A detector in auto GB will change the GB setting and this will affect the disc. This is all fine as long as it is only one or two pieces of iron. But if there is a lot of that stuff in the ground the disc will not filter the metals completely and the detector becomes erratic.
Hope this explains how helpful a manual GB with a subsequent lock can be.

Good Luck hunting dude.



I can understand that. It seemed to me though that many of the posts around MDing communities(one in particular) about GB importance for the V3i doesn't make locking the balance as part of the mix, but maybe I missed that part. I do know that my auto track feature affects other things, one being my analyze screen. I have to toggle & sweep twice before I get a response in AT, but it works fine in LocTrack. Thanks Guy! I'll begin to use LocTrack a lot more.

I have to wonder if the auto track feature is one more of the fluff features that Whites should have not glorified. It sells detectors though. martin

[rcasio44]

No it is not fluff. AutoTrac is great but in certain ground conditions or very heavy trash a locked balance is better. Now this is not unique to The V3i or other brand detectors. It is part of detecting experience to know this.

Autotrac will eventually get the balance correct but depending how far the balance is off could take some time. In the mean time the VDI readings will not be correct. You can read Carl's explanation in the VX3 manual which is a good read.