Good Ground Balance, Doesn't The V3i...

[MartinL]

...automatically balance in auto-balance mode? I've read where people say that the V3i can be balanced in just a few swings when in auto mode, so if that is true, then what is the stern advice always given about Must get a good GB! Is manually ground balancing redundant? Sure, it can't hurt to manually GB, but isn't the auto feature something we paid for? Does the manual GB serve as some kind of a benchmark for the auto balance, or is simply going to a site and spending a few minutes swinging the coil for balance the same thing? martin

[CyberSage]

Another great question Martin! You are correct in the way that the Autotrac function works. So why manually ground Balance? If you look closely at most of the programs out there geared for hunting deeper targets, you will notice that the Locktrac function is set to ON. If you are in good ground this serves to quiet things down a bit and provide an edge on sensitivity. This of course only holds true if your ground is fairly consistent in it's mineralization strength. It can also serve to eliminate repeating response anomalies in bad ground. So if you are using Locktrac, then a good manual ground balance is very important, as it will not update until the next time you manually ground balance.

[MartinL]

I've actually began using LokTrak after seeing it in many custom programs. I have been experimenting with setting it to auto in the live controls for refreshing the GB, instead of looking for clean ground and doing a manual. Then switch back to LokTrak. It seems quicker. I haven't seemed notice the quality of the GB being off when sanity checked over a clean soft of ground latter. I just wanted to ask in case I was fooling myself with the short cut. martin

[rcasio44]

Here's my take, but what do I know? I do know I am not limited to shallow targets soooo.

I cannot stress the importance of a GOOD manual ground balance to start. If your G/B is not right it affects your ability to correctly ID targets and also the depth of recovery. Carl has a good explanation in the VX3 manual. Unless you are completely filtering out the ground signal you will not be at the optimum performance.

Once the V is powered up it goes into fast track for 20 seconds. So some of you are ground balancing you just don't know you are. If you don't start swinging immediately you need to do a manual balance or risk not being balanced correctly. Make sure you balance over a patch of ground that is clear of all but soil. Test the patch in pin point. If you can't find a clean piece of ground make it clean.

The instructions for balancing is a suggestion only. Pump until the tone doesn't change this can take more pumps then some people think. The last step you should make after making any program changes is a G/B.

While you are hunting, if you pull the trigger and as you lower the coil to the ground and there is a noticeable change in the audio you need to balance again. This is an easy way to know if not doing a manual balancing is working worked or how long it takes the autotrac to get to balance point.