4th December 2005, 04:22 AM
[u]Ground Effect</u>
As mentiond in earlier posts, ground mineralisation or Ground Effect has a dramatic influence on the performance of a metal detector.
This is due to the ferrous oxides within the ground matrix being 'read' as a positive signal by the detector.
To combat this effect, metal detectors are divided into three types - Fixed Ground Balance, Manual Ground Balance and Automatic Ground Balance.
[u]Fixed Ground Balance</u>
Fixed ground balance detectors have as the name implies a fixed level of ground exclusion. In the main this is good for most sites where average lvels of mineralisation are present. In situations where higher levels are encountered and the detector becomes unstable, the user can counteract this by adjusting the sensitivity control, but this will however lead to some loss of performance.
Many inexperienced detectorists will complain that their detector is unstable, normally this is because they are trying to operate at too high a level of sensivity for the prevailing ground conditions. The ground will determine the level of sensitivity and performance of the detector,it is simply a matter of listening to what the machine is telling you..it knows best.
[u]Manual Ground Balance</u>
As the name says, the cuicitry on these machines allow forthe operator to manually set the level of ground exclusion based on prevailing mineralisation levels. If set correctly then the operator can achieve optimum levels of performance from the detecor, however a poorly manually balanced machine can easily result in worse performance than one with fixed ground balance.
Manually ground balancing is a simple operation, which wwith exprience can be carried out in a matter of seconds.
Another common mistake on manually ground balanced machines is that the user does not regularly check the balancing. Mineralisation levels can change quite rapidly even over a small area andif the operator does forget to check the balancehe can soon quite easily be running at less than optimum performance.
[u]Automatic Ground Balance</u>
Sometimes referred to as Ground Tracking. On some more sophisticated units, the detectors ground balancing circuitry continually monitors and samples the level of ground mineralisation. This information is read by the detectors on board microprocesor and the ground balance is automatically altered depending on ground conditions to maintain optimum performance without any input from the operator.
As mentiond in earlier posts, ground mineralisation or Ground Effect has a dramatic influence on the performance of a metal detector.
This is due to the ferrous oxides within the ground matrix being 'read' as a positive signal by the detector.
To combat this effect, metal detectors are divided into three types - Fixed Ground Balance, Manual Ground Balance and Automatic Ground Balance.
[u]Fixed Ground Balance</u>
Fixed ground balance detectors have as the name implies a fixed level of ground exclusion. In the main this is good for most sites where average lvels of mineralisation are present. In situations where higher levels are encountered and the detector becomes unstable, the user can counteract this by adjusting the sensitivity control, but this will however lead to some loss of performance.
Many inexperienced detectorists will complain that their detector is unstable, normally this is because they are trying to operate at too high a level of sensivity for the prevailing ground conditions. The ground will determine the level of sensitivity and performance of the detector,it is simply a matter of listening to what the machine is telling you..it knows best.
[u]Manual Ground Balance</u>
As the name says, the cuicitry on these machines allow forthe operator to manually set the level of ground exclusion based on prevailing mineralisation levels. If set correctly then the operator can achieve optimum levels of performance from the detecor, however a poorly manually balanced machine can easily result in worse performance than one with fixed ground balance.
Manually ground balancing is a simple operation, which wwith exprience can be carried out in a matter of seconds.
Another common mistake on manually ground balanced machines is that the user does not regularly check the balancing. Mineralisation levels can change quite rapidly even over a small area andif the operator does forget to check the balancehe can soon quite easily be running at less than optimum performance.
[u]Automatic Ground Balance</u>
Sometimes referred to as Ground Tracking. On some more sophisticated units, the detectors ground balancing circuitry continually monitors and samples the level of ground mineralisation. This information is read by the detectors on board microprocesor and the ground balance is automatically altered depending on ground conditions to maintain optimum performance without any input from the operator.