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Minelab Vanquish 540 Relic Mode Observations


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Starting to see some different results from the relic mode on the 540 than I would expect according to the manual and suggested use of the mode. Maybe some other 540 users can confirm or deny what I'm seeing. First off in my soil it's not the deepest mode because of the mineralization, it's actually quite choppy on deep targets. However, what I'm starting to see, and I've tested this a few times and even confirmed it on Monte's nail board. Relic mode appears to have better separation in iron than either the coin or jewelry modes. This is contrary to what the manual says but I'm seeing this more every time I take it out. I'd say it performs about 20% better and I'm taking about surface trash not deep stuff with the V8 coil. Anybody else seeing this same thing?

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33 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Well Relic Mode should have better separation in iron than the other modes. If the manual says otherwise it’s wrong.

Steve - I fully get what you are saying but instead of providing an optimized relic mode a la Equinox Park 2 or Field 2, I think they simply set out to focus relic mode on depth vice separation which probably means they backed off on the fixed, preset recovery speed vs. coins mode which they purposefully designed for separation based on the user manual mode descriptions (so coins mode is what should be used in trashy ferrous sites).  Jewelry mode splits the difference on separation and depth between Coins and Relic modes.  I really don’t think there is significant, if any, difference in the Multi IQ profile between the three modes so they are not really preferential to any specific set of targets based on conductivity and size - they probably picked an all purpose target Multi IQ frequency and signal processing profile that could run stable in wet sand and varied preset, fixed recovery speed settings for each mode to get the desired trade off between depth and separation.  Relic seems to be the most sensitive to ground noise and sweep speed  which would make sense if it also had the lowest recovery speed. 
 

So, forgetting what the modes are actually called I would say ML intended detectorists to use “Coin” mode for situations were you need improved target separation (regardless of coins, jewelry, or relics), “Relic” mode for max target depth (except at mineralized sites), and Jewelry as a good all around “Goldilocks” mode for stable, general purpose land or beach detecting.  That was the intent anyway.

That is, if you are going strictly by what the manual says.

The rub is, as pointed out above, did the mode properties REALLY turn out the way ML INTENDED and described and I think the jury is still out.  I have not yet had the opportunity to do extensive testing to compare and verify the mode properties against one another, but I am not surprised that it may not exactly line up with the user manual descriptions, especially if you take into account ground condition variability which is a definite Achilles heel for Vanquish because it has preset ground balance points and perhaps tries to compensate for that by using Multi IQ signal processing magic, but that really doesn’t work under very extreme soil mineralization conditions.

 

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”The recovery speed would not go lower than 5 if there was no reason to ever go lower than 5. I did personally heavily fight the knee jerk concept of lower recovery speed automatically means more depth, and I just as much fight the idea that high recovery speeds are always the answer.“

Heed this quote above by Steve H. from the thread he linked to in the post above.  Although it is talking about recovery speed settings specific to Equinox, there is a lesson learned here that basically also applies to Vanquish and it’s modes supposedly divvied up into various depth vs. separation trade offs.  Basically, it resurrects the truism that there are very few absolutes when it comes to detecting and how detectors behave.  ML may have had general intended performance objectives in mind for the designated Vanquish modes, but the realities of the specific site conditions and the depth, condition, orientation, and junk density will ultimately determine which mode is optimal for the site and targets of interest and it may look nothing like what ML had intended and may be counterintuitive to what you might think would have been the optimal mode setting for that situation,  

So the bottom line is not to rely on what the book says or even what the so called ”experts “ say.  Those may be good starting points.  However, if possible, you should do a little experimentation at your sites on known targets to validate to yourself whether the detector is behaving as you expect for the given settings and conditions and adjust as necessary.  Takes some patience and a little time when you are anxious to get out there swinging away, but worth it.

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A simple test ... to determine which recovery speed is used by individual Vanquish programs.
is to find out ... from what distance detects an object of the size of a can or shovel .., lower recovery speed is much more sensitive to objects of this size and has a greater reach ..

My Vanquish 340 detects my field shovel .. Fiskars from quite a long distance ...
 So in detection I carry it further from the detector coil ..
 I estimate recovery speed at equivalent recovery speed = 3 for Equinox .. and working in strong /6-bar /mineralization also suggests...you have to reduce the sweeping speed a bit...

 

 

Equinox recovery rates are strongly associated with a certain level of mineralization ... I would say that they correspond to the number of Fe3o4 mineralization bars in fisher F75 / Teknetics T2 / G2 ...

The Recovery speed function in Equinox mainly addresses the following tasks:

1. Enable to achieve, correct detection maximum detection depth and correct ID for given terrain mineralization ..

2 ... Increases and decreases detector separation properties.

So ... if you detect in the field with a level of 5-6 bar Fe3o4 mineralization .. Equinox will be optimally set recovery speed to levels somewhere 5-6 .. where you will get the best depth for this terrain ... as well as regular and reliable signal detection ..in normal coil sweeping ... in such terrain ..

On something less than 3-4 recovery speed such as optimal recovery speed (5-6) you can also get a possibly deeper signal .... but it may not be regular .. or it is only a one-sided signal ..Detection is possible .. but not is optimal ... and you can simply go through several targets ...if you sweep the coil at normal speed ,,,

Conversely, at too high recovery speed 7-8 ... on given terrain / 5-6 bar / ... you can start to lose the maximum brain depth for this terrain .... but further increase the 2D separation properties of the detector ..

Anything in very low mineralized terrain / 1-2 bar Fe3O4 / can easily use all Equinox recovery speed ... 1-8, where recovery speed 2 gives the deepest ID ... but Recovery 3 is the most optimal for all small size items , and small,medium, large  size coins ..

...but on items larger than coins will be recovery speed 1 and 2 deeper ..

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