Question About Soil

[kac]

The Carrot is one of the better pointers in it's class. Not sure how much more depth you will gain with another pointer. I use the Pulse pointer from Nokta which is very good and has descent depth. My Minelab Profind 35 is more sensitive to small items and both have similar depth. The Pulse does not see coal but also for tiny jewelry like ear rings the point has to touch the target to sound off where the ML can pick an earing out just off the surface.

For stability the Pulse is no question far better. My guess you will probably really like the f-pulse. Just keep in mind if you pick a new machine and they have a wireless system that works with a particular pointer then go with that whole system. I say that because there can be noise issues between various machine and pointer combos. When I use my Nokta machines I use the same headphones and pulse pointer. If I use my Tesoro or AT Pro I will use the ProFind.

[mh9162013]

16 minutes ago, kac said:

The Carrot is one of the better pointers in it's class. Not sure how much more depth you will gain with another pointer.

The Carrot on max sensitivity if plenty sensitive for me! But it's ratcheting (closing range) is awful. On medium sensitivity, it's fine, though. I'm hoping that the F-Pulse on low or medium sensitivity is the same as the Carrot on high, yet with better ratcheting.

[kac]

When you say ratcheting down you mean the re-tune?

If your planning on using the F Pulse with your F2 it should be a good combo.

[mh9162013]

26 minutes ago, kac said:

When you say ratcheting down you mean the re-tune?

No, I'm referring to the "closing range" from where the pinpointer first detects the object until you get the solid tone or vibration. The White's TRX was famous for its ratcheting ability.

[Chase Goldman]

Do you ever use one touch retune?  I do that when I first get a faint whiff of the target (or mineralized dirt buzzing) and as I close in - in this manner I always keep it on max sensitivity.  It works especially well in mineralized dirt.  I also utilize the difference in side vs. point sensitivitity on the carrot.  So it looks like I am just not quite understanding your concern.  Anyway, if your budget allows for the F pulse, don't let me dissuade you because having a pulse based pinpointer is an asset.  I also own the XP pinpointer which is pulse based and switch to that when I am using the Deus, I prefer it to the carrot in the hot stuff, but I know how to manipulate the carrot in hot dirt.  I only mention that If you are budget limited to getting that Equinox (or similar price point detector) because you have the F pulse pinpointer on the shopping list.  Get the detector you need now and the pinpointer you want later, could be an alternative approach.  If you can afford both, then great.

[mh9162013]

29 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

Do you ever use one touch retune?

If you're referring to pressing the button once the Carrot "maxes out" and gives me a solid buzz/tone, then no, I don't do that. I don't do that b/c any additional "closing range" or ratcheting ability is marginal and almost useless.

However, I have not tried turning on the Carrot (for the first time) when pressed against hot dirt. My understanding is that while this might help reduce the chatter in hot dirt such that using the Carrot on max sensitivity is possible, it won't address the relatively poor ratcheting ability of the Carrot (compared to the TRX or XP Mi-4 or 6).

[Chase Goldman]

11 minutes ago, mh9162013 said:

If you're referring to pressing the button once the Carrot "maxes out" and gives me a solid buzz/tone, then no, I don't do that. I don't do that b/c any additional "closing range" or ratcheting ability is marginal and almost useless.

You don't press it when it maxes out, you press it well before it maxes out (when you hear a slight buzz) that way you lessen the degree to which sensitivity is reduced and can work you way to the hot spot (target location).  If you press it when it maxes out you risk losing the sensitivity you need to locate the target because it resets to basically minimum sensitivity at that point.

[mh9162013]

6 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

You don't press it when it maxes out, you press it well before it maxes out (when you hear a slight buzz) that way you lessen the degree to which sensitivity is reduced and can work you way to the hot spot (target location).

So I could be retuning wrong...ok, lemme go get my Carrot and trying it the way you have suggested.

 

[Chase Goldman]

Sounds good.  Hopefully that works better.  The other part is having a sense for the sensitive areas of the pinpointer.  If you lie it down in hot dirt  or shove the tip in the dirt it will tend to sound off more than if you simply touch the dirt with the tip because the sides of the pinpointer are more sensitive that the bottom/tip.  That way I can vary the intensity of the mineralization buzz to selectively cancel out the mineralization as I work towards the target.  It is all second nature to me but hard to describe in text.  Anyway, at the end of the day, it may not be ideal for the way you recover targets and the F pulse may be the way to go.  Glad you are going to give it a go, regardless.

[mh9162013]

Ok, so I placed my Carrot on max sensitivity and noted when the Carrot first picked up on a target (I used a dead 9V battery I had laying around). Then I noted when the Carrot maxed out. Where it maxes out I retuned it and noted how much additional "closing range" or ratcheting range it gave me.

I turn turned it off and turned it back on to make sure it was properly "reset." I repeated the experiment, except after the Carrot first picked up on the target, I retuned it. I moved the target closer until I was able to just barely pick up on it and retuned it again. I did this over and over until the Carrot basically maxed out again. I noticed that I was able to get the target closer to the Carrot before it maxed out.

In other words, I did noticed an improvement. But the improvement was not huge, but definitely noticeable. Instead of maxing out with a target around around 2 inches away (on max sensitivity with a 9V battery) it maxed out around 1.25 inches away. So yeah, definitely an improvement. The problem is, I had to retune it just as it picked up on a target. If I waited too long into the "closing range" to retune, any improvement was greatly diminished. 

So your advice on how to retune definitely works and makes my Carrot a better tool. However, I would still prefer to have better closing range by "default" w/o having to resort to being very careful in how and when I retune my Carrot. However, this new development might be enough to delay when I purchase an F-Pulse? Something to think about.

Thanks Chase!