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Beach Hunting And The Overload Symbol


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On page 25 of the manual you have this note:

"Beach Mode automatically senses black sand and reduces the transmit power to ensure that targets can still be detected without overloading occurring. When black sand is sensed, the Beach Overload Indicator will appear on the LCD. When this icon disappears, full transmit power automatically resumes."

I added the bold to the text above because that is my concern. I've had another hunter ask IF I was experiencing overloads on the 800 and to be honest, I hadn't until tonight. I was running into quite a few beer cans and noticed the overload symbol a few times. My concern and question is  (MINELAB, ARE YOU READING THIS?)  when will the icon disappear?  Only way we have found to actually get it to disappear from the screen is to go to user mode then back again OR turn off the machine and then back on. So, are we at a reduced power or not and for how long?

Another question MINELAB, how low does the power get reduced? 

Anyone out there have any input on overload in the beach modes?

Cliff

 

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Hi Cliff,

My 800 has overloaded a few times on black sand or on a large ferrous target before ...in Beach modes.

At all times my overload symbol went away on its own after 5-10 seconds whilst I slowly swung the coil over a clean area.

I think the key here might be to find a clean, mild spot away from the overload place.

If you have already tried that then I am sorry,  thats all I have got that might help and I wish you the best of luck getting it sorted.

 

 

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Cliff we have talked about that.   Ive been oblivious to it i think..... ive yet to notice it so but then again i dont look at the screen that much.   5 - 10 seconds..... thats a pretty long time to be at reduced power especially if you decide NOT to dig..... especially for a fast recovery machine.   Ill have to pay attention and see what i get buddy.   BUT ..... i suspect most machines do the same thing over large targets with coil shut down...... and we know the CTX will loose depth over say black sand without us knowing its doing it.   You would think it would be much like the PPer...... and slowly reduce the targets response. 

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Biggest thing is it won't clear on its own. Easy enough to clear IF you know it is there but as you know Dew, when water hunting deep, you can't always see the screen. So tonight, I'll do some testing just to see if I can still see a deeper target with the overload symbol on the display. 

Cliff

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Well i air tested mine on my car cliff....... mine goes off approximately 10 seconds like was mentioned.    Cliff...... to be honest there isnt a lot of modulation on large vs very large targets...... so maybe they felt they needed something to tell us that..... otherwise on MOST machine we KNOW when we are dealing with a large target.   Not so much with the Nox..... sunglasses can sound like a smaller target until you get to digging.    Every machine has coil shut down......... kind of like squeezing a sponge.  Youd think the Nox would recovery much faster ....... 10 seconds seems like a long time to me for that idiot light to go off.    I will say there seems to be a recovery lag when digging a target....... put your coil back in the hole and it takes a moment to start detecting again.    Its not the same as swinging over targets and it IDing them quickly based on recovery speed.

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Well, I tested my 800 in the garage and it will reset after approximately 10 seconds, however, when in the saltwater it will not reset on its own. Once the overload is in, it stays in until you turn the machine on and off OR use the user profile button on then off to make the symbol clear. 

Cliff

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Now we have to bury ..... say a penny approximately 6  or 8" near that target.  Make sure it will hit it then....... overload the machine and see if it hits the bury targets.  Least we will know if it continues to loose depth.   I tried it in my pool........ still will reset at about 10 seconds.   Sooooo ill make a run tomorrow to the beach between rain drops and let you know what my machine does.

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The overload symbol is not about being over large targets per se. It senses when there is too much signal blowback from saltwater or black sand or both. When a detectors "sees" too much salt or too much black sand (or both) it will go totally blind unless the transmit signal is reduced. Going into overload is not reducing depth - it is giving you depth when the machine would otherwise be non-functional.

The overload will not go away until the conditions creating it go away.

The only time I have seen the overload signal is when crossing areas on a beach obviously loaded with magnetite. The overload symbol comes on and the detector keeps running fine, then the symbol goes away once past the magnetite patch.

Contact Minelab Service directly if you think you have a defective detector. They will not respond here even if they see this (at least I doubt it).

Difficult Areas – Black Sand
Some beaches contain black sand, which has high natural iron content and is often magnetic. This causes continuous false ferrous detections, making normal beach detecting impossible. Beach Mode automatically senses black sand and reduces the transmit power to ensure that targets can still be detected without overloading occurring. When black sand is sensed, the Beach Overload Indicator will appear on the LCD. When this icon disappears, full transmit power automatically resumes.

minelab-equinox-beach-2-mode.jpg.ee06e33

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9 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Going into overload is not reducing depth - it is giving you depth when the machine would otherwise be non-functional. 

The overload will not go away until the conditions creating it go away.

Steve, thanks for that input ….. but..... I'm in Florida, on the Gulf coast with really mild conditions.....I can hunt all day in the water without the overload coming in UNLESS I have my coil near a beer can OR put my scoop next to the coil for a longer period of time (haven't tried big iron yet). That is when the overload comes in and does not clear.....so …..conditions do go away but it doesn't reset when in the water...

My main concern is IF transmit power is reduced does transmit power stay reduced IF the symbol is still showing on the display?

Cliff

 

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I did a short test of Beach2 - sens16, recovery speed4,,with normal TX performance .. and also from a overload-reducedTX performance on coin 50eurocent, and a large piece of lead and will not make a big differencein depth ..- maybe 2-3cm ..., and less ...

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