What Worked For Me

[normmcq]

I recently returned from a hunting trip in Nevada, there were other ZEDs and we were all trying to find what worked best for each individual. I found that I could run with auto smoothing off, normal ground, high yield, sensitivity between 12 and 17. I had my threshold down to 20, target signal up to 20 with max at 2. The ZED ran very stable with clear repeatable signals. I let my friends use my machine and they did not like the high threshold pitch that I used. I think that is a personal preference setting. I have a profound hearing loss and the high pitch makes it easier to distinguish real targets from ground noise. Several times, I switched to auto smoothing only to find that the threshold became more unstable.
There were several times that I was fooled by ground noises, there were several nuggets I found at depth that others either missed or had mistaken for ground noises. I am not saying that they were missed by the ZEDs, but there were several detectors over a small area.
Norm McQ

[Tortuga]

I run everything stock on mine here in southern Arizona.

High yield, normal ground, low audio smoothing.

If I bring my sensitivity up from default it's a little too unstable.

I get fooled by hot rocks and ground mineralization a lot, sometimes I have to go beyond a boot scrape to see what it's beeping on. However because of this I know it's running hot and sensitive. Been working pretty good for me so far.

Oh yeah I pretty much just ground balance once on the start up sequence and leave it too, like described by Steve H. and others.

[fredmason]

If you don't mind the whine of a swarm of mosquitoes, Norms settings work very well. I tried them and had a headache in five minutes-but, I am a delicate little thing...

 

I was having a terrible time with my zed but then Norm reminded me of one very important thing. You must use the start-up procedure when going to a new area. I have no clue nor excuse for forgetting that-but, I did...stupider and stupider...

 

The settings that worked best for me were from LUNK. Thank you, Lunk!!! I did adjust the tone and threshold a bit to suit my ears.

 I love my 7000

 

fred

[LuckyLundy]

Can't run it wrong, just get the coil over a target!

Rick