Atlas

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Beav_can -- I did have my cell phone with me and I will test today with the phone off. I guess I'm just not that used to using a pulse in an urban environment. Previously with my GP3000 I'm using way out in the hills. Even then an overhead jet can give EMI. This cell phone thing may also explain why my friends Infinium will start to howl once in a while and he doesn't know why. I really appreciate this because sometimes it's the obvious stuff that messes you up. Steve -- I would tend to mostly run manual ground balance but tried the Auto GB at the lake due to rapidly changing pockets of black sand etc. What do you know of the sensitivity of the ATX vs the Infinium. That is the ATX has a manual control and the Infinium has none. So does the Infinium have Auto sensitivity or is it preset at max or some other level? I guess I'm wondering if I have my sensitivity at say 7 how comparable is that to say the Infinium with no sens. control. I'm also wondering how low can you go with sensitivity on the ATX and still get some depth? I read your story on the ATX in Hawaii and you mentioned running Sens. at 7 there and got good results. HH

Yes I did call and got an RMA number. It turns out the machine is no longer under warranty so I thought I would take it back to the park for another test. My first attempt at testing went kind of like before. So I slowed down and went back through the frequency scan and GB again and the machine worked perfect. I think maybe I wasn't pressing the shift key before when doing the GB If that is the case I feel kind of dumb about this. After this the machine stabilized and was running with a smooth threshold I telescoped the shaft in and out a few times and moved the coil and no falsing. I even managed 3 coins and a bunch of tabs. On a side note I know I used the shift key to get the machine into Auto GB at the lake because the green light was flashing. Do you still need to do the manual GB pumping procedure when running in Auto GB? Do you think the machine would give that spiking type signal with no coil motion if not properly GB'd. When it was doing this my nickel test target was giving a low/high response so I guess this would be possible with improper GB. I'm going back to the park tomorrow for another test run. HH

It looks like the 10x5.5" DD elliptical and the 5" round? DD come with the pro-pack. So it seems to me you have the small end covered. The 10x5.5 concentric seems like a duplication of what you have in a DD and will not do as well in mineralized ground. The 13x15 DD would be interesting if not for the fact that you have a 4500. For hunting gold with that size coil I'd rather use the 4500. I think I would just stay with what you have and put the 5" on and use the machine for fine gold like a Gold Bug. Regarding your coil collection for the 4500 I completely understand. But I don't have enough so I got an idea. You could go through the collection and find the overlaps. Then you could post those to the classifieds and I could add them to my collection Hee-Hee-Hee - Just having a little fun. I just recently added the Detech 8" DD to my collection for use with my GP 3000. So far the test run in the park showed good stability and no falses on bumping. I have 2 16" NF round coils DD and Mono, a 14" NF EM, 12" NF EM and the stock 11" round DD. So this coil fit into that small space and I'll use it where I have hotter ground and hot rocks. Oh yeah it is also waterproof. Most guys would probably have bought the NF Sadie and I thought about that but since I don't have a GPX I thought the DD would work better with my 3000. Probably the only coil that is missing from the collection is a 16" elliptical but since I have two rounds in that size I hesitate. HH

Hi all, New to the Forum and have a problem I hope someone can help me with. Well I think the ATX (used) I recently got is down for the count After the initial park test where the machine worked as advertised I took it to the lake for a water hunt. It was running real quiet and smooth at the first two beaches. Scored a silver ring and St Christopher medal on a chain Good frequency scan and GB. At the third beach I got a low batt indicator and did a battery change back at the truck. Upon returning to the water the machine was acting real erratic with lots of false signals and LED indicators flashing up to the 7/8 range and even locking at this level. I thought well maybe its EMI or drift so I checked with my buddy who is running an infinium and he said his machine was purring like a kitten. So I did another factory reset and decide to run in ground tracking. I was still getting signals but hard to hear the faint ones with all the falsing. I checked the battery compartment when I got home and no leaks. Batteries were in proper polarization and no reversed cells. So I decided to take it to the park today where I originally tested it with a fresh set of batteries. Did Freq Scan and GB. The GB seemed a little off from when I first got the machine. That is when I press the button and get the two tones I'm not hearing much ground signal. I noticed this at the lake also. Anyway tried to run and with the coil stationary I'm getting a pulsing signal from 1-4 LED range and spiking up to 7/8 range. The signal then locked at 8 and wouldn't go away without a reset but then continued the pulsing. So I decided to do a factory reset and that's when it got interesting. Usually on a factory reset I get two tones followed by the 4 battery check tones. The machine went straight to 4 tones with no LED display. So the machine is on and making spurious noises but no LED's are on. Did this a few times with the same results. So I put the machine away and got my GP3000 out as a control test. The 3000 noise canceled and GB'd in this park fine and I dug a few signals till the rain started. Anyway this kind of rules out that there was some type of crazy EMI that can't be eliminated. Next I called the local dealer who sold the machine to the guy I bought it from and he thought it might be the coil. back at the house I slid the shaft out a bit and had a look at the coil wire connector. Put in a new set of batts and checked the coil connector for leaks saw none but where the wire goes into the black connector there is some type of rubbery gasket material that is squeezed out a bit. Any way I fired up the machine and it went through a normal cycle with LED's and did the frequency scan but still getting that spiking signal. I can turn sens down and bring that signal down but then cant hear test targets through the signal at the low sens level. Dealer told me to call Garrett on Monday and that is the plan. I think there is still 6 months on the Warranty but well see. Anyone have similar problems? I have this message posted on the ATX forum and a member there suggested testing my machine with a known good coil. Anyone in the Reno area with an ATX and a good coil that I could use as a test on my machine? I know that's a lot to ask but and maybe not even a good idea. Maybe Steve will know?