MXT Coils & Tuning For Coins

[auminesweeper]

Yes it is but I am in London while my son finishes College

[JCR]

On 2/15/2016 at 4:46 AM, auminesweeper said:

Tom my setting are nothing special, I have loads of links to post explaining setting the MXTs up for different Tasks / Areas etc so I will send those Via PM in fairness to Steve,

When it come to Coin Hunting with the MXT I use the Relic mode,, If your MXT is the MXT E'series or the MXT 300, use the Relic mode with the Trigger set in the middle, The reason I do this is because it has a slower SAT speed and I can run the Gain up Higher, A simple way to prove this to your self is to set it up like that and run the Gain as high as you can just as it starts to get noisy, NOW switch it to C&J or push the Trigger forward and see how noisy it gets then back the Gain down to where it runs smooth and now look at the Gain pot and see how much you have turned it down, Apart from the Prospect mode I never use the other settings, You can either tune the Gain like prospectors do and run it noisy or tune it just before the edge of being noisy,

Now I used the 12" coil in a junk filled site because everyone had hammered it with XPs Tesoro's, Minelabs, you name it had been hammered by every detector made/sold since 1967 and even Detector REPS from all the companies had used it as their Demo/Test site for The Once biggest dealers over here and I worked out that because of all the junk no one had ever used a big coil on the place where you can hit 10 or more targets in one sweep of the coil and my sovereign GT was useless there because of the Iron mask and my E-Trac behaved like it was on LSD, and I only ever found one coin there using them in about 18 months until I wised up, so knowing the trouble I had and thinking others must of had the same problem but they were trying to get by with smaller coils and I even tried that too and still Nothing,

Anyway I bought the MXT 300 and being short of cash off I went using the 12" Coil and I picked a spot on the edge of the woods and in the first sweep of the Coil I found 3 Gold Items In one 4 foot sweep, One at the start and 2 about a foot apart at the other end of the sweep, I marked the targets and then dug them, Happy Days    .

To find those deeper Coins/Items Ignore all the stuff where people say In junk filled sites you need a small coil because don't forget that most sites have been hammered by every man and his Dogs best mate and because of the junk they switch to smaller coils, I use the 12" coil and when I have gone over the place a few times I then switch to a smaller coil.

When you set up your machine take a 2 and a haif or 3 inch nail with you and after you have GB'd your machine throw it on the Ground and set your disc so it just knocks out the nail trying to keep it as low as possible If it makes a low tone at 2.8 try and set it at 2.4 or what ever the lowest setting it will go is, it should be somewhere between 2 and 3, you will dig a little more Iron but not enough to drive you nuts

So Turn on your machine with the gain at about 3 to 4 In the Relic mode with the trigger in the middle and Ground balance but don't put the coil closer than 4 to 5 inches to the ground, this sets the GB a bit more positive and Lock the Tracking, Now throw down your Nail and set the DISC, Now turn the Gain up to where it starts to run Rough and then back it off just a touch so it is right on the edge and off you Go, and that is all I do

Now I know the MXT has built in warnings about ( REDUCE GAIN LIFT LOOP ) so you do not Overdrive the Return signal But if you Drop the Gain down which it totally ALIEN to us all, But with the MXT it will process the signal better and ID Targets more Correctly and it will still Go as Deep, You can Try this your self with a quick Air Test just to see how much this will effect the Depth but remember the depth is reduced in the ground so turning down the gain will have a lesser effect because all signals are restricted by the soil anyway.

IE, So if your 6x10 is hitting coins at 8 or 9 inches with the Gain set just before where it runs rough, Now test it doing an Air Test and then Strap on the 12" and set the Gain to the max again now lower the Gain so that coil reads the coin at the same distance as the 6x10 does, and then look at the Gain knob and see how much lower it is and that shows you the power Reserve that you have left, So by setting your Gain anywhere between there and maximum is all free and setting the gain within the 2 settings you know will add  extra depth, Don't forget that the Ground can stuff that up but if the soil reading gets up to around 70 - 75 then the 10 DD comes into play because the 12" concentric will start to loose depth, The Ground reading where that deep coin was found varies between 64 to 67,

Going back to that site for a minute, People had been detecting there for 34 years at the time and yet I found a Roman Villa there just by going deeper, So don't get sucked into that small coil thing because it does pay to think out of the box sometimes, NOT all the time, But when the finds are thin on the ground so to speak it pays to do the opposite to what everyone else does,

Oh and if you want to check your MXTs recovery Speed/Rate put it in the Prospecting mode and put 6 coins in a Row. Starting with each coin being 6" apart and sweep the coil over them and then move them  closer at an inch at a time and you will hear it give a machine gun effect as you get them closer together sweeping at normal speed and the faster you sweep the faster the it makes the sound.

Hope this Helps,, Good Luck.

 

John

John,  If you still have the Links for MXT set up you sent Tom I sure would like to have them also.

I know this is an old thread but I'm really liking my new to me MXT.

Thanks,

Chris

[glacialgold]

1 hour ago, JCR said:

I know this is an old thread but I'm really liking my new to me MXT.

Thanks,

Chris

Hey, I'm in the same "new to me" MXT boat as of yesterday, having picked up an MXT Pro w/the 10x6 DD coil from a fellow forum member.

First off, my kids think it sounds like a "dying cow" 🤣, so yeah, different tones than the Nox or Legend.

I read the instructions (and super helpful having a cheatsheet on the bottom of the box) and promptly took the beast out to my backyard, which I've worked over many, many times using an Ace 400, and with testing out various coils on the Nox 800 and Legend. Lo and behold, the MXT banged hard on two targets close together in the center of the yard, one coming up on the display as a penny and the other as a quarter. Both VDIs turned out to be true, w/the coins at ~4-5" inches down. No idea how I'd missed those so many times with the other machines.

Anyways, happy to hear somebody else is trying out this same, slightly-retro detector!

[auminesweeper]

2 hours ago, JCR said:

John,  If you still have the Links for MXT set up you sent Tom I sure would like to have them also.

I know this is an old thread but I'm really liking my new to me MXT.

Thanks,

Chris

G'day Chris the MXT's being a simple knobs and switches Machine is simple to set up,

Depending on the Ground as in how polluted it is with junk I keep it simple,

1) If there is a lot of junk I set the Ground to Track,

2) I Set the Gain to between 4 and 6 So when I Ground Balance it I lessen the Risk of Ground Balancing Out Metal or ground balancing to anything that could give me a false reading and pump the Coil 4 or 5 times and then Switch the Track Button to Lock, OR If you have the MXT Pro or All Pro then I leave the Ground Button set to Lock and just press the Grab Button and pump the Coil a few times and then release it,

3) For 99% of the time I use the Two Tone Relic Mode because it has a Slower S.A.T. Speed and it allows you to turn the Gain up Higher than any of the Other modes except the Prospecting mode and it Bleeps for Good and Grunts for Bad targets,

4) I set the Disc to close to 1.9 to around 2.3 MAX trying to keep the marker on the knob closer to the Number 2 as possible,

5) Then I turn the Gain up until it starts chattering and back it off a touch until you get to know the MXT so it smooths out the threshold, Once you get to know it then you can crank it up in to the noisey area of the Dial,

6) If the Ground is too Hot IE Minerals etc the MXT will make a sound like a Fog Horn and the Screen will say "Reduce Gain Lift Loop" so just lower your Gain a little until it no longer happens,

Using these setting will get you up and running then it is just a matter of fine tuning the Gain to how you prefer to hunt, After that then you can practice the All Metal/ Prospecting Mode and well as learning how to use the 3rd Tone in the Standard Relic Mode as listed above then you will really see some depth, The MXT was / Is an old War Horse but it can still make good finds and will always put a smile on ya face and will put the fun back in to detecting, Sure we got all singing all dancing ones now but Old School still works Too.

 

I still have a Brand New MXT All Pro still in the Box that I never used as well as a couple of Spare Battery Boxes, I also bought about 8+ Coils for mine from the tiny 4x6DD and the 5.3 Concentric right up to the 15" MXT Max Concentric Coil, It's a beast if you want to dig Monster Holes on larger target a few feet deep but even as big as it is, It can still see bits of lead weighing 0.02 and 0.03 grams,

Anyways I hope that helps, Good Luck and have fun,👍

[JCR]

3 hours ago, glacialgold said:

Hey, I'm in the same "new to me" MXT boat as of yesterday, having picked up an MXT Pro w/the 10x6 DD coil from a fellow forum member.

First off, my kids think it sounds like a "dying cow" 🤣, so yeah, different tones than the Nox or Legend.

I read the instructions (and super helpful having a cheatsheet on the bottom of the box) and promptly took the beast out to my backyard, which I've worked over many, many times using an Ace 400, and with testing out various coils on the Nox 800 and Legend. Lo and behold, the MXT banged hard on two targets close together in the center of the yard, one coming up on the display as a penny and the other as a quarter. Both VDIs turned out to be true, w/the coins at ~4-5" inches down. No idea how I'd missed those so many times with the other machines.

Anyways, happy to hear somebody else is trying out this same, slightly-retro detector!

Sounds like me. My first hunt with it on ground I have covered several times, Dug a 1919 Wheat pin pointer deep. That was with the stock 950 coil in Relic mode. Very stable, very good VDI resolution. I like it. It's main use will be deep targets running the mix mode Relic & All Metal Prospect. I have a 13" Detech Ultimate coming for it. Got to see if the big coils on the Legend, Vista X, AT Max & Tarsacci missed anything.

[glacialgold]

@auminesweeper

Excellent advice, thank you! 

Do you know if there's a goood rechargable battery pack still available for the MXT? I've seen some available on ebay, etc., but wasn't sure if those are viable options. Alternatively, I can just run 8xAA rechargables in the magazine...but would prefer a single plug-in option.

42 minutes ago, JCR said:

Sounds like me. My first hunt with it on ground I have covered several times, Dug a 1919 Wheat pin pointer deep. That was with the stock 950 coil in Relic mode. Very stable, very good VDI resolution. I like it. It's main use will be deep targets running the mix mode Relic & All Metal Prospect. I have a 13" Detech Ultimate coming for it. Got to see if the big coils on the Legend, Vista X, AT Max & Tarsacci missed anything.

Agreed on all points above. Only have the 10x6 coil for now, but my plan is to take the machine out over sites I've "worked out" with the Nox and Legend and see what it pulls out of the ground.

[auminesweeper]

3 minutes ago, glacialgold said:

@auminesweeper

Excellent advice, thank you! 

Do you know if there's a goood rechargable battery pack still available for the MXT? I've seen some available on ebay, etc., but wasn't sure if those are viable options. Alternatively, I can just run 8xAA rechargables in the magazine...but would prefer a single plug-in option.

Agreed on all points above. Only have the 10x6 coil for now, but my plan is to take the machine out over sites I've "worked out" with the Nox and Legend and see what it pulls out of the ground.

G'day, The Original MXT you could buy a NiCad Pack for then Whites replaced that with the NiMh Pack But you could try and find the Battery Pack for the TDI SL because that is the same as the NiMh pack,

BUT, I know they said the run time is around 35 to 40 Hours using ordinary batteries but the truth is the MXT will run for 57 to 65+++ hours on a set of Duracells OR you could just use ordinary NiMh AA'' and still get 20 to 35 Hours out of them, The MXT is voltage controlled so whether it is putting 12v or 9v the power output of the Detector remains the Same, So don't worry if you go out one day and the Voltage is reading 9.8v etc, I've seen mine go down to 8v+/-.

 

Hope that helps, Good luck and let us know how you get On,👍

[KD8GIS]

  I love to see People finding the MXT... I have the Pro and for the most part in my area (WV) civil war area. Relic, 2 tone, disc low and sensitivity high as you can.  5X8 DD and a Detech 13 Ultimate coil. The detector will always be my "Go-to" Number one detector.  As you may have seen, Even a nice 10 year old MXT pro will go for a price which reflect it's abilities.  Enjoy!

[auminesweeper]

5 minutes ago, KD8GIS said:

  I love to see People finding the MXT... I have the Pro and for the most part in my area (WV) civil war area. Relic, 2 tone, disc low and sensitivity high as you can.  5X8 DD and a Detech 13 Ultimate coil. The detector will always be my "Go-to" Number one detector.  As you may have seen, Even a nice 10 year old MXT pro will go for a price which reflect it's abilities.  Enjoy!

I only noticed the price hike today because I just about gave up detecting and this thread coming back to life again, Now I have finished my little camper I might start going to a few rally's again.

 

The MXT I bought has never been outside I just used it for mapping Coils detection fields in the House so it is as new and boxed, I also got out all the Coils and found I also have a pair of Covers for it and a new pair of Whites ProStar Headphones, After not using or even seeing the MXT for this last 7 or 8 years and seeing it today still says all is right with the world, It's hard not to like something that you have a history with,

 

There's many a Good Story by Steve and Chris R here on the forum both of which had a real big hand in launching the first MXT E Series, And many members here have hit their first Gold with the MXT, Times change and things move on but despite it's 21 years ago since it's launch It is still as good as it ever was and still holds it's own, Much like the GPX on Gold or the Soverign Series on the Beach, We have been lucky to live and share the Good times with some of the most Iconic detectors in history,

[JCR]

@auminesweeper  I hope you carry thru and enjoy your camper and old friend, the MXT at some Rally’s soon.