understanding 4500 settings

I dont have an under standing of how the detector operates and im not sure that i need to, or am capable of understanding it all, however it would be good to see a chart on how different settings can be adjusted to make the most out of: coils,soil, depth, small or large nuggets,I have used other peoples settings with sucess but I would would like to know, what to adjust,when to adjust, how much to adjust it increase or decrease, to get the most from my 4500

The simplest way of looking at what all the various timings do is to pay attention to the ground types you are working in, generally the paler ground tends to be less noisy, so more aggressive timings such as Normal, Sens Xtra, or even Sharp can be used. If the ground is showing a lot of black or dark rocks mixed in with darker shades of red clay and soils suggests you should look into using one of the new timings such as Smooth or better yet Enhance.

Typically noisy ground can be tamed somewhat by using a DD coil in the more aggressive timings, Sens Xtra is probably one of the better ones because the earlier receive of the Sens Xtra timings lifts the signal response a lot especially on the smaller nuggets.

The Smooth and Enhance timings are better suited to Monoloop coils to maximise their performance, all the other timings can be used with either DD's or Monoloops. When I refer to the mainstay timings such as Normal or Sens Xtra as being aggressive it is because they have the most outright depth performance if the conditions are suitable, however depth is relative if measured in benign ground (or in air if you like). Even though the aggressive timings will outperform the Smooth or Enhance timings in neutral ground or an air test, in the real world were mineralisation is present the resultant ground noise generated by the hot ground types in the aggressive timings can mask a lot of good targets so can negate the depth/performance advantages of the aggressive timings.

If you are detecting in Normal or Sens Xtra or Sharp and are finding you are digging a lot of ground noise or the detector is constantly murmuring even when using Tracking mode on the Ground Balance then there is a very good chance the Enhance or Smooth timings will be beneficial. Any sort of ground noise or response can and will mask a good target, the amount of noise or response from the ground is directly proportional to the size of target masked relative to depth the target is located at (obviously the deeper the target is the fainter the response, so correspondingly the less amount of ground signal required to mask said deep targets).

Hope this helps,

Jonathan Porter