tuning SDC2300

Howdy folks,

After reading somewhere that a detectorist tunes his SDC laying the coil flat on the ground... Before I try it I was wondering if that is a better method than holding it in the air....How do the pros do it???? Advice is appreciated... noyungan

G'day noyungan

Good question, either way seems to work, Minelab have the same scenario for all there PI detectors, and the SDC2300 is a PI detector.

I have heard some people say place the coil on the ground to do the auto tune because, how many nuggets are there in mid air.

Others say that the emi you are trying to tune out comes from the air not the ground, and its a ground balance that needs to be done to "tune" to the ground not the auto tune for emi.

So there you have it, some will tell you one way others will tell you the opposite, but in the end Minelab made the machine and should know the best way to auto tune it, and that is hold it in the air and towards the most noisy direction for which the emi is coming from, and press the noise cancel button in the case of the SDC2300, or the auto tune button for the GPX/GP etc

cheers dave

Maybe have a crack using both methods and see which one works best for you? I reckon different types of EMI affect the detector in different ways, and one kind of tuning may work better in a given situation than the other. Does that make sense?
I don't think there's a right and a wrong way of doing it.

Ground balancing is different to auto tuning. The auto tune button on the front end of the detector is for EMI & to get the detector to settle on the quietest frequency for the conditions. This is best done in the air pointing the coil to the noisiest direction of EMI. Like Davsgold has stated. Ground balancing isnt a tuning like the auto tuning is although I guess you could say that you are "tuning" the detector to the ground conditions. You wouldnt do ground balancing in mid air & I dont think you should do the auto tuning for EMI on the ground.

Good luck out there

JW

From the SD2100 onwards to current GPX-4500 have always tuned the detector with it laying on the ground and the edge of coil pointing up wards. In WA have never bothered circling 180° for EMI direction, no power lines or towers out where we go.

Hi fellows, many thganks I'll get back to you as I'm having problems with this ##*** computer .. noyungan

The ground to a detector is a target....ground balancing takes out that target. EMI is a different thing all together.
Tuning in air is about as useful as GBing in air. EMI is ever changing from minute to minute.

I GB on the ground in the detecting position,(vertically polarized ) because this is where the coil is doing most of its work...not 2 foot in the air in the horizontal position.

Height is might in the world of radio waves...the higher you have your antenna, the better it receives. Tune it where its going to have the best effect.....in the detecting position.

Just saying.

Many thanks detectorists for all your posts,,

I am sorry I'm having so much trouble getting posts sent. Four times I have composed posts today and four times the thing tells me I'm not connected..If this goes thru I'll retype a previous post..... noyungan

Hi..I'm having another go at getting this THING to send.. noyungan

Hi,
At long last I think things are going to work with this puter... Alex with platinum has done a great job and really knows his stuff.. But back to the SDC.. I find it a mighty machine but I wondered if I had the tuning off-pat and your comments have me realising that air tuning is somewhat different to ground tuning...Two aspects to tuning, and becos success is very dependant on complete tuning it means I will need to be a bit more circumspect about the tuning..
All you posters to my query about tuning the SDC have my grateful thanks and especially so as I think the SDC is a great machine, just turn er on,,tune properly and go. I have not had it long but it has picked up quite a few little bits,, a couple do not register on the scales and one looks like a speck of overgrown dandruff.
When I first got it into the field I buried targets at various depths and depending on the size of target it convinced me it did more than play around near the surface.. I had a couple of hiccups with the hp plug but Maryborough Coiltek looked after me very well
Of course it's no GPX, but at my age I don't want to go digging down to china. no matter how big the target is, and what,s more it light, very portable and simple to operate... Do I sound wrapped up on the SDC?? Sure am.. Now to experiment with the tuning... Thanks again fellers.. noyungan