My ACE 250 on DE beaches after BILL...methods to use?

Actually, Garratt was as surprised as you were by my testing. They knew it would adjust each time it was turned on but never realized it could be used that successfully in the field. My guess? Watch for them to begin touting that as a feature.

The question Outback's pal asked was answered quite correctly by Garratt. See if you can figure out a better way to ask it and get the answer you found.

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TabDog, nobody is misinforming anyone here. I simply am passing on new information. This information has been verified by myself and by Saltfisher. Neither of us has any stake at all in this. When I first brought it up, I thought folks here would be happy to learn that there was a side to the Ace250 of which they were unaware. Instead, I get tons of grief over it and veiled threats from a fellow moderator about my posts here being reported to Christian.

According to Garrett, the Ace250 auto-adjusts the ground balance on powering the unit. I already pointed to that link. When I read that, I queried them as to how it did so. Upon learning the method, I decided to rent one to try it out. When I did, it worked as I has theorized. Being in the electronics engineering field for most of my adult life with design experience in metal detectors, I has suspected that they had to use a leveling circuit because a preset would make it useless in any condition but the very one the GB was preset to. I went to the patent for the device and found it was not actually a hard wired, fixed preset but a preset made by the microprocessor once the unit is initialized on power up. Once you power it up, you cannot in fact change it - as Outback and Beach Hunter state. Turn it off and power it up again and the unit auto-adjusts the GB to the conditions near to where you are standing.

If the unit were preset and nothing else, Saltfisher would I would have seen absolutely no change over the performance after we tried our little experiments. Now, here is the rub, mate. If Outback and Beach Hunter want to be completely fair about this, they will try it and see. The more empirical testing you do, the better the outcome. In spite of them disagreeing with my words here, I believe them both to be honest enough to report back with an assessment of what they found. It may surprise them and ultimately please them. Who knows?

Once more, here is the link for you to read:

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		Quote:			Posted by tabdog
	Hay Salt Fisher, I am not trying to dispute what you say. I never commented on that aspect. It is documented by Garrett and most detectorist are well aware that the Garrett Ace 250 has a set ground balance. Newcomers are not. I do not want people to be miss-informed. When we get into what experiences you had at the beach, there are a host ways the settings could have been. There are a host of out side influences that are unknown. I would be silly to comment on the experience someone had one time at the beach. There are many things that play into this. I would not even venture into it in the midst of a lively argument. I would suggest doing what detectorist do. In time you will learn more about detecting, and the features that are offered on different detectors. One thing that is confusing is that Garrett has their own way of designing their circuitry. So does Whites and Tesoro. With exceptions of course. The way these different machines react is a result. Even worse, is the fact that they are all continually changing things. But, believe me and the industry when they say that the 250 has a set ground balance. I do not understand it all by a long shot. But I would be silly to take one persons suggestion to hart when the most experienced detecteorist I know of agree with what we are saying. The beach thing is a whole nother subject. Happy Huntin, Tabdog

Then i have  a freak ACE 250, because mine definalty adjusted when i turned it off, and then on. So what could have done that? I had it on all metal mode, and sens. 4. I turned it off, and back on with same settings, and off i went into the wet sand.

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		Quote:			Posted by saltfisher
	Then i have  a freak ACE 250, because mine definalty adjusted when i turned it off, and then on. So what could have done that? I had it on all metal mode, and sens. 4. I turned it off, and back on with same settings, and off i went into the wet sand.

I am not telling you that something will not work, or did not
work. Please do not put that on me. I just do not want people
to believe the hype that manufacturers put out about automatic
ground balancing.

Come on folks. That is BS and you know it. Gooolieee.

If you fall for it, just remember, we told you so.

<><><><><><><><><>

I doubt that you have a freak 250, but anything is possible.

You said;

" because mine definalty adjusted when i turned it off and then on"

Yours adjusted what?

Then you said:

"So what could have done that?"

The all metal mode will constantly adjust. If you turn it off
and back on, it will start with a fresh setting. That can also be
achieved by holding the coil in the air. But as you lower it, it
will adjust as you lower it. That is different from turning it on
while the coil is already lowered.

You see, I have not gone very far and got the thing adjusting
all over the place with out even talkin about sensativity.

Happy Huntin,

Tabdog

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Beachcomber and TabDog, I have a proposition for you. Sit back, have a sip on your favorite beverage and hear me out.

In the product description for the Ace250, Garrett says that the ground balance auto-adjusts. They don't say that it runs to a factory preset and with good reason. Because if they set it for any particular soil condition it would not be right for soil in another location. It's auto-adjust, not jump to a preset. If it was a preset ground balance, why even mention it? Because it auto-adjusts. Nowhere, in either the manual or the description do they mention a fixed, factory preset ground balance since they can not predict where and on what soil it will be used.

I asked Garrett about their method for ground balancing auto-adjust and was told that their method was proprietary. They wouldn't discuss specifics. But they did tell me it was done during the power on sequence which is what gave me the idea to try the power on trick.

As to how it works, here's the patent number for the process: US20080150537
That patent document is a theoretical model of how they would do it in a narrative. It's written to be confusing to keep the competition at bay while also providing the patent holding sufficient protection to prove that they had the method first. Remember, ideas cannot be patented but processes and methods can. The document reveals exactly how the auto-adjust process works if you can read it in narrative without falling asleep.

I am uploading the patent as an attachment now if it's not too big.

TabDog, Beachcomber and Outback already have Garretts so I am not trying to sell them on what I discovered. You, on the other hand, need to be sold on the concept that there are sometimes hidden features to electronic devices and this may be one of them. I am positive that it is but you might want to consider that it MAY be possible before you slam dunk Saltfisher. He did try it and it did work as I predicted. I also tried it and it worked great.

Here's what I did. I powered the unit up around 30 feet from the wet sand and started scanning. Since it was my first use of the Ace, I dug a few targets and made some mental notes about depth, and etc. As I walked down to the wet sand and into the soup, I had warbling and all manner of instability. I turned off the power, turned it back on and the warbling was gone and I was hunting like on dry land. Not satisfied, I walked back to the dry sand and had zero targets detected for an area I suspected would hold about 5 or so pieces of junk and maybe one good item. I did my recycle trick and went over the same ground and found 3 coins, no junk.

I repeated that until I got sick of testing it and I had a brilliant day at the beach. I am convinced that I now want an Ace250. Soon enough, I'll have one.

Thanks for reading through all this and thanks for reading the patent if you do. It will open your eyes.

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