Makro Jeotech on it's way

I'm looking forward to reading your unbiased review. I hope that the detector will perform well for you and satisfy you.

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,35552.msg216590.html#msg216590

Well, just my two cents but what you basically bought is a VLF machine with huge search coil and pre-programmed images.

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,35552.msg217520.html#msg217520

The first machine arrived, DOA. 5 days later the second one arrived. I have specific locations I want to go to and detect voids @ 1 to 2 feet in depth, so that's what I wanted to test today. Buried an empty plastic jar laying on it side @ 13". I had the smaller (8.5 x 12") coil on for a few minutes. Wasn't happy with the response and worried it wouldn't find anything, I switched to the larger (14 x 17") coil. Found it! Whew! My investment is looking better. Filled the jar with coins and, as expected, the JeoTech, as well as Minelab Exp. SE, and Tesoro Cortez all found the target. When 'targeting' with the JeoTech it has a - (minus/left side) Mineral/Cavity, and a + (positive/right side) Mineral/Metal. The + was lit, the led meter was lit all the way. I can try to explain this better, or you can look it up on line to see the light display the JeoTech has. Put a rusty/corroded old mason jar lid in the jar and buried it lid up, dug the hole deeper. So, the mason jar lid was 20" down inside the jar, the top of the plastic jar @ 13", the jar is 7" long. Neither the Minelab nor Tesoro detected this, didn't expect them to. The JeoTech detected the cavity and 1 light metal, it switched from the left to the right side as I would sweep past this target. With the target button pushed the JeoTech read on both sides (metal and cavity) again. The metal reading was more to each side of where the jar was, the cavity reading was right over the jar. More on the testing with other empty and non empty containers in future posts. My initial score with some pros and cons.  One big PRO - It did detect a void at 13 - 20 inches, EXACTLY THE REASON I bought this detector. One big CON - I can't see the display lights when the sunlight in on the display and plan on constructing a lense hood, which I'm probably no good at and will need help with. Another con, the battery is designed to be clipped to your belt. If you use a wired headset, maybe no big deal. I'm wireless and don't like being attached to the detector, so I tiewrapped the battery to the side of the arm brace. I can post about the wireless (bluetooth) rig I have if anyone is interested. First Impression - VERY PLEASED. Overall score and thoughts on the detector, I'd say 8 out of 10. I'd rather the battery was built in, like a Minelab Explorer, no cord to mess with. The display needs something, like remade into a digital lcd display. I can see the Minelab and Tesoro displays anytime. I'd rather have an automatic ground balance built in, the manual balance is, at least initially, a pain. Also, I'm conserned about how much I spent with only a 2 year warranty, more on that in say, 26 months . Final thoughts for today, the detector did what I wanted it to do. Next time out I hope to test the smaller coil and compare the two. For sure I have some learning to do. This is the first review post I've done. Hope it was worth reading. Took me as long to write as it did to do the testing . Later

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,35552.msg217723.html#msg217723

I have had mine now for about a year (Jeotech) and it does do what it says it can do.  The last big find and I do mean big find was a septic tank.  I had a call from a guy out in my area and he had purchased a house about eight years ago and forgot it was on septic.... 8 years is allot of Crap!  any way the septic people wanted 150 to tell him where it was on his property.  Being fibreglass make a deep seeking md would not do, but this MD also detects voids in the earth.  Now they have to be bigger than a yogourt container ( if you look back at my tests you will see the results) but with the Jeotech it took me less than 5 minutes to find it.. I also found his buried gas line too.  Oh here is the link to my tests

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now the cons:
the ground balance thing is a true pain, but after a while you get into a pattern.  If you know manufacturing at all, I wasn't impressed with the tooling marks, and they painted the plastic instead of dye... no idea why they did that.  This is a very sensitive MD so you really have to know your soil or you will be frustrated.  If you turn that dial down your depth disappears quick! It will take you a while to learn this MD but it is worth it!  I have the JeoScan on order as we speak!

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,35552.msg223395.html#msg223395

I am on the fence with this unit. I've detected voids at 2 to 2 1/2 feet, but I've had a steel strap @ 3" detect as a 18 x 12 square.  I have been using the larger 14" loop full time. I'm going to try the smaller 7" loop for a while and see how it does. Don't get many opportunities to go VOID detecting.  I have a place east of here I hope to get to in the next month. A man's backyard. He thinks he may have buried things. He's old and can't really remember, had a brain injury. It's 100+ out so I'm waiting on it to cool down a little. It takes a lot of time to learn this unit and unfortunately I've just not gotten to dedicate much to learning so far. Finally, for this time, I have to mention, the large loop will wear a person out. The unit is much heavier than my Minelab SE Explorer with a 16" loop. Hope someone else has one and can share their experiences to help me along.

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,35552.msg229463.html#msg229463