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As with most things these days the instruction manual may well have been written in a foreign language, some buttons have dual features, some only work when operating in a certain program, to be honest after a couple of minutes I lost interest. I have never been good with manuals but always manage to muddle through at my own pace. I like to think I have good knowledge of most machines but found getting to know the minelab x terra 705 menu a little tricky, now it's a piece of cake. I feel some people new to detecting and the X Terra may need a helping hand .
Combined with the Minelab xterra 705 instruction manual this guide will cover the very basics and hopefully get you started on the right track.
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Here are the left and right screen controls simply explained
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Toggle between patterns
Repetitively pressing the button allows the operator to scroll through 4 pre set discrimination patterns, these can all be edited to your own custom requirements explained in the next section.
Treasure Coin / Prospecting mode
Here you can toggle between prospecting mode, which is mainly used for detecting Gold Nuggets, or Coin mode which is better for general searching, a pick icon appears at the top of the screen when operating in prospecting mode and a coin icon appears when in general search mode.
Note : When the machine is in the Ground balance feature pressing this button will set the machine to automatically ground balance, the operator will need to raise and lower the coil on a clean area of ground.
All Metal
This is a very popular mode which offers no discrimination and gives a low tone for iron and a high tone for desired targets.
All metal is also used when ground balancing the machine.
When in all metal AM will appear on the left of the screen.
Menu button
This button allows the operator to access vital settings such as sensitivity, threshold level, audio level, noise cancel and number of audio tones.
Noise cancel is to be used when experiencing outside interference. |
Accept or Reject targets
At the base of the screen are black segments, these represent the rejected targets, the clear area's are accepted ranges, use the Increase and Decrease(+ or-) keys to scroll across the discrimination pattern, then use the accept reject button and make your own custom discrimination. If you have no rejection blocks selected you will be in All Metal mode.
Auto Track Ground
This button allows you to toggle between Auto and Manual ground balance, when the phase logo (wiggly line) appears on the top right of the screen the machine is in tracking mode.
Ground Balance
Press to activate ground balance mode, press and hold to activate Beach ground balance mode, when in beach mode an icon that looks like a drawing pin appears in the top right of the screen.
Note : Do not use beach mode for inland searching, the machine will not perform well.
Increase / Decrease Numbers
Simply an up and down control used when making adjustments to settings.
Pin Point / Detect
This switches the machine from detecting mode to pin point mode.. press again to go back into detecting mode.
Note : Pin point will reject nothing you will detect all metal including iron.
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Here I am in disc pattern 4, coin mode with a full battery power
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Here I am selecting a 2 tone audio
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Minelab X Terra 705 Discrimination and Tones Explained
When a target is detected the machine firstly works out if the target has been rejected, if so the threshold will null and you will hear no signal, or if operating in all metal a low sound will be omitted.
If the target is in the accepted range the machine will give a positive signal accompanied by a target ID number clearly visible on the screen.
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Here are some extracts from the manual.
Discrimination accept / reject scale
As you can see there is a single segment at the top of the range that has been rejected, this is to eliminate false signals from very large iron objects which we call the "wrap around" effect.
The lower segments reject all other iron, personally I would say 4 segments is a little high, you may want to try 3 if your site is relatively free from iron.
The Notch feature
If the operator wanted to reject a target, let's say a ring pull, they would simply pass a ring pull over the coil and see what target block is illuminated. Then using the + or - keys locate the same block and press the accept / reject button, a black block will now show on the screen's discrimination pattern.
Note : Ring pulls have the same signature as some Gold Rings and Ancient coins. |
Tone options
The image below shows the audio tone options, as you can see 1 tone has the same pitch across the complete discrimination range, where as 4 tones has 4 separate pitches allocated to different target ranges.
Personally I think 2 tone is the best option to use while learning the X Terra 705 inland.
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Arm cup complete with strap
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Coil 7.5Khz, it may be worth considering the 18Khz coil for farmland searching, other coils are available.
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Large speaker at the rear of box, it is always wise to use headphones
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For inland searching your screen icons and discrimination should look like this.
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Audio threshold : Make sure the threshold level is set to a very faint hum in the background.
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Ensure your sensitivity is set at the point where the machine is stable with minimum false signals.
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The X Terra takes 4AA batteries, always use good batteries never buy them from a market.
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Headphone socket, this is the large 6.5mm stereo type.
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What is Ground Balance
Without ground balance the detector will see ground minerals as a target, the aim of ground balancing is to make these minerals invisible to the machine so it only reacts to metal targets.
In most cases the ground balance does not have to be exact. Auto ground balancing may be the easiest option for beginners to use, here's how it is done.
How to auto ground balance
First select AM and find a patch of ground with no iron present, then press the balance button followed by the Treasure Coin button, the letters AU should appear on the screen, now gently raise and lower the coil from 8" to 4" from the ground...repeat this several times until you hear 3 tones, this is to inform you the ground balance cycle has been completed...press Detect to start searching, you can re ground balance any time during your search to keep the machine in tune. For beach detecting use the same process, just make sure the machine is set to beach mode by pressing and holding the ground balance button.
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If you have found this FREE ! Minelab information helpful please show your appreciation by dropping Minelab or Joan Allen a line and mention Gary's detecting |
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Joan Allen metal detectors
http://www.joanallen.co.uk
01959 571 255
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Minelab AU
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