Minelab E-Trac Manuale utente

The evolution of discovery...

New Product Report –

Minelab E-TRAC

by Des Dunne

Since the Explorer FBS System (Full Band

Spectrum Multi-Frequency) gave us the rst

glimpse of new and very innovative design

principles, Minelab has consistently delivered

world-class engineering and technology for

the hobbyist and metal sensing specialist.

Following in the “detecting tracks” of the iconic Explorer Series was always going to be dicult but it looks

as if Minelab has indeed done it again with their newest innovation!

E-Trac promises to be the high-octane detector model that detector users everywhere have been waiting

for and it’s set to quicken the pulse rate of metal detectives!

The new-from-the-ground-up E-Trac is bristling with technology and has some very smart new tricks up

its sleeve! This detector is a new model, the premiere agship of the Minelab eet and does not replace

anything else – instead it adds to the model line-up and creates a new benchmark in software functional-

ity, performance and class-leading capability.

E-Trac is a signicant technological advancement - probably the single most important and innovative

metal detector model ever introduced and one which has been very denitely designed to cater for the

advanced detector user and newcomers to the hobby alike.

What’s in the box

(a) E-Trac main body with arm rest & strap

(b) New 11” Double D FBS coil (and ttings)

(d) Top stem (black aluminium)

(e) Lower stem (black carbon bre)

(f) 1600mAH NiMH rechargeable battery

(g) Battery charger

(h) Alkaline battery Slim Pack

(i) Xchange Installation CD

(j) USB cable (to connect E-Trac to a PC)

(k) Instruction Manual

(l) Field Guide (fold-up)

(m) Warranty card

Please note content may vary by region.

Control Panel design and layout

E-Trac’s Display is logically and cleverly laid out

starting on the left with the 4 new Navigation

Buttons. These four buttons control the up down

and side to side movements and nearly all of the

E-Trac’s functions making it considerably easy to

move around the pre-loaded menu choices. The

two large Arrow buttons (Ô) on either side of

the faceplate control E-Trac’s Edit Modes whilst

moving around the screen and making detection

pattern changes.

The Menu button in the centre controls the access to all E-Trac’s selectable Menu choices.

Pinpoint takes the E-Trac out of a discrimination motion mode and puts it into a temporary all metal, non-

discrimination mode. Note: it is not advisable to search in the pin point mode.

The Detect button, while in the Pattern Screen, will switch the Detection Screen to Digital Screen and vice

versa if in Digital. While in the Main Menu, QuickMask™ or Edit Screen, pressing Detect returns you to the

Pattern/Digital Screen at any stage of operation.

QuickMask™ allows on the spot adjustments of the FE and CO rejection levels independently of any cur-

rent Discrimination Settings allowing for a fast and easy way of editing Patterns. It also allows an instant

switch back to the last Detect screen.

Pressing Accept / Reject allows instant acceptance of / or discrimination against any particular target

(more on this later).

Noise Cancel allows you to select from 11 operating channels and provide ‘the best noise free channel’ on

which to detect, eliminating or helping to reduce most sources of electromagnetic noise that can be gen-

erated into the atmosphere by electrical devices such as radio mast transmitters, pylons and generators.

Pressing the button takes about 28 seconds to cycle through. Noise cancel can also be manually chosen

via the Expert Menu.

The Backlight button illuminates the visual screen area via the extreme top right hand side button which

allows you to continue detecting when the natural light gets low.

EXCITING NEW FUNCTIONS & FEATURES

Note the new interface and fantastically clear, bright futuristic graphic displays and you can then begin to

play with the new, very intuitive controls layout and discover what the Minelab engineers have really put

into this wonderfully exciting new machine!

One of the most exciting new functions is E-Trac Xchange: the ability to communicate with a personal

computer to upload and share detecting programs, a great innovation and step forward in making the

hobby of metal detecting as personable as choosing your favourite music for your iPod.

The New Functions (See Page 80 E-Trac Instruction Manual) are described below beginning with the ability

to program a metal detector via a home computer. A fully comprehensive Xchange User Guide is also

accessible within the Xchange program Installation CD.

E-Trac Xchange (Communication between E-Trac and your Personal Computer)

A signicant advancement of the new E-Trac is the inclusion of

a USB connection facility (supplied), for the purpose of allowing

a connection between your E-Trac and a PC or laptop. You can

download / upload and share Discrimination pattern programs of

choice.

A CD with the software package and complete Xchange User

Guide comes in the box and should be installed onto your PC.

Suggested alternate Patterns to get you up and running on

Xchange can be downloaded from

www.minelab.com/consumer

System Requirements for E-Trac Xchange

- Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Vista

- Minimum display resolution of 1024 x 768

- USB or USB 2.0 port

- USB Data Cable (included with your E-Trac)

To Install E-Trac Xchange on your PC

1. Insert the CD (included with your E-Trac) into the CD/DVD drive of your PC

2. The CD will auto-run once inserted into your PC and the Install program will start

3. Follow the Install prompts to install E-Trac Xchange onto your PC

Once you have installed E-Trac Xchange on your PC you can start the application from either the

Start Menu or the shortcut on the Desktop

To start the E-Trac Xchange application

Double click the E-Trac Xchange application icon on your desktop, or open your Start Menu and navigate

to: All Programs – Minelab – E-Trac Xchange.

To connect E-Trac to your PC

1. Insert the USB cable into your E-Trac

2. Insert the other end of the USB cable into your PC

3. Start E-Trac Xchange on your PC

4. Although E-Trac’s transmitter is switched o while connected to a

PC, please make sure the coil is not next to any electronic device

which could cause interference (like a TV or PC monitor), then turn

on your E-Trac.

Quickmask™

This fantastic new feature allows you to adjust the level of Ferrous and

Conductive rejection, independent of the Pattern / Digital Smartnd™

Discrimination Pattern.

Quickmask™ is a great feature for very quickly checking targets for

discrimination purposes because it is easy to do by adjusting either of the

two slider controls (Navigation Buttons described further down) to adjust

the level of Ferrous and Conductive discrimination to see where a target

“drops out at” or to allow the cursor more free movement to locate to the correct axis points of both

ferrous and conductive scales (as in 2-dimensional discrimination, the principle behind Smartnd™).

Main Menu – allows you to browse through each of the 6 Menus

Each Menu option appears below the Main Menu and the settings for each can be selected and

modied, namely:

User Modes – Select / Save

Discrimination – Select / Save / Edit / Combine

Sensitivity – Sensitivity / Manual Level / Auto Level (A)

Audio – Threshold Level / Volume Limit / Volume Gain / Response / Tone ID / Threshold Pitch

Expert – Recovery Deep / Recovery Fast / Trash Density / Ground Dicult or Neutral / Noise Cancel

Preferences – Contrast / Pinpoint Mode / Show Sensitivity / Show Mode Info / Display Timeout /

Master Reset

E-TRAC MODES

Mode Settings, Universal Settings and Preferences

E-Trac’s settings can be divided into three categories: Mode Settings, Universal Settings and Preferences.

These are explained below.

1. Mode Settings – these dene E-Trac’s performance for a particular location such as the beach or

pasture or type of metal detecting as in target type such as coins or iron targets. E-Trac is designed

to allow you to save these Mode Settings as a User Mode. A User Mode can be saved in, or

retrieved from E-Trac’s memory or, shared with another E-Trac owner via Xchange.

2. Universal Settings – these aect E-Trac’s performance but can be adjusted regardless of your

location and desired nds type. Universal Settings are determined according to your personal

detecting choices e.g. Sensitivity, Noise Cancel & Threshold Pitch

3. Preferences – these do not aect E-Trac’s performance and allow you to customize the appearance

of the detection screens e.g. Contrast & Show Sensitivity.

User Modes

A User Mode is a collection of Preset detector settings and a Discrimination Pattern.

E-Trac comes pre-loaded with four (4) Minelab User Modes and four other slots which are empty, just

waiting for you to save your own modes. In addition, there are six (6) other Discrimination slots ready for

you to also create your own discrimination patterns giving a grand total of 10 personal patterns you can

make up yourself for certain targets or to tackle dicult sites or perhaps to “Xchange”with other E-Trac

owners.

The Minelab User Modes are:

1. Coins

2. High Trash

3. Beach

4. Relics

If a Minelab User Mode is selected then the Minelab logo and that particular Mode number will be

displayed on-screen – if a “My User Mode” is selected then the My User icon will appear instead of the

Minelab logo. If any changes are made to E-Trac’s settings you are able to save those settings to the

current User Mode via the User Mode Menu – a small ag icon will appear in the top right hand side of the

detection screen showing a user Mode has been “modied” but not yet saved. NB: the Show Mode Info

setting must be turned ON via the Preferences Menu in order to see any of the icons displayed (more on

this later) Remember, a user Mode is [a start point] for a new owner of E-Trac to get going on his / her

way to making nds!

It is important to mention that in these Preset Modes certain sounds, responses and audio settings are

preset so, in E-Trac’s Instruction Manual see Page 83 and make sure the settings are right for your hearing

and if not, select a particular sound or audio response that you are comfortable with. These Modes can be

nely tuned for your personal hunting style. Remember again, they are starting points for a new owner

to get going “right out of the box!”

Discrimination Menu

The Discrimination Menu allows you to Select, Save, Edit and Combine Discrimination Patterns. Important

Note: ALL Discrimination Patterns Pre-Programmed into E-Trac are ‘accepting’ Discrimination Patterns e.g.

the Iron Disc Pattern accepts iron.

E-Trac comes pre-loaded with ten (10) Discrimination Patterns which are:

- all metal – coins – Jewellery – foil – pull tabs – crown caps – screw caps – nails – iron – Fe Coins

NB: as E-Trac is a completely new innovative metal detector it allowed the engineers to go back to the

drawing board and bring into line the complete conductive range of all metals in a linear fashion: on the

left are very low conductive, in the middle area mid conductive, and to the right, high conductivities with

the most conductive i.e. copper and silver to the right hand side end of the linear scale. The conductivity

scale has a wider range of IDs (from 1 to 50) and the ferrous range is expanded also (1-35). So on E-Trac,

the Ferrous scale is on a vertical adjustment and the Non-Ferrous or Conductivity scale is on a horizontal

adjustment.

This change is very important to owners of the previous FBS Explorer models as the axes were dierent

i.e. ferrous was the horizontal scale and non ferrous was the vertical scale. But remember, E-Trac is a unique

machine so you can expect new and distinctive features at every level!

Auto Latch (Semi-Automatic Discrimination Editing)

Within the Discrimination Menu, E-Trac has a brand new, very innovative feature called Auto Latch which

provides semi-automatic editing of your Discrimination Pattern. In this editing mode the Edit Frame will

automatically move to the Ferrous (FE) and Conductive (CO) coordinates of the detected target. You can

then choose to accept or reject that target from your Discrimination Pattern using the Accept/Reject

button found on E-Trac’s front panel.

The Combine Function

Again, this is a brand new feature which allows you to merge preset or

saved Discrimination Patterns to create a new Discrimination Pattern.

The Combine function should not be confused with how you select

Discrimination Patterns via the ‘Select Menu’.

With Combine, you do not add or subtract whole Discrimination Patterns.

The accepted target ‘white’areas of a listed Discrimination Pattern are what

you accept or reject from the Combine Discrimination Pattern.

The two Smartnd™ Windows at the top of the Combine Screen are the Combine Pattern (left) and the

active Disc Pattern (right). The Active Pattern is the Discrimination Pattern currently being used in the

Pattern / Digital Screen.

By default, the Combine Pattern (left Smartnd™ window) is empty. As you scroll down the listed

Discrimination patterns, areas of the Combine Pattern will ash relative to the white areas of the selected

Disc Pattern. For example, if you select the Jewellery Disc Pattern, then the white area of that pattern will

ash in the Combine Pattern. Each Pattern that is pre-programmed into E-Trac is, as I stated above, an

accepting i.e. the Jewellery Disc Pattern accepts Jewellery, the iron disc accepts iron etc. Therefore, the

‘ashing’area indicates where the object is located.

Sensitivity Modes

Now for a bit of Physics!

E-Trac has three sets of internal signals used to identify targets. E-Trac continually measures the magnetic

ground interference that aects these signals and adjusts the level of Sensitivity individually for each set of

signals, to provide the most stable Target ID.

Most ground types cause some interference and E-Trac uses this to adjust the detector to the correct Auto

Sensitivity.

Auto Sensitivity may not work well on the wet and transition areas of salt water beaches (it would be ne

on dry sand areas) as they do not typically contain magnetic materials.

Note: Minelab recommends beginners use E-Trac in the Auto Sensitivity mode unless detecting on a beach

where Manual is recommended.

A completely new feature, the Sensitivity Gauge has two indication bars in both Auto and Manual and a

numeric Sensitivity value above the gauge.

Auto sensitivity (A)

The left hand side bar indicates the highest Sensitivity level that either the high,

medium or low channel is operating in.

The right hand side bar indicates the“Suggested” Sensitivity level. This is an

average Sensitivity Level of the internal signals. Each internal signal is set to

a dierent level of sensitivity individually by the detector to provide the most

stable Target ID’s.

For example, if E-Trac determines the Sensitivity Levels for each signal to be 20,

15 and 10, the left hand bar and the numeric value of the Sensitivity gauge will

display 20

The ‘Suggested’ Sensitivity (the right hand bar) will display the average of all

three channels, which will be 15.

Manual Sensitivity (M)

The left bar and numeric value indicates the level of Sensitivity you have set.

The right bar indicates the‘Suggested’ Sensitivity level the same as it does in Auto (A)

The important dierence between Auto and Manual is that all of the 3 channels (H, M & L) are set to the

same level in manual and if set too high may cause unstable target ID’s.

For example, if the Suggested Sensitivity determined by the detector is 15 and you set Manual Sensitivity

to 20, all channels are set to 20. If one channel is aected by the ground conditions then Auto would

normally reduce the level for this channel. In Manual it is not reduced and stays set to 20 so the ground

interference may cause false signals and unstable ID’s.

Auto Sensitivity Range + 3 to – 3

The Sensitivity can be increased by + 3 levels or decreased by – 3 levels.

This innovative new feature allows you to be [more aggressive] or [conservative] while operating E-Trac

in Auto Sensitivity. Increasing by 1, 2 or 3 sets the Auto Sensitivity higher than the Automatic setting by

the number of levels you select. Similarly, decreasing would have the opposite eect but bear in mind

sensitivity to smaller items could then drop o somewhat.

Audio menu

Volume Gain:

The Volume Gain controls the ampliﬁcation of a target’s audio response, relative to the target’s signal

strength. It is important to stress that, the Volume Gain control is most similar to volume adjustments in

other devices such as a radio or a television’s volume control.

Response: The Factory Preset Response is: Normal

The Response setting changes the way target signals sound upon detection. A particular response choice

can improve your ability to identify certain targets in dierent and sometimes dicult conditions: the 4

Response choices within the range are:

1. Normal

2. Long

3. Smooth

4. Pitch Hold

Tone ID: The Factory Preset is: Multi Tone

In the Audio menu all the familiar choices are present with the addition of a few new settings. One very

nice feature that will be sure to appeal to lots of E-Trac owners is the ability to select the number of Tones

one hears in the Tone ID Option.

You can select:

1 Tone - where everything will have the same ‘monotone’ sound including ferrous;

2 Tone - a low tone and a high one;

4 Tone - where the sound has 4 tones from low to high

Multi-Tone - where E-Trac will have the full usable and broad range of signal response tones that

complements E-Trac’s tremendous FBS operating system.

Sounds: The Sounds Setting allows you to set the detector to emit a distinct audio response based on

either a target’s ferrous characteristics or its conductive properties.

E-Trac’s Sounds range is therefore set to either: Conduct or Ferrous Sounds.

<Tip> Conduct is often preferred by coin hunters as coins can give high signal responses and trash items such

as foil and tabs can give low signal responses.

Threshold Level now features an enhanced adjustment range from 1-50. This ensures you can adapt

your E-Trac to your exact requirements for comfortable use in all detecting conditions.

Threshold Pitch: This is another exciting new feature as it changes the pitch of the threshold and can

have useful benets to people with hearing diculties who may generally prefer a Low Pitch.

Expert Menu

The Expert Menu contains some of E-Trac’s more advanced settings

and functions and some of these are covered in extra detail here.

Trash Density: The Factory Preset is: Low

The Trash Density setting of either Low or High will, enable you to

optimize the Discrimination of the detector for areas that have (a)

highly variable ground mineral levels (b) ground with unusually high

amounts of ferrous objects e.g. habitation sites or old Roman sites.

When the Discrimination Pattern is ‘All-Metal’the Trash Density (TD) setting has no eect. When the

Discrimination Pattern has rejected (black) areas, E-Trac will produce dierent detection results depending

on the TD setting. The TD setting will not aect the target audio response.

Low is recommended in areas that have low target density (“not more than one target under the coil at any

time”), low ground mineralization and in areas with sporadic iron trash.

High is then recommended in ground where the target density is high (“more than one target under the

coil at any time”), the mineralization content can vary, at times even in adjoining elds or in a single eld

split into two by a track …(yes, it does happen and levels can be very dierent) and where the areas being

searched contain masses of iron targets.

Ground: The Factory Preset is: Dicult

The Ground settings, either Neutral or Dicult, aects the way E-Trac responds to the mineralization

present in the soil.

The correct Ground setting will reduce false signals from the soil.

So therefore, a good question would be: “How would I know which setting I should set E-Trac to”? One of the

answers to that lies in the Sensitivity range of the E-Trac, particularly the Auto or A setting. If the A ranges

upwards and stabilizes at a high setting then it could be determined that the ground is‘normal’ and the

Neutral setting would be best applied there. Conversely, other clues could be if E-Trac does not range to

a high A setting and produces spurious false signals and loses threshold tone, it could be determined that

the ground is mineralized and the Dicult setting a better option at that location.

Bear in mind too that at times certain types of soils might have no pronounced eect. Should that happen

either Neutral or Dicult can be used.

For beach hunting Neutral should be used for the majority of situations and should black sand be present

then some experimentation should be done to deal with that challenge with ease. Geographical black

sand areas may vary, so on-site testing would be recommended.

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