Inside the Tone ID Profile menu you will see the range of tone settings
FE stands for Ferrous....top to bottom of screen
CO stands for Conductive...left to right of screen |
At the top of the list (not shown) is single tone target id, only the pitch can be adjusted on this feature, discrimination must be used to suit users requirements. |
2 Tone CO conductive, this allows the operator to assign different tones to the left
and right of the screen.
Note : Both segments can be adjusted in size. |
2 Tone FE ferrous this allows the operator to assign different tones to the upper and lower of the screen...Again fully adjustable in size |
Here we have 4 tones CO conductive
As above although you now have 4 segments where you can assign tones depending
on where the cursor falls on the screen. |
4 Tones FE ferrous,
Adjustments from the top to bottom |
35 FE tones
Here you can not adjust the segments, however you can adjust the pitch scale to suit your hearing |
50 CO tones
Again only the audio pitch can be adjusted |
Combined Tones
This is fully adjustable in size and pitch |
Under the Tone ID Profile press the resize button to customise your tone segments |
Here you can see how the tone segments are adjusted using the up / down
or right / left key pad buttons, once saved your custom settings will stay in the machine.
Note : The discrimination overlay can be seen in the lower right corner so you can find the perfect tone position.
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Summary
What do I think about the tone features ?
Very good, it allows users to customise their own profiles.
There is 1 point I think Minelab have possibly overlooked regarding tone adjustment.... it is the lower adjustment (left to right see pic left)
From past experiences using the Explorer II small Roman coins next to nails appear on the screen bottom left, it would have been nice to have the facility to separate the
lower band or cut it in half so the bottom left could be assigned it's own tone. However this is based on my Explorer II experiences, the CTX 3030 may have a completely different DNA.
As this is a new machine I am sure Minelab will make software changes in the future which can be easily transferred via the PC Xchange software.
Software compatibility
At this moment in time the Exchange 2 software is only available for the windows platform, there is no Mac software available.
Balance
Due to my original scepticism I was convinced the CTX was going to be heavy, I can honestly say the CTX balances very well and feels much lighter than it is.
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Also under the Edit section is the
Target Separation Menu
The operator can choose between 4 filter options
Low Trash (Clean soil )
High Trash (High mineralisation )
Ferrous Coin (High mineralisation)
Ground Coin (general searching)
To a certain extent they are self explanatory, using the Ferrous coin mode will show 2 cursors on the screen which in theory should identify good targets next to iron, personally I found this to be confusing and inaccurate on several occasions.
Ground coin and high trash only have one cursor and easier to use.
Hopefully I can explain more about these features when I conduct my field test.
Other audio features include 4 different audio responses
Normal
Long
Smooth
Pitch hold
This short video shows these features in more detail
Minelab CTX features explained |
WM10 headphone unit
The machine is supplied with a WM10 cordless receiver, your wired headphones plug directly into this, although the supplied Koss headphones work well some after market headphones will not operate with this module, even if they have a stereo / mono facility, you will require a specially made patch lead available from Gary's detecting.
Most dedicated stereo headphones such as I pod, backphones, HD 3030's are compatible requiring no patch lead.
The WM10 unit can be placed in a pocket or on a belt clip, it may be worth noting that the module has it's own speaker so it can be used on it's own as an external speaker.
If your wireless headphones do not connect straight away you may have the wireless feature disabled....scroll through to top screen menu until you see options, here you will find the wireless accept / reject option.
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Advanced Volume Menu
To access the advanced volume controls press and hold the volume button, in the sub menu you can make adjustments to the :
Volume Gain
Threshold Level
Volume Limit
Threshold Pitch |
I hope this information has been of help, now all we need to do is carry out a comprehensive field test......which is on it's way !
CTX 3030 Field Test |
