What is Ground Balancing?
The Ground Balance control is a useful feature of the detector. It allows you to balance the detector with the mineral content found in the soil, whether the ground has high or low mineral content. Every location has different mineral content. This manual ground balance allows you to easily tune the detector to its maximum performance in a given location. Ground Balancing the Ground Hawk is extremely easy, it takes less than 30-seconds. Below are some simple instructions and pictures that will be useful.
How do I Ground Balance ?
Simply said, our goal is to balance the detector with the ground so we do not pick up the mineral in the ground. If the detector is not balanced, then the mineral will sound like a good target. If the ground is highly mineralized you may not be able to balance the machine perfectly with the ground, but that is ok, we only want the best balance. To ground balance will require you to be outside, you can use your backyard for a test. Pick a small patch of ground that is clean, that has no metal objects laying around. Now we have done that, lets follow these 3 steps:
| 1. Move the Ground Balance Meter Needle to the center, in the green. As pictured: |
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How do you move the needle? We use the ground balance control, as pictured: |
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| Turn the control either clockwise or counter-clockwise until the needle is in the center of the meter. As you turn the control, you can see the needle moving. If you turn the control clockwise, or right, the needle moves toward the blue section. If you turn the control counter-clockwise, left, the needle moves toward the red section. |
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2. Now we need to move the search head in a up and down motion from the ground. What we are doing now is basically moving the search head up and down at 3-4 inches from the ground in slow movements. Our goal is to adjust the detector to the minimal audio response. In other words, when we move the search head up and down from the ground, we want to adjust the detector to have the smoothest audio tone. That way you know the detector is balanced with the mineral. When you turn the detector on, you hear that smooth audio tone, we want to maintain that as much as possible when moving the search head up and down 3-4 inches from the ground. (This is also called 'bobbing' for short. It is important that you 'bobb' the search head first, then you make ground balance adjustments while the head is still.) What do you hear when you move the search head up down? Does it sound like a good or metal target? If so, this is a sign that the detector is picking up mineral in the ground and passing it as a metal target. |
| So, we need to slightly move the ground balance needle into the blue section. We do this by turning the ground balance control clockwise, right, into the blue. As pictured: | |
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After you have made the adjustment, test the detector again for ground balance. If you are not satisfied with the audio response that is being given, you can make further ground balance adjustments. If there is more of a 'reverse' sound, that means the control needs to be turned counter-clockwise, left, into the red section. As pictured: |
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The red stands for ferrous, and the blue stands for non-ferrous. Ferrous means 'iron'.
When you have more of a reverse pickup sound, that means the detector is responding negatively to the mineral in the ground.
Remember, what you want to listen for when ground balancing, is the smoothest audio response. When you have made ground balance adjustments, listen for the best audio response when moving the head up and down, or 'bobbing' the search head. And it is that simple! With a little practice, you will easily become a professional .
Review
Lets do a review of the ground balancing steps:
1. Move the meter needle into the center, the green.
2. Move the search head in a up and down motion from the ground. If the detector sounds like you are picking up metal, proceed to step 3.
3. Turn the ground balance control slightly clockwise, in the blue section. If you have more of a reverse pickup sound, turn the control in the red section. Retest the detector and make further adjustments if needed.
Remember; center, bobb and adjust. And that's all there is to ground balancing the Ground Hawk. With a little practice, you will become faster and faster at ground balancing. Please contact us if you have any trouble, questions or comments.
Other Help Topics
Here are some more help topics on the detector: