Need Garrett help

buddygray

I went outside to use my Garrett 2500 with the optional 12.5" searchcoil installed. I must have things set wrong, as it chirped on about everything and I kept hearing a low whine- whizz over the speaker. I left it on the COIN setting but it went off a lot and I did not find any coins, just junk. This isn't what I paid over $900 for by far!

Worst thing is I cannot find my owners manual so I do not know how to correct any-all errors.

The area I will always be checking out is flat ground, some trees and woods but no mineralization at all since its farmland or borders farmland. All I want to do is search for silver and gold coins...that's my biggest requirement of the machine.


Things I dislike about the 2500:

HEAVY machine and I am a big, strong guy. 10 minutes of swinging this "lead sled" is irritating!

Do not like the screen compared to the old 1250 I use to have and really enjoyed. It found coins left and right, and I knew very little about how to set it up. I just used the automatic settings other than the volume control. Didn't even have to use headphones on that machine!

I hate the voice on this machine! I'm sure its helpful if a person has it set right, but I do not like it.

I have read many times (internet comments- etc.) it doesn't find coins well at all below 6 inches depth, no matter the setting.

I am VERY Confused as to how often and how much ground balancing I need to do with this machine as well. Can someone

PLEASE set me straight on that issue as well.


Things I like:

Well, its mine and paid for...ha ha

Should be nice to have 2 coils once I ever get it working correctly

Its got a great reputation as a quality machine on the net.

Lots of people claim to find loads of coins with these.

Sorry to gripe and whine but I was looking forward to a better experience with my investment. Now I'm just ticked, bummed and wish I had never sold the 1250 I had a few years ago.


Thanks to all who can assist my questions!

MJPHELAN

You can request a new manual on the Garrett web site.

Garrett Manual Request

kevinstang

I have an older Garrett, can't help much with the 2500, but I will say this- I have the 12,8 and 4 inch coils. Swinging the 12 inch coil is always a pain, so much so I don't even use it much at all now that I have the 4 inch.

goldrush00013

Hey Buddy!

The 2500 is a long learning experiance and it will take 100's of hours of practice to become familiar with all it's quirks. (Garretts have many)
You will have to find that manual to be successful with it. Copy the one in the link in the previous post if you have to.






<< <i> I went outside to use my Garrett 2500 with the optional 12.5" searchcoil installed. I must have things set wrong, as it chirped on about everything and I kept hearing a low whine- whizz over the speaker. >>



First off the 12.5" coil is not a great one to use in a high trash area. I found it most usefull in farm field where modern trash was minimal.
A single sweep of that coil in a high trash area will make you bonkers with all the beeps and bongs. The reaction of several targets together in a single sweep can cause the machine to give a false belltone, but usually it won't repeat the belltone when you sweep from a differant angle.
A good coin signal should belltone no matter which way you sweep across the target, not just one way.

When you say it chirped was this a beep or a belltone?
If you were hearing a constant hum in the speaker, that is likely the threshold which can be adjusted to be silent if needed. I prefer to hear the background noise as slight changes in it can lend a hand in finding deep targets that are too deep to ID.

I would strongly suggest you use the stock 9" coil untill you become familiar with the machine.







<< <i>I hate the voice on this machine! I'm sure its helpful if a person has it set right, but I do not like it. >>



That function can be turned off. I never used it.




<< <i>I have read many times (internet comments- etc.) it doesn't find coins well at all below 6 inches depth, no matter the setting. >>



Bullfeathers! It will find coins far past the six inch mark...it may not give a solid positive ID for them past 8 inches but it will find them.




<< <i>I am VERY Confused as to how often and how much ground balancing I need to do with this machine as well. Can someone >>



I rarely used manual ground balancing. The Ground Trac takes care of it automatically and should be fine.


You have to find that manual and referance it after each outing. Practise , practise, practise.


Keep after it!

HH

buddygray

Thanks for the help all, I am just tired and sort of fed up tonight. I'll go to the site and request a new manual.

I appreciate the info goldrush00013, I'll try your suggestions. I'm printing them off to refer to if I have trouble again. The chip I heard was more "chirpy" than a belltone. It was picking up trash because moving over the target area in 4-5 different directions did not always cause it to go off, where as a real coin will.

I'll be removing the big 12.5" coil soon...REAL soon! ha ha

I was thinking the ground balancing was more or less automatic, but wanted to be sure.


Maybe this will get me on the trail to coins and I'll have pictures to post before long.

CollectorBob

Print your manual off here: Manual

goldrush00013

Also another thing.
Sensitivity being set too high can be a problem as well. I was never able to run the 2500 here at factory default. I always had to turn it down to keep the machine from falsing. Rarely was I able to run it past 8.5 unless I had a 4 inch sniper coil on..then I found I could run it at max.

HH

lordmarcovan

Here is the manual, in PDF format.

Whoops, I think CollectorBob beat me to it.

That is one great thing about the Internet: you can find all sorts of detector manuals online. It's handy for shopping around on models you are thinking of buying, or, as in the case of the used Tesoro Tejon I just got, you don't have a manual.

HEAVY is the biggest complaint folks have about the 2500. Being the owner of one myself, I agree. It's a cinderblock. If Garrett would come up with some sort of chestmount harness instead of the useless belt-mount battery pack deal they do, it would be a vast improvement.



<< <i>it chirped on about everything and I kept hearing a low whine- whizz over the speaker >>


Chirping on everything is a sign of sensitivity set too high, unless you have a malfunction. Continuous whine is threshold sound- it can be adjusted, too. I usually run a faint threshold sound myself, since I do not often use headphones, but you can set threshold to a null setting so you don't hear any "background" noise- just beeps.

So you graduated from the 1250? Well, you didn't climb as far up the learning curve as I had to- I graduated from the 550.



<< <i>I have read many times (internet comments- etc.) it doesn't find coins well at all below 6 inches depth, no matter the setting. >>

Horsefeathers. People who make such statements are either using it wrong or have really bad soil conditions, or both. Now, it IS a complex machine and it DOES do some weird stuff if you aren't savvy with it. I had a baffling moment not long ago where I dug up a Wheat cent with mine and the coin quit giving a signal when I got it out of the hole! Even when I rubbed it directly on the coil! Not sure what caused that, but I suspect I had the "Surface Elimination" feature enabled.



<< <i>I am VERY Confused as to how often and how much ground balancing I need to do with this machine as well. >>


Who wants to screw with ground balancing? Correct me if I am wrong, here, since I am fairly new to the 2500 myself- isn't it automatic ground balancing? (I know there is that "Fast Track" feature that has something to do with ground balancing but I have never screwed with that). Ground balancing shouldn't be something you should have to think about. I have never cared for machines with manual ground balancing for that reason. I too find it confusing, despite decades in the hobby. Automatic ground balancing is good enough for me, but I have pretty easy dirt to play in.



<< <i>Well, its mine and paid for...ha ha >>

There's a lot to be said for that. Ditto from me on that one. And I like my 13-year-old van for the same reason- wouldn't trade it for a new car I had to pay for! It gets from Point A to Point B just as well, and it's paid for. I think your detector will also get from Point A to Point B just fine once you learn to use it. (There is a possibility you do have a malfunction but read the manual thoroughly and practice with the machine before you make that conclusion).

Just ask our very own MD Forum demigod, Steve Smith, aka "Millennium", about the 2500. And just take a stroll through his detector finds album. It'll make you think differently. Ask Steve if he's ever had a problem finding coins below 6 inches deep with the 2500. Be prepared for laughter. Come to think of it, I watched him dig up a PRISTINE early-1880s Indian cent from something like ten inches down, on one of my own hard-hunted sites.

I still hate him for this one. No, I hate MYSELF for that one. I'm the only one to blame.

Stick it out, fella. Don't give up too soon. It's just gonna take some time. If you can't get used to the weight, that's one thing, but don't give up on your machine prematurely. I am still struggling with mine but think I have the basics down, now. Being a 12-year Garrett GTA-series veteran (of the 350, 500, and 550), I thought I could just step right into the 2500 but it hasn't been so. (Still, my experience has been easier than a total Garrett newbie's probably would have been).

PS- I tried that big 12.5" coil too and had a hard time with it myself. Couldn't get any clearly repeatable signals. Probably too many signals close together, on the site I took it to. Go with the stock coil for a while unless you are on a totally clean, rural site, out in the boondocks. I switched to the stock coil and have had better results in my urban coinshooting. I'll reserve the monster coil for rural relic sites if I ever do use it again- might not need to. The little 4.5" sniper coil is nice for hi-trash areas. I have one of those for my 550 as well and found Civil War and Rev War bullets and buttons in a supertrashy site I had hunted for years with a bigger coil. You lose some depth with the sniper coil but gain accuracy, and I have still found stuff down to 6" or maybe a little deeper with the little baby coil.

buddygray

Thanks for the link...got it downloaded, printed out and have been reading it already.

I like the 2500 quite a bit. It probably did not sound like it because I was let down after the bad results of the other day. Biggest complaint is the weight...it needs to lighten up for sure, but I'm not ready to sell the machine because of it.

Anyone have a suggestion for selling price on the 12.5" coil?

I might put it on Ebay? The 12.5 sounds too fickle for my patience level! ha ha
Its been used all of 1 hour and looks showroom new.

Going to read more about Steve Smith in a few minutes via your links, etc.