Minelab Explorer SE Pro Quick Manual

Explorer SE Pro

Field Test Report

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There's nothing better for a new detector model owner than to have a crowd of
onlookers gather around to ogle your new purchase and ask about its performance
and abilities while admiring its sleek appearance and asking for "a quick burn"
around the field to try it out.

To achieve such a crowd-pulling feat these days requires either a prestige badge or
an eye-catching appeal. This year's crowd-puller has both and appears to be the
new all black Minelab Explorer SE.
Such was the interest recently in this new model at a one-day event it had to be
handed around on a ten minute loan basis as so many wanted to take a closer look.
The entire build of the new detector is made up entirely of all black plastics which
accentuate the striking sharp lines. This is truly a high-tech and high-spec machine
and one which will continue to dominate in the "serious detecting" arena.

Improvements & Features

"3rd generation" Software features include:

• New "logical" Main Menu format, re-arranged "selections" to make

browsing easier with one hand.

• Now displays two separate screens, Smartfind and Digital - Learn and Edit

screens now accessed through Main Menu.

• New pin point -VCO type rising sound with improved volume on deeper

targets.

• New Iron Mask scale - now displays Ferrous range from 0 - 31 and AM = All

Metal.

• Fast turn on, quieter/faster turn off.

• Audio 1, 2 & 3 are now Long, Smooth & Pitch Hold respectively. Pitch Hold

similar to the BBS series of detectors.

• Faster loading of User settings.

• Factory preset Gain now set to 8 (used be 5)

• Stabilized Threshold in high-trash environments.

• New larger fonts.

• New updated detection results on Fer and Cond in Pin Point mode.

• Improved behaviour of the Depth indicator during detection and pin

pointing.

Hardware changes include:

• New colour, style and appearance.

• New thinner, lighter coil with better balance (weight reduction 60grms)

• New front keypad decal

• Current consumption reduced by 8% approx. prolonging battery life

increasing run time by 1 - 2 hrs.

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Focus on New Features

The most important software changes are listed above however there are some
more that are not. An example of one would be in the Digital display whilst using
the large zoom screen, the icons which showed in the previous Explorer models as
coins, rings and tabs do now not show on Explorer SE. Instead, the entire pixel
space is given over to four huge and very tall numbers for Fer and Cond to enable
easy viewing of the numeric values assigned to every detected target.
The major changes will be discussed in more detail here and they include the new
RESPONSE sounds although Normal, Audio 1 and Audio 2 have not changed but
instead have been re-named as Long (Audio 1), Smooth (Audio 2) and Pitch Hold
(Audio 3). Normal response remains the same and no changes to it have occurred.
The big change is to Pitch Hold which is, an exciting new innovative audio choice
method for Explorer SE users and a lot of information can be gleaned from it which
will be described in greater detail below.
The Response option allows you to select the way targets sound upon detection.
These are described below. Each Response sound may work better in different
scenarios and you should quickly develop your own personal preferences.

1. Normal - when the target signal drops the audio blanks, giving a crisp end to the
target response. Normal allows the greatest differentiation between the ground
and a target, but has the potential to miss small targets in areas littered with
objects producing a target response.

2. Long - long audio lasts until the end of detection. There is no blanking at the
end of the target response. Long allows less differentiation between the ground
and a target.

3. Smooth - as opposed to the sudden change in audio response in Normal and
Long, Smooth offers a more gradual change/rise in audio response from ground to
target detection.

4. Pitch Hold - is identical to the normal response during detection. After blanking,
the threshold will return to the same pitch of the peak target signal. The pitch of
the threshold will not change until a new detection is made. The Minelab
Sovereign series of detectors varies the pitch of an audio signal depending on the
conductivity of the target: i.e. a highly conductive target produces a high-pitched
tone, while a less conductive target item produces a lower-pitched tone. The
advantage of the Sovereign's threshold tonal reproductive range is that the tone of
the threshold also changes. After the target signal is heard, the threshold "hum,"
returns in a pitch similar to the pitch of the signal. When the target signal is
blanked (or nulls out) due to some positive discrimination, the threshold returns
again in the higher or lower pitch of the target's conductivity. The advantages of
Pitch Hold should become apparent in ground that is considered fairly clean and
also works very smoothly over salt wet sand.

The Iron Mask feature is an overall ferrous discrimination control, which can be
adjusted to reject a large amount of ferrous targets at one time. An increased level

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