6000/Di Pro SL meter "hangs"?

[china-clipper]

My Di/PRO SL meter seems to "hang" after the coil has been swept over a target. What is the normal hang time? I imagine it hangs to enable you to see the target Id, and then it should return to zero if not over a target. Sometimes mine hangs until I turn the mode select to another setting. It hangs despite my pulling the trigger several times; is this normal?

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

I am presently using the White's 6000 XL Pro which I believe has the same meter as your metal detector.

On page 34 of my owner's manual, there is some information pertaining to meter problems. It states the following:

"Meter indications can be affected by static electricity. This static can get on the meter face and housing and cause improper meter indications, inaccuracy, and even total lockup of the meter needle. Such static electricity usually comes from household or automobile carpet, or clothing. When passing your finger past the meter needle causes significant meter movement, static electricity is the problem."

"Meter failure should be remedied by discharging any electrical field built up in the meter housing and meter face cover. Antistatic clothes dryer sheets work well for this purpose, and can be purchased inexpensively from the grocery store. Computer stores have an antistatic spray which also works well. With the clothes dryer sheets simply wipe the black meter housing and meter face cover thoroughly. Use several of the individual sheets. With the antistatic spray, spray the meter housing and face cover, wipe dry with a cotton cloth."

"Once the static is removed the meter should return to normal. Removing meter static electricity may be necessary from time to time particularly in dry weather."

china-clipper, when using my White's 6000 XL Pro, the meter will lock on the target and remained locked on the target for a short period of time, or unless it repeats it's I.D. mode by locking on a new target while I am still moving the coil.

In the event that you do have a defective meter, you could probably e-mail or call White's Electronics and request an estimate of the cost of having the meter replaced. I would like to remind you that the meter operates independently of the audio part of the metal detector which means that the metal detector will still function but without the benefit of the meter I.D. mode.

china-clipper, I do wish you the best in resolving the meter problem, and I do wish that I had more knowledge to help you more than the token information that I have provided. Please have a great day! Kelley (Texas)

 

[Jack/Ca]

Once the unit has locked on a target the needle will remain in this position till the trigger is pulled, the needle will then reset. It sounds to me more like a trigger problem as opposed to any meter trouble. As Fred brought up static will influence the needle but not to the extent you refer to. It's easy enough to see if static is present, usually it will not zero out and the needle will move as you drag your finger across the screen. But back to the trigger....have you tried using the trigger in other modes to see if that is functioning properly? The 6000 utilizes the trigger circuit to swap modes as you probably know. Can you still pinpoint accurately? If the trigger operates all of it's other functions correctly then you may have a meter problem after all.

As an after thought here, does the needle hang on a true ID or does it hang in the same spot every time? If it hangs in the same spot every time the needle may be obstructed internally. Just a thought.

 

[china-clipper]

So, let me get this straight...the meter (once finding a target) will then stay on the ID mode until the trigger releases it? I thought the meter would move back as you passed the target. So, the meter once over a target ID's it and then stays that way until you pinpoint?

 

[dward51]

To help clarify....

The meter SHOULD stay on the target reading until it gets another signal from another object, or a denser portion of the object being targeted.

On good targets, it usually sounds good and the meter locks in and stays put, but not always.

If you are sweeping and it ID's on one object and drops or changes the meter reading, it may be a 2nd object nearby in the sweep path or it could be something like a pop-top or a crushed can with a varying density in different parts of the object.

I have noticed with just the right swing speed, you can often hear the sound change as you cover a pop top. I can often hear the thick band, the blank open space, and then the thick band or tab on the other side as I swing across a tab. Same with a crushed can. If you move around the target, you can usually hear the thick crushed end of the can, the thinner middle of the crushed can, and the thick crushed other end of the can (crushed and laying flat). You can even call the way it is laying in the ground if you change the angle of your swing and move around the object. Sometimes I notice a meter pop/swing, but I can usually hear it no matter what with repeated sweeping over the target. I suspect this varying density effect is one reason why nails and such have that broken sound when not discriminted out also (either from their shape or their rust pattern).

It should be noted I pay more attention to the sound before I ever look at the meter.

Try this.... Put you detector on a wooden picnic table (or other non-metalic support). Then leaving the detector stationary, hold a coin in your hand and wave your hand under the coil (no ring or watch on your hand and wrist please). Try it with a quarter as it should read pretty high on the VDI as well. The meter should ID and stay put on the correct indication for that type coin. If not, then you need to send it in for service. If you then wave a penney under the coil, the meter reading should 'reset' and change to the new target VDI.

Oh, make sure your trigger is in the middle or normal position. Pulled back or locked forward will set the meter to show depth of target and not VDI. You only get VDI taret ID with it in the center position.

 

[Hunt4Fun]

Hi china-clipper,

I have an XL Pro but it has the same meter. When the detector "sees" a solid target it register on the meter. The needle stay on the reading till one of two things happens. Number one, if I pull the trigger and release it the pointer goes back to zero. Number two, if you move the coil and the detector "sees" a different target, the pointer will move to that target indication and stay there if it is a solid target. If it is not a solid target, the needle will then drop back to zero.


Good luck
Hunt4Fun

 

[Jack/Ca]

Yes sir, stays locked till you reset or till you sweep over another target.

 

[china-clipper]

Wow, I sure wish White's would put that little tidbit in their manual! I figured my unit was all screwed up. Like I mentioned, I thought it would swing up to ID and as it passed the target is would drop off; sort of like going up a ramp and coming down. Now what's happening is making a lot more sense...Thanks!! I can see I have a lot of learning to do. One more question, the manual says put unit in GEB/Norm, hold the unit up in the air, squeeze the trigger and set a threshold. Then to balance GEB/Norm; when I do that and switch to GEB/Disc to hunt my threshold is really loud. Can I balance in any other mode than GEB/Norm? Do you balance in the mode you intend to search in, or must you always balance in GEB/Norm. Once again the manual fails to mention this.
Thanks in advance!

 

[brnn53]

I'm just learning too but I know what you are doing. I have a 5900/DI Pro SL and I do the same thing as you to balance and set the threshold. After you set the threshold switch to GEB/DISC and squeeze the trigger at waist height. Always squeeze & release the trigger at waist height after any adjustments you make to the detector. It should return to near the same tone you set on Geb/Norm. You should always balance/tune in Geb/Norm. I too wish that the above info was in the manual. It would make it alot more enjoyable to know when you had a real hit. I learning though!
Mike

 

[china-clipper]

OK, now I get it. I just tried what dward51 suggested and the meter sure locked onto the coins and indicated the correct value. Now I know what to do when I switch to GEB/Disc, thanks! Man, somebody should have training seminars on these models. I bet a lot of people like myself are either using them incorrectly, or not to the greatest potential. Everybody, keep the tips coming, I sure can use them.

 

[crazyman]

Set it to GB Disc. Pull and hold the trigger, ground balance, release the trigger and hunt. The trigger locked forward or pulled and held puts it in GB Norm.

 

[china-clipper]

Thanks for the shortcut crazyman. One other thing, if the needle is swinging all the way to the right and pegging quite often is that a sign the signal balance is set too far clockwise?

 

[crazyman]

The meter pegging to the right is usually hot rocks. Don't try to over power the signal balance as you will get erratic meter indications and actually loose depth. Make sure you set your signal balance per instructions in the manual or another way some people use is to ground balance first and then set your coil flat to the ground and start advancing the signal balance untill the needle on the meter starts jumping or reacting to the ground. turn it back just untill the needle stops reacting then reground balance.

 

[dward51]

Something else that will cause the meter to peg for unknown reasons is being too close to power lines or other sources of electical signals (remember some lines are underground too).

But, even when properly balanced and tweaked for a certain ground condition you still can get the occasional odd peak (often it is mineralized areas or "hot rocks", but not always).

The tips on ground balancing and signal balance given by those in the responses above are well worth remembering. And don't forget that a properly tuned detector will hunt the deepest for any given soil condition. But not all soil conditions are the same. So particularly with signal balance you will find a setting may work fine in one search area, but be way off for another area.

Oh, and the whites video tape on the Pro series covers a lot of this stuff. And their manual does cover it, but it may not be apparant the first or second time you read the manual. One other thing which may not be clear is that once balanced and setup, you can change modes and discrimination levels anytime you want without having to rebalance. So if you hit a trashy area and get tired of pulling pull tabs while hunting a school for modern coins - crank up the discrimination to cut them out and keep hunting.

If you hunt with a Whites analog model with a meter I highly suggest you get the book "Taking a closer look at discrimination". This book is a super tool to help understand discrimination settings and what the VDI meter is actually telling you. Well worth the $9 cover price (and more if you ask me). And then you will fully understand the trade off you might be getting to hunt for those modern coins with higher discrimination settings (you dig a whole lot less trash, but might be missing some other goodies - but hunting smart can save you time and let you hunt a larger area).

 

[china-clipper]

Thanks for your advice, I'm hearing a lot of things not covered in the manual. I was re-balancing everytime I switched modes. I imagine once I make an adjustment or switch modes I should squeeze the trigger to reset the unit, correct? Should I raise it to waist height to do so? I think my 6000 has a lot of potential but I just need to master it. I thought I was happy with my Classic III but now I'm really excited at all the options the PRO SL has to offer. At first I was bummed out and thought I'd made a bad decision on the 6000 and should have held out for the XL PRO. I guess the extra weight of the 6000 isn't too hard to deal with and I most likely won't need to look for an XL PRO after all. I imagine some people are pretty happy with their 6000's.

 

[dward51]

Yes, when "reseting" the unit, you need to raise it off the ground before clicking the toggle switch (waist height is good). Reason is if you click it near the ground and especially near something metal, you will actually de-tune the unit and it will not read as deep.

This is also very useful when trying to pinpoint an object. Get your depth reading first, then you can have the coil fairly close to the object's pinpoint location and click the toggle switch a few times. It de-tunes the unit (less sensitive) a little and then you can pinpoint with greater accuracy as the meter only swings when you are dead on the object if you do it right. When done with that object don't forget to raise the coil and click the toggle with the coil in the air to reset the unit and keep on searching. It's a good idea to get in the habit of raising the coil and resetting after every pinpoint or dig anyway. I'm not talking about rebalancing the unit, just raise the coil and click the toggle switch under the meter and you are good to go.

 

[china-clipper]

Thanks for all the advice, I went to my town green (longest one in New England) and did a little hunting. The green itself is over 300 years old. In fact George Washington once camped there. Anyway, all I managed to find in the hour before sunset were two copper pennys, one a 1944 and the other a 19xx (too coroded). But the good news is one showed up as a penny on the meter and indicated as 8" deep. I dug and dug and figured I screwed up as the hole got deeper and deeper. But the 6000 kept saying is was at 8-9" and a penny. Sure enough it showed up just as indicated. What a great feeling to know how to read my detector. Now I am confident as I learn it I can find coins DEEP! Thanks again, I'll more than likely be asking more questions in the future, but could never have gotten this far without everybody's help.

 

[crazyman]

These were written for the the 6000 Di Pro SL a few years back.

Whites Di Pro SL Tips

http://66.51.97.78/jb/6dipro.html