Mike Hillis
Well-known member
I
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A little more F5 info.
- Thread starter Mike Hillis
- Start date
Mike I think you'll find this machine is pretty straight forward. The higher you can run you gain and threshold, the deeper the machine will go (the threshold isn't tricky like it is on the C$). If it runs into stability issues from the ground then decreasing the gain should stabilize it (EMI may be an entirely different issue, but I've never ran into EMI issues with it). When I first got the F5, it was 4th of July weekend and I had four days off, and spent each day detecting in a different environment. For the most part I was able to run the gain between 90-99 and the thresh at +9, and the machine ran very stable (except for the overload issue). I was finding plenty of stuff, but I wasn't getting anything really deep, can't recall getting anything over say 6-7" aside from a few BIG items. All metal may go much deeper then disc mode, I haven't tested it yet, but the TID works in AM, so it may be worth a shot.
Looking forward to your experience with the F5,
Brian
Looking forward to your experience with the F5,
Brian
Mike Hillis
Well-known member
What I am seeing in Disc mode is that the F5's circuitry and stock coil design limits the depth potential for coin size targets to 10". That is perfectly ok and normal. All machines have such limits.
The independent Gain and Threshold controls allow one to reach that maximum with different settings.
For example, with just the limited testing I've done so far, I know that I can reach that maximum design limit with a Gain of 50 & Threshold of +5. Or I can reach that same limit with a Gain of 75 & Threshold of -1.
BUT the Threshold isn't the key control, the Gain control is. The Gain control increases all signals, including the ground signal, which is much larger than the target signals. The ground signal is my number one depth limiter. The higher I raise the gain, the more I amplify my ground signal and start to mask the weaker target signals. Even though I am also amplifying the target signals too. Even when ground balanced. If I simply crank the gain and threshold to maximum all I have done is amplified my ground signal to the maximum and limited my achievable depth.
So the key is to be able to reach the F5's max design limits with as low of a gain as possible by using a combination of Gain and Threshold settings. Ideally with some adjustment room on the threshold settings for additional audio boosting as might be required.
All in all its a balancing act. The worse the ground the more important the balancing.
Once thats understood, the F5 becomes pretty straightforward
HH
Mike
The independent Gain and Threshold controls allow one to reach that maximum with different settings.
For example, with just the limited testing I've done so far, I know that I can reach that maximum design limit with a Gain of 50 & Threshold of +5. Or I can reach that same limit with a Gain of 75 & Threshold of -1.
BUT the Threshold isn't the key control, the Gain control is. The Gain control increases all signals, including the ground signal, which is much larger than the target signals. The ground signal is my number one depth limiter. The higher I raise the gain, the more I amplify my ground signal and start to mask the weaker target signals. Even though I am also amplifying the target signals too. Even when ground balanced. If I simply crank the gain and threshold to maximum all I have done is amplified my ground signal to the maximum and limited my achievable depth.
So the key is to be able to reach the F5's max design limits with as low of a gain as possible by using a combination of Gain and Threshold settings. Ideally with some adjustment room on the threshold settings for additional audio boosting as might be required.
All in all its a balancing act. The worse the ground the more important the balancing.
Once thats understood, the F5 becomes pretty straightforward
HH
Mike
Mike - I'm a newbie (8 months) so be patient with me. I wasn't planning on buying one of these but Bill Ladd's video and Jorge Saad's interview made me think this is a really sweet state of the art detector and I got a deal I couldn't pass up on a new F5, $349 shipped after a 10% electonics discount from eBay.
I really like this detector and have made some deep finds with it. It is super sensitive, and I'm amazed at finding LITTLE pieces of metal at 6" or more.
But I can tell as a newbie I've got a long learning curve with this detector and anything you can do to help shorten it would be appreciated.
What are you finding to be the best combinations of threshold and gain in various mineralizations?
Thanks for all your help!
I really like this detector and have made some deep finds with it. It is super sensitive, and I'm amazed at finding LITTLE pieces of metal at 6" or more.
But I can tell as a newbie I've got a long learning curve with this detector and anything you can do to help shorten it would be appreciated.
What are you finding to be the best combinations of threshold and gain in various mineralizations?
Thanks for all your help!
I got one from amazon for 30 bucks and it is great! Past posts by Mr. Bill led me to pick up this hockey puck.
I got out today and setup was 99 sens, +2 threshold, and 0 disc. I tried all metal but found that the F5 signaled deeper at
lowest disc (just clicked on). It sounded like a novice rock band at the local "tot lot", but I dug the high notes and checked for numbers above 66.
7 quarters and 24 dimes later I felt like this setup was a keeper. WTG Fisher, can't wait for your smaller coil.
Don
I got out today and setup was 99 sens, +2 threshold, and 0 disc. I tried all metal but found that the F5 signaled deeper at
lowest disc (just clicked on). It sounded like a novice rock band at the local "tot lot", but I dug the high notes and checked for numbers above 66.
7 quarters and 24 dimes later I felt like this setup was a keeper. WTG Fisher, can't wait for your smaller coil.
Don
Low-Boy/LCPM
Active member
I TRIED THAT IN CALIF BUT DIDN'T GET ANY DEPTH AND THE COIL WAS NOT FAST WAS A WASTE OF TIME.
Mike Hillis
Well-known member
I made that 10" statement because I was using a nickel as a test target. oops
My bad
HH
Mike
My bad
HH
Mike