Can you air test a CZ3D?

[maxhofa]

Hello all, just got a CZ3D for Xmas (my first machine) . . . it's frozen outside (Germany) with about 2ft of snow on the ground, so there is no real way to effectively ground test this detector for a few months.

On an air-test w/ a mercury dime, enhanced mode with all the knobs set to 'red' I can't get a hit beyond 3" - 4" . . . which just doesn't seem right.

I've read seemingly-conflicting statements from Dankowski himself about the ability to air test a CZ3D. In Fisher Intelligencer he implies that the CZ needs the soil mineralization to be effective and is a poor candidate for such a test . . . yet I've read other materials from him indicating that one can air test a CZ3D. So which is the case?

The wife bought this machine through a major distributor and I'd rather work through them than through Fisher if this is a defective unit. I already have to wait until early spring at the soonest to use this detector, and don't want to wait that long only to find out there is in fact something wrong here.

So . . .

Can you air test a CZ?

If so, was I doing it the right way (pre-65 dime, enhanced mode, knobs on red)?

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Nope doesn't have to mix with ground and you can airtest......Your neigbors might have thoughts about your sanity but you have to go outside as inside the house can cause problems....
Sensitivity around 5 as hard to get any higher in the field...Ground balance at preset and accept all the meter facets, enhanced mode and you should get a ball park figure...Having used every CZ ever made expect 9-10 inches on a wheat penny....so either your not familiar with the unit or it needs a tuneup as your numbers are mighty low...Remember all units differ but a low of 8 and a high of 12 in the test means you either have a cold or hot CZ.....your 3-4 inches are unacceptable at best and would bet either of the aforementioned problems are a truism....

 

[maxhofa]

Thanks Dan . . . yeah, I was trying to do it inside which I'm hoping now was the problem

I understood everything you said except for this:

"Ground balance at preset and accept all the meter facets"

Um, what did you just say, in newbie terms?

Really looking forward to using this machine next summer when we're back in California for good. Anything before that (this spring) would just be gravy.

 

[mrwilburino]

Try these settings:

ground balance - 10
discrimination - 0
volume - 5 or higher
sensitivity - 10

If you're getting a lot of false signals you can turn the sens down but try it at 10 first.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Quote"Ground balance at preset and accept all the meter facets".......Put the dial on 5 on ground balance and use no discrimination should cover it...

As far as sens. tuned correctly a CZ3D should reach its max. potential at 4.8 and using both the new and older CZ3D's I find it hard to hunt at 5 and honestly using CZ's since 92 never found an area where I could get sens. over 8 and keep a stable unit so setting sens. at 10 will give you a false positive as you will never run a CZ3D much over 5 in the field not alone 10.

I have read all of Tom's writings and find him to be a competent detectorists but still make tests on my own to see how my unit reacts in my neck of the woods and indeed you may have different results in the field due to more or less mineralization.

Please understand air tests are ballpark and if you can find an old planted coin garden you should get more accurate info....

 

[mrwilburino]

Mine seems to be tuned across a wider band. At 5 sens I can hit a dime at about 7"; when I turn it up to 10 I get another 5'' of distance. Pretty much the same results in the ground, though not quite as deep. I've heard of other people with this situation. They talked about it once on the Dankowski forum during a post on air testing:

A poster asked: "now why does yours detect a dime at 12 inches sens 5? I have to set my 1021 to 7 sens. to get maybe 11 inches"?

Tom (Dankowski) responded: "MOST analog CZ's will ascertain max depth at a setting in the 4.4 - 5.0 range. THIS IS IN ID MODE ONLY!!!! (Autotune/all-metal is different; requiring a setting of '10'). IF your unit requires 7 or 8....... but can still acquire a dime at 11" - 12"......that's perfectly fine".

I talked to Felix at Fisher about it and he told me that 7" on a dime is normal at 5 sensitivity on the 3D. I don't know if he was being truthful with me or if they just didn't think the problem was worth dealing with...... Either way, I usually don't have a problem hunting with it at 8 - 10 sens in my mild soil as long as it is properly ground balanced. I'm not sure if I am having to deal with the same size coil footprint as you would be having at that sensitivity or if that too was tuned somewhere up the band on my unit. Anyway, I'm wondering if maxhofa is having the same situation with his machine?

 

[Mike Hillis]

Tom D. started promoting air tests when the 3D performance characteristics started to vary widely between production runs. There needed to be someway to tell the good from the mediocre and the flat out poor performing units. If you read past posts you find this was hotly discussed.

They may now have the sensitivity control operating more linear??? If so, then try your air test with a 10 sensitivity setting. At what ever the max setting happens to be, a dime should be detected at greater than 10+ inches.

Good luck. If it still continues to give poor results, you may want to try to exchange it for a better performing CZ.

HH
Mike

 

[Dan-Pa.]

From my experience using an older and newer CZ3D it was tough to get your sens. above 5 while still keeping a stable unit. Same for the last of the digital CZ's the CZ70. All other CZ's I have used 6-7-8 was more like it while keeping a stable unit. So indeed different parameters are being used in the last of the CZ's both analog or digital. Indeed its a thought if you can run your sens. high in the field but if not your thought would give it a false positive and have heard of gaining inches in a air test by running it wide open sens...

Certainly doesn't seem to be much quality control relative this issue from posts of CZ3D users as seems to be a wide variance in tests while the older CZ's in general were all deep..