Do yourself a Big Favor and if you have not read the manual.. read the manual !

[Captain Leno]

I recently took my new V3 with me on a business trip to Texas. I did not have too much time to detect but I did have plenty of evening hotel time to study.
This "Study" step is essiential in learning this or any other new machine. I would suggest anyone do this, it has made a lot of things come clear to me.
If you sit around and wait on forum members to "Set-up" your detector for you than your going to be very frustrated and bewildered.
And most likely be at the mercy of the the stock programs and 4 inch depth.
There is no way that anyone can tell you exactly how to get better depth from your machine. Unless of course they live next door, hunt the same places you hunt, have the same sweep speed, and like the same targets and oh yeah.. having the same hearing abilities you do. However, there are some people in the forums that take this hobby VERY serious and are very good at relaying thier experience in text, from those you can learn a lot. I would suggest doing something similar to what I have done the last several days.
I removed my coil and lower arm, set the detector right here on the table, turned it and my computer on.
Downloaded a manual from the whites site and went through EVERYTHING.
I made several "Practice" Programs and saved them, Changed them, put them in the library, erased them, restored them, renamed them, and deleted them and done the whole thing over and over.
I took stock programs and tweeked them and restored them.
Everything I think you can possibly do to a hunting program I think I have done...
One thing for sure, I got all that saving, changing and storing DOWN TO A SCIENCE.
I then jumped into the manual and read it all and adjusted it all. Read it once and if I did not understand I read it again.

Before this week I had no idea what:
TX BOOST or RX GAIN did..
The Diffrence between DISC SENS and ALL METAL SENS was and how i might push the envelope a little deeper to get those sweet old targets <hint if your looking for depth
AUDIO was pretty self explainatory.. did not have to study that too much but now know how to adjust my threshold and understand why it is important to have it.
DISC Accept I understood but now understand what WRAP is.
I now know what Bottle Cap Reject is for and how its used and now I know that for the most part, unless I get into some real trashy areas I think I will just leave it off.
I now know that HOT ROCK reject is most likley something that I am not going to be concerned with in Indiana where I like to hunt.
Ground Filter (HUGE REVELATION HERE) I got what I think is a COMPLETE understanding of what that is doing, and in my Mild Soil the Factory Programs MAY NOT be best suited for MAXIMUM DEPTH in combination with my TURTLE SWEEP SPEED.
Frequency settings are now more clearer to me.. and when I am wanting to grab DEEP SILVER I should consider 2.5 kHz and give it a whirl..
I also learned what to do if I am working close by another detectorist ( offset ) but I doubt that will happen too often...
And I also learned that when I am home hunting the mild black dirt that I am not going to have to play with the ground tracking too much but if I decide to take off an go prospecting somewhere for gold I might want to re-read the section on that...

I am just trying to tell anyone that might be getting a bit frustrated that you need to take the time to read the manual.. and read it with your detector and PLAY WITH IT !
I think some detector company's are a bit misleading when they advertise "Turn and Go" programs... yes the factory pre-set to some degree are "Turn and Go" but not completly...

 

[Larry (IL)]

Great post Capt'n.............

 

[msanders]

Great advice. Looks like I will need to read before I start to sweep.......thanks!

 

[jbow]

It helped me to understand it better to write it out in my words. I haven't had to go back and read what I wrote but writing it into my own words helped me to understand it all.

I remember that there is somehthing backwards in the manual but I don't remember what White's calls it but it controls the volume increase or decrease associated with deep targets. ML calls it gain White's calls it something else... someone will chime in or you can look it up. Anyway it is a 1 through 5 adjustmentor 0 through 5 but the manual has it backwards as to the way it really works.

If you're having a hard time try taking notes when you read it, sort of like studying... DOH!!! It helps you to learn.

J

 

[dave5710]

jbow, you're talking about modulation.

 

[Taterhead]

I think it would be great if there was a reverse-modulation option. With current modulation, the deeper targets sound off with a softer tone and closer targets are louder. (FWIW, 5 is no modulation, lower numbers integrate modulation). It seems that the primary purpose of using modulation is to have another way to "identify" deeper, potentially more valuable targets as being different from surface targets. With exterior noise/whatever, I find that the deeper signal sound can be very hard to hear when it occurs. I would love to have a way to "hear" deeper targets which actually resulted in the deeper targets sounding perhaps a bit louder than other targets, after all, they are where I want to direct attention. Examples include:

"Foil-range" targets...in sand at the beach, gold and valuable items in this range will sink faster, while gum/candy wrapers will be closer to the top. I would love to have a way to differentiate with sound that draws my attention to the deeper target without making it hard to hear, especially against surf and wind....reverse modulation would achieve this

Coin targets...older coins are more likely to be more valuable, but are also likely to be valuable, not to mention more exciting to find. Reverse modulation would allow for a more attention-grabbing audio signal for a deep coin, especially if the tones in the coin range were adjusted to draw attention.

Just a thought.

The village idiot,

Tater

 

[Neil in West Jersey]

Great post, but one thing I have noticed is that the default bottle cap reject setting is OFF At this setting bottle caps will fool you into thinking "Indian Head Penny" every time. It should definitely be raised a couple of notches.

Other than that, great post. And yes, I have read it over and over. Once was back in April months before I even considered owning one.

 

[jbow]

n/t

 

[jbow]

There was a post a month or so back that talked about the BCR and it can cause you to miss some things. I cannot remember what the problem was but you can search it. I run it off unless I am in a lot of caps. Doesn't the analize give a jagged hump on most BCs or is that with the BCR on?

J

 

[Captain Leno]

Its been my experience that although it sounds like a quarter and VDI's like a quarter the analyze screen shows Red Dominant, Blue second and Green Squigly... I still dig'em and everytime before I dig I say to myself.. "Darn Bottlecap" lol

 

[Lowjiber]

Good post Leno.

You're right of course...When all else fails, read the instructions.

When one cruises through forums associated with the V, there seems to be a lot of very elementary threads. I think it's because many of us who bought V's early (mine is serial number 016) didn't even have a manual.

I keep a notebook where I record all the informative posts, notes, and observations associated with the machine. Now, when I look back to the beginning I see things that are very simple and elementary knowledge NOW. However, when we had literally nothing to guide us...we were in the dark.

Like most followers of Jeff Foster's books on the DFX and MXT, I can't wait for his tome related to the Vision.