Everything sounds good on the Anfibio,,,, frustrating

[GA1dad]

I bought an Anfibio Multi last year, and didn't immediately take to it. This year I've vowed to put in the hours and give it a fair shake before deciding to keep or not. But my goodness,,,, everything "sounds" so good on this machine,,, especially nails. And to make it worse, they seem to lock on and ring up solid in the coinage area. I am not having any fun at all in the trashy parks I have the most access to.

I've tried 3,4 and Deep modes so far. I like the depth I get with 4 in my test garden. I tend to stay in 5 kHz. Notch volume tried on and off. Isat tried at 0 or 1. Coils tried are the stock big DD, a smaller 9.5 X 5 DD and this week I have been focusing on the 7" concentric.

Anybody got some tried and true settings that have worked good in trashy parks?

Thanks in advance

 

[ToneTime]

Sorry to hear about your frustrations with the anfibio sounding good on nails and such! I was Just thinking how much I like the nokta makro machines because they give a mostly broken signal on iron and junk! Did you try running the sensitivity a bit lower to see if that helps? I also like to run the iron volume low and examine the target from many angles and sweeps. Mostly the Iron will give ID’s all over the place and sometimes fade out with the Kruzer and simplex granted they are different machines. Deep solid chunks of iron will give a good tone but has a bell curve to it if that makes any sense! Also the pinpoint button can tell you a lot about what you are dealing with. Best of luck!

 

[GA1dad]

Thanks for the suggestions ToneTime. Reducing the gain some is something I really should explore more.

Been thinking on it all night, and I think I've come to realize that my machine is really acting the way it is programmed to. And. if I am honest, I am hunting in a fashion that enables the rusty tips of nails and iron to sound off sweetly. For example, because the parks has been hunted for so long by so many detectorists, I have to adopt the mentality that what's left will not be those perfect round signals. I may hear iron 75% around a target, and silver for the other 25% around it. And the mind says " could be a silver dime with nails". Sadly, I just haven't swung over many good targets with it yet to have a good feel for "trashy park coins".

If I really break it down, the Anfibio should give me the tools/options to develop a trashy park "program". Thanks for letting me ramble,,,,,

 

[Monte]

Reply Post Part 1:

I bought an Anfibio Multi last year, and didn't immediately take to it. This year I've vowed to put in the hours and give it a fair shake before deciding to keep or not.

The Anfibio Multi is a very good general-purpose detector. Like any other detector, the end results in performance are going to be tied with:
• the Circuitry Design
• the Search Mode chosen
• the operator-chosen Settings used
• the operating Frequency
• the Sweep Speed used
• the Search Coil .... including Size, Shape and Type
• the presence of nearby Masking or Partially-Masking Trash ... including Size, Shape, Orientation and whether Ferrous or Non-Ferrous

And let's not forget that it is up to the consumer to make the proper selections of detector, settings and search coil used, and then put in ample time afield, as well as at-home testing, to really learn the strengths and weaknesses of their equipment in order to really master understanding and using it. It takes 'time' and often prior long-term experience can help some folks learn faster / better.

But my goodness,,,, everything "sounds" so good on this machine,,, especially nails. And to make it worse, they seem to lock on and ring up solid in the coinage area. I am not having any fun at all in the trashy parks I have the most access to.

Iron Nails, as well as a lot of other challenging ferrous-based trash, can be a challenge for most detectors in use today, especially the more 'modern' designs that have a higher Gain or Sensitivity and are often equipped with a bigger-size search coil, the wrong type of design, and all too often the operator is using a very open Disc. program.

If we are searching a clean, sparse-trash area, that's in our favor. If most of the targets we encounter are round-shaped, non-ferrous coins, and if they are mostly oriented in a 'flat' position to the search coil, that is also in our favor. The resulting audio and visual Target ID responses are going to be more favorable and consistent.

Odd-shaped targets can be a problem. You are a Coin Hunter. so have you tested the Anfibio Multi, or any other detector, on an assortment of US coins laying on the ground in plain sight? Then stood them on-edge by sticking them in he dirt at an abrupt 90° orientation and swept over them from different approaches? Perhaps canted a coin at about a 45° angle and swept over that coin from different approach angles? Did you notice the differences in audio responses as well as visual VDI responses?

Try this 'test' using good, non-ferrous coins: Take two of the same denomination coins and place one in the dirt about half-way and in an abrupt 'edge' position. Next, use a same denomination coin and lay in flat on the ground next to and touching, in good contact, with the coin on-edge. Sweep over these two in-contact targets from different approach angles and note both the audio and visual results. Different from a nice-and-proper coin laying 'flat' all by itself with nothing else around?

In some ways the 'different' response results are going to also be 'different' with an Iron Nail. The Nail isn't just a straight piece of iron wire or rod, but it has a Nail Head at the end of it that is 90° to the lengthy rod portion. Therefore, the induced EMF is going to be different and the resulting EMF induced on and about the combined Nail Body and Nail Head will have some differing influences on the field the detector has to interpret and inform you about. But that's only part of the challenge we have to deal with because there are two more important factors to consider.

One of those is the fact that a Nail, especially with a Nail Head, can be positioned in all sorts of orientations to the search coil's EMF, and compounded by the fact that the Nail might be bent or otherwise crooked instead of straight, and all those variables can distort the field and receive signal resulting in some problems signals to process.

Then, add to that the fact that we are talking about an Iron or Ferrous-based metal and th challenges to deal with increase. Why? Because Iron / Ferrous objects shave a different effect on an EMF than a similar size & shape Non-Ferrous object. As we alter the shape of an Iron object, we can increase or enhance the conductivity to the point where an otherwise rejected or Discriminated Iron object will present a higher-conductive response due to their man-shaped / designed nature and can 'impersonate' the response we get from a higher-conductive Non-Ferrous Coin.

Second, we have an additional challenging issue, especially thanks to the modern trend by most manufacturers in their standard and accessory search coils. And just what is that modern trend? Well, it is actually two trends, and those are the use of Double-D coil designs instead of the Concentric windings that used to be more popular. Now, that's not to say all Concentric coils will be trouble-free, but the Double-D type coils have their overlapped Tx & Rx orientations which results in a different behavior on a left-to-right Vs a right-to-left search coil approach whereas a Concentric coil has a uniform EMF so it is the same from each direction. Thus, a more consistent effect on the Tx & Rx coils for receiving and processing a generated / induced target signal.

I've been using a DD coil on some detectors since they were introduced to hobby detectors in 1971 by Compass Electronics. Their well-known 'Yukon' series worked really well as a conventional or straight TR detector. But in the mid-'70s they brought out their 'Judge' series that included a Discrimination circuitry. In developing them, they found the DD coil design had difficulty when it came to proper Discrimination with the TR-Disc. circuitry, thus they changed to a CoPlaner or Concentric type coil. That coil-type provided better, more accurate Discrimination, especially with a lot of ferrous-based trash rejection. Garrett Electronics also switched from the DD coils on their TR-Disc. models about '75 / '76 also.

Additionally, using comparable-size coils, it was noted then, and since then, that a Concentric coil can also achieve slightly better depth-of-detection to a same-size DD coil, not to mention easier or better target Pinpointing capability. When we got our first visual Target ID models in '83 it was also noted that a Concentric coil provided a more consistent TID response and tighter lock-on than with a DD coil.

Not only are we seeing a trend to offer only DD coils, but also a trend, that started back about 1988 and after, to go to larger-size 'standard' coils. When you blend together a larger-size coil of Double-D design with an increased amount of discarded trash in common places over the past 30 to 40 years with a depletion of available lost coins, and in some cases more Iron Nail and other Iron target encounters, it has become increasingly difficult to deal with a lot of problem trash and end up with better audio and visual Discrimination to try and single-out good non-ferrous keepers.

Monte

 

[Monte]

Reply Post Part 2:

I've tried 3,4 and Deep modes so far. I like the depth I get with 4 in my test garden. I tend to stay in 5 kHz. Notch volume tried on and off. Isat tried at 0 or 1. Coils tried are the stock big DD, a smaller 9.5 X 5 DD and this week I have been focusing on the 7" concentric.

My preference is 3-Tone in very trashy environments, 2-Tone when there is less trash and the main Iron debris is Nails, and because 2-Tone generally gets a little better depth than 3-Tone, and Deep mode when hunting wide-open areas with minimal masking trash. Too much junk, especially shallower and too close, cuts in on the ability of a detector to achieve any decent, workable depth for smaller-size coin targets.

If you are working trashy areas, I'd encourage the use of the 7" Concentric coil over a DD coil or any larger-size (standard 11" ??) search coil. To help deal with some ferrous targets I would also use enough Discrimination to either just barely reject a common Iron Nail, or just barely accept the nail, but also incorporate a lower Iron Volume setting.

Thanks for the suggestions ToneTime. Reducing the gain some is something I really should explore more.

He's correct that sometimes reducing the Sensitivity can help deal with some Ferrous-based junk.

Been thinking on it all night, and I think I've come to realize that my machine is really acting the way it is programmed to.

It was behaving the way it would based on the coil used, frequency used and settings used, and trying to work with Iron trash. It can get to be a pain, especially when the trash targets are deeper.

And. if I am honest, I am hunting in a fashion that enables the rusty tips of nails and iron to sound off sweetly. For example, because the parks has been hunted for so long by so many detectorists, I have to adopt the mentality that what's left will not be those perfect round signals. I may hear iron 75% around a target, and silver for the other 25% around it. And the mind says " could be a silver dime with nails". Sadly, I just haven't swung over many good targets with it yet to have a good feel for "trashy park coins"

Iron, due to it's size, shape and orientation, presents challenges. Desired targets, which could be coins, trade tokens, buttons, bullets, etc., also have a difficult time being located when they are at odd positions, perhaps located deeper than 'average' or 'typical' target depths, and also being partially masked by other nearby metal objects.

Unfortunately, some older locations, to include even some public parks, are getting to the point where the amount of ferrous trash outnumbers desirable non-ferrous keepers and we just have to take what w get and deal with it.

If I really break it down, the Anfibio should give me the tools/options to develop a trashy park "program". Thanks for letting me ramble,,,,,

Correct, but with any of these 'modern' detector models, regardless of the manufacturer, we are faced with the newer digital circuitry performance coupled with bigger-size and Double-D designed search coils, all using some high-gain circuitry. That's why I also make sure I have at least one or two 'older-style' analog circuitry models with a Concentric coil in my working outfit. No detector is 'perfect' so I like to be prepared.

Monte

 

[GA1dad]

Reply Post Part 1:

Odd-shaped targets can be a problem. You are a Coin Hunter. so have you tested the Anfibio Multi, or any other detector, on an assortment of US coins laying on the ground in plain sight?

Yessir,, actually I laid out the basic US coins on the surface just last night ( Wheat, Buff, IHP, Rosie, Washington ) I was trying out some settings in 5 tone mode and had a "W.T.Heck" moment. My coins were about 5-6" apart in a row left to right. The machine was GB'd well, dic at absolute minimum, 5 tone, Gain 80, 7" concentric. I briskly scanned from right to left and only heard the first and last coins,,, nothing else. I slowed the swing down and still only had solid hits on the two end coins. The mosquitos were eating my up and I didn't play long. I am going to try the small DD coil to see if it separates the coins when set up the same.

I am a coin hunter, mainly because of little access to relic bearing permissions. I would much rather dig old buttons. But,,, the old parks are close by and easy to hit when time is limited. I hit my favorite relic site over the weekend, but again, the Anfibio just loooovveedd the bits of roofing metal. I prefer my T2 on that spot

Thanks for taking the time to reply my friend!!.

 

[BigTony]

I bought an Anfibio Multi last year, and didn't immediately take to it. This year I've vowed to put in the hours and give it a fair shake before deciding to keep or not. But my goodness,,,, everything "sounds" so good on this machine,,, especially nails. And to make it worse, they seem to lock on and ring up solid in the coinage area. I am not having any fun at all in the trashy parks I have the most access to.

I've tried 3,4 and Deep modes so far. I like the depth I get with 4 in my test garden. I tend to stay in 5 kHz. Notch volume tried on and off. Isat tried at 0 or 1. Coils tried are the stock big DD, a smaller 9.5 X 5 DD and this week I have been focusing on the 7" concentric.

Anybody got some tried and true settings that have worked good in trashy parks?

Thanks in advance

I haven't used my Nokta in awhile but if you are using 5khz I would feel that is for deeper silver coins and not surface coins on top of the ground.
When I first started using my Nokta Impact I had a tough time getting used to the buttons and finding stuff. Finally I started to understand what it was telling me and did much better.
I suggest you go to a park and use the 5KHz and go a little slower - the rest will come.
I don't believe we can ever not dig nails specifically bent ones.
Tony

 

[GA1dad]

I haven't used my Nokta in awhile but if you are using 5khz I would feel that is for deeper silver coins and not surface coins on top of the ground.
When I first started using my Nokta Impact I had a tough time getting used to the buttons and finding stuff. Finally I started to understand what it was telling me and did much better.
I suggest you go to a park and use the 5KHz and go a little slower - the rest will come.
I don't believe we can ever not dig nails specifically bent ones.
Tony

Thanks for your time!

Just for reference, in my test garden the coins are at 6" deep. When I laid the coins on the surface yesterday afternoon I only noticed one difference between the three frequencies. At 5kHz the Buffalo Nickel had a scratchy tone and the nickel signal faded out quite quickly as I raised the coin. On 20 kHz the nickel was much clearer and a couple of inches of additional depth was noticed. Other than that, all the silver and copper coins rang up loud and proud regardless of frequency.

 

[Coin Rescue Inc]

I only have the Multi Kruzer - Stock Coil - 7" round and the larger one that comes with the Anfibio.
The first time out with the Anfibio coil I hit a deep Wheat Penny.
I use the 19kHz most all the time in 4 or 3 tone and do well. I reduce the Iron sounds for sanity.
With the large coils in trashy parks I listen for deep targets faint High tones. TID partially Ignored...nice to check but I trust tones more.
Also 20-22 TID stops me because I have found Gold Rings in that range.
This is also my fresh water beach hunter with 7" coil. No Mechanical problems in deep water
It is true you need to spend a lot of time with what ever machine you like to get to know it.
On a new Machine I would spend some time in the Kid's wood Chip Playground or beach.
Quick easy digging and dig everything - just like getting a new rifle
Ya got to take it out and site it in before you go for big game...

 

[Jeff in Pa]

Here's my take and my settings.
First, the Multi is actually (in my opinion) better in iron than my Nox 800. The Anfibio will give very short, clipped high tones on that sweet spot of iron. A deep coin will sound good even when it's almost out of reach.
Heres my settings.
First what tone do you like on a deeper coin?
Do you have a deeper coin buried to listen to?
I see you are using 5KHZ. That's a better choice for the Anfibio if your dealing with lots of can slaw.
I like 14 KHZ but either works great. The one thing I didn't like in my ground was my nickels. The machine seemed to struggle on a nickel if it wasn't shallow and clean meaning nothing else close to it. That may just be me.
My settings are using 4 or 5 tone.
Tone break is 26, 32, 62, and 74 if you use 5 tone. I like 5 tone. Both are very deep.
BTW my take on switching to deep is don't unless your just checking a very deep edge of detection target that you have Hope's for.
I personally will DBL click the EUD button, it does help just a little on a deeper target but then I turn it off.
From there pick your tones for nickels (26 break) and the other 2 for zincs/Indians and then your high tone. Try and keep your volume at 2 or 3 for the junky area. If you dont it pops too much.
Isat at zero. Just remember the lowest tone for iron needs to be one that can mix with a high tone so that it catches your attention.

Just my opinion here, nothing more.

 

[BigTony]

Thanks for your time!

Just for reference, in my test garden the coins are at 6" deep. When I laid the coins on the surface yesterday afternoon I only noticed one difference between the three frequencies. At 5kHz the Buffalo Nickel had a scratchy tone and the nickel signal faded out quite quickly as I raised the coin. On 20 kHz the nickel was much clearer and a couple of inches of additional depth was noticed. Other than that, all the silver and copper coins rang up loud and proud regardless of frequency.

I noticed that the lower frequencies can not properly identify nickels.
On the Nox they have a 4 KHz and it is the same - now that you know this you will find two coins together in a hole using 5Khz - it will pick up on a dime and ignore the nickel in the same hole.
I have found a few of those recently and love it.
Tony

 

[gunwolf]

saw this post and I know I don't belong in this forum...I know nothing about the Anfibio, I went from the ace 250 to the E-trac in 2010... I had a very frustrating year of digging rusty nails that sounded and read like silver... it took me a while but I figured out not just the tone, but the smoothness and quality of the tone... my ear eventually caught on... I recently bought the NOX 800 and I swear I dug more junk with that machine that sounded good both ways than I ever did with the ACE250 or E-trac... nd for it's worth, I went back to the E-trac... I still dig rusty nails, but only when I'm digging "iffy" signals. if your tone is smooth and repeatable both ways, and it it pinpoints small... no matter what the detector or VDI numbers.. it's a keeper (or similar sized trash) I have recently had silver scream at me both ways on a deep target, only to pull out a rusty nut... it happens... good luck HH

 

[Monte]

I've enjoyed the Impact, Multi-Kruzer and Anfibio Multi with their ability to select a desired Single Frequency. Today I also enjoy my Garrett Apex which also provides Frequency selection. There are certain times and places when I opt for the very low 5 kHz, and a little more ooften I make use of the higher-end 19 kHz or 20 kHz. Bust most-of-the-time I prefer to use detectors as I have for the past 44 years that operate somewhere in the 10 kHz to 15 kHz range.

I have found models in that range to provide very good results on lower-conductive gold jewelry or US Nickel coins on u through the early Indian Head and modern Zinc Cent coins to the better copper Cents and all of the higher-conductive glad and silver denominations. Thus, with the Impact, Multi-Kruzer and Anfibio Multi I spent most of my time hunting in the default 14 kHz. There must be a very good reason why they engineered those models to start-up at a default 14 kHz frequency, just as Garrett designed the SMF and Selectable Frequency Apex to start-up right out of the box when brand new at 15 kHz.

On the Impact and Multi-Kruzer I didn't like the elliptical 7X11 DD and never used it. I only relied on their 5" DD when working very littered sites, especially with iron-based trash, and most of the time my day-to-day search coil was the round 7" Concentric.. The only option to that was working an open-frame 5X9½ DD on one of those models as a trade-off to the 7" Concentric, with both being what I consider to be a mid-size coil.

I'll add, after reading your post 'GA1dad', that you are generally going to get the best performance out of the Anfibio Multi ... and most modern detectors ... by using a slow-and-methodical sweep and not a brisk / fast sweep speed. The opposite is true in that quite often you might get impaired performance when using a too-brisk sweep speed.

As for man-made ferrous objects, like roofing metal, rusty tin, bottle caps and so forth, they are what they are and the best we can do is select the better frequencies and coils to use, take advantage of Iron Audio Volume, and increase the Discrimination just enough to help reject or classify a lot of the pesky iron debris. Then, devote the time and effort to learn the detector and search techniques that might help us out with some of the shallower-locate iron, meaning surface to about 3" or 4". After that it is more difficult to audibly classify a lot of ferrous targets which means → → recovering more ferrous targets.

Monte

 

[GA1dad]

Follow up,

Just before dark, after wrapping up some chores, I spent about an hour swinging it in my own yard. I was working with the 7" concentric, 5 tone, default gain, minimum disc and 5 kHz. I dug a total of 7 holes in an hour, of which only three were what I considered truly trash,, and only one of those was iron. The remaining 4 targets were kind of legit,, a toy motorcycle, a dBase II fob from the early 80's, a SO-239 coax coupler and a zinc penny. But most importantly to me, I passed on a lot of stuff because it was giving clear iron crackle with only occasional high chirps. I still want to try it with the 9.5X5 and the 11" DD,, but for now I'm optimistic. Wish I had the 9" concentric to play with too.

On a interesting (to me) note,,,,, as an Amateur Radio Operator,,,, I needed to order one of those coax couplers anyways. It's kind of cool to dig up something you can use.

 

[IowaRelic]

Don’t be afraid to lower the gain to stock levels on any mode but 3 tone. 3 tone can run up to high gain in 14khz, be reasonably deep and stable when working slow. I loved these machines in 3 tone 89 gain with small coils in the iron. Awesome shallow unmasking. That’s their key strength really. The deep stuff is iffy most of the time. And I’m talking 8+” deep targets. I’ve experienced much better target clarity with my Nox and DEUS at depth. And I do recover a lot of deep non ferrous targets because of those machines.
Here’s a video of me live digging a silver quarter with the kruzer. Every good deep coin I dug with this machine was good and clear like this video.

 

[JCR TX]

There is a lot of good information and advice in this thread from knowledgeable users. Putting in the time to really learn a detector is the difference maker. I really started to understand the Anfibio when I stopped trying to run it as hot as I could at every site. My test garden showed me that even at Pre set gains of 70 with the 7" coil it would hit a 6"+ coin in all modes except 3DI. This knowledge gave me the confidence to set up for good stability and in turn, better understanding of what the detector was reporting. The Anfibio Multi is a world class detector that is very capable. I am working on getting myself up to it's speed.

 

[David53]

I

I bought an Anfibio Multi last year, and didn't immediately take to it. This year I've vowed to put in the hours and give it a fair shake before deciding to keep or not. But my goodness,,,, everything "sounds" so good on this machine,,, especially nails. And to make it worse, they seem to lock on and ring up solid in the coinage area. I am not having any fun at all in the trashy parks I have the most access to.

I've tried 3,4 and Deep modes so far. I like the depth I get with 4 in my test garden. I tend to stay in 5 kHz. Notch volume tried on and off. Isat tried at 0 or 1. Coils tried are the stock big DD, a smaller 9.5 X 5 DD and this week I have been focusing on the 7" concentric.

Anybody got some tried and true settings that have worked good in trashy parks?

Thanks in advance

I usually use 14 kHz as well as 20 kHz and I have found lots of Gold and Silver Jewelry. I have never used kHz. I generally use 3 tone because of its fast recovery speed. I have used 4 tone, but I have had to experiment not using as much gain due to emi and extra noise.
I also view Paystreak Superfreak (Jeromy) on YouTube. Jeromy discusses lots about the Anfibio as well as the Simplex. He runs lots of different machines through test gardens and he also has lots of hours of hunts.