F5 Pinpointing

[Mezrein]

Hi all, two questions. First, take a look at the attached picture. When I'm doing pinpointing, where is the target going to be strongest? Is it at the end of the green line, or at the end of the red line?

Second, I saw someone mention new software for the F5, how do I update it? Or do I have to send it back to Fisher?

Thanks all, trying to learn this thing, and am struggling something fierce.

 

[Mike Hillis]

Mezrein,
Take a golf ball and roll it around in the center hole. Thats where your pinpoint will be for deeper targets when you use the pinpoint button (about a inch up from the green line on your picture. For shallow targets you can pinpoint off the toe of the coil (red line in your picture) by just wiggling the coil and pulling it back toward you without using the pinpoint feature at all.

There are no upgrades available for software. What you have in your machine when you buy it is what you get. To be honest, they are minor changes and not worth worrying about. My original version 6.1 works just as good as my 6.3. Just enjoy what you got before the buy and try demon gets on your back and starts riding you.

HH
Mike

 

[Mezrein]

Ahh I understand. Makes a bit more sense now. As for enjoying what I have, well I'm trying to, I need to find something decent in order to be able to sit back and say, "Ok, this detector was worth the money I paid for it over using the bounty hunter" Right now I cant say that, even though its feature rich, I havent really found anything that I can say with certainity I couldnt have found with the bounty hunter or even the gold bug 2. While my F5 was in the shop I used the gold bug at a park and was doing fairly well at sifting through small trash sounds vs normal coin and larger items. So far the only deep targets, being 5 to 8" down that I've found are water pipes. LOL

 

[marcomo]

The key to getting the best depth out of the F5 is to run it as hot as you can without sacrificing stability...with the coil in motion.

You will be able to get stability at higher settings when the coil is moving as opposed to stationary. If you run a F5 hot you need to get used to taking your headphones off while retrieving targets or the chatter when the coil is not in motion will drive you bonkers.

One caveat is that the F5 is set up so that if you max out both the gain and threshold settings you will put the detector in a lower gain mode.

Kind of a First Texas software quirk, like with the F75 where discrimination settings of 5 to 19 put you in a lower gain mode.

 

[norman maassey]

I have a friend who has been a coin hunter for over 30 years now. Basically he is a Park hunter. Since the first of the year he has got a At Pro and a F5. The F5 has be came his prime hunter. He has already surpassed his clad coin count is above the total of la last year with 61/2 months to go. His silver coins & silver and gold jewelry is up too.

Anyone That knows their salt about metal detecting will tell you to, get to know your detector and it will take about a 100 Hours.

 

[DiGGER27]

I have a Vaq and I also hunt with an F2 and love it.
I have a DD on the Vaq, and pinpointing was really kicking my butt for awhile, but then I watched this..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-hqvdjRVxc

I do the pull back and wiggle thing off the front of the coil and I am right on every time, now

I wish I had a DD coil for the F2...love the wide scanning field.

 

[Mezrein]

The key to getting the best depth out of the F5 is to run it as hot as you can without sacrificing stability...with the coil in motion.

You will be able to get stability at higher settings when the coil is moving as opposed to stationary. If you run a F5 hot you need to get used to taking your headphones off while retrieving targets or the chatter when the coil is not in motion will drive you bonkers.

One caveat is that the F5 is set up so that if you max out both the gain and threshold settings you will put the detector in a lower gain mode.

Kind of a First Texas software quirk, like with the F75 where discrimination settings of 5 to 19 put you in a lower gain mode.

highest I've been able to get mine running while remaining stable so far has been 65/-1 gain/thres I'm not sure I understand the concept of the gain and thres being high will give me a lower gain, how does that work?

 

[marcomo]

It's not gain and threshold merely being high, it's when the gain and threshold are maxed (at the highest settings) that the detector goes into a lower gain mode.

 

[Mezrein]

Topic switch,
Been trying to learn more about gain and thres, currently I can run the detector at 65/-1 in a few areas, most Im running at 50/-2. If I drop my thres to say -5 and hopefully get gain up to say 80-85, will I still be able to hear jewelery? Obviously not stud earrings, but I'm more after chains and rings and what not. As well as coins of course,

 

[Allan]

The key to getting the best depth out of the F5 is to run it as hot as you can without sacrificing stability...with the coil in motion.

When you say running it hot, can you give an example of the settings? As stated running both gain and threshold maxed out results in lower gain.

So when you say hot, I'm guessing your gain is 80+ and threshold around 0? Or Threshold arounnd 7+, with a lower gain of 60 or so? Just trying to understand? Thanks

 

[chef50]

All my pinpointing seems to be just in front of the shaft-coil connection area...almost like the shaft is pointing at the target...but thats just me....LOVE the F5