Ralph Bryant
New member
The new Teknetics T-2 arrived this morning, and the weather being unseasonably warm, I had a chance to do a quick read of the updated manual, assemble the machine, and take it for a short test on the bench and out in the yard.
First "visual" impression of the T-2 proved to be better than I actually expected. The machine is very nicely designed and built. The expected plastic arm-cup assembly is actually powder-coated aluminum without the "ridges" shown in the original prototype photos, allowing it to be slightly bent inward or outward to fit the operators forearm, as well as laterally adjustable forward or back to a comfortable position. The arm-cup padding is of a better quality than seen on some machines, with a smoother and denser material than usually encountered. Overall fit and finish of the eitire machine is really very nice.
<center>[attachment 14563 T2.gif]</center>
After installing the 4 AA batteries into the battery compartment located at the back of the battery/speaker/power switch housing located under the arm-cup, first boot gave a low-volume VCO-type tone to let me know it was up and running. The battery indicator bars immediately showed a full 4 bars level, indicating fully charged batteries, the "Discrim" indicator in the screen menu highlighted to indicate the start mode, and a test message of "Overload, Raise Coil" was indicated in the message box on the screen. At that point, all settings boot at the pre-set level which basically gives you a "turn-on-and-go" detector tuned to operate well in many "average" hunting conditions. It's at this point that further "fine-tuning" of the different menu options can be accomplished by using the single momentary pushbutton to scroll through either the discrimination or all-metal sides of the menu on the screen. To change from discrimination to all-metal or back again, the operator simply has move the tuning knob one detent stop to the right or left. Simple enough. Menu items are then highlighted by use of the momentary pushbutton to scroll down the list from top to bottom, returning back to the top menu item once the list is exhausted.
Mike has covered much of the basic description of the machine, so I just wanted to add a few thoughts and observations to what my initial impression was from a performance standpoint.
First thing I did, and what I would always recommend to others before using a new machine for the first time, was to read the operator's manual through to get a feel for what to expect. In doing so, I came across the following two paragraphs that really got my attention while at the same time getting my hopes up a bit.
------------------------------
What you hear vs. what you see.
"The visual ID system works strictly on a sampled signal, whereas the audio discriminator system works on a combination of sampled and/or continuous signals. Therefore, there is not a 100% correspondence between what you see and what you hear, especially on buried targets where ground minerals influence targtet ID response.
By making the audio and visual systems independent, the T-2 allows each system to do what it does best. The audio is optimized for quick response and target "feel", whereas the visual system provides the best numeric resolution of target ID."
---------------------------
Now it's no secret that I like very quick target response time in my machines. I've spent much time trying different VID machines in search of one that really offered more of a non-ID type response usually restricted to analog 2 filter designs that lack the so-called "lag effect" of a slow response to the target on initial approach of the coil. From the above, it appeared that Dave Johnson and John Gardiner had designed certain aspects of software functions to provide just that......very quick audio response that did not rely on the VID discrimination processing that normally tends to slow things down on both accounts. On most VID machines, what we see is "lag effect" in both the VID "and" the audio response. I'm very glad to say, this is definately not the case with the new T-2, as it exhibits the absolute fastest initial target response speed I've seen in a true visual target ID machine to date. I'm sure this is partially due to the narrow response area of the large 11 inch double-D, but also to the separation of processing of the VDI function and the audio signal as described above. I'm not sure if any other VID designs follow this logic or not, but with this particular machine, IT WORKS ! Running it back to back this afternoon with the Xterra, there was no comparison in target acquisition speed. The T-2 is FAST !
Our present residence was built on the former location of an older homesite, and as such there is good mix of older and newer ground trash signals something akin to what you would usually encounter in a well used park environment. Directly in front of the house is where I will usually run test machines through the wringer just to see if they can really find anything that the others haven't or couldn't, an area ov about 30 x 30 feet or so.
First few swings after finding a clean spot to ground balance using the "grab" feature were used to get a feel for what level of sensitivity and discrimination seemed to "work" in this kind of trash, consisting mostly of old bits and pieces of misc. iron, housing materials, pull-tabs, bottle caps, and the like. After setting things up, I spent about 30 minutes swinging with no real expectations of finding more than a couple of coins, considering how many dozens of times I had probably been over the same area.
<center>[attachment 14562 DSC00238.JPG]</center>
The results were 22 coins, all of which had obviously been in the ground for quite some time. These included 5 nickels and a silver quarter, along with a single older square pull-tab that signaled exactly like a nickel with the same VDI and nickel icon reading, as well as a round aluminum grommet that did likewise. I encountered probably another several dozen solid "pull-tab" readings that I didn't bother to dig up after the first dozen or so. When the machine indicated pull-tab, it was......not to say a gold ring might not also read it that segment, but I will wait and do a "clean-up" hunt at a later date. Maybe !
<center>[attachment 14561 DSC00234.JPG]</center>
One thing I particularly like about the T-2 is that it is much more versatile in it's range of control settings than what it might first appear. The control pot is a detent or "click-stop" type constant adjustment pot with unlimited travel in either direction at all times. This allows for a very wide ground balance adjustment range that amounts to a resolution of 500:1 in it's setting possibilities (five clicks equals one numeric point on the 0-99 scale) from approximately (estimated) 5 degrees on the negative side of ferrite to approximately the 90 degree point of saltwater sand and alkali. At this point I haven't been able to determine if this is a linear scale between the two extremes, since we don't have many saltwater beaches in Northwest Arkansas for doing such testing. Regardless, the T-2 will balance to a ferrite pot core right at "90" which would be the logical value if the true phase scale is scaled "backward" toward zero degrees from 90 degrees similar to the White's VDI system. But with a GB resolution of 500:1, there should be little or no problem ground balancing this machine to anything you might encounter in the way of ground minerals.
<center>[attachment 14558 DSC00233.JPG]</center>
An eMail received earlier in the week from Dave Johnson describes the Fe304 function as measuring the magnetic susceptibility of the ground beyond just indicating "ground type" by the usual ground-phase reading method. The Fe304 process takes a reading of the ground and computes the percentage of ferrous content in the form of magnetite according to percent by volume (as opposed to weight). For ferrous ground conditions, this is a good basis reading for getting an idea as to "how bad" your mineralization level actually is, rather than just determining where it falls between the magnetic and conductive extremes. Really a neat feature, and one I have never seen offered on another detector before the T-2.
There have several comments as to the fact that when the T-2 is powered down, and then re-booted via the on/off switch, the machine will revert back to it's original or default "turn-on-and-go" settings. This can actually be an advantage to someone new to detecting or when sharing the T-2 with other hunters who may either be unfamiliar with it's tuning capabilities, or those who simply don't want to mess with "getting everything just right" every time they use the machine. The factory pre-sets offer a good level of performance without going to that trouble, if you so choose. Having spent several hours getting accustomed to the T-2 this afternoon, I can tell you straight up that this machine is so intuitive and easy to tune and set up, that it is much easier to go back through the tuning process than it is to try and remember how you had it tuned to your last hunting conditions.
<center>[attachment 14557 DSC00230.JPG]</center>
Sensitivity and depth wise, I don't think there is going to be much to complain about with this machine. Air range on a U.S. nickel coin is a good 15+ inches in all-metal mode running approximately 3/4 sensitivity while my 14K plain gold wedding band will tack another couple of inches to that figure in the same mode and same settings. At 13kHz operating frequency, it is obviously designed for a mid-conductivity bias in the gold-lead-brass range, and is anything but lacking on higher conductivity coin targets. Although I don't have any test coins buried at those depths, Bill Crabtree reports a good solid I.D. lock on a quarter at 12 inches, and after initial tests with the T-2, I have no reason to doubt those capabilities in this machine. The deepest of the coins I dug today was a nickel at a little over 7 inches.
Another provided advantage in the T-2 that seems to be missing in other recent introductions to the detecting market, is that of an audible all-metal threshold or "hum-level" adjustment that allows for a more traditional background tone to the motion-based all metal mode. As discussed by several lately, this can create a noticeable advantage in hearing very faint (small or deep) targets that might not otherwise produce enough signal strength to break a true "silent-search" threshold point in the audio. But on the minus side, the T-2 unfortunately does not offer "target notching" discrimination, although with it's otherwise full-range of target ID information and 6 possible variations of audio I.D. modes that include different mixed tone and VCO response, many might argue that lack of notching capability is a minor concern.
Numeric VDI lock is also very good on the T-2, especially considering the range of 0-99 as opposed to some other recent offerings that tend to lump more values into tighter segments, undoubtedly to give the impression that they are "more accurate" in their readings. The VDI range of the T-2 seems to be a happy medium of numeric possibilities that falls at about mid-ground between the expanded -95 to +95 of White's and the much more restrictive 7 segments of the Fisher CZ series. Although a wider VDI range will obviously cause more bouncing of numbers, I've already noticed that "good" non-ferrous target signals on the T-2 rarely show a spread of more than 2 or 3 numbers unless there are closely co-located targets next to each other, or unless there is an iron signal involved, in which case there can be the tell-tale iron to high-coin bounce reaction, while a few beaver-tail type pull-tabs can also give a bit wider VDI bounce spread.
<center>[attachment 14560 DSC00235.JPG]</center>
As far as earlier coil comments are concerned, I really had no problem with the shape, look, or design. Is it "different" ? Well, YES. But it's performance is excellent, especially so for a Double-D design that some tend to consider as "hard to pinpoint with". It really doesn't take long to get the hang of this one, and considering it's large size, it really pinpoints quite well once you get a mental picture of where your first few targets tend to lie beneath the coil. And with the quick audio response of this machine, that task is made all the more simple.
Having run the gamut of new machine "initiation", I later remembered to try out the frequency shift function that Mike had described in one of his earlier posts. This proved to make a significant difference in how stable the machine could be ran at higher sensitivity settings, and running through the range of F-1 through F-7 by holding in the toggle switch and pushing the menu pushbutton, it was fairly obvious when you had reached the "best" frequency to eliminate most, if not all, extraneous RF noise that might be present. Since the frequency shift is a "side function", and not something shown on the screen until you actually start scrolling through the different frequencies, it might be missed as an option if you don't realize it is available by "overlooking it" in the manual.
As a final thought, I would say that for the level of performance involved and range of user tunability present, the T-2 will challenge the best top-of-the-line machines available for most detecting needs or expectations, with the lone possible exception of wet saltwater sand hunting. But even that is yet to be proven in this new detector. No doubt there is alot of available power in the high end gain department, where the T-2's independent all-metal and discrimination mode sensitivity settings leave alot of potential far above what is needed to obtain much better than average performance. Simply running the turn-on-and-go level pre-sets leaves the operator with another 40 percent of the gain range unused on the up side. "After-Burners" anyone ?
Bottom line. This one is a keeper ! For a mix of overall performance, ultra-quick audio response in a full-range VDI machine, it will be hard to beat. Dave Johnson and John Gardiner have done themselves proud with this one.
Ralph
First "visual" impression of the T-2 proved to be better than I actually expected. The machine is very nicely designed and built. The expected plastic arm-cup assembly is actually powder-coated aluminum without the "ridges" shown in the original prototype photos, allowing it to be slightly bent inward or outward to fit the operators forearm, as well as laterally adjustable forward or back to a comfortable position. The arm-cup padding is of a better quality than seen on some machines, with a smoother and denser material than usually encountered. Overall fit and finish of the eitire machine is really very nice.
<center>[attachment 14563 T2.gif]</center>
After installing the 4 AA batteries into the battery compartment located at the back of the battery/speaker/power switch housing located under the arm-cup, first boot gave a low-volume VCO-type tone to let me know it was up and running. The battery indicator bars immediately showed a full 4 bars level, indicating fully charged batteries, the "Discrim" indicator in the screen menu highlighted to indicate the start mode, and a test message of "Overload, Raise Coil" was indicated in the message box on the screen. At that point, all settings boot at the pre-set level which basically gives you a "turn-on-and-go" detector tuned to operate well in many "average" hunting conditions. It's at this point that further "fine-tuning" of the different menu options can be accomplished by using the single momentary pushbutton to scroll through either the discrimination or all-metal sides of the menu on the screen. To change from discrimination to all-metal or back again, the operator simply has move the tuning knob one detent stop to the right or left. Simple enough. Menu items are then highlighted by use of the momentary pushbutton to scroll down the list from top to bottom, returning back to the top menu item once the list is exhausted.
Mike has covered much of the basic description of the machine, so I just wanted to add a few thoughts and observations to what my initial impression was from a performance standpoint.
First thing I did, and what I would always recommend to others before using a new machine for the first time, was to read the operator's manual through to get a feel for what to expect. In doing so, I came across the following two paragraphs that really got my attention while at the same time getting my hopes up a bit.
------------------------------
What you hear vs. what you see.
"The visual ID system works strictly on a sampled signal, whereas the audio discriminator system works on a combination of sampled and/or continuous signals. Therefore, there is not a 100% correspondence between what you see and what you hear, especially on buried targets where ground minerals influence targtet ID response.
By making the audio and visual systems independent, the T-2 allows each system to do what it does best. The audio is optimized for quick response and target "feel", whereas the visual system provides the best numeric resolution of target ID."
---------------------------
Now it's no secret that I like very quick target response time in my machines. I've spent much time trying different VID machines in search of one that really offered more of a non-ID type response usually restricted to analog 2 filter designs that lack the so-called "lag effect" of a slow response to the target on initial approach of the coil. From the above, it appeared that Dave Johnson and John Gardiner had designed certain aspects of software functions to provide just that......very quick audio response that did not rely on the VID discrimination processing that normally tends to slow things down on both accounts. On most VID machines, what we see is "lag effect" in both the VID "and" the audio response. I'm very glad to say, this is definately not the case with the new T-2, as it exhibits the absolute fastest initial target response speed I've seen in a true visual target ID machine to date. I'm sure this is partially due to the narrow response area of the large 11 inch double-D, but also to the separation of processing of the VDI function and the audio signal as described above. I'm not sure if any other VID designs follow this logic or not, but with this particular machine, IT WORKS ! Running it back to back this afternoon with the Xterra, there was no comparison in target acquisition speed. The T-2 is FAST !
Our present residence was built on the former location of an older homesite, and as such there is good mix of older and newer ground trash signals something akin to what you would usually encounter in a well used park environment. Directly in front of the house is where I will usually run test machines through the wringer just to see if they can really find anything that the others haven't or couldn't, an area ov about 30 x 30 feet or so.
First few swings after finding a clean spot to ground balance using the "grab" feature were used to get a feel for what level of sensitivity and discrimination seemed to "work" in this kind of trash, consisting mostly of old bits and pieces of misc. iron, housing materials, pull-tabs, bottle caps, and the like. After setting things up, I spent about 30 minutes swinging with no real expectations of finding more than a couple of coins, considering how many dozens of times I had probably been over the same area.
<center>[attachment 14562 DSC00238.JPG]</center>
The results were 22 coins, all of which had obviously been in the ground for quite some time. These included 5 nickels and a silver quarter, along with a single older square pull-tab that signaled exactly like a nickel with the same VDI and nickel icon reading, as well as a round aluminum grommet that did likewise. I encountered probably another several dozen solid "pull-tab" readings that I didn't bother to dig up after the first dozen or so. When the machine indicated pull-tab, it was......not to say a gold ring might not also read it that segment, but I will wait and do a "clean-up" hunt at a later date. Maybe !
<center>[attachment 14561 DSC00234.JPG]</center>
One thing I particularly like about the T-2 is that it is much more versatile in it's range of control settings than what it might first appear. The control pot is a detent or "click-stop" type constant adjustment pot with unlimited travel in either direction at all times. This allows for a very wide ground balance adjustment range that amounts to a resolution of 500:1 in it's setting possibilities (five clicks equals one numeric point on the 0-99 scale) from approximately (estimated) 5 degrees on the negative side of ferrite to approximately the 90 degree point of saltwater sand and alkali. At this point I haven't been able to determine if this is a linear scale between the two extremes, since we don't have many saltwater beaches in Northwest Arkansas for doing such testing. Regardless, the T-2 will balance to a ferrite pot core right at "90" which would be the logical value if the true phase scale is scaled "backward" toward zero degrees from 90 degrees similar to the White's VDI system. But with a GB resolution of 500:1, there should be little or no problem ground balancing this machine to anything you might encounter in the way of ground minerals.
<center>[attachment 14558 DSC00233.JPG]</center>
An eMail received earlier in the week from Dave Johnson describes the Fe304 function as measuring the magnetic susceptibility of the ground beyond just indicating "ground type" by the usual ground-phase reading method. The Fe304 process takes a reading of the ground and computes the percentage of ferrous content in the form of magnetite according to percent by volume (as opposed to weight). For ferrous ground conditions, this is a good basis reading for getting an idea as to "how bad" your mineralization level actually is, rather than just determining where it falls between the magnetic and conductive extremes. Really a neat feature, and one I have never seen offered on another detector before the T-2.
There have several comments as to the fact that when the T-2 is powered down, and then re-booted via the on/off switch, the machine will revert back to it's original or default "turn-on-and-go" settings. This can actually be an advantage to someone new to detecting or when sharing the T-2 with other hunters who may either be unfamiliar with it's tuning capabilities, or those who simply don't want to mess with "getting everything just right" every time they use the machine. The factory pre-sets offer a good level of performance without going to that trouble, if you so choose. Having spent several hours getting accustomed to the T-2 this afternoon, I can tell you straight up that this machine is so intuitive and easy to tune and set up, that it is much easier to go back through the tuning process than it is to try and remember how you had it tuned to your last hunting conditions.
<center>[attachment 14557 DSC00230.JPG]</center>
Sensitivity and depth wise, I don't think there is going to be much to complain about with this machine. Air range on a U.S. nickel coin is a good 15+ inches in all-metal mode running approximately 3/4 sensitivity while my 14K plain gold wedding band will tack another couple of inches to that figure in the same mode and same settings. At 13kHz operating frequency, it is obviously designed for a mid-conductivity bias in the gold-lead-brass range, and is anything but lacking on higher conductivity coin targets. Although I don't have any test coins buried at those depths, Bill Crabtree reports a good solid I.D. lock on a quarter at 12 inches, and after initial tests with the T-2, I have no reason to doubt those capabilities in this machine. The deepest of the coins I dug today was a nickel at a little over 7 inches.
Another provided advantage in the T-2 that seems to be missing in other recent introductions to the detecting market, is that of an audible all-metal threshold or "hum-level" adjustment that allows for a more traditional background tone to the motion-based all metal mode. As discussed by several lately, this can create a noticeable advantage in hearing very faint (small or deep) targets that might not otherwise produce enough signal strength to break a true "silent-search" threshold point in the audio. But on the minus side, the T-2 unfortunately does not offer "target notching" discrimination, although with it's otherwise full-range of target ID information and 6 possible variations of audio I.D. modes that include different mixed tone and VCO response, many might argue that lack of notching capability is a minor concern.
Numeric VDI lock is also very good on the T-2, especially considering the range of 0-99 as opposed to some other recent offerings that tend to lump more values into tighter segments, undoubtedly to give the impression that they are "more accurate" in their readings. The VDI range of the T-2 seems to be a happy medium of numeric possibilities that falls at about mid-ground between the expanded -95 to +95 of White's and the much more restrictive 7 segments of the Fisher CZ series. Although a wider VDI range will obviously cause more bouncing of numbers, I've already noticed that "good" non-ferrous target signals on the T-2 rarely show a spread of more than 2 or 3 numbers unless there are closely co-located targets next to each other, or unless there is an iron signal involved, in which case there can be the tell-tale iron to high-coin bounce reaction, while a few beaver-tail type pull-tabs can also give a bit wider VDI bounce spread.
<center>[attachment 14560 DSC00235.JPG]</center>
As far as earlier coil comments are concerned, I really had no problem with the shape, look, or design. Is it "different" ? Well, YES. But it's performance is excellent, especially so for a Double-D design that some tend to consider as "hard to pinpoint with". It really doesn't take long to get the hang of this one, and considering it's large size, it really pinpoints quite well once you get a mental picture of where your first few targets tend to lie beneath the coil. And with the quick audio response of this machine, that task is made all the more simple.
Having run the gamut of new machine "initiation", I later remembered to try out the frequency shift function that Mike had described in one of his earlier posts. This proved to make a significant difference in how stable the machine could be ran at higher sensitivity settings, and running through the range of F-1 through F-7 by holding in the toggle switch and pushing the menu pushbutton, it was fairly obvious when you had reached the "best" frequency to eliminate most, if not all, extraneous RF noise that might be present. Since the frequency shift is a "side function", and not something shown on the screen until you actually start scrolling through the different frequencies, it might be missed as an option if you don't realize it is available by "overlooking it" in the manual.
As a final thought, I would say that for the level of performance involved and range of user tunability present, the T-2 will challenge the best top-of-the-line machines available for most detecting needs or expectations, with the lone possible exception of wet saltwater sand hunting. But even that is yet to be proven in this new detector. No doubt there is alot of available power in the high end gain department, where the T-2's independent all-metal and discrimination mode sensitivity settings leave alot of potential far above what is needed to obtain much better than average performance. Simply running the turn-on-and-go level pre-sets leaves the operator with another 40 percent of the gain range unused on the up side. "After-Burners" anyone ?
Bottom line. This one is a keeper ! For a mix of overall performance, ultra-quick audio response in a full-range VDI machine, it will be hard to beat. Dave Johnson and John Gardiner have done themselves proud with this one.
Ralph
