My head....Going to.....Explode......:stars:

[bazooka]

Hey all, well, I've got 18 hours on the SE now and I have a few questions and comments that maybe someone can help me with and/or give me some mucn needed encouragement.

Firstly, the sounds give me a headache. I hunted a really trash park yesterday and I literally got a headache from the noise. I was thinking about lowering the limit, but does that compress the number of tones so there are fewer, or does that lower the pitch on all the tones?

Also, trash seems to hit a lot harder than coins. Coins seem quieter to me, maybe because they are smaller, I don't know....maybe I have some hearing loss? I'm only 27 and I haven't noticed anything like this, and I don't have any problem hearing the +93's coming from the DFX which, I'm guessing would be about like a dime on the SE. Any ideas?

So far the most frustrating things is not being able to tell between clad and silver, or dimes and memorials like I can on the DFX. Will I learn to be able confidently distinguish these eventually? If so, what should I listen and look for? I haven't found any silver or anything old yet except for one wheat so I don't have much to go off of.

Now for the things that I like. Even with the stock coil being half an inch larger than that 950, it can really separate the trash! It seems if I sweep slow enough, it cuts through the ground like a razor blade. I also like having the depth meter in discrimination mode but I still forget to check it before going to pinpoint mode. I'm trying to ween myself off of pinpoint mode altogether because with the DD coil and the SE responsiveness, it should be pretty easy to not even need to pinpoint.

The weight is noticeable, after two or three hours I just need to take a break because I start to ache. This is no surprise though.

I've been using the following settings lately: Normal tone, Sensitivity manual around 22-24, sometimes lower. Fast and Deep OFF. Gain 7, variability 10, limits 10. As for discrimination, I started with coin, then tried AM with Ferrous at the park yesterday but iron wasn't really the problem, it was more pulltabs and bottlecaps. I went to IM 30, and eventually switched back to conductive and the stock coin mode minus foil and dug some clad out of a nearby field that was used as a parking lot for rodeos.

At the moment, I'm much more conifdent that I could find more with the DFX but that would be because I have over a thousand hours on that compared to less than 20 on the SE so I'm not about to give up hope. I've seen plenty of guys on here that made the transition and never looked back, so I'm confident that it's only a matter of time. I'm just hoping that I can get some input to speed up the learning process. Thanks in advance.

 

[DFX-Gregg]

Wow...sounds a little like my first few hunts...but I decided not to do any type of real review till I get over 100 hours in! What I did to help with the loudness was lower the volume! Seems simple and helped a ton...Also I find the vco a little annoying because it sounds like a monster trying to get out...the vco on the dfx does not seem so extreme.... As far as anything else....I am clueless at this point also!

 

[bazooka]

Thanks Gregg, I did lower the volume on my headphones after a while and that helped, but then I was worried I would miss deeper targets....guess I could have just turned up the threshold now that I think about it. Doh!

I do like the VCO on the DFX much better, but the SE isn't bad. Hopefully I can work away from using pinpoint altogether. Should speed things up a bit maybe?

 

[Steve(MS)]

If you aren't going to dig in the pulltab range or zinc penny, you could select them with the X and that should keep you from hearing most of the "noise". I don't see anything wrong with your settings, yes turning down your volume should help, if you are worried about missing the deeper stuff, you could up your gain a little. What that will do is make the deep stuff easier to hear but it does take away some of the modulation. As far as telling silver from clad, pennies from dimes, you may be able to do it to a certain extent but ground conditions, depth and trash will factor into that. I usually just dig it all up, that way I am not guessing what it is. Dimes don't warble as much as mem pennies, a lot of the time I can tell dimes from pennies before I dig.

 

[dewcon4414]

Ill tell you what im doing Bazooka. Right now im hunting in Cond, use the digitial screen ( you can tell mem from dimes), reduced threshold to just above silent, audio tone is at 5 and varability 8. That gives you about the same sound you get from the DFX. Cant stand the high squeal with varability 10, but thats me. If i jewerly hunt then i like Ferr. Ive tested the gain and for me in trashy areas 7 is about max for me. Normally i reduce my manual sensitivity a bit and may move my gain to 6. You ARENT going to get a ton of depth in trash anyway so why not set it up to run more effective. Hey but you know that from the DFX.

 

[bazooka]

Thanks for the reply dew, I'll try audio tone 5 as I really liked the tone frequencys of the DFX...the default ones on the SE are a little too high for my taste. Of course, I may change my tune once I hear some silver.

 

[bazooka]

Thanks Steve! If it's at the right depth, I'll dig it anyway, but if it's at clad depth, I'll leave memorials and zincs but take the dimes. Of course, even with the DFX, it's not 100% accurate....maybe more around 75%. But I suppose it really comes down to an issue of depth. I think I recall seeing a post or two that someone didn't dig clad but only dug the old coins. That's kind of why I was wondering how they were able to tell for sure. It didn't seem possible with the way the SE responds to coins. I suppose the guys claiming they can tell the difference between a barber and a merc are bogus too?

Hearing the pulltabs and the zinc tones aren't so bad....but too much 29 and higher tone wears on me after a while. I just need to bring the tones down a little I think.

Do you think that my sensitivity is too high for the stock coil? Would, say, 20 still get me good depth (7-8 inches on a dime)?

 

[Steve(MS)]

You shouldn't see much of a difference, dropping the sens 2 points, that is in depth. Sometimes a drop of 2 points could help with interference or distorted signals. There is a way to only dig for silver, like watch the cursor in smartfind or digital number, the silver is mostly a point of 2 higher for dimes but there are higher conductive pennies and some silver dimes are higher than others in conductance so you will end up with only a percentage of silver left. I couldn't recommend using that method. Maybe the DFX has better definition as far as its meter system on the high end, I don't know. I used a 6000 for a few years and I remember the numbers on silver dimes were higher, sometimes reading like a quarter but I can still remember digging some lower readings that turned out to be silver dimes.......
Even going by the depth reading is like shooting dice too as I have found silver on top of the ground or just a couple of inches down.
I look at it like this, as long as I am detecting, clad is just something to pass my time with until I find silver.
I understand you not wanting to dig mems though, one place I was detecting, I watched where they were hitting on the screen and the exact tone, watched the depth meter and made up my mind not to dig anymore of them so I suppose that was the only time I just didn't dig all the high conductors.
On shallow stuff, I can kinda tell copper pennies from dimes but if the ground has a lot of moisture in it, like it is now, it is harder for me to tell the difference.
I personally wouldn't drop the variability or limits on the tones but that is just me.
You could lower the threshold tone and that would drop all the tones by a degree for every number you lower it but you will need to find a setting number you are comfortable with and leave it there from now on, otherwise it is like learning the tones all over again.
HH

 

[DFX-Gregg]

at 5. Bazooka....I would not turn the threshold up to much as you mentioned...I would think that actually will cause a loss of the faint signals also. The slight breaks caused by those faint signals might be missed with threshold turned up. Try audio tone at 5. Also discrimination will reduce some of those annoying sounds...

 

[mattockman]

I would drop your variability to 8....I think 10 gives too high of pitches....my ears don't like the high peircing noises. It may help in seperating diff. in clad and silver also. Your Threshold Tone will make all your tones sound diff. so by experimenting with mine I liked 5 as a good tone for all coins....try it by changing the TH.Tone and swing coins passed coil and notice how just by changing TH. Tone it changes the tone of each coin. Your TH. volume is adjusted on the front screen not in menu...that should be low as possible, but still hearable...sometimes if ambiant noise is louder like heavy wind or traffic then you may have to turn it up a bit. I use the smart screen and look at the cursor location and switch to digital to see # and look at depth gauge, and evalute tone of target....everytime before I dig and these 4 things give me a good Idea of what I will dig. I make it a game and see how I do....It is good practice cause it keeps you in tune with all that is available, digital #'s and smart screen cursor locations and tones and depths where things are at that paticular site. I also have played with sens. at trash sites and iron infested cellar holes....I found by lowering the sens. to 8 and covering a small area, I can handle the tons of junk...especially if I have a big coil on. I then can pick out good stuff between the junk....I will then raise sens up to 12-14 and so on till I am at my peak sens. without it going crazy on me. It takes longer to cover a place but by the time you do a small area here and there you have a good idea if it is worth the time. I can never use conductive sounds myself so for me ferrous is all I use...some people can use both some others one or the other.....I like deep on except when there is lots of unstability due to elec. or hot rocks.....by turning it off cursorand digital #'s will be steadier....I hate fast period....never use it. As far as the sound of silver...there is a diff. in tone but my ears maybe getting worse cause it is harder to tell now. Silver has a softer sound. Not lower but more like no pings or tings at the end that tends to hurt the ears. It seems to be more evident when it is a ground find and not air tested. These are just my preferences and may not work for everyone...due to hearing diff. and age and etc.....hope it helps.....

 

[bazooka]

n/t

 

[dewcon4414]

You also mentioned you are getting a lot of 29 digital readings? If i get 29's they are GOOD targets or my sensitivity is wrong. Are you using Cond for coins? You might swing a few of your silver coins and clad past your coin in FERR sounds.

 

[bazooka]

I've gotten some more time on the machine and I'm doing alot better since switching to ferrous. I still get plenty of 00 31 wrap-around noise from falsing on iron, but I'm learning to deal with it. I'm just afraid I might miss out on a quarter or half because it would sound similar. My sensitivity has been at 24 and gain at 7 and I'm using the stock coil. If I hold the coil away from the ground I get a solid threshold. Is this indicative of good stability like it is with the DFX or may I still be running too hot for the ground conditions?

 

[dewcon4414]

I watch when im detecting, if i get bouncing digital numbers i noise balance if that dont work i start reducing the sensitivity because of the mineral. I also check occassionally with my pinpoint to see if the numbers im getting are REAL.