Pulling settings together ... help!

[georgemohr]

Being a newbie, at 70 years old, I must admit I'm a bit overwhelmed at choosing correct options/settings at start of a hunt. I want to be able to do more than use the canned start up programs ... or at least be able to tweak them for best performance. Can someone please advice me on a protocol for properly "pulling all the settings/adjustments together" in a logically manner/order so my V3I is optimized before I begin a hunt?
Thanks so much from this old Senior student =)

 

[Blind Squirrel]

Howdy georgemohr--

First, welcome to Findmall.

Georgemohr, we all have our own hunting styles and hunting goals, I'll give you a brief explanation of my style. When I approach a site I first imagine what type of finds I may recover and what type of finds I HOPE to recover. With my goals in mind I make certain that I am accepting the VDI'S of desired targets and possibly rejecting certain trash target VDI's. An example of this: I located a half of a city block that in the 1950's had 2 houses and a tavern. The entire area had been cleared and the debris hauled away. I visualized silver coins, jewelry , and possible relics of that era and before. The challenge of this site was the trash! The screw caps and other types of trash made the site almost unhuntable. My solution was to reject VDI's +74 and below. I realize that I left behind Indian Head cents, nickles and much jewelery but I was able to dig wheat cents, silver dimes, quarters and half $'s. In a nutshell before turning on your detector imagine what targets you are likely to encounter then set your accept/reject accordingly.

Georgemohr, other setting adjustments are made (if needed) on the fly at the site. For me the most frequently made adjustments are Sensitivity (RX Gain), Recovery, Bottle Cap Reject and Filters. I make certain that these adjustments are on my Live Search Screen for easy fast access. There is no need to be "overwhelmed" with this detector. In this post I have mentioned the key adjustments that affect performance, with practice and experience you will fine tune your V3i to suit your sites and goals. Best of luck and...

Happy Hunting!
Blind Squirrel

 

[georgemohr]

Thanks Blind Squirrel ... Can't tell you how much I appreciate your insight. I'm committed to figuring it all out ... just a bit overwhelmed.
I'm definitely taking your advice.
Regards, George

 

[PostalTwo]

Aside from disc mask the main setting are going to be filters Recovery delay and sensitivities. For recovery put 2 dissimilar targets a coils width apart and swing at your normal ,adjust the delay until u get both targets with the help appropriate tone . For rx I suggest using sensitivity probe , u get there from sensitivity and pressing zoom . Adjust rx till your about 10 percent loss . Disc I try to run fairly high like 85 to 90 as that adjustment has the greatest affect on depth . Then just tweak from there . If your getting too much falsing on the sweep lower the RX a notch or 2 . If your getting to be below 6 rx try a higher filer and raise your gain until u find a sweet spot for u and your detector for the ground your hunting . Most places the ground don't change much so u can pretty well use the same all the time with just a few tweaks here and there. Try to run the lowest filter u can, I like 5 high pass the best but if I went on a trip it might be one of the other ones . Pay attention to your v it will te u what it wants u jsut gotta gey some time on it. The spectra graph is another way to tell if your sensitivity is right . If your getting a ton of. Smearing /spiking u might be too hot .

 

[MackDog]

Start with Fox's coin and jewelry program. Adjust the RX Gain to your soil, then AM and Disc. Only one change at a time. Then you can adjust the tones to how you want, I like modulation off, VCO on for pinpointing. Run in 3 freq and start out digging everything until you can tell what you want. pay attention to VDI number, depth, and Freq color for each target. Once you get it all down then play with mix mode stereo.

Now for the best way to set up your detector, start a test garden in your yard. Bury a quarter at 12 inches, a dime at 8, a nickel at 9. Then take the detector with your settings and try to find them. You should start by getting some iffy signals if your lucky. then adjust you filters until you get the best signal. Then get your gain so it won't false and run smooth. Use your disc to where it won't smear the targets on the spectra graph. The run your all metal 10 to 12 numbers below that.

Hopefully this will get you started. Remember make only one adjustment at a time if it messes up then you will know what caused the problem. Good luck

 

[shelton7522]

Try to download advanced post book guide. You will find all best user tips in off file. Ready it... few times. I understand what my V3i is telling to me. And then I can setup it right.