Quantum XT (former Quantum II) not finding coins.

[MThompson]

Hey everyone,

I know it is an old model. It has the QII coil, but the QXT chip. I followed all the online tips for QXT/QII setup. When I was hunting today on an old fence line (found the barb wire buried 4" down) all the machine would find is iron and it seemed really jittery.

I placed a clad quarter in one of my 5" holes and tamped it down. I then searched away from it and back to get in my rhythm. When I swept over the hole, nothing. No blip, no nothing. I had just pulled a tiny nail from the same hole at the same depth. I went really slow, still nothing. Held the trigger and swept, nothing.

Any ideas what I could be doing wrong? I feel like I wasted a day because I could have been sweeping over a ton of stuff. It has been dry here lately, and the ground is hard digging. But my test area was near a spring in moist peat.

Thanks,

MT

 

[Monte]

Quantum XT (former Quantum II) not finding coins.

There was a Quantum XT and Quantum II, not quite the same, as the Quantum XT (later named the QXT Pro) did have a few more adjustment features. The Quantum XT/QXT Pro came with the 950 coil and the Quantum II came with an 8" coil, labeled 7.8. Was it the Quantum II's 8" coil you were using?

Hey everyone,

I know it is an old model. It has the QII coil, but the QXT chip. I followed all the online tips for QXT/QII setup. When I was hunting today on an old fence line (found the barb wire buried 4" down) all the machine would find is iron and it seemed really jittery.

If you only found iron, then it's possible that only iron was present. Then, too, if it found the barbed wire, I wonder which program you were using? If a Coin or Coin & Jewelry program, iron is generally rejected.

Did you make sure the Noise Response was Off, and also make sure the Disc. Edit was On and that you were ACCEPTING the target ranges you wanted to find? I know that I used to occasionally encounter someone using a Quantum series model and they had similar problems finding good targets. The cause, usually, was that they hadn't used the proper settings an had the coin segments Rejected instead of Accepted.

Also, note that while I am, and have been, a very avid detectorist, and in my 49th year of detecting I have been especially fond of the White's product line, I have not been too fond of the Quantum series. Note that in the last paragraph I used the word "occasionally" with reference to encountering someone using a Quantum-series model. That is because the were not a very popular-selling model. I've been hosting detecting seminars since '81 and very few have attended who had a Quantum, and those who did were often confused by what seemed to be simple-to-make adjustments.

One other problem some Quantum series users have is not using a proper sweep speed. They need more of a 'controlled' sweep speed. Not a fast sweep and not too slow of a sweep.

I placed a clad quarter in one of my 5" holes and tamped it down. I then searched away from it and back to get in my rhythm. When I swept over the hole, nothing. No blip, no nothing. I had just pulled a tiny nail from the same hole at the same depth. I went really slow, still nothing. Held the trigger and swept, nothing.

It's not a fair test to place a coin in a freshly dug hole when the surrounding ground matrix is still undisturbed as that can impair the performance. Also, I would suggest you make sure the Accept/Reject choices are made for each of the 8 Discrimination 'zones.'

Any ideas what I could be doing wrong? I feel like I wasted a day because I could have been sweeping over a ton of stuff. It has been dry here lately, and the ground is hard digging. But my test area was near a spring in moist peat.

There are a few suggestions, and the day wasn't all wasted because I learned that the detector/coil combo was not working properly. Now you can check out the settings used, and I would also suggest checking the Quantum with a different search coil. It is quite possible that you are using a coil that has a short or is otherwise defective. The coil can be fixed and the adjustments can be changes. Then, when you check it out and the settings are proper for the detection of the US 25

 

[MThompson]

There was a Quantum XT and Quantum II, not quite the same, as the Quantum XT (later named the QXT Pro) did have a few more adjustment features. The Quantum XT/QXT Pro came with the 950 coil and the Quantum II came with an 8" coil, labeled 7.8. Was it the Quantum II's 8" coil you were using?

Mine was a QII, so it has the 7.8 coil. Buit I put a QXT chip in it so I had the better adjustment options. My dad purchased it for us boys back in the 90's for as a Christmas present. We were too young or too into other things to really use it back then. But now that I'm in my 30's I'm more interested and brought it back out. Reading online, I found out about the upgraded chip, and that is where I am now.

If you only found iron, then it's possible that only iron was present. Then, too, if it found the barbed wire, I wonder which program you were using? If a Coin or Coin & Jewelry program, iron is generally rejected.

Did you make sure the Noise Response was Off, and also make sure the Disc. Edit was On and that you were ACCEPTING the target ranges you wanted to find? I know that I used to occasionally encounter someone using a Quantum series model and they had similar problems finding good targets. The cause, usually, was that they hadn't used the proper settings an had the coin segments Rejected instead of Accepted.

I followed the "QXT Hints & Tips" list of settings....Coin program, all zones accepted, high tones set for desired zones, VCO on, Noise reduction off, sensitivity 16 and then 15, etc. I will check the settings again, and make sure everything was set properly.

One other problem some Quantum series users have is not using a proper sweep speed. They need more of a 'controlled' sweep speed. Not a fast sweep and not too slow of a sweep.

So, would you say, 1 second per sweep? (1-one thousand left, 1-one thousand right) Or faster or slower?

There are a few suggestions, and the day wasn't all wasted because I learned that the detector/coil combo was not working properly.

Not that I can tell if it was or was not working anyway. I'm a novice, so I'm not really sure how the machine is supposed to be acting. I know that it is not acting the way that I expected it to, but that could be just conditions or no coins in the area, or hardware issue....

...and I would also suggest checking the Quantum with a different search coil. It is quite possible that you are using a coil that has a short or is otherwise defective. The coil can be fixed and the adjustments can be changes. Then, when you check it out and the settings are proper for the detection of the US 25

 

[MThompson]

I went out in my backyard for a while this evening. I rechecked the settings, and worked on swing speed. I dug a bunch of iron, mostly the ones that were jumping up the scale a bit. Mostly old nails and such. My house use to be a cheese factory back in the mid 1800's, and then a farm house for the past 100 years or so... So there is a ton of trash. I had to search for several minutes just to find a clean spot to tune the machine!

Anyway, just before dark I got a mostly solid higher tone in the tab/zinc

 

[MThompson]

I went out for 2 hours this morning. Made it down about 35 ft. of one side of a walkway on some old property we have.... This is what was there:

I'm pretty sure they are all clad pennies and dimes, but I haven't had a chance to clean them. Overall I was able to here the tone differences pretty well and dug stuff u to around 7" for the washer; coins were all 4ish inches.