Setup Steps for New Whites Vision Users

[Brett]

I'm fairly new to White's machines. I have a DFX and have had it out a few times, but am by no means an expert. I'm use to my E-Trac and the simplicity of the adjustments I have to make to get it performing deep and stable.

I got the DFX and now the Vision to learn new machines and to explore the benefits of them. I have no strong opinions to doubt the ability of White's machines, and I'm completely open minded at this point.

What I'm looking for is some help in setting it up to get it to perform in a particular environment, mainly parks in the mid-west USA. I would say ground mineralization is moderate, but not super bad. Trash usually consists of nails, nuts, screws, rusty bottle caps, pop tops, pull tabs (whole, or just rings or beaver tails), cyclone fence pieces, wine bottle screw tops, etc.. you get the picture.

Can someone that has a good amount of hours now using the Vision provide a detailed Step by Step instruction on how to setup the Vision to detect deep silver coins? Preferably I would like to have multi-tones and decent masking of iron and trash targets. I believe it is important to explain steps like exactly how to perform Ground Balancing (i.e. pumping it up and down 4 times... do I go way up in the air and down and touch the ground? Or just bob it up and down over the tips of the grass a few inches? Is 4 times enough? How is G/B affected if I use Autotrac and Locktrac?), then there are countless other adjustments. Surely there has to be a way step through each of them and dial them in for my area.

I will eventually get to comparing it to my E-Trac, but not before I am confident I have it setup properly for my area.

If I need to read a DFX book before I can completely understand why and how I need to adjust certain parameters, so be it. Please recommend one.

When I went from my ACE 250 to my Explorer SE Pro, I was completely bewildered. But I knew it was a fantastic machine, so I gave it the time and figured it out. Now the E-Trac is a breeze. I believe the Vision is going to be very similar, completely foreign at first, but I know it is capable of great things. I just have to wrap my head around it first ;-)

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Jason in TN]

n/t

 

[Brett]

I've tried factory Coins, Coins & Jewelery, and Deep Silver... Deep Silver sounds like a game of Space Invaders. It's very cool, but seems really touchy and sounds off on just about everything. Also, Deep Silver seemed to be generating high tones for iron too. I have a few nails to prove it. Coins by default doesn't have Tone ID turned on, which just seems wrong to me but is easily changed. My biggest concern is achieving maximum depth and stability for coins, which is not addressed by just selecting a preset. There are a lot more tweaks that should be made I would think to dial that in.

 

[steve herschbach]

Hi Brett,

Sorry I'm not much help on deep silver. If it were me I'd just go with the deep silver program and back the disc sensitivity and/or RX Gain down to where the unit is stable. But it sure seems to me this is all stuff the dealer who sold you the unit should be answering.

Still got a foot of snow here so no silver hunting for me for a bit yet. I'm going to hook up my Bigfoot and go hunt jewelry around the swingsets. I actually do not want to much depth as I don't want to hit targets in the frozen dirt below.

Steve Herschbach

 

[Brett]

I actually stole my dealer's unit from him after an hour of testing. In that hour though, he did find a nickel at 9" and a merc at like 6 ot 7" and some other clad coins in an area he's hunted to death. He wouldn't normally expect to find anything. He explained that he was trying the same programs I have been (Coins, Coins & Jewelery and Deep Silver). So my Vision knows what silver smells like... that's not the problem, heh. He said he didn't adjust the Rx Gain or Disc Sensitivity either.

I may just not have put my coil over enough good ones yet... but I would still like to know what the recommended setup sequence is. I suppose this is the stuff books are made of, but hopefully it's not THAT complicated to get me in the ballpark.

So hopefully I can get help from all you wizards here... we've got beta testers with many hours of test time, engineers and sales staff reporting in here. This definitely seems like the place to be for the type of questions I have.

 

[Larry (IL)]

There really is not a set up process to follow. Two hunters can be side by side and have their machines set up completely different to best serve their own needs. Most of the programs right out of the box are very good and should need minimal tweaking though.

 

[Low-Boy/LCPM]

I am all for new detectors and the advancements that are making there way into our lives, no matter what comes out you still have to dig to see what you have. I have not seen any unit that if it tells you it is silver it is going to be silver, or if it is a gold ring or a pull tab. It seems trash is trash and if a unit is fast enough you may be able to find the good targets hiding in the trash. So from what I have read on the vision you have a lot of info to look at and it may help you to dig or not to dig. But I sure would like to know how deep it is compared to other deep detectors in the same area....Can it tell the difference from a pull tab and a gold ring? If the gold gave a freq of 22 and a blue wave all the time then that would be a great new advancement if a pull tab gave a lower freq and a red or green wave then that would help a lot.

I can see how it could be a great unit for nugget hunting. So I need to see more testing and I know it will be awhile for some of you to get your hands on a new unit and take it out to your old sights. So keep the info coming.

 

[Brett]

There really is not a set up process to follow. Two hunters can be side by side and have their machines set up completely different to best serve their own needs. Most of the programs right out of the box are very good and should need minimal tweaking though.

Ok. That seems to be what I keep hearing. If that's the case I'll be testing Vision vs. E-Trac just as soon as it's a little warmer and not raining. I just want to make sure it's optimally set up so I'm not disappointed and no one is turning their noses up at something I must have done wrong. I already know that will happen, one way or another. No biggie, it's my $1700 spent and I can live with the results either way. I'll share what I learn at no cost to anyone who wants to listen. Both units are bound to not perform the same... either one could have the edge for different users. We'll see what happens for me ;-)

 

[Low-Boy/LCPM]

We need more honest comparisons. I know you can hunt an area and take a different machine out to the same place and find stuff you missed, it seems to happen a lot. Does the vision have a ton of depth and stable readings?

 

[Larry (IL)]

For me, the Vision has the depth and stability that I once used the SE Pro for. Results may, and most likely will, vary for everyone else. Comparisons are only good for the person doing them. Too many variables such as ground conditions, settings, skill, how well you know each machine and the list goes on and on..........

 

[ISLANDJOE]

Every one needs to listen to Larry and Steve. "Comparisons are only good for the person doing them". If any one does comparsions in their area that they hunt they would not be doing me any good. Where I live, I totally can not use your comparisons and probably could prove you wrong. If I did comparison's in my area you could prove me wrong. I have completely different ground conditions where I live for a start. What works for me in Hawaii more than likely will not work for you in. Bottom line, I would have to say " In Hawaii this is what works for me" I believe Steve has already started adding that to his statements.It still would be nice to know " What works for you in your area".

BOB

 

[Eu_citzen]

For deep silver you'd want to use 2.5 kHz raw. I believe.

But if your in a trashy park I'd say use the 3 Freq. because it can give you more info from all freq's.

HH,
Eu

 

[Brett]

Well, if someone were to ask me for help in setting up their E-Trac, this is the advice I would give them... and I've previously posted this, so I'm quoting myself:

Default Coins Program for me.
Trash Density - High
Ground - Difficult
Gain - 24
Deep - ON
Fast - OFF
Everything else is stock.
At this point it's a turn on and two step and go...

Step one - Noise Cancel (Sensitivity should be at least 20 when doing this)
Step two - tweak Sensitivity as you hunt - Manual 20-25 (Found out Auto +3 is lacking depth on main coil and Sunray Probe)
(optionally, noise cancel again if you are nutty about it - I'm not)

Keep coil low and slow.

Switch to Quickmask with FE25 to investigate iffy signals.

I hunt mainly midwest USA parks.

I'll eventually post my own Vision Setup, and that should help out the entire midwest Chicago suburbs, downtown, northtown, southtown, because the ground all around is sound-in' the same to me. Targets are about at the same depths. Dirt is black, or a bit crappier (fill dirt).

 

[Brett]

Here's something to consider when sharing a program with another Vision user. If you do it locally, you will probably be alright, IF you consider how fast that person is sweeping their coil over the ground. A lot of the filtering parameters, well actually it seems that all of them (ground filter, recovery delay and S.A.T.), are highly depended on how fast you are moving the coil over the ground. If you are there, you better watch and see how fast they are moving. If you are getting a program over the internet, typed up, or in a file some day, you better ask them to get out their stop watch and time their sweep rate

Straight from the expert draft manual, "The ideal setting for a person

 

[Jason in TN]

As there is no magic program for the E-Trac. I will have both and it took me probably 50+ hours with my E-Track to find what worked best in one area I relic hunt.
With the Vision being far more adjustable than the E-Track I will take many hours testing to learn what it can do for you. That is part of the fun for me anyway.

If you want a turn on and go deep detector with just a few settings get the MXT and save some cash. If you like to play with settings and build your own detector
the Vision seems to be the best detector out for this. If you want the most out of your Vision in your area you will have to put in the time and learn its capabilities
own your own. Will first need to under stand what each adjustment does and go from there or you will be fighting a long and frustrating battle. Good luck
to all in your quest to make your vision sniff out the goodies in your area.

Jason

 

[Brett]

It looks like Jeff Foster's Digging Deeper with the DFX book will actually help me a lot. I've already found a flow chart on how to set up the DFX for peak sensitivity. That's the kind of stuff I'm looking for.

FWIW: I hope you realize I'm not asking for a "magic program", just the tools to create a magic program in my area for my style of hunting.

 

[Jason in TN]

It looks like Jeff Foster's Digging Deeper with the DFX book will actually help me a lot. I've already found a flow chart on how to set up the DFX for peak sensitivity. That's the kind of stuff I'm looking for.

FWIW: I hope you realize I'm not asking for a "magic program", just the tools to create a magic program in my area for my style of hunting.

Understood just get out there and have fun with your new toy. I can not wait until I can get one.

Jason