I've been testing the V3 in comparison to some other machines and different targets. The first thing I learned is that anything learned from targets laid on top of the ground is fairly useless with the V3. Some machines test ok this way but the V3 reacts differently when the target is buried.
I am liking the D2 better since burying some quarters and a dime. I buried 4 quarters and a dime. Two quarters in the backyard, one at 11", one at 8". They are both hard to hit with every machine I have except for the Tejon in All Metal VCO. (It hits everything, and solid in this mode).
In the side yard I buried two quarters and a dime. One quarter at about 6" , one at about 3", and the dime at about 8". The V3 bangs on the 3" dime with no problem using either the 5.3 or the D2. On the 6" dim it will hit it from one direction, (both swings), but not when I turn 90 degrees. It will hit the dime sometimes with the D2. On these targets the E-TRAC and SE set in multi/conductive both give a quick high tone, enough to make me stop and then they will wiggle in a proper number, but neither will hit the 6" quarter from the side where the V3 won't hit it.
Analize looks horrible on the 6" quarter and the dime. However, the main search screen with the three bars reads correctly with the middle and bottom fading at about the same time.
I did notice that the V3 with the D2 works much the same as a Sovereign or Explorer, the wiggle works very well, but there is a really tight window of wiggle room, smaller than with the Sovereign... (at least on these targets in this ground...) maybe 1/2 inch of wiggle. If I keep it right on the target and only wiggle 1/2" I can get a proper ID and good bars. There is a large piece of iron reading maybe a foot off to the side. The wiggle started with the Sovereign and was known as the Sovereign Wiggle, You can read about it elsewhere..
Anyway, it seems to really improve the VDI screen on the V3 when using the D2. I think it would be totally nonproductive with a 950 or a 5.3, I would only try it with a DD coil... I guess you could try it but I don't think it would be the thing to do with a concentric coil. I'll have to try it at the park and see if it works in the real world.
The machine that did the best, on these fresh buried targets is the Tejon, but not in disc. I put it in AM VCO with the 5.75 HOT coil and it hit both quarters and the dime like they were 2" deep. Then I toggled forward with that disc set on nickel and I was able to get enough of a consistant beep to tell that it isn't iron. One the quarter at 8" in the back it did the same. The AM VCO hit the 11" dime good but the disc didn't give a consistant signal, I tried the 10" spider coil and it didn't do any better. I also tried a SovereignGT on these and it didn't do any better in disc, in AM it will hit them. The biggest surprise was the T2 with the 4.75 coil getting an iffy hit with ab occasional correct TID on the 11" quarter and the 8" quarter. I didn't try it on the others. I had the sensitivity on 90 in disc and the disc on 5 and the sens on 99 in AM. It didn't do as well with the 11" stock coil so.. it may be that it was a fluke, but that little coil really is good on the T2.
I am going to try some more testing with the 5.3 and am going to get a 950 next week.
The best thing I learned is to use a very short wiggle with the D2 coil, try it and see what you think. It really improved the VDI ability, at least in the main search screen, here on these target, in this ground.
I was using a custom program built from the Hi-Pro program. I played with switching between "best data" and "correlate" I set the wrap in correlate to -94. I also changed the resolution to 7 and the colorscheme to Sunshine. I am going to be playing around more with the resolution until I get more comfortable reading the graph. I'm not sure if I like "best daya" or "correlate" better but I am leaning towards correlate. BTW, "deep silver" hit the quarter at 6" good enough to have made me stop and investigate... I didn't try it on the deeper ones in the back yet. I'll be williing to try anything if anyone has an idea.
My only concern is with the Analize screen giving me such jagged, bad humps on a known target when the bars were pretty consistant with a quarter. The VDI number was a little high though, +93 on the quarter at 6". The quarter at 3" had a +84 VDI and the bars were better. I don't remember if the analize screen was correct but I think it was. I'll recheck it and if it was off i'll post, if it is right I won't add anything.
Try the 1/2" wiggle with the D2 on the main search screen. I don't think that it will work with the analize screen, I didn't try it on analize. I just flip the switch forward with the coil off to the side and swing it quickly over the target, full swings a few times. (I also changed the scale to 9" and the speed for the anallize sizing to 12" per sec. to accomodate my style).
... J
I am liking the D2 better since burying some quarters and a dime. I buried 4 quarters and a dime. Two quarters in the backyard, one at 11", one at 8". They are both hard to hit with every machine I have except for the Tejon in All Metal VCO. (It hits everything, and solid in this mode).
In the side yard I buried two quarters and a dime. One quarter at about 6" , one at about 3", and the dime at about 8". The V3 bangs on the 3" dime with no problem using either the 5.3 or the D2. On the 6" dim it will hit it from one direction, (both swings), but not when I turn 90 degrees. It will hit the dime sometimes with the D2. On these targets the E-TRAC and SE set in multi/conductive both give a quick high tone, enough to make me stop and then they will wiggle in a proper number, but neither will hit the 6" quarter from the side where the V3 won't hit it.
Analize looks horrible on the 6" quarter and the dime. However, the main search screen with the three bars reads correctly with the middle and bottom fading at about the same time.
I did notice that the V3 with the D2 works much the same as a Sovereign or Explorer, the wiggle works very well, but there is a really tight window of wiggle room, smaller than with the Sovereign... (at least on these targets in this ground...) maybe 1/2 inch of wiggle. If I keep it right on the target and only wiggle 1/2" I can get a proper ID and good bars. There is a large piece of iron reading maybe a foot off to the side. The wiggle started with the Sovereign and was known as the Sovereign Wiggle, You can read about it elsewhere..
Anyway, it seems to really improve the VDI screen on the V3 when using the D2. I think it would be totally nonproductive with a 950 or a 5.3, I would only try it with a DD coil... I guess you could try it but I don't think it would be the thing to do with a concentric coil. I'll have to try it at the park and see if it works in the real world.
The machine that did the best, on these fresh buried targets is the Tejon, but not in disc. I put it in AM VCO with the 5.75 HOT coil and it hit both quarters and the dime like they were 2" deep. Then I toggled forward with that disc set on nickel and I was able to get enough of a consistant beep to tell that it isn't iron. One the quarter at 8" in the back it did the same. The AM VCO hit the 11" dime good but the disc didn't give a consistant signal, I tried the 10" spider coil and it didn't do any better. I also tried a SovereignGT on these and it didn't do any better in disc, in AM it will hit them. The biggest surprise was the T2 with the 4.75 coil getting an iffy hit with ab occasional correct TID on the 11" quarter and the 8" quarter. I didn't try it on the others. I had the sensitivity on 90 in disc and the disc on 5 and the sens on 99 in AM. It didn't do as well with the 11" stock coil so.. it may be that it was a fluke, but that little coil really is good on the T2.
I am going to try some more testing with the 5.3 and am going to get a 950 next week.
The best thing I learned is to use a very short wiggle with the D2 coil, try it and see what you think. It really improved the VDI ability, at least in the main search screen, here on these target, in this ground.
I was using a custom program built from the Hi-Pro program. I played with switching between "best data" and "correlate" I set the wrap in correlate to -94. I also changed the resolution to 7 and the colorscheme to Sunshine. I am going to be playing around more with the resolution until I get more comfortable reading the graph. I'm not sure if I like "best daya" or "correlate" better but I am leaning towards correlate. BTW, "deep silver" hit the quarter at 6" good enough to have made me stop and investigate... I didn't try it on the deeper ones in the back yet. I'll be williing to try anything if anyone has an idea.
My only concern is with the Analize screen giving me such jagged, bad humps on a known target when the bars were pretty consistant with a quarter. The VDI number was a little high though, +93 on the quarter at 6". The quarter at 3" had a +84 VDI and the bars were better. I don't remember if the analize screen was correct but I think it was. I'll recheck it and if it was off i'll post, if it is right I won't add anything.
Try the 1/2" wiggle with the D2 on the main search screen. I don't think that it will work with the analize screen, I didn't try it on analize. I just flip the switch forward with the coil off to the side and swing it quickly over the target, full swings a few times. (I also changed the scale to 9" and the speed for the anallize sizing to 12" per sec. to accomodate my style).
... J
